The Fitbit Surge is a top of the range “fitness superwatch”, with constant heart rate tracking and GPS but does it really deserve that self-proclaimed “super” prefix?
The premium wrist-worn fitness tracker from Fitbit, one of the first companies to make a smartphone-connected device, the Surge claims to be able to do it all, and with a battery that lasts for days.
Design
The watch is a wedge shape, which is comfortable if a bit sweaty with its rubber strap. It has to be worn relatively tightly for the heart rate monitor to work correctly, which means it left marks on my wrist and a break from it once or twice a day was required. But it didn’t give me a rash, so that’s good.
The screen is clear and always on, which makes it good for actually telling the time. A button on the side combines with a touchscreen making controlling it with fairly intuitive. Swiping through the menus users can view their heart rate, set off on a run or do another pre-programmed activity including yoga and static strength training.
The black rubber strap picks up dust almost instantaneously from the inside of a shirt cuff and I found it difficult to get clean again, making it look more grey than black most of the time.
Wearing it every day the Surge did a solid job of tracking activity. It was less capable of tracking a run as the weight of the watch and sweat build up meant it moved around even when drawn tight, producing variable heart rate readings.
The GPS also took around five minutes to get a fix, which meant a period of standing outside waiting to run, or hitting the button to just start without the GPS and hoping it would pick up at a later.
Battery life
The Surge lasted seven days on a single charge in my testing, despite several runs with the GPS active during the run, which is two days longer than Fitbit claims and longer than most other heart rate trackers.
Charging requires a proprietary USB cable, which is long but doesn’t stay locked into place well enough meaning that it often didn’t charge properly if the watch moved slightly after plugging in the cable.
Text and call notifications, music control
The Surge connects to computer via a Bluetooth USB dongle, but also wirelessly to a smartphone and the Fitbit app available for Android, iPhone and Windows Phone. The watch can also display text and call alerts, as well as basic music controls for the default music player on an iPhone or Android device which work well enough.
Data, data, data
The accelerometer measured steps as accurately as most other fitness trackers, but the Surge can also measure stair climbs and distance travelled using the GPS when out for a run.
All of those features work well enough and are easy to view either through the app or via the Fitbit website. The GPS produces a trace of the route with elevation and heart rate figures of the run. The trace was about 50m out of position, however, failing to match up with a road map of the route.
The heart rate tracking of the run suffered from a similar problem to the cheaper Fitbit Charge HR. Even at a full sprint the watch recorded my heart beat peaking only briefly at 175 beats per minute, meaning that it determined I was predominantly in the “cardio” or “fat burn” zones and spending only seconds in the “peak” zone.
For me, when my heart rate is between 95 and 133 beats per minute I’m apparently in the “fat burn” zone. Over 133 I’m in “cardio” and in “peak” when it hits 162 or above. Which is pretty meaningless, since no advice is given on how to get to or maintain “cardio” or “peak”, or how long to maintain it for.
Sleep tracking was also poor compared to the competition, simply showing time asleep, restless and awake. Other heart rate-based fitness trackers provide much more meaningful data on sleep quality.
The Surge’s biggest problem is the lack of useful analysis of the data it tracks. Unlike competitors such as Jawbone’s Up, it doesn’t provide analysis of exercise and how it affects sleep patterns, tips on how to train better or much beyond simply charting the data.
The company offers a “premium” service for greater data analysis costing £40 a year, producing weekly reports on fitness and health stats, but most other fitness trackers provide similar analysis for free.
Fitbit will export data to third-party services including MyFitnessPal, which could provide better data analysis.
Price
The Fitbit Surge costs £199 and is available in black, blue and orange. Competitors such as the Basis Peak cost £150, while high-end fitness watches cost upwards of £250.
Verdict
The Fitbit Surge is a solid everyday fitness tracker, but gets out of its depth when moving on to active sports. The heart rate tracking when running isn’t consistent, and it’s not waterproof so no swimming or similar.
I also had issues syncing it with an Android smartphone. Restarting the phone or the watch didn’t make any difference, although it would always reconnect within a couple of hours.
It fairs decently as a watch, but its style is polarising – some love it, others think it’s ugly. The main problem with the Surge isn’t the watch itself, it’s Fitbit’s data analysis, or lack there of. The statistics and charts aren’t especially useful in and of themselves and the service doesn’t link sleep data to exercise data.
It’s standard service lacks the intelligence provided by other, less sophisticated and cheaper trackers, which is a shame.
Pros: solid battery life, constant heart rate monitoring, altimeter, accurate step tracking, easy to read screen
Cons: occasional syncing issues, poor data analysis, erratic heart rate during run, chunky, poor sleep tracking
Other reviews
Fitbit Charge HR review: a heart-rate tracker that’s skipped a beat
Comments (…)
Sign in or create your Guardian account to join the discussion