Fitbit Charge 6: Release date, price, features, and everything you need to know

The Fitbit Charge series is among the best fitness trackers you can spend cash on. Since 2021, we’ve relied on the Fitbit Charge 5 for the best-of-the-best in the Fitbit tracker world. Now, though, the Charge 5 has been usurped by the Fitbit Charge 6, which takes the throne as Fitbit’s top tracker.

Fitbit Charge 6: Release date

Fitbit announced the Charge 6 on September 28, 2023, with preorders going live the same day. General availability of the company’s latest fitness band followed on October 12, 2023.

Fitbit has yet to announce a Fitbit Charge 7, so the Charge 6 remains the company’s latest fitness tracker.

Fitbit Charge 6: Specs and size

The Fitbit Charge 6 is about the same size as the Charge 5. In fact, the Charge 5 bands and charger will also work with the Charge 6. Our review of the Fitbit Charge 5 found it to be a delightful size and weight, and we experienced similar comfort during our Charge 6 review.

As far as specs go, everything from the Charge 5 carries over. It has the same 1.04-inch full-color AMOLED display and all the same health-tracking sensors. However, it uses AI and machine learning to enhance the heart-rate sensor, which makes it the most advanced ever Fitbit tracker and allows for a cool new feature related to gym equipment. See the next section for more on this.

Fitbit doesn’t specifically disclose how much memory there is on the Charge 6. However, it does tell us how much data it can handle:

• Detailed by-the-minute motion data for the past seven days
• Daily totals of your health tracking for the last 30 days
• Heart rate data at one-second intervals during workouts and five-second intervals at all other times

Check out a full list of specs for the Charge 6 below. Do note that you can use a Charge 6 with either an Android or iOS smartphone, but you must connect it to a smartphone to work properly.

Fitbit Charge 6: Features

As mentioned in the previous section, the Fitbit Charge 6 carries over all the features of the Charge 5. That means it includes heart-rate tracking, sleep tracking, onboard GPS, SpO2 tracking, AFib monitoring, an ECG sensor, an EDA sensor, and an accelerometer. Like the Charge 5, it lacks an altimeter, unfortunately.

So how is the Charge 6 different from the Charge 5? Here are the big changes:

• More exercise routines: The Charge 6 supports over 40 exercise routines; you can access them all on the tracker. This differs from the Charge 5, which only supports 20+ activities and only received the ability for all of them to be on the tracker in a June 2023 update, roughly two years after it launched.
• Google Maps: You can now see turn-by-turn directions on your fitness tracker. You’ll need your smartphone to be connected to the tracker the whole time and initiate directions using the smartphone app, but direction notifications will appear on your wrist. This will be great for cyclists and runners.
• Google Wallet/Pay: Fitbit Pay is not included in Charge 6. Instead, you’ll use Google Pay for your contactless payments.
• YouTube Music controls: If you’re playing music from YouTube Music on your phone, you can play/stop/pause/skip tracks right from your wrist. You’ll need to start playing your music from your phone, though.
• Gym equipment sync: You can share your heart rate with the machine on certain types of gym equipment. For example, you could connect your Charge 6 to a Peloton and then see your Charge 6’s heart rate data on the Peloton’s screen. This data is read-only, so it’s safe to use on public gym gear.
• Google required: You cannot use the Fitbit Charge 6 with a legacy Fitbit account. You will need to transfer your Fitbit account to your Google account or create a new Google account. There are no exceptions to this rule.

Here are all the exercises you can track with a Fitbit Charge 6:

Fitbit Charge 6: Price

The Fitbit Charge 6 landed on September 28, 2023, for $159. That’s a significantly lower price than the Charge 5’s original MSRP, which was $179. Considering the wealth of new features here, that’s great news.

However, $159 is still a lot for a fitness tracker. You could save some cash and go with a less expensive tracker. The Fitbit Charge 5 ($134 at Amazon) is an obvious cheaper alternative. Meanwhile, the Xiaomi Mi Band 7 ($46 at Amazon) and newer Mi Band 8 ($37.82 at AliExpress) are dirt-cheap and offers all the essential features you would expect.

Fitbit Charge 6: Design, colors, and bands

The most notable change to the design of the Fitbit Charge 6 is the reintroduction of a physical button. As Fitbit did with the Sense 2 and Versa 4, the Charge series is now back to using a regular button instead of the capacitive groove of previous models. Other than this significant design change, though, the rest of the tracker is an exact match to the Charge 5.

The Fitbit Charge 6 itself (without a band) comes in three colors only: Black Aluminum, Silver Aluminum, and Champagne Gold Aluminum. Out-of-the-box, the Black Aluminum model comes with an Obsidian Infinity Band. A Porcelain Infinity Band comes with the Silver Aluminum model, and a Coral Infinity Band comes with the Champagne Gold Aluminum variant.

Fitbit also sells Sport Bands, Premium Horween Leather Bands, Woven Bands, Hook & Loop Bands, and Vegan Leather Bands. You can also choose from thousands of different bands from third-party companies.

Fitbit Charge 6: Battery life and charging

Fitbit promotes the battery life of the Charge 6 to be equal to that of the Charge 5. That means Fitbit promises up to seven days of battery life on a single charge. However, you’ll need to severely limit how you use the tracker to see that much battery life.

The always-on display (AOD) will need to be off; you’ll need to track a limited number of exercises, receive very few smartphone notifications, etc. In our real-world testing of the Charge 5, we saw just three days of battery life under strain, meaning AOD on, brightness to the max, lots of notifications, a bunch of workouts, etc. In other words, you should expect between three and seven days of battery life, depending on your usage habits. We managed up to three days with AOD activated, vastly outperforming Fitbit’s estimates. That’s great news.

Charging the Fitbit Charge 6 will take two hours to go from empty to full. You charge it using a proprietary magnetic charger — the same one that came with the Charge 5. There is no wireless charging or any other way to charge it other than the proprietary cable. There is no wall adapter in the box.

Fitbit Charge 6: Watch faces

The Charge 6 has all the watch faces seen on the Charge 5 (and even a few from the Fitbit Luxe). That includes “Analogish,” “Bloom,” “Continuum,” “Neoflip,” and more. All in all, there are over 25 faces available.

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