Product Review: FitBit Surge

Click Here to Buy FitBit Surge 

I was SO excited when I received my Surge. I've been a loyal FitBit customer for a few years and was jazzed about upgrading to their best model. Here are my thoughts:

*Right out of the box it was easy to set up and sync with my existing account as well as my iPhone through Blu-Tooth. I like that FitBit now allows two trackers on one account because I've found my One model is slightly more accurate when it comes to counting steps so I've continued to carry it in a pocket but I love having a heart rate tracker on my wrist with no chest strap, too. (Fitbit reconciles the two trackers info to give the most accurate count I feel is possible.)

*I have nothing to directly compare the heart rate monitor to for accuracy but it matches the app I have on my iPhone so since I'm not a serious athlete, I feel it is accurate enough for me.

*The GPS tracker seems accurate, though it sometimes takes a few seconds to find my position.

*The sleep tracker exactly matched my One but I love not having to remember to activate it on the Surge.

*The Surge is a bit big on my small wrist but because it has a very clean design I don't feel it's ugly. It's entirely appropriate for most activities, but I probably won't wear it anywhere fancy. That's okay since I can still discretely use my One.

*I like that the Surge can notify me about texts and calls, and that I can change songs on my iPhone with it. Those are two features I didn't give much thought to before, but they (especially the notifications) have become some of my favorite things.

** THIS IS THE BUMPY START ** My only complaint is that when my Surge arrived the heart rate monitor was not working at all. Fitbit has a great help section and a customer community so I went there first for troubleshooting. I tried everything suggested to fix the monitor to no avail. I've had great success with Fitbit's customer support over email in the past so I wrote an email and waited. For three days. They then suggested I tried fixes I had already told them I'd tried in my initial email. Long story short it took me just over a week of communicating this way before Fitbit agreed to send me a replacement. (Apparently the faulty heart rate monitor is not uncommon.) Once my replacement arrived I was a happy camper though. The replacement has been perfect. The heart rate monitor works flawlessly with all my activities so far without having to adjust it's position on my arm.

*SUMMARY* As a fitness tracker I'm very pleased with it, and I feel like this is a good starter smart watch while I wait for Apple to get the iWatch just right. I plug it in to charge while I shower and otherwise wear it comfortably all day and night.