Ashwin Rajagopalan

It’s been a little over three years since Fitbit’s India journey began. The Fitbit Charge and&nbsp;Charge HR were the star devices of the Fitbit portfolio back then. Since then Fitbit has&nbsp;launched three smartwatches and multiple trackers and has also rationalised its portfolio that&nbsp;got overwhelming for most consumers. Fitbit will begin 2019 with three products in its India&nbsp;offering – The Ionic and Versa smartwatches and the all-new Fitbit Charge 3. The Versa&nbsp;along with the Apple Watch Series 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch was our favourite&nbsp;wearable for 2018. It demonstrated Fitbit’s successful transition to the smartwatch from the&nbsp;activity tracker. But there’s still a large audience that believes the activity tracker can get the&nbsp;job done. The Charge 3 is aimed at them.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure id="attachment_50306" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-50306" style="width: 457px"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Fitbit_Charge_3_3_QTR_Core_Blue_Gray_Rose_Gold_Clock_Default_Shadow_600x600_b210c317a4.jpeg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-50306">Product render of Fitbit Charge 3, 3QTR view, in Classic Blue Gray and Rose Gold</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;One of the reasons we dig the Versa is it’s elegant, almost chic design. The Charge 3 joins the&nbsp;Versa as one of the best designed Fitbit wearables yet. It sits effortlessly on your wrist and&nbsp;comes with a larger (40% according to Fitbit) and significantly brighter screen than its&nbsp;predecessors. It’s a greyscale display, so no colours but it’s not your regular, dull black and&nbsp;white screen. In the past Fitbit’s trackers featured touch screens that needed a lot of ‘poking’&nbsp;to get around. Not this one. It’s a joy to navigate the screen. There are no physical buttons on&nbsp;the side. You will find what Fitbit calls an ‘inductive button’, a slight depression with a&nbsp;haptic response on the side that you hardly need to use thanks to the effortless on-screen&nbsp;navigation.&nbsp;<figure id="attachment_50307" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-50307" style="width: 454px"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Fitbit_Charge_3_3_QTR_Leather_Plum_Rose_Gold_Weather_Timer_App_Switcher_Shadow_600x600_e7bcddf286.jpeg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-50307">Product render of Fitbit Charge 3, 3 quarter view, showing weather and timer in app switcher</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Fitbit was quick to realise that fitness trackers also double up as fashion accessories. The&nbsp;Charge 3 comes in a range of colours and metallic finishes with a host of slinky straps&nbsp;including a ‘light as air’ sports band and an elegant woven strap. This is the activity tracker to&nbsp;beat in terms of design aesthetics. To call the Charge 3 a fitness tracker might not be an&nbsp;entirely fair description. It’s almost at the intersection of a barebones tracker and a&nbsp;smartwatch.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<figure id="attachment_50308" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-50308" style="width: 483px"><img src="https://d12d6l12s3d372.cloudfront.net/Fitbit_Charge_3_3_QTR_SE_Frost_White_Graphite_Fitbit_Home_Steps_Shadow_1_600x600_18312676a6.jpeg"><figcaption id="caption-attachment-50308">Product render of Fitbit Charge 3, 3 quarter view, showing steps</figcaption></figure>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;You get all of Fitbit’s bells and whistles in the wellness department. From heart rate&nbsp;monitoring, sleep tracking, calorie and step counts. Add Fitbit’s terrific companion App and&nbsp;you have a solid package. Just like all other Fitbit wearables the Charge 3 talks to both Apple&nbsp;and Android smartphones. Then there’s the battery life. Fitbit claims seven days and after 5&nbsp;days of testing we think it’s an accurate assessment of the battery’s capabilities. Fitbit never&nbsp;stops surprising us (and not always pleasantly) with its chargers for each device and the&nbsp;Charge 3 comes with yet another new custom charger that is unique to this device.&nbsp;Clearly the Fitbit Charge 3 ticks enough boxes as a tracker. What about smart features?&nbsp;There’s no GPS but you can hook up with your smartphone via Bluetooth for call and text&nbsp;alerts, calendar alerts and also weather updates. The watch face options are quite limited&nbsp;(especially when you compare it with Fitbit smartwatches like the Ionic and Versa) and Fitbit&nbsp;Pay, Fitbit’s digital pay solution is still awaiting RBI clearance in India. So, you can’t ‘wave’&nbsp;your Fitbit to make payments yet. There are no Apps or games or news alerts that the Charge&nbsp;3 can boast of currently. You can’t store or stream music either.&nbsp;Has Fitbit hit a sweet spot with the Charge 3, a sort of smart tracker that does a little more&nbsp;than just the run of the mill tracker? That judgement might entirely boil down to each&nbsp;individual and what you expect from your wearable. Fitbit’s key communication challenge&nbsp;for the Charge 3 will be to justify the premium over the heaps of activity trackers available in&nbsp;India for less than Rs 10,000. If you prefer a less intrusive wearable the Charge 3 might&nbsp;actually be all the smart tracker that you need. It’s one of the best Fitbit devices we’ve used&nbsp;ever. But if music is critical and you prefer a vibrant colour display, the Rs 6000 extra for the&nbsp;Fitbit Versa might be well worth it.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The Fitbit Charge 3 costs Rs 13,990. The Special Editions with a woven strap or sports&nbsp;band are priced at Rs 15,999.&nbsp;&nbsp;

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Fitbit will begin 2019 with three products in its India offering – The Ionic and Versa smartwatches and the all-new Fitbit Charge 3