Lifestyle photo of Fitbit Charge 4.

Fitbit’s New Charge 4 Offers Built-in GPS, Active Zone Minutes, Spotify, and More

Fitbit has revealed the latest addition to its family of activity trackers and smartwatches, the Fitbit Charge 4, which features the company’s most advanced combination of sensors and features, including built-in GPS and Spotify Music.

The tracker comes in a swim-proof design and offers up to seven days battery life. New features include Active Zone Minutes, which uses your resting heart rate and age to track workouts that you get your heart pumping, measuring the time you spend in each heart rate zone towards a weekly goal of 150 minutes. Earn credit for each minute of moderate activity in fat burn zone and double the credit for vigorous activity in cardio and peak zones. Active Zone Minutes does the math for you so you can quickly understand how many you need to reach your daily and weekly goals. Get real-time alerts on your wrist each time you change zones so you can push harder or scale back to make your workouts more efficient. After a workout, see a detailed summary of your heart rate zones in the Fitbit app, including progress toward your goals.

Active Zone Minutes is based on recommendations from leading health organizations, including the World Health Organization and the American Heart Association, which recommend getting 150 minutes of moderate or 75 minutes of vigorous activity each week, which has been linked to better overall health and well-being, disease prevention, improved cognitive function, less anxiety and better sleep. Active Zone Minutes will roll out to all Fitbit smartwatches after the launch of the Charge 4.

Additionally, new content has been added to FitbitPremium, including programs, workouts from brands like barre3, Down Dog, and Physique 57, mindfulness tools, challenges, and more. Along with 40 new pieces of free content, Fitbit is offering a free 90-day trial for new Premium users.

Product render of Fitbit Charge 4, 3QTR view, in Storm Blue and Black.

With an inductive button and scratch-resistant touchscreen display that is easy to view in natural light, the Charge 4 is also the first Fitbit tracker with built-in GPS, allowing you to leave your phone at home while running, walking, or doing other outdoor activities. You can track your pace and distance in real-time and continue to use 20+ goal-based exercise modes along with seven GPS-enabled exercise modes, including a new outdoor workout mode for any outdoor activity like hiking, running, or a brisk walk. After completing a GPS-enabled workout, sync your device for a GPS-powered heat map in the Fitbit app where you can see your workout intensity, based on your different heart rate zones along your route, to help you visualize and improve how you are performing against different terrain.

Previously only available on Fitbit smartwatches, smart wake (coming soon) uses machine learning to wake you at the optimal time. Sleep Score provides deeper insights into your sleep with a daily look at the quality of your sleep. You can also set alarms and activate Sleep Mode to maintain routines and sleep schedules. 

Charge 4 also features a relative SpO2 sensor, which powers Fitbit’s Estimated Oxygen Variation Graph in the Fitbit app. With the graph, see an estimate of the oxygen level variability in your bloodstream, which may indicate variations in your breathing during sleep.

In addition, Charge 4 comes standard with SmartTrack automatic exercise tracking, Cardio Fitness Level and Score, floors climbed, Reminders to Move every hour, female health tracking, food, water and weight logging, motivation from the global social fitness network of nearly 30 million like-minded individuals around the world to help you stay connected, and free educational insights about activity and sleep in the Fitbit app to better understand how your health and wellness tie together.

As the first Fitbit tracker with Spotify, Charge 4 lets you access music from the streaming service and control it right from your wrist, including choosing the music output, play, shuffle and skip content, and like songs. You’ll also get alerts via on-screen call, text, agenda, and app notifications, and keep in touch with family and friends with quick replies on Android to respond on-the-goor mute alerts with Do Not Disturb mode. Now standard on all Charge 4 devices, make secure payments from your wrist with Fitbit Pay with nearly 500 issuers at retailers in 44 countries and 10 transit systems worldwide, including New York MTA and TransLink in Vancouver. 

The Fitbit Charge 4 activity tracker and a special edition model can be pre-ordered today and will be available in stores that are still open during the coronavirus pandemic starting April 13. It will sell for $200 in black, rosewood, or storm blue/black while the special edition will be $220 and come with an exclusive granite reflective/black woven band and classic black band. It will also be available for purchase online. 

Fitbit Premium launched late last year and is available now for $13.50/mo. or $107/yr.