The Charge series is one of Fitbit’s most popular fitness trackers and today the company introduced the latest addition to the series. The all-new Charge 4 is a fitness tracker that looks almost identical to its predecessor, the Charge 3 (which Fitbit has just stopped selling on its site), but it has a couple of key features that promise to make a big difference.
First and most significantly, the Charge 4 is Fitbit’s first fitness tracker to have a built-in GPS. (The only other Fitbit device to have a built-in GPS is its robust smartwatch, the $250 Fitbit Ionic.) This means that runners, bikers, hikers and other athletes wearing Charge 4 will be able to get an accurate mapping of their workout without having to carry their smartphone.
[embedded content]Second, the Charge 4 is Fitbit’s first wearable outside of the Fitbit Ionic to work well with Spotify. You’re now able to download the Spotify app on the Charge 4 and control music playback directly on the device. The catch is that the Charge 4 doesn’t have built-in LTE, so in order to control playback from your wrist, you’ll need to have your smartphone nearby to stream music to your wireless headphones. Still, if you’re a Spotify listener this is a convenient upgrade.
And third, the Charge 4 can automatically detect when the wearer is being active or not. It’s the first fitness tracker that’s able to record “Active Zone Minutes,” which is a proprietary name for Fitbit’s newest metric that tracks your activity based on your age and resting heart rate. The metric is designed to automatically detect the minutes that you are “active” throughout the day, as well as help you reach daily and weekly activity goals.
Like previous Fitbit devices, the Charge 4 is also able to track sleep as well as female health tracking. It has a 7-day battery life and is waterproof up to 50 meters.
The Fitbit Charge 4 costs $150 and is available for preorder right now, with units expected to be available everywhere in the US on April 13.