Fitbit Charge 5: What we want to see

The Fitbit Charge line of fitness trackers has always been popular. For many, they’re great devices in the middle of the road – not quite as big as a full-fledged smartwatch, not quite as simple as a Mi Band.

We’re big fans of Fitbit’s latest fitness tracker, the Fitbit Charge 4. For all the praise we’ve given the tracker, it’s not perfect. Various aspects of the hardware and software could be improved. We hope Fitbit will take some of our suggestions and incorporate them into the upcoming Fitbit Charge 5.

Details about the next charger are rare; As of this writing, there are very few rumors about the device. However, that does not prevent us from speculating. We want Fitbit to be in Fitbit Charge 5.

Also read: Fitbit Buying Guide: Everything You Need To Know

A color display

Fitbit has used the same monochrome OLED display for two generations of chargers, but it’s time to make things better. We would like the Fitbit Charge 5 to come with a color OLED display.

That’s not to say that the batch 3 or 4 displays are bad. You are perfectly acceptable. They are just too easy. They have low resolutions compared to competing products, and the grayscale tone is not very appealing to look at.

In particular, we would like the Charge 5’s display to compete with the Samsung Galaxy Fit or Fit 2.

Some people might ask for a bigger display in the Fitbit Charge 5, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. At least I don’t think the display size will increase massively. Fitbit has other product categories for those who want something bigger. If anything, I could see Fitbit adding a few millimeters to the display size of the Charge 5, but it doesn’t get anything drastic. The ad will likely be straight big enough to read your notifications and swipe through menus, but not much more.

Attach this inductive button

In all of its newer Fitbit devices, the company has used a pressure-sensitive inductive button instead of a traditional, clickable physical button. This is an essential part of navigating the device: you can use it to go back, activate the display, start Fitbit Pay, and much more.

Fitbit didn’t hit the functionality exactly, however. Sometimes it recognizes pressing, sometimes not. It’s especially frustrating during a workout when the display needs to be activated immediately but the button doesn’t recognize your taps.

With the Fitbit Charge 5, Fitbit should either fix the functionality of the button or switch to a physical button. Something as crucial as a back button can’t fail as often as this one. Although a physical button would add an extra level of difficulty for water resistance, I think the trade off is worth it.

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Improved music support

Recognition: Jimmy Westenberg / Android Authority

Music support, oddly enough, was an area where Fitbit just can’t keep up with the competition. Offline Spotify playback is missing on his smartwatches. The music controls in the Charge series are a bit fussy.

Obviously, we didn’t expect the Fitbit Charge 4 to have built-in music storage (that’s more of a smartwatch thing), but Fitbit did include a data screen for controlling the Spotify music that was playing on your phone. It’s a nice touch, but not well implemented. The Fitbit Charge 4 cannot currently control music while exercising. We’d like this to change with the Fitbit Charge 5.

A music widget added to the workout screen would be incredibly useful. We would also like it to be implemented for all types of media playing on your phone – not just Spotify, but other popular apps like Audible, Pocket Casts, Google Podcasts, Tidal, etc.

The good news is that this change doesn’t require any new hardware to be implemented. If the company rolls out this feature, there is a good chance it will have access to existing chargers.

Improve the battery life

Fitbit devices typically hover around the 5-7 day mark for long battery life. The Fitbit Charge 4 can last up to seven full days on a single charge with “normal” use. That’s pretty normal, but on the lower end for fitness trackers in this price range. With GPS use, however, it only takes five hours, which is again on the low end. The seven-day battery life isn’t terrible, but if you do a few GPS-enabled workouts, consider yourself lucky enough to get four days of charging with the Fitbit Charge 4 and the Fitbit Charge 5.

Yes, I hear you: we want a better display with a higher resolution and better battery life. But that’s not impossible. Xiaomi, Huami, and many other wearable brands were able to crack the code and get far better battery life in their trackers. The Mi Band 5, for example, offers a battery life of 14 days. Granted, the display is a lot smaller and you have to turn a few things off to hit this two week milestone, but it’s still possible. You’d think that the Fitbit Charge 4 could last a little longer with its low-resolution OLED display.