I’ve been a long-time Fit Bit user, thanks to a challenge at Title Nine where we all raced to the North Pole (and back) as part of a team. We watched our progress on the map. It was super fun. I started with a FitBit Zip, then graduated to a FitBit Flex when I kept forgetting to clip on my Zip. I always found it annoying with my Flex that I had to wear a watch to time my runs AND my FitBit to get my step count.

Naturally, I was ecstatic when I heard they were releasing the FitBit Surge. It was my dream come true: a Fitness watch and tracker in one. Having been a collegiate athlete and coach, I’m all about the data! I liked the features that FitBit incorporated. Naturally, I read all sorts of online reviews and compared it to the other fitness smartwatches available. I settled on the FitBit for 3 reasons: 1. Battery life. This thing easily goes 4 days without a charge. It would suck to go backpacking and lose all my steps! 2. Easy functionality – not too many bells and whistles. 3. FitBit ecosystem is hard to beat. The app is awesome and super easy to use. And all my friends use it, so I’ve got lots of competition! I picked one up in Feb and have been using it ever since. So how did the Surge pan out, under actual every-day use over the last 7 months?

 

The Good:

A few key upgrades over the Flex (aside from the obvious watch feature): It automatically tracks sleep. Hallelujah! I had all but given up on my sleep data, because I could NEVER remember to put the darn Flex in sleep mode. And then worse, I’d lose half my steps in the morning because I would forget to take it OUT of sleep mode! GRR!

The Surge also gives heart rate, updating it every 5 seconds, using tiny lights against your skin. I have worn a Polar HR Monitor for a long time and I find the FitBit to be not perfect, but pretty darn accurate. Now if you are a super-anal-exact-science kind of person, you should probably stick with the chest strap-style. But I find the wrist heart rate to give me a great overall picture of my fitness and it gives me an accurate picture of my workouts as well.

The battery life, as I had hoped, has been great. I have found that turning off all-day auto-syncing has extended the battery life quite a bit. It only syncs when I open the FitBit app in my phone. I get at least 4 days out of my watch now, if not more. I charge it when I take a shower or after a long workout. It only takes about 30 minutes to fully charge, which is quite speedy.

The size of the watch is just about right – not too huge and not too small. This is especially important on my very tiny wrists!

The watch interface is easy to learn and use. Time and date show up in big, bold typeface, so the most important part of a watch is easy to read in a hurry. You can swipe through a number of screens to get steps, heart rate, mileage, calories burned and floors climbed (or around here, your elevation gain).

I was really surprised at how useful the phone notifications have been. I get a small buzz on wrist when I get a call or text. I can read texts right from my wrist and I can see who is calling. This is useful when I’m at work, because I can’t carry around my phone. It’s also helpful when I’m out running, watching a movie or doing something when I don’t want to be interrupted. I don’t have to run and check my phone any more. Of course if I want to reply, I still have to run and get my phone, but in general, I find the notifications helpful. It would be super handy if push notifications to show up on my watch too, but FitBit isn’t quite there yet!

There’s an alarm feature, which I love. It’s a silent vibration alarm, which I like to set a couple minutes before my actual alarm clock goes off, for a less-rude awakening in the morning. I DO wish you could set the alarm on your watch itself, without needing to use the phone.

Finally, I really like the fitness tracking! It’s super easy to just start a timer at the beginning of my yoga workout or a run and have it track all my metrics for me.   To record a workout, you just hit a button on the side and swipe through your options. There’s a default run tracker, with options for using the GPS or not (if you are indoors, etc). You can also choose “exercise” and set up some pre-set options like hiking, yoga, walking and circuit training.  You can also go back and retroactively track activity with the app, if you forget to push start before Crossfit class starts or you plan on skiing for 6 hours, no worries. It will include your heart rate data from that same time plot, so you don’t miss too much data. I do find myself wishing for a regular stopwatch timer that isn’t linked to a workout, like my old watches have. It’s nice for things like cooking and timing a game. Right now if you run a stopwatch, you have to do it as a workout and then go back into the app and delete the workout later.

 

 

The Bad:

It took me a while to get used to wearing the FitBit. I come from many years with the Soleus and Ironman watches, so was used to a sleek, fitted sports watch. The first week I wore this thing, it hurt my wrist. A lot. Turns out, the band requires a break-in period. I would wear it tighter, then loosen, then tighter, then loosen. Lots of adjusting at first. Once the band stretched out a bit, it’s now set-it-and-forget-it. I rarely mess with the fit and I don’t notice I’m wearing it any more. It’s quite comfortable. It is a little taller, so doesn’t sit nicely under fitted longsleeves. If you are really into a long Prana top with thumbies, this might not be the best. That said, it does fine under my hoodies and with a baselayer.

Many folks have reported skin irritation from the band. I didn’t have any trouble for months and then one day, started getting a rub spot after Crossfit. After a few months of experimenting, I’ve figured out how to deal with this. I generally leave it looser during the day and snug it down during a workout when I’m gonna be all sweaty. I take it off for a while after a workout or shower to let my skin dry out completely. And if I start getting a rub spot, I will switch wrists entirely for a week or so. So I can work around it without too much trouble. It is a bit odd, as I’ve never gotten irritation from any of my other watches before.

The GPS was a bit wonky at first. It had trouble tracking me on a run any time I went into the trees. After a few software upgrades from FitBit over the past few months, it now tracks my hikes and runs pretty darn accurately. I’ve been pretty pleased and appreciate FitBit working on the GPS! Still, if you want a perfect GPS track for a hike or run, try an actual GPS unit.

 

Really, overall I’ve been quite please with my FitBit Surge. I think it’s a great product with great data. Best for athletes, or anyone trying to watch their calories and activity. But, the Surge is also nice for anyone who just wants to wear one device instead of two! It seems to be tough enough to hold up to abuse and after 7 months, the screen has no scratches! Now, if only my Surge was in a fun color instead of black…

 

 

I was not compensated in any way to write this review and all opinions are my own.  I purchased my own FitBit Surge.