Fitbit Charge 6 is Official at $160 With a Lot of Fitness to Track

3 minute read

Fitbit had a new hardware moment this morning with the announcement of the Fitbit Charge 6. We didn’t get a new Sense 3 or Versa 5 to go along with it and I’d guess that’s probably because the Pixel Watch 2 will take over with full-time Fitbit-related smartwatch duties when it’s announced next week.

The new Fitbit Charge 6 is for those who want a fitness tracker without the excess smartwatch stuff. It’ll cost $159.95 when it arrives “later this fall,” but you can pre-order it now to show you mean business.

What’s new in the Fitbit Charge 6? Quite a bit! Let’s run through it.

Most accurate heart rate tracking: For a fitness tracker, Fitbit says this new Charge 6 has the “most accurate heart rate” of any they’ve ever released. It’s up to 60% more accurate than previous tracker releases, including the Fitbit Charge 5.
Connect to exercise machines: Ever wanted to connect a Fitbit to an exercise machine (like a treadmill, elliptical, rower, or bike) during a workout to see your heartrate on display? You can do that now with Charge 6.
Health sensors: The Charge 6 will track everything thanks to its optical heart rate monitor, SpO2 sensors, skin temperature sensor, and multipurpose electrical sensors for use with the ECG app and EDA Scan app.
40+ exercise modes: There are over 40 modes to track exercises, 20 of which are new to the Charge 6.
YouTube Music, Google Maps, Google Wallet: All three of these popular Google apps are a part of the Fitbit Charge 6 experience. You can control YouTube Music from the wrist (with volume controls), see turn-by-turn directions from Google Maps, and pay for goods from the wrist with Google Wallet.
7 day battery life: One of the best things about not being a smartwatch is that battery life can be great. For the Charge 6, Fitbit claims up to 7 days of battery on a single charge. You’ll get close to that 7 days if you leave the always-on display off and turn off SpO2 tracking. To charge the Charge 6, you are looking at about 2 hours of being plugged in.
6 months free Fitbit Premium: If you buy a Charge 6, you’ll get 6 months of Fitbit Premium. That means a daily readiness score, recommended workouts based on that score, mindfulness routines, and your Sleep Profile with deeper sleep insights.
Other tech: The Charge 6 includes NFC, Bluetooth 5.0, GPS + GLONASS, a vibration motor, ambient light sensor, 50 meter water resistance, and a 3-axis accelerometer.
Materials and sizing: The Charge 6 is made of aluminum, glass, and resin, with an included band made of silicone. Small bands for the Charge 6 fit wrists between 5.1″ and 6.7″, while large bands cover 6.7″ to 8.3″ wrists.
Colors: The Charge 6 comes in cases of silver, black, and champagne that are paired with bands of Porcelain, Obsidian, and Coral (pictured above).
All the bands: Fitbit will sell various types of bands to swap onto your Charge 6 with prices as low as $29.95 an topping out at $49.95. There are Infinity, Sport, Horween leather, Woven, Hook & Loop, and vegan leather bands.

See, that’s quite a bit of new stuff for this new Fitbit Charge 6.

Again, the price is set at $160 and pre-orders are open now. Fitbit did not tell us a specific launch date, only saying that it’ll arrive this fall. That said, the pre-order page says your Fitbit will ship by October 12.

Pre-order Link