Fitbit Flex vs Fitbit Charge
16
- August
2018
Posted By : Matt
Fitbit Flex vs Fitbit Charge

Fitbit Flex and Fitbit Charge

Fitness tracking is a good way to stay motivated and make sure you’re working hard enough on a regular basis. It’s also a way to keep yourself accountable to new workout routines. The right trackers show you when you work hard and when you slack, so you can see holes in your consistency. Fitbit is a leading provider for fitness trackers around the world today making the company an obvious choice if you want to keep tabs on your important fitness information. The company offers some very nice high-end solutions like the Versa and the Ionic, but it also has some excellent low-cost solutions that will track fitness levels just fine. If you’re looking for good solid fitness tracking on a budget the Fitbit Charge 2 and the Fitbit Flex 2 are both excellent options worth considering. We put together a Fitbit Flex vs Charge comparison to help you decide which of these budget options makes the most sense for you.

How These Trackers are Different

Both of these trackers work well for keeping tabs on what you’ve done throughout the day for your fitness and health, but they are very different from one another. Read below for an overview of how these two devices are so different.

Heart Rate Tracking

One major difference that we noticed almost immediately in our Fitbit Flex vs Charge comparison is that the Charge 2 comes with built-in heart rate monitoring, while the Flex 2 does not. If heart rate monitoring is important to you, and you don’t want to spend the extra money investing in an external monitor, you’ll want to opt for the pricier Charge 2 over the Flex 2.

The Fitbit Flex is a sleek, cost-effective smartwatch

Notifications

Another key difference that stood out right away while making this Fitbit Charge vs Flex writeup was how each device handles notifications. It’s true that you can find out if you have a text or a phone call with either the Flex 2 or the Charge 2, but the Charge 2 offers more sophisticated notifications. You can read your text messages, see who is calling, view email titles and more on the Charge 2 LCD display. You can’t do those things on the Flex 2. Instead, you just get simple lights that let you know that you have to check your phone for texts, calls and other events. Both work well to let you know something is happening on your phone, but you will be pulling your phone out of your pocket much more frequently if you rely on the Flex 2.

Waterproofing

While the Charge 2 has a real advantage over the Flex 2 in most categories, waterproofing is not one of them. You need to take care to keep your Fitbit Charge 2 away from water or you risk doing damage to this smartwatch. That’s not an issue at all with the Flex 2 fitness tracker. In fact, this device is designed for use in lap pools. You can keep track of your strokes and other fitness activities while in a lap pool with the Flex 2 on. If you really want a tracker that’s going to go with you out into the water, the Flex 2 is the best option of the two.

Pricing

No comparison would be complete without at least considering the cost differences between two different devices. If you are planning on purchasing either the Charge 2 or the Flex 2, you’ll be looking at different price points. The Charge 2 is nearly twice the cost of the Flex 2 at this time. That means it is a much more significant investment overall. With that said, both the Flex 2 and the Charge 2 are really affordable compared to other smartwatches on the market today, so either is an economical fitness tracking option.

Major Size Differences

The Fitbit Flex 2 is much slimmer and sleeker than the Charge 2. That’s mostly because it doesn’t have the large screen to worry about. If you’re looking for sleek and sexy, the Flex 2 is the obvious option, with the Charge 2 taking up significantly more wrist real estate.

 

How They’re the Same

Enjoy Excellent Battery Life

Whether you opt for the Flex or the Charge, you’re going to be looking at some really decent battery life capabilities. Both devices offer up to 5 days of operational battery life, which means you won’t have to plug your device in more than twice a week to enjoy it all the time. That’s a huge pro in favor of these Fitbit devices and makes either one very easy to use, even if you’ll be away from outlets for days at a time.

Fitbit Charge 2
The Fitbit Charge has all the features of the top smartwatches

Both are Customizable

If you’re the type of person that likes to change around their devices and give them a custom look, you’ll love all the customization options that you get with these smartwatches. There is a huge market for replacement bands for either of these fitness trackers, making it easy to get just about any color that you could ever want for them. The Charge 2 is also customizable on the screen itself and it has many different watch faces that you can switch through, giving you access to the information that is most important to you when you need it.

Precision Fitness Tracking

Even though the Flex 2 doesn’t come with a heart rate monitor, both Fitbit devices work well for fitness tracking. They give you a base number for activity levels to work with. If you’re main goal is getting up and moving around on a daily basis, either of these fitness trackers is going to make it easy for you to see what sort of exercise you’ve been doing and how many calories you burnt during the day.

Sync Information Wirelessly

Each of these tracking devices works with the companion Fitbit apps to track long term information about fitness performance. The devices sync wirelessly and are updated through Bluetooth. That means you simply need to walk near your computer or smartphone with these trackers and the information will be loaded into the Fitbit App, giving you all the information that you need about the day’s activities.

It should be pretty clear now that the Fitbit Charge 2 is the more capable of the two fitness tracking devices, but both tackle very similar jobs. The Charge 2 will leave you with more information to look at, and tracks your heart rate so that you have that added bit of information to help you track your overall health, but the Flex 2 gives you enough information to track your fitness levels over time as well. If you want the heart rate tracking and enhanced notification information, the Charge 2 is the best option. If you want a smaller device, waterproof protection and a lower purchasing price, the Flex 2 is the best option.

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