[Pricing of $150 was taken in Dec 2016, Dynamic prices updated in table below]
What’s basically needed from a Fitness Tracker is Simple interface, Best battery life, Accuracy of tracking, add-on functions like Move reminder, Sleep tracker, waterproofing etc. and last but not the least is Style.
Both Fitbit & Garmin, has introduced many fitness devices, with functions & ranging prices, making it tricky to choose from ! Both fitness trackers are equally good, packed with features, I am sure you will be able to decide which one of these $150 devices to buy at the end of this post …
Which is better Fitbit Charge 2 or Garmin Vivosmart HR+ Tracker ?
Fitbit Tracker Comparison | Fitbit Charge 2 | Garmin Vivosmart HR+ |
| Price & Deals | Best Buy USA, UK Best Buy Germany | Best Buy USA, UK Best Buy Germany |
| Interchangeable bands | Yes | No |
| Colors | Standard: Black, Blue, Plum, Teal Special edition: Lavender/Rose Gold (wow for girls), Black/Gunmetal (for boys & kids) | Black/Shark Fin Gray, Imperial Purple/Kona Purple, Midnight Blue/Bolt Blue |
| Tracking | Steps Tracking, Yes | |
| Distance Tracking, Yes | ||
| Calories burned Tracking, Yes | ||
| Floors climbed Tracking, Yes | ||
| GPS Tracking (connect to your phone) | No, Connected GPS So carrying mobile with you is necessary, but uses phone GPS so tracker battery lasts long | Yes, built-in GPS consumes battery during GPS use |
| Sleep Well | Yes, automatic Active minutes and sleep Tracking | |
| Alarm | Yes, Vibration for a silent alarm | |
| Sensors | Optical heart rate tracker, 3-axis accelerometer, altimeter, vibration motor | 3 axis-accelerometer, altimeter, heart rate monitor, vibration alert, GPS |
| Wrist based heart rate | 24/7 heart rate tracking Fitbit is more user-friendly in its presentation | 24/7 heart rate tracking |
| “Move” notifier | Yes, keeps you ative throughout the day | |
| Music control | No | |
| Battery Life | 5-days | Up to 5 days watch/activity tracking mode (24/7 heart rate monitoring, no GPS) or up to 8 hours using GPS |
| Swim proof / Life-proof (Water resistant) | No, splash proof | Yes, 5 ATM Up to 50 metres |
| Display & Alerts | 1.5-inch multi-line OLED Tap display | 1.0-inch LCD Touchscreen |
| Caller ID Display, Yes | ||
| Text message Display, Yes | ||
| Calendar alerts, Yes | ||
| Mutli-Sport | Automatically recognizes & records runs, rides, walks etc. | |
| Compatibility | Android, iOS, Windows, web | |
| Dimensions | Small: 139.7 – 170.2mm Large: 170.2 – 205.7mm XL: 205.7 – 236.2mm | Regular: 136 – 192mm X-Large: 180 – 224mm |
| Tracker Comparison | Fitbit Charge 2 | Garmin Vivosmart HR+ |
| Best Buy Price | Best Buy USA, UK Best Buy Germany | Best Buy USA, UK Best Buy Germany |
What is Best in Fitbit Charge 2 ?
Fitbit has introduced Charge 2 as an improvement over Fitbit Charge & Charge HR tracker bands, firstly with much larger display, guided exercises, app assistance for analyzing the exercise you are doing, and last but not the least swappable wrist bands, which will be most important to girls & women, who just love to match the things to each extent 🙂
- Guided breathing exercises
I am a Yoga fan, where breathing is top most important thing to learn for. With present lifestyle where we lack of getting good quality air and hence lesser Oxygen with each breathe, it is important to put-in more efforts on deep breathing many times a day. With Charge 2, you get facility of guided breathing session by simple press of the button (wait until you get to the Relax screen), begin your guided breathing session of 2 to 5 minutes, resulting into increased Oxygen level hence reducing toxic in blood, releaving your stress & anxiety …
- Fitbit App [Cardio Fitness Level Measurements] acts as health tracker
To me doing exercise is as important as analyzing the results, how you are doing and where to improve upon to reach desired fitness levels, VO2 Max analysis using the Fitbit App is one of the major feature of going with fitbit.
Again refer to my Yoga suggestion where body Oxygen levels are considered important, analysis tells you how well your body uses oxygen when you’re working out.
Remember, the higher your VO2 Max and Cardio Fitness Score, the better your cardiovascular fitness.
- Swappable Wrist bands, specially liked by girls & women who love to match everything to their nail-paint 🙂
What is Best in Garmin Vivosmart HR+ ?
Garmin has introduced Vivosmart HR+ over previous HR with major improvement of built-in-GPS that eliminates need to carry your mobile phone with you.
- Built-in GPS
You need not carry your mobile device to get GPS tracking like Fitbit Charge 2 - Display
An always-on touchscreen display - Battery
Practically long battery life - Water Resistant
Yes, 5 ATM, Up to 50 meters
How does the Software’s of Fitbit Vs Garmin Compare ?
- Fitbit Fitstar App [Simple & Intuitive]
Simple, Clean, Super Intuitive …. Simply you can get variety of information without complexity of massive clutter of graphs and data. It gives your daily activity executive summaries with ease.Fitstar provides options to log food, water, or your weight. You can set daily and weekly goals, invite friends to take part in challenges with you, which is the most interesting part, without competition one never improves !
A dedicated Friends section of the app allows you see how your friends are doing on their daily activity goals.
- Garmin’s Connect app [Complex]
Highly detailed & comprehensive. But not as intuitive and easy to use as Fitstar.
If you need to find information, you need a few extra taps on the screen than on the Fitbit app. Obviously you get lost in complexity, so scores pretty low on information retrieval compared to Fitbit App.
May be if you are Tech-Savy, you will be able to fetch in-depth detailed data on your activities !! But unfortunately most of us are not as knowledgeable and have time to go through such complex mechanisms 🙁
Tip of the day : Getting wrong heart bit measurement ?
“The fitness trackers, if you wear them loose, they tend to rotate around during exercise, hence giving false indication of heart rate measurement. So I suggest to adjust the band tightness optimally during exercise”
So considering all the aspects, although both Fitbit Charge 2 & Garmin Vivosmart HR+ pricing $150, Fitbit Charge is clear winner as most utility friendly and proven tracker …
Fitbit charge 2’s Special editions : Lavender/Rose Gold are mostly popular in young girls and women 🙂 and the Black/Gunmetal edition liked by men mostly.
[Pricing of $150 was taken in Dec 2016, Dynamic prices updated in table above]
If you are interested … here is detailed comparison of Fitbit trackers …
Suzie Winget says
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