I'm not sold on it either. I'm only on day 3 but everywhere I look I see discrepancies that require advanced knowledge of the device to comprehend. Today I went on a single 8 minute walk and it tracked 856 steps. That seems fine. Then I sat in a boat for 6 hours, drove home and cooked dinner. No significant activity at all but I supposedly walked 9,097 steps today? I doubt I walked 2000.

There are just too many things to compensate for with this new Charge HR. I've been using it for several days now and still don't feel confident using the calorie burn data.

Today I went for a fast walk...4.25 mph as per GPS. At the end my pulse was 104 and device said 74. I checked my heartrate graph and data and it had me in the inactive zone even as I climbed the nasty hill at the end. I was breathing heavy and know I was in the cardio zone given the pace I was stepping out.

It's stuff like this that really frustrates me and has convinced me it isn't ready to be an ACTIVITY monitor. Probably good enough for all day calorie tracking and the other features like sleep and resting BPM. But it was marketed as an activity monitor and that is how I wanted to use it.

I wore it higher on the arm and didn't see much difference. It kept slipping down anyway given the natural slope of my arm. The time spent analyzing it, testing it, comparing it, posting and reading for help...could have been better spent doing something more productive.

Also, I have numerous hobbies and do enjoy spending time on forums learning more and chatting with similar minded people. This product has significantly more negative opinions than any other product I've ever tried to use. It's clear to me it is more marketing than performance at this point. The lack of strong and sincere manufacturer participation in their own forums is another clue we're being sold a product that isn't living up to expectations.

cindyangotti wrote: »

uGH. I REALLY want to buy the HR but I want it to be able to accurately track my heart rate and steps especially during cardio workouts. Is that too much to ask for??? I have read lots of reviews and it seems this IS too much to ask for. I guess I will hang on to my fitbit ONE and depend on the heart rate machines in the gym as I have been doing.

Some people have more trouble than others. Mine tracks my heart rate as well, or better, than my chest-strap monitor did during cardio workouts.

As a last ditch resort I called Fitbit customer support. I was connected across a choppy line with their support staff in Asia who had very poor English skills. The rep knew very little about the device, showed no comprehension of my issues, and basically read from a script that didn't focus on the problems being explained to her. A request to speak with someone else, or a supervisor, were denied and nobody called me back when I asked for that either.

I just want to add that I don't regret my charge HR purchase, and am confident that accuracy for heart rate and calories burned will get better over time. Also, I never found incentive to hike, walk up hills, or increase intensity in anyway before. I was previously only concerned with my step count, and getting it in the easiest way possible. That all changed with the charge HR.