It must be Fitbit day at The Gadgeteer because earlier this morning Janet showed us a fancy ladies pendant and bracelet holder for the Fitbit Flex activity tracker and now I am going to tell you about three brand new trackers that were announced earlier today. The Charge, Charge HR and Surge are the latest additions to the Fitbit family of fitness trackers. The Charge and Charge HR look almost identical but the HR version features the PurePulse Optical Heart Rate technology which gives a continuous, automatic wrist-based heart rate tracking that helps provide more accurate calorie burn info. Both the Charge and Charge HR also track steps, stairs climbed, sleep and show incoming calls from your paired smartphone. The Charge is available right now in four different colors for $129.95, the Charge HR will be available in 2015 for $149.95.
The new Fitbit tracker that I’m most interested in from today’s announcement is the Surge. The Surge tracks all the same features as the Charge, but it is being touted as a fitness super watch because it has GPS for stats like pace, distance, elevation, split times, route history and workout summaries. This fitness watch also features continuous wrist-based heart rate, all-day fitness tracking and smartwatch functionality. It has a large backlit touch screen that displays fitness info along with caller ID and text message alerts. The Surge can even be used as a mobile music controller for your smartphone and will run up to 7 days per charge. The Fitbit Surge will be priced at $249.95 and will be available in early 2015. Visit Fitbit.com for all the details.
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If priced at $199 the Surge would do so well… at $249 it’s too close to Moto 360 / Apple Watch territory and might be a tough sell…
I think the Charge HR hits the sweet spot at $149 but with HR functions..
@Truffol I think that Fibit will sell a lot Surge trackers. Fitbit is a highly regarded brand so people who want to upgrade their tracker and were also considering a smart watch will be tempted by the Surge.
Oh good! I’ve held onto my Force despite the recall because not having a digital display is a deal-killer for me. But recently it’s started having issues with retaining alarm settings, so it’s great to know I can (probably) still return it and get what I want in a new model. Though it’s tempting to wait for the HR version.
Definitely upgrading my Flex to a Charge HR. Finally a proper clasp!! I’ve lost my Flex once before but luckily Fitbit replaced it for free! But I do think the Surge is just priced too high compared to more functionality of Android Wear watches and the Apple watch.
@Jackie Yes, the Surge is pretty spendy but the Apple watch starts at $100 more. One thing the Surge has over smartwatches is that it runs for up to 7 days on a charge instead of only 1 day. Not sure the price justifies that ability though…