Wellness standout: Fitbit’s brilliant Charge 4

by James Wilkinson

Fitbit is continuing to show it is one of the world’s foremost fitness technology leaders, with its latest release, the Fitbit Charge 4.

Featuring Fitbit’s most advanced combination of sensors and features, including built-in GPS and Spotify (with fantastic, easy synchronisation), the Charge 4 delivers what people want most in a health and fitness tracker, paired with essential smart features and up to seven days of battery life in a sleek, swimproof design.

Charge 4, priced from AUD$249.95, includes Fitbit’s latest innovation, Active Zone Minutes, a new personalised standard based on your resting heart rate and age that tracks any workout that gets your heart pumping, from indoor biking to yoga, measuring the time you spend in each heart rate zone toward a weekly goal of 150 minutes.

For more guidance and motivation in today’s environment, new content has been added to Fitbit Premium, including programs, workouts from brands like barre3, Down Dog and Physique 57, mindfulness tools, challenges and more.

Along with 40 new pieces of free content, Fitbit is also offering a free 90-day trial for new Premium users.

With the launch of new tools, software and content, being “on Fitbit” offers even greater value for users looking to manage their overall health.

Impressively, the Charge 4 features Fitbit’s most advanced designed tracker that up-levels fitness and deepens health.

Active Zone Minutes, launched on the Charge 4, is an innovative design made to optimise GPS performance plus house other advanced sensors and capabilities while maintaining a slim, lightweight tracker form at the same approachable price and battery life.

Its premium, lightweight, swimproof design is comfortable for all-day (and night) wear, featuring an inductive button, a scratch-resistant screen, and a bright, crisp touchscreen display that is easy to view in natural light.

As the first Fitbit tracker with built-in GPS, you can leave your phone at home and get optimal performance for activities like running, walking and other outdoor excursions.

Now with the ability to track your pace and distance in real-time, in addition to the 20+ goal-based exercise modes, you can access seven GPS-enabled exercise modes, including a new outdoor workout mode for any outdoor activity like hiking, running or a brisk walk.

After completing a GPS-enabled workout, sync your device for a GPS-powered heat map in the Fitbit app where you can see your workout intensity, based on your different heart rate zones along your route to help you visualise and improve how you are performing against different terrain.

Because activity looks different for everyone, Fitbit developed Active Zone Minutes to help you understand how your activity contributes to your overall health, beyond the number of steps you take.

With Fitbit’s PurePulse 24/7 heart rate tracking, Active Zone Minutes uses your personalised heart rate zones to track your effort for any heart-pumping activity, whether doing a HIIT workout, power your or taking a vigorous walk outside.

Earn credit for each minute of moderate activity in fat burn zone, and double the credit for vigorous activity in cardio and peak zones – Active Zone Minutes does the math for you so you can quickly understand how many you need to reach your daily and weekly goals.

Get real-time alerts on your wrist each time you change zones so you can push harder or scale back to make your workouts more efficient.

After a workout, see a detailed summary of your heart rate zones in the Fitbit app, including progress toward your goals, so you can continue challenging yourself to make every minute count.

Sleep is a critical component to maintaining overall health and wellness, and boosting immunity. As such, Fitbit’s leading sleep features are included with Charge 4 to help you understand and improve your sleep.

Previously only available on Fitbit smartwatches, smart wake (coming soon) uses machine learning to wake you at the optimal time. Sleep Score provides deeper insights into your sleep with a daily look at the quality of your sleep, now available on-wrist for Charge 4.

Other sleep features on Charge 4 make it easy to improve your sleep all from your wrist: quickly set alarms and activate Sleep Mode to maintain routines and sleep schedules.

Charge 4 also features a relative SpO2 sensor, which powers Fitbit’s Estimated Oxygen Variation Graph in the Fitbit app. With the graph, see an estimate of the oxygen level variability in your bloodstream, which may indicate variations in your breathing during sleep.

In addition, Charge 4 comes standard with the health and fitness essentials people know and love from Fitbit, including SmartTrack automatic exercise tracking, Cardio Fitness Level and Score, floors climbed, Reminders to Move every hour, female health tracking, food, water and weight logging, motivation from the global social fitness network of nearly 30 million like-minded individuals around the world to help you stay connected, and free educational insights about activity and sleep in the Fitbit app to better understand how your health and wellness tie together.

For an even more powerful health and fitness coach, Charge 4 has added convenience and smart features to manage your day and stay connected but not distracted, right from your wrist.

The first Fitbit tracker with Spotify, Charge 4 helps you stay motivated with your favourite playlists and songs with easy-to-access music controls that let you choose the music output, play, shuffle and skip content, and like songs right from the wrist.

Never miss an alert with on-screen call, text, agenda and app notifications, and keep in touch with family and friends with quick replies on Android to respond on-the-go or mute alerts with Do Not Disturb mode.

Now standard on all Charge 4 devices, make secure payments from your wrist with Fitbit Pay with nearly 500 issuers, at retailers in 44 countries and 10 transit systems worldwide, including Sydney Transport services.

Charge 4 is powered by up to seven days of battery life so you can stay motivated and connected. It provides an intuitive touchscreen experience with interactive graphics that allow for seamless navigation so you can access the most important information you need, right from your wrist.

For users looking to build on the device experience with extra guidance, support and motivation, which is even more critical these days, Fitbit Premium is a paid subscription service in the Fitbit app that you can access conveniently from your phone, whenever you need it and no matter where you are.

To support our users and help people stay active at home during today’s difficult times, Fitbit is offering 40 new pieces of Premium content free in the Fitbit app.

In addition, anyone new to Fitbit Premium can get a 90-day free trial of this paid subscription, which includes personalised health insights, guidance, advanced sleep tools, customised programs and 200+ workouts from brands like barre3, Daily Burn, obé fitness, Physique 57, POPSUGAR and Yoga Studio: Mind & Body.

 

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