Fitbit Charge 5: insanely powerful features rumored

Fitbit is now officially under Google-ownership, but all eyes are now on the Fitbit Charge 5.

The Fitbit Charge 4 was released back in March 2020, so a new version is well overdue. In the meantime we've had the Fitbit Luxe, which brought an AMOLED screen and premium case materials – but it's left Fitbit's flagship looking kind of big and ugly.

So just what can we expect from a Fitbit Charge 5? Will it be too early for Google's influence to show?

We take a peek at what could be in store and look to its pricier smartwatches to see what features might filter down to the next Charge.

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Fitbit Charge 5 release date and price

If we want an idea of when the new Fitbit Charge might land, the first thing to look at is just when the last couple of Fitbit Charges launched.

The Charge 4 was released in April 2020 – unfortunately when the first round of Covid-19 related lockdowns hit. Before that, the Charge 3 was officially unveiled in October 2018. Fitbit will no doubt want to time its release right, and a Fall launch looks extremely likely.

The Fitbit Charge 3 and 4 have been steadfastly priced at . However, we have seen rumors that with more features hitting the Charge 5, the price could rise to around .

That would make sense, given that the Fitbit Luxe now sits at and the Inspire 2 remains the company's sub- option.

And the fact that Evan Blass has leaked what could be the Fitbit Charge 5 implies a release is close...

Fitbit Charge 5 leaked pictures

Fitbit Charge 5 pic.twitter.com/hFyu3GUhiL
— Evan (@evleaks) August 14, 2021

Legendary tech leaker Evan Blass has shown off a series of pictures he says is the Fitbit Charge 5. However, we don't have any ideas as yet.

While every leak has to be treated with a pinch of salt, Blass has an impeccable track record when it comes to Charge leaks – so this looks like the real deal.

One of our main gripes with the Charge 4 was the not-so-great display. We got a bigger screen and a touchscreen that was nice and responsive, but the overall quality of the greyscale OLED and its visibility in bright outdoor light remains a bit of an issue.

The Fitbit Luxe has shown where the company is heading, with its AMOLED display, so it might finally be time for Fitbit to embrace color for its flagship tracker.

And now it seems the company is prepping just that device.

Leaked image of a Fitbit device codenamed 'Morgan'

It also matches a previous leak, secured by 9to5Google.

According to the report, the device is codenamed 'Morgan' – and we don't know for sure it will join the Charge range.

Having shown it can put a pretty impressive screen on the Versa, Sense and Luxe and still deliver week-long battery life (five days for the Luxe), it feels like it's time for the Charge to get in on the color show too. And let's offer an always-on display option as well, please.

The Luxe has certainly been build with women in mind, so it doesn't need to go that small – as the Charge 4 does need to remain unisex. But a sleeker design and enhanced case materials would make for a more appealing band.

Fitbit Charge 5 supercharged features

And another leak by Twitter user Snoopy has shown what looks like a product advert for the Fitbit Charge 5, showing off a supercharged array of features.

It lists ECG, the EDA stress sensor and a new Daily Readiness score within Fitbit Premium. The Readiness score looks akin to the Whoop Strap 3.0, offering guidance on when to train and when to take a rest day.

That would join built-in GPS and stress tracking, alongside Fitbit's standard activity tracking, sleep monitoring and Health Dashboard.

That would be supercharged set of specs for a fitness tracker – which looks to increasingly blur the lines between smartwatches and activity bands.

Specs:
- "Daily Readiness Score" (only Premium)
- Daily Stress Management Score
- Health Metrics dashboard
- GPS
— Snoopy (@_snoopytech_) August 22, 2021

Wishlist: The features we want to see

Better music support

We weren't surprised that the Charge 4 lacked the same built-in music features as the Versa and the Sense, simply because that while the likes of Samsung have pulled off putting a music player in a band in the past, there's less space to play with here.

It was nice to see integrated controls for Spotify as a bit of a consolation prize, though one of the most disappointing aspects was that you couldn't access those controls when you probably would make use of it most, during exercise.

Other cheaper trackers do offer this kind of support and it feels like a no brainer for Fitbit to add this kind of simple functionality to the next Charge.

Active Zone Minutes 2.0

The introduction of Active Zone Minutes was a positive move by Fitbit in our eyes, though the execution may have needed a bit of a work. A bit like Amazfit and its PAI Health Assessment system, Fitbit wanted to try and get people thinking more about getting their heart pumping on a regular basis as well as clocking up those daily step counts.

As a feature its implementation was a little clunky, but at its essence, the feature wanted to help users make the most of that period of activity in their days. To push yourself within your own personalized heart rate zones to help you get fitter and feel fitter.

The problem is that like PAI, Active Zone Minutes is essentially a weekly goal, helping you achieve the WHO's recommended 150 minutes of elevated heart rate activity. However, it's confusingly presented as a daily target of 22 minutes.

We'd like to see Active Zone Minutes made a little clearer to users. We feel that moving to a more clear weekly target of 150 minutes (rather than a daily one of 22 minutes) would be a better implementation – or even better, have users select a target based on their own activity levels.

The on device presentation could also be improved too. It's perhaps the most important metric for health, but is just another statistic. We'd like to see Fitbit really give it some extra importance.