I review smartwatches, fitness trackers and smart rings for NBC Select, and even I have a hard time knowing which one to recommend to friends and family. Ask me for a suggestion and I’ll pepper you with a list of questions. “What phone do you have? Do you think you’ll wear this thing everyday? Even to sleep? Do you want to send texts from it? Do you run outdoors a lot?”
Thankfully, for anyone who thinks less is more, I can easily recommend the Fitbit Charge 6. It’s a small, easy-to-use fitness tracker that costs less than most of the competition but it doesn’t skimp on essential features or overwhelm you with tools you won’t use.
What is the Fitbit Charge 6?
The Fitbit Charge 6 ($159) is a small fitness watch that can track your heart rate, daily steps, fitness activities, calories burned, nightly sleep, menstrual health and other wellness metrics. It also shows notifications for texts, calls and emails when paired with your smartphone. It is smaller than most fitness trackers on the market, with a vertical touchscreen and a slim watch band.
The Charge 6 is an upgrade of 2021’s Fitbit Charge 5. On the outside, the two products are nearly identical. The Charge 6 has a new side button on the left — pressing it returns you to the home screen or gives you the option to complete an active workout. It also has a more accurate heart rate sensor compared to the Charge 5, according to the brand.
Other changes are internal. You can choose from 41 different exercise modes (up from 20), including new options like strength training and HIIT. Also new to the Charge 6 are controls for Google Wallet, Google Maps navigation and YouTube Music. The Charge 6 can also connect via Bluetooth to certain home gym equipment like the latest models from Peloton, Concept 2, Tonal, Nordictrack and more. When connected, exercise machines will display your heart rate on screen.
The Charge 6 requires a Google account to use. If you already have a Fitbit account, you can migrate that data into a Google account — the app will walk you through this process.
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How I tried the Fitbit Charge 6
For this review, I wore the FitBit Charge 6 daily for three weeks straight — I only took it off to charge it, usually in the evening after a few days’ use. I wore it for indoor and outdoor exercise, primarily strength training and running. While running, I relied on the Charge 6 to show me my distance and pace. I also wore an Apple Watch SE on my other wrist to compare data and stats between the devices.
NBC Select updates editor Mili Godio also tried the Charge 6 (Fitbit also sent her a model to try) for about three weeks, tracking her walks and gym workouts. Prior to trying the Charge 6, she wore the Charge 5 on and off for about two years.
My experience with the Fitbit Charge 6
The Charge 6 is one of the best fitness trackers for beginners, anyone who wants to be more active and anyone who doesn’t already own a smartwatch. It’s comfortable, subtle, easy to use and doesn’t overwhelm you with data.
What I like
Friendly design
The Charge 6 is far less obtrusive on my wrist than something like an Apple Watch SE ($249) or Garmin Forerunner 165 ($249). It never bothers me during sleep (other wearables do), and never gets caught on long sleeves.
The Charge 6 is one of the only fitness watches Godio wears often — others she’s tried are either too big or too dense with data for her taste. After three weeks of constant use, I cannot help but agree: the interface of the Charge 6 is simple and less overwhelming than other data-heavy trackers. It never shows too much text on screen at once — each app takes up the whole screen instead of trying to split into sections and show you as much text as possible. This is a smart choice, considering the small 26 millimeters screen (compared to most smartwatch’s 40 to 46 millimeters).
Easy to use app
The friendly design extends to the Fitbit app too.
The Fitbit app is organized more like a health app than an exercise one, in my experience. The home screen shows your steps, active zone minutes, mileage, calories burned and sleep score — other apps like Garmin Connect and Apple Fitness put more emphasis on individual workout data, which can be overwhelming for beginners like Godio, who find graphs with metrics like average power, cadence and vertical oscillation unhelpful.
Battery life
The Charge 6 has great battery life. I averaged five days of use before needing to charge it — that’s far longer than entry-level smartwatches like the Apple Watch SE.
Its battery life nosedives, however, in the always-on display mode. While the feature is convenient for frequently checking the time, it knocks battery life down to about a day in my experience, so I largely kept this setting turned off.
Potential drawbacks to keep in mind
You cannot turn it off
Unlike every other fitness tracker I’ve tried, you cannot turn the Charge 6 off, which can drain battery life if you decide to stop wearing it for a few days. It does, however, enter “power-saver mode” after 10 minutes of inactivity.
The Charge 6 (despite its name) is not super convenient to charge, either. The included USB-A charging cable is on the shorter side compared to other brands at 20.5-inches. It attaches to the Charge 6 via magnets, but the magnets are weak, and often pop out of place compared to something like Apple MagSafe or the Apple Watch SE’s charging puck, in my experience.
Certain data requires a Fitbit subscription to view
Sleep details, sleep profile and stress management details are only available if you are a Fitbit Premium subscriber, which costs $10 a month. That stings considering competitors like the Apple Watch SE and Garmin Forerunner 165 offer almost all of their features with no added fee. People I know keep their wearables for at least three years — $10 a month adds up fast. You can see a longer list of features only available to Fitbit Premium subscribers here.
Not the best for live workout data
The accessible design and small screen of the Charge 6 is not a great fit for people who want to view a lot of stats during their workout.
During a run, my Apple Watch SE can show me five customizable data fields at a glance. I’ve set mine to show me my workout duration, heart rate, rolling mile pace, average mile pace and mileage completed.
The Charge 6, on the other hand, only shows me the current time, my workout duration, and one key metric in the center. You can tap the screen to cycle through different metrics in the key center spot, but I do not want to tap my wrist incessantly while running — I prefer to know everything at a glance.
I don’t think Fitbit should change this — the screen is too small to show a ton of data at once. This is just another example of how the Charge 6 is better suited to beginners than data fiends like me.
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Who is the Fitbit Charge 6 for?
The accessible design and small screen of the Charge 6 makes it a great fit for people who want something slim and casual that still handles fitness basics. Its simple interface is a great option for beginners, but anyone planning their next half-marathon might be better off with a more substantial smartwatch like an Apple Watch Series 11, Google Pixel Watch 4, Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 or Garmin Forerunner 265.
Why trust NBC Select?
I am a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness including stories on smartwatches, running shoes and smart rings. For this piece, I wore the Fitbit Charge 6 daily for three weeks after the brand sent me and NBC Select updates editor Mili Godio one to try. I tracked my exercise, sleep and everyday metrics, and compared them to other trackers at a similar price point.
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