In this post we are comparing Fitbit Tracker Alta vs Charge 2 vs Blaze vs Surge which are in the range of $100 to $250, Since the comparison will become too complex, options below $100 I will be covering in my separate post. [prices quoted are as known at the time of writing this post, for latest prices please refer to table below]

Before we look-into details of each watch, lets get quick look at Technical specs & Features comparison of Fitbit Tracker Alta vs Charge 2 vs Blaze vs Surge, so that if you don’t have time, quick color indicators would help your buying decision. Later I will discuss upon each feature and my opinion on the same.

One more important question asked by many about harm from LED’s in the heart rate sensor, As per my investigation from various resources on internet, the fitbit tracker Purepulse LED’s are SAFE, The light emitted by the LED is as safe as the house LED which everyone is used to over years now. Also the LED’s are driven by very low power which can’t cause any skin burns. Refer to Fitbit Article on the same here

Fitbit Tracker Comparison Alta vs Charge 2 vs Blaze vs Surge Review

Fitbit Tracker	Fitbit Alta	Fitbit Charge 2	Fitbit Blaze	Fitbit Surge
Price	$99.95 Best Buy	$119.95 Best Buy	$189.95 Best Buy	$179.99 Best Buy
Differentiating Feature	Slim & Stylish	Swim proof / Life-proof	Stylish Smartwatch + Fitness Tracker	7-days Battery Life
Syncs feature	Yes, automatic synchronization to your computer or select bluetooth 4.0 smartphones or tablets
Goals	Yes, Set goals, view progress and earn badges
Social	Yes, Share and compete with friends throughout the day
App	Yes, Free iphone and android application
Tracking	Step tracking, Yes
	Distance Tracking, Yes
	Calories burned Tracking, Yes
	Floors climbed Tracking, Yes
	GPS, No	GPS, Yes, (connect to your phone)
	Active minutes and sleep Tracking, Yes
Alarm	Yes, Vibration for a silent alarm
Wrist heart rate	No	Yes
“Move” notifier	Yes
Music control	No		Yes
Battery Life	5-days			7-days
Splashes	Yes, Sweat, Rain & Splash Proof
Swim proof / Life-proof	No	Yes	No	No
Fitbit Tracker	Fitbit Alta	Fitbit Charge 2	Fitbit Blaze	Fitbit Surge
Display	Clock + Display (Tap display)	Clock + Display	Color display +  selection of on-screen workouts from FitStar	Clock + Display
Caller ID Display	Yes
Text message Display	Yes
Calendar alerts	Yes			No
Smart-track	Yes, Automatically recognize and record runs, rides, walks and other workouts.
Fitbit Tracker	Fitbit Alta	Fitbit Charge 2	Fitbit Blaze	Fitbit Surge
Price	Best Buy	Best Buy	Best Buy	Best Buy

Fitbit Alta [Slim & Stylish]

• Swappable wrist band for women exercisers 🙂
  One of the most important things for girls & women, these changable bands helps to create the fashion quotient even during fitness exercise ! Get on with alternate options of rubber, leather and even a metal bangle in multiple colors.
• Tracks
  Contains pretty standard tracking features like Steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes and sleep.
  Sleep tracking is most important to get good results from your fitness targets, good sleep indicates things are going well, even exercise is going well but you have mental stress you may not get good sleep, hence this tracking is important part to get back on track may be say with help of Yoga & Meditation (if you wish to know more about it, send me personal message, since I am certified till Yoga Prabodh, just a step below Yoga Pandit)
• Alarm
  Best suggested is to begin your exercise early morning, and here the tracker duty begins by setting an alarm, but if its audio one, there are chances that your partner gets disturbed ! So this watch helps by giving gentle vibration alarm. I like this feature very much.
• Move notifier
  Remember if you are sitting for prolonged time, the blood circulation tends to be limited to some part of the body, which is not good. Moving in-between with some light Yoga postures will help you regain blood circulation, making you feel energetic, again this simple but effective assistant aka Move notifier will help you reminding to move throughout the day.
• Display
  Mostly standard stuff of Showing text messages, caller ID, calendar alerts from an Android or iPhone but as per me this is more helpful if you are using the same watch for office and exercise. Personally I don’t even get time to look at texts during running !
• Smart-Track
  Yep, this is the most important helper, you need not set to track it specifically running, steps etc, but the watch will automatically recognize what your activity is and begin auto-recording runs, rides, walks and other workouts. So virtually it keeps an eye over what you are doing throuhout the day & night.
• Battery
  5-days of battery life looks pretty attractive proposition, although you tend to charge your mobile more frequently than the smartwatch, so this is surely better than that.
• Missing Features [Not Available in Alta]
  Heart Rate Sensor
  Swim proof / Life-proof [its only Sweat, Rain & Splash Proof] – But if you are not a swimmer, forget it.
  GPS Tracking (connect to your phone) – If you are used to carry your mobile phone during exercise, then using GPS from your mobile shall not be an issue, also this will keep the watch battery lasting long. So its upto you if this is negative or positive feature ?

With lowest price of all those we are comparing, Fitbit Alta is the most Stylish & Slim designed tracker, if you are not that keen on Heart-Beat tracker, then Fitbit Alta could be the right choice.

