Fitbit's Charge 3 goes on sale October 7th for $150
Finally, the Charge has a proper touchscreen.
It's been over a month since Fitbit first announced the Charge 3, seemingly a major improvement over the two-year-old Charge 2 that it'll replace. If you've been wanting to replace an aging fitness tracker with Fitbit's latest, we now know the Charge 3 will arrive in just a few days -- October 7th, to be specific. As with the previous Charge models, the new one will set you back $150, which still feels a little bit pricy compared to the $200 Versa watch, but there are a number of notable improvements here over the old model.
Unlike its predecessor, the Charge 3 is properly water-resistant, which makes it the first Charge that swimmers can use to track workouts. Perhaps even more significantly, the Charge 3 has a proper touchscreen for the first time, as well. In our initial testing, this made for a huge usability improvement over previous models, which used the accelerometer to register your actions, including jabbing at the screen. It's the nicest display we've seen in a Charge, by far.
Finally, Fitbit claims the Charge 3 will get seven days of battery life, up from the six days we saw when we reviewed the Charge 2. And since there's still no GPS on-board, you shouldn't have to worry about battery dropping precipitously depending on how you use it. If you do need GPS tracking, you'll have to bring your phone with you. As of next week, the Charge 3 will be on sale for $150 at retailers like Best Buy, Walmart and Amazon; you can also buy directly from Fitbit's website.
