Smartwatches and fitness trackers · Fitbit
Owners keep the Charge 6 for steady step, workout and heart rate tracking day to day, even as many say the redesigned app has made checking that data more frustrating than it used to be.
Long-time Fitbit owners say the device itself tracks their activity and heart rate the way they expect, and several who tried other brands' apps say the classic Fitbit interface, before the recent changes, was easy to live with.
App usability is a clear complaint: owners describe the transition to the new Google Health app as buggy, with food logging, daily stats and sync behaving unreliably, to the point some call the device unusable until it is sorted out.
Pick up to three. You get a page with just those, side by side, on the subjects owners raised.
Once it's on the wrist, the Charge 6 mostly fades into the background: it tracks steps, workouts and heart rate without much thought, and several owners who tried other trackers or apps say they missed the straightforward Fitbit experience they'd had for years. That familiarity is part of the appeal for people who've worn one model after another since early Fitbits like the Flex or Alta.
What's become routine for a lot of owners lately is troubleshooting the app rather than the band. People describe re-entering food logs that stopped syncing correctly, dealing with a "today" screen that won't refresh, or explaining workouts to an AI feature they didn't ask for. Some have turned off the newer AI coaching features and gone back to just checking the basics. Sleep tracking in particular comes up as a sore spot, with owners saying the numbers or the display of them got less trustworthy after the app changes.
On the hardware side, the picture is mixed. Some owners report a Charge 6 that's still going after a year or more, while others describe a device that stopped responding, got stuck on the logo screen, or otherwise died well before they expected, sometimes with a replacement already lined up. A few mention going through more than one replacement unit due to the band breaking.
Software reliability is where the complaints concentrate. Multiple owners describe sync failures, incorrect data being logged or reported back, and an app that behaves inconsistently since the switch to Google Health. Customer support accounts are largely negative too, with owners describing frustrating experiences trying to get help through Fitbit or Google's support channels when the device or app stopped working as expected.
Parts named in the 4 accounts that describe a failure
Nothing with a clear majority yet. Owners who raised these subjects were split, or too few to judge.
Counted from the owners who raised each subject, not from everyone. A subject is judged once at least 4 owners raise it.
13 more subjects came up from fewer than 4 owners each, which is not enough for a fair reading. To see how it stacks up, compare it with another machine.
The same owner, asked again at each point. Fills in as owners answer.
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Public discussions we read and summarised in our own words. Nothing here was submitted to Still Kicks.
Counted from public accounts by people who said they own it, and summarised by Still Kicks in its own words. Not a manufacturer claim, a lab test or an estimate.
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