Fitbit Charge HR Heart Rate and Activity Wristband, Large (Black)

I almost pulled the trigger and ordered it from US since there was no concrete date on India release, very last minute I checked the fitbit website and there was this sweet link "Buy from amazon.in".. Wow.. I was in cloud 9 literally and pre-ordered it directly.. Got delivered today (07/07/15) as promised..Review dated 07/07/2015 after tinkering with it for like around 6 hours or so..Out of the Box..Packaging is frugal and efficient, may be a bit too minimalistic that it leaves you wondering whether something is missing :) . Only 3 items are there in the box (Fitbit Charge HR, a charging cable, and a dongle). There is no material available, such as a list of instructions, in the box which explains the setup process. I was confused for a moment there, just a note which is printed in multiple languages that notes the URL for the setup process is provided. Based on the device you use to access the URL, it will point out to the relevant app store. I tried from my iPad Air2 and Xperia ZR. Picked the phone for the setup process since it will be the main companion device.Setting Up.. (May be better to do the set up process using a PC rather than via Bluetooth)First step is it asks the Android or iOS app as per your device to be installed. My wife is using this, she could easily pair it with her Xperia ZR without any hitch. There is a software upgrade available, and you just cannot use the band in any meaningful way without it being installed. I opted for the setup using the paired device. The download and install went almost 80% before it got interrupted. I thought I did something wrong, retried the process, again using the bluetooth paired device, same story update failed for a couple of more times before it was successful. It takes around 15 minutes for the upgrade process every time you try it, so be patient. I remember reading about this issue while reading the review in the Google Play Store, as per the reviews the process works smoothly when connected to the PC. I think I should have just done it via the PC.Once the software upgrade is done, everything just runs smoothly. It syncs perfectly, you can see the stats already starting to move around. You can set up the notifications from phone, silent alarm, goals and all the other stuff.Charging..Device comes out of the box partly charged. There was sufficient charge for the software upgrade and the setup process to run, but soon the low battery message flashed in the mobile screen. The vbox says charging time is 1 - 2 hours and charge stays for 5 days. Sounds about right since, it got charged from around 10% charge to full charge in around an hour or so. About 5 day charge, it is too soon to tell.. Will update the review once then..Color..Picked the Plum colour. It is a slightly darker and subtle kind of plum colour. Looks pretty natural.. Happy with the choice of color.One quirk that we noticed..All the other readings looked perfectly fine, but when my wife covered like around 50 stairs, the charge HR still showed the count as 1. At first we were not sure why, but it seems the count is shown as number of floors, then that is about right. No problem there. :) (Updated)Why to opt for Charge HR against Charge..- Obvious reason is the presence of heart beat monitor. If you need it, its a no brainer, go for Charge HR.- Practical reason that actually tilted the scales for me, is the strap and locking mechanism. Charge HR has a traditional watch kind of strap which works perfectly, and absolutely zero chance of accidentally opening up. Charge has a different locking mechanism, it looks good and trendy but it looks like it could pop open easily and reviews have shown that it actually does that sometimes.

It serves the purpose what it is meant for , i.e. Activity Tracking and being non intrusive at it .Amzon's service and delivery was great , I got the product at good price and within the mentioned time.But for anyone serious about buying it - Please be warned the quality of the product is not upto the mark .The rubber band is quite flimsy and is showing some serious signs of wear within 4 months of less than average usage .I have used it primarily for sleep tracking and counting steps , wearing it round the clock for the said time.It seems that the actual device is simply glued on to the rubber band which wears of quite easily.I would not recommend it to anyone because , I don't feel spending 15k for tracking 4 months of activity is wise .

After much consideration decided to pre-order the device instead of buying it from USA where it is cheaper. Got it on 6th July like promised.Amazon could have implemented one day delivery. I would have certainly opted for it.Getting back to the device, it arrived in the usual amazon packaging. The device packing itself was not very intuitive with several tabs and compartments. Didn't come with any instructions, except with an URL for setting up the device. Which when opened on my Galaxy S6 redirected to play store for downloading the fitbit app. This was slightly confusing as I already had fitbit app installed before hand, as it works without even a fitbit device.Figured it all out, did setup of the band by pairing it with my phone. The device requested for a software upgrade which was done after 2 tries.Now coming to the device itself. Bought the black colour large band. It fitted perfectly. But the silicon and in particular the finish could have been much better considering it costed 12,990. I don't wear a watch and the band itself is very minimalistic. People don't notice much. Actually no one even asked me at work what I was wearing except for a couple of close friends.The band works as advertised. It counts your steps, calories burnt, heart rate, stairs climbed, distance covered and also has an alarm feature which you can set using your phone. Take it with a pinch of salt though, activity trackers are not 100 percent accurate. But they do provide you with good enough data to keep you motivated. I did a small test by counting my steps to 200 and I was happy to see the device measured exactly 200 steps. This is not a very scientific measurement though. Probably during the course of the day it will vary by a bit.Got the Charge HR instead of Charge because I wanted the heart rate tracking as I was into tennis and cardio, steps is just not a good enough measurement for such activities.The band and the app kept me motivated to improve upon my previous days efforts.I suggest the people who don't require heart rate tracking to go with the charge. Heart rate again is not supposed to be very accurate, but it is consistent. Measured my heart rate after a workout using the band and the heart rate sensor on my Samsung galaxy s6. Both of them showed the same reading, only differing by 1 beat. Fitbit has a distinct advantage over jawbone here as jawbone up3 only gives you resting heart rate reading.The sleep tracking was pretty good and gave me accurate readings without fiddling with anything on the app/band.All in all happy with the device and also the battery, works as advertised. I wish the strap material felt more premium (heard jawbone up3 materials are nicer) especially for the price I paid.