Fitbit Charge 2 [Swim proof / Life-proof]

• Swim proof / Life-proof
  As we speak over Alta, Charge 2 scores more in area of water-proofing. But wait, here swimming looks feasible, but remember Surfing or Water-sports generally throw water in the form of high pressure jet, which may cause water entry, so even though Charge 2 is Swim proof, we recommend to be cautious during water sports.
• Cardio fitness level & Guided breathing sessions
  As said earlier I am Yoga fan, where breathing is prime importance during lifecycle of any person. To improve upon capacity of your lungs as well as improve O2 levels in blood (which makes you feel relaxed and energetic), the guided breathing sessions are a must. So if you really buy this watch, do make 100% use of the guided breathing sessions. I am sure you will revert to me with positive results in a month.
• GPS Tracking (connect to your phone) – uses mobile GPS giving you more duration for watch battery
• Hear Rate Sensor
  if features the standard way, wrist based heart rate sensor. One suggestion is to make sure the tracker is ties properly on writst, if it rotates during exercise then surely you will get wrong heart rate readings.
• Tracks
  Standard features of Steps, distance, calories burned, active minutes and sleep. Already I have narreted importance of sleep tracking in Alta paragraph above.
• Alarm
  Again silent alarm, get-up without disturbing to your partner 🙂 same as Alta.
• Move notifier
  Same as Alta, refer to importance of move notifier in Alta paragraph above.
• Display
  Standard features of text messages, caller ID, calendar alerts from an Android or iPhone.
• Smart-Track
  Great feature, again like Alta, the watch does everything, a 24×7 vigilance on you & records automatically.
• Battery
  5-days of battery life, same as Alta.

With all great features available with Guided breathing sessions, GPS tracker, Alerts and most of all Swim proof Charge 2 is my most favorite tracker. Its not too slim / not too bulky, strikes perfect balance in between style and features 🙂 priced very well … Over & Above Alta, I would love the Charge 2 tracker

Fitbit Blaze [Stylish Smartwatch + Fitness Tracker]

Compared to Alta & Charge 2, Blaze is a step ahead in terms of Style, its a perfect blend of Smart-watch & Fitness Tracker, Fitbit has used their expertise to make this happen at pretty low price. In comparison over all Blaze scores the best.

• Hear Rate Sensor
  Wrist based heart rate sensor, don’t forget to tie band very well on wrist to avoid wrong readings.
• Tracks
  Steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed , active minutes and sleep.
• Alarm
  Gentle vibration alarm to wake-you-up early morning.
• Changable wrist band
  Blaze itself stands for style quotient, which is further enhanced by the changable bands feature, specially loved by women & men using the same watch for office & exercise, can simply swap the bands to suit proper look. This is important since you are wearing the same watch throughout the day, recording all activities and hence able to suggest & analyze complete heath graph. So to me more than style it is helpful for health tracking, since it makes or facilitates using the same watch during exercise as well as office or events or evenings.
• Color Display 
  Yes, this is just since in todays world every gadget has color display, then the smart-watch has to comply with !! Again color display is not a must feature, but to me its obvious feature, things has to come out of balnd B&W boring displays …. Important to mention that you can also select on-screen workouts from FitStar.
• Smart-Track
  24×7 vigilance capability with auto assistant who understand your activity and records it in proper catagory, submitting you results and analysis using Fitstar, it easily records runs, rides, walks and other workouts.
• Battery
  in-spite of having color display it delivers 5-days of battery life, same as Alta & Charge 2.
• Cons
  Swim proof / Life-proof [its only Sweat, Rain & Splash Proof] – Only Charge 2 is swim proof
  One of the disliked thing in Blaze is that you have to pop the entire watch out of the strap to charge it, although is not rocket science to get it out of strap, it is boring to do something like this just to charge the watch !! Fitbit -shall do something to avoid this stupid, non-obvious thing !

So finally Blaze is a super blend of Smart-Watch with Fitness Tracker, if you are regular watch user, then Blaze is the right choice for you 🙂

Fitbit Surge

• GPS Tracking (connect to your phone)
• Hear Rate Sensor, Wrist based heart rate sensor is available
• Tracks, Steps, distance, calories burned, floors climbed , active minutes and sleep.
• Alarm, vibration alarm. Same in all above.
• Display, Same in all above.
• Smart-Track, Same in all above.
• Battery
  I think this is the area where Surge scores above all the above listed models, with 7-days of battery life you are free for complete week from charging your smart-watch. Maybe you put-it on charge only on Friday night to get weekends & weekdays covered 🙂
• Cons
  Swim proof / Life-proof [its only Sweat, Rain & Splash Proof] – Only Charge 2 is Swim-proof
  Big sized bulky design
  Low-res and small display

Looking at the price and Features, what you are getting extra is only the 7-days battery life, which do not justify the $$$ spent, so we do not recommend to go for Surge fitness tracker.

Hope this detailed comparison helps you to keep healthy spending right $$$ 🙂

Also Read below $100 trackers

Fitbit Zip vs One vs Flex 2 vs Charge HR [Best Below $100]

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Cheers !!