Fitbit Charge 4 vs Garmin Forerunner 35

Let's go over what the charge 4 offers in terms of the smart watch type experience interacting with your phone with the built-in apps on the first scr...

Are you a runner looking to take training to the next level, but can't afford a really pricey device? Wondering why in the world you'd even need one? I was in your shoes! As an activity tracker, the Forerunner 35 is very nice. I give it 3 stars because many of the features that a runner would use don't work, and I feel it's deceptive to sell a device with these features when they're not really usable for training. Essentially, this is a good activity tracker posing (ineffectively) as a training tool. Many reviewers mention that the Forerunner 35 isn't for "serious runners", and I took that to mean that they believe "serious runners" need all the complexity of a very expensive watch

Fitbit Charge 4 is one of the best Fitness trackers in the market. Update the software inside the phone app once received.

SUMMARY As disappointed as I am in the Apple Watch as a running watch, I'm not switching to the Garmin until they address at least the first two items under CONS above. I feel certain the CONS I mention above are purely in the software, so hopefully they'll enhance some of those capabilities in a future update. If not, maybe Garmin needs to release a Forerunner 40 that handles those features better. The higher end Garmins may already cover those complaints, but they're too expensive for a running watch and not sufficiently capable for a smart watch

I ordered a Fitbit Charge 4, pretty excited. Currently, I'm using a no-name tracker with some Chinese spyware (probably) software.

Well, we're pretty much all my workout gear. The risk based heart monitor to me was a major selling feature. I want to be able to learn the maximum I ...

I will find another willing helper and set up again to see whether the app will work. In the community help, people had been concerned about the Google take- over and were assured by the company people that it would not affect service and apps, but several people complained that their PC apps no longer worked. Community help is no longer on the web site, and what is described as available on a phone sounds like feel- good messaging and discussions of exercise, as available from the dashboard. I went online to customer service to discuss matters

95 at Fitbit)(Opens in a new window) , which gives you the option to send a canned response, emoji, or voice-to-text reply.

. on an expendable device, including Apple Watch, the price is much better and is just as accurate. I'm very glad Fitbit came out with the Charge 4 and built off their Charge 3 design

Garmin won't be able to sell the Forerunner 35 for $200 for too long. $150 seems like a better price point. I'm sure a Forerunner 35-level watch will be selling for only $100 or so in a couple more years. The Forerunner 35 wears pretty nicely

I wear my FitBit everyday, but am careful not to get it wet. I like the features available and the interface, but the Fitbit itself is not durable and is very poorly designed. Setting it up to charge seems to need a careful dance to ensure alignment of points or else it won't charge and it takes 2-3 attempts to make it happen. We have 2 Fitbits bought at different times and its the same issue with both, I hope that the powers that be will redesign the charger coz this one sucks big time

The first of the three times I got up to pee the Garmin showed that my ARHR had by that time dropped to 44, indicating that even though customer service told me that ARHR is an average over the last 7 sleep periods, my ARHR when I went to bed was close to 44 - which tracks with readings of the previous night, which also dropped intranight to 44. However, last night, except for those 4-5 brief intervals, which totaled about 10 minutes across the duration of my 6:30 sleep period, the graph of my HR shows a resting pulse that ranged from 34-44, with the average for the night being about 40. Yet at the end of my sleep period my ARHR had gone back up to 45! How did customer service explain this anomaly? Apparently the device ignores any resting pulses below 40 as artifacts, and since my RP was in the 30's for about an hour and a half, and since this wasn't even counted in averaging over the night (which gave more weight to the brief periods when my RP was in the high 40s and 50s) there was no drop in my ARHR, and in fact, over the last 6 months I've only briefly ever gotten it down to 44, even though my actual RP for the night is typically around 10-42, except on the nights after intense training sessions. Despite these evident software design flaws, my overall impression of Garmin, and even of the Forerunner 35, is positive

I've had a Fitbit Charge 4 for a little over a year and after normal wear and tear, the plastic piece that you snap the band into has broken off. I've contacted Customer Support and they are nothing short of useless just responding with "Thank you for your feedback." It's not covered by warranty and no effort to retain me as a customer with a discount or any other incentive to stay vs. going with a competitor

I used the quick-release wristband because I would go back and forth between my road bike. I don't think I'll ever rely on it again because this is the second time it's disconnected accidentally, and certainly the last time since there's no hope of finding it along the 10 mile trail of rock and mud.

It was simple to transition my Fitbit account to this device, and that ease was part of the reason I was willing to accept some other imperfections.

I think as long as you can run comfortably at a conversational pace, your HR shouldn't matter too much. That's not to say you shouldn't strive to get better at running, but there are so many more metrics than just HR to tell you if you're on the right path. Happy running :)

You are fine with carrying your phone constantly and therefore do not need GPS or 2. you are going to be out doing your activity for 2.5-3+ hours. That's where the battery use for GPS expenditure becomes cumbersome

I use it primarily as a device to help family at home feel comfortable with me being off grid.

There’s a lot more plastic on the Charge 4, but the addition of Gorilla Glass is a huge improvement. After a year, the screen on my Charge 2 was barely legible until I polished it. I feared that the Charge 4 would take longer to charge, but it charges just as fast, if not faster. Battery life has been excellent so far with the GPS off

While I have found getting these alerts on my wrist pretty useful, this particular feature falls short of what the Pebble offered. There's no queue or timeline for reviewing notifications as there is on the Pebble and I find I miss the ability to simply scroll back through previous alerts. BATTERY LIFE The Forerunner 35's battery life is outstanding. I get between 8 and 10 days between charges, and a full charge takes only a few hours

The basic operation has served to remind and motivate me to be active. I'm conscious of my eating and physical activity while I'm wearing it. The exercise sensor has mistaken a motorcycle ride for a bike ride. I'm not sure how it figured I was biking at those speeds

What I don't like: ------------------ Phone integration for text and call notifications is spotty. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't. It's a nice feature when it works. The phone downloads slowly but reliably to my Moto G7 Power