Fitbit Surge Users

multimartin

What do people think of the Fitbit Surge? I'm looking to upgrade my Fitbit Flex in a couple of months and can't chose between that the the Charge HR.

pj_utley

I can tell you so far it doesn't sync with myfitnesspal which is very frustrating. I've had the surge for about 2 months now. As for the other features...its ok. It does well for tracking running, but as for doing other exercise it sucks. It can't track your heartrate if you're doing things like pushups or anything that requires bending of the wrist. The GPS works well and you can track your run route online which is nice. You can also see your pace which for me is a plus. All in all...I would give it 3 out of 5. If you include the fact that fitbit has yet to really work with myfitnesspal, I would give it 2 out of five. If you don't mind the chest strap, use that because it does a better job of tracking HR.

shadow2soul

I'm not sure what pj_utley is talking about. It syncs with MFP just fine (since it's the fitbit account that is linked with MFP not the device itself).

I don't have any issues with it tracking my HR (even with my wrist bent) and the HR numbers are comparable to what I get with a chest strap HRM. The GPS is nice, but it does drain the battery quickly. I love the fact that I can tell it what type of exercise I'm doing (from weights to running on a treadmill to the elliptical to circuit training to kickboxing...ect) and there was a post on facebook about a firmware upgrade to include cycling.

multimartin

Oh confused now! @shadow2soul how did you get it to work? Does it sync the maps of your run too? Would it work with MapMyRun?

shadow2soul

multimartin wrote: »

Oh confused now! @shadow2soul how did you get it to work? Does it sync the maps of your run too? Would it work with MapMyRun?

My accounts have been linked for several years (occasionally have to disconnect from both sites to get it to work, but it works probably 75-80% of the time). There was an issue recently that MFP was supposed to fix that was causing syncing issues. That said people are still reporting issues. If you already have your accounts linked though, then there shouldn't be any problem.

Maps show up on the fitbit app or dashboard, but don't sync to MFP. It would be nice if individual exercise stuff showed up on MFP, but so far Fitbit doesn't send that information over (or MFP doesn't request it...not sure there).

I don't use MapMyRun so I couldn't tell you.

multimartin

Thank you! To be honest you have answered my question/concern. I like the analytics that Runkeeper/MapMyRun provide so if the Surge doesn't share that with Fitbit I'm not sure that it's going to be for me :-(

T1DCarnivoreRunner

I have had the Surge since Jan. after upgrading from the One. Here are my thoughts...

Good:
-Step counter, stairs, sleep tracker work very well (and are accurate)
-HRM is accurate (I've never tested when active, though, but my resting pulse is easy to take because I'm not moving... it is always within 2 bpm)

Bad:
-Text messages, incoming caller ID, and music controls are not compatible with Android. Texts and incoming caller ID occasionally works with my device (Samsung Galaxy Note 3) and music controls never work.
-GPS kills battery fast (don't try to use for more than 1-2 hours). I use my phone and Runkeeper instead.
-Every once in awhile (twice since Jan.), I've had to restart the device because it was counting floors incorrectly.

Conclusion: The things that Fitbit has always done well work with the Surge. The HRM works with the Surge too. These are all things that you get with the Charge HR. The extras that come with the Surge do not work very well unless you have an iPhone maybe. I suggest you get the Charge HR and save $100.

shadow2soul

multimartin wrote: »

Thank you! To be honest you have answered my question/concern. I like the analytics that Runkeeper/MapMyRun provide so if the Surge doesn't share that with Fitbit I'm not sure that it's going to be for me :-(

I think you may have misunderstood what I said. The surge will put the map of your run on your fitbit dashboard (website) and on the Fitbit App. You just won't be able to see that information from MFP.