Want to buy a Fitbit, but can’t choose between the super cute and affordable Fitbit Inspire 3 or the slightly more expensive Fitbit Charge 5? Both will do much more than just count your steps.
like every Best Fitbits On the market, the Inspire 3 and Charge 5 both have the ability to track activities, steps, and sleep. Both are waterproof, come with women’s health tracking, and can receive notifications from your smartphone. They also connect to the premium Fitbit app, as well as access to a huge community of other Fitbit users, which you can challenge to reach your fitness goals.
So what should you buy? Below, we place a file Fitbit Inspire 3 and the Fitbit Charge 5 Face to face to help you choose. Whether you’re trying to get fit, lose weight, or train for your first 5 kilometres, investing in a Fitbit is a great way to help you reach your fitness goals, so read on to find out the similarities and those important differences between the two trackers.
Fitbit Inspire 3 vs Fitbit Charge 5: Price and Availability
The Fitbit Inspire 3 is the cheaper and newer of the two trackers. The Inspire 3 was released in September 2022, and costs $99 / £84 / AU$179. Because it’s brand new, you’re unlikely to find the Inspire 3 on sale yet, but that’s a great price for a really decent fitness tracker (we’d go so far as to say it’s Best cheap fitness tracker In the market). The Fitbit unit itself is only available in black, but it’s sold in three different band colors – black, purple, and morning flash.
The Fitbit Charge 5 went on sale in September 2021, costing $149 / £169 / AU$269. It is available in three colors: steel blue/platinum, black/graphite, and lunar white/gold. Since the Charge 5 has been around for over a year, you’ll likely find it discounted – at the time of writing, $125 on Amazon (Opens in a new tab).
Both devices come with six months of Fitbit Premium subscription service – Fitbit’s subscription service that gives you access to more in-depth features, like deeper sleep analysis data, and Fitbit’s daily readiness score. After six months, Fitbit Premium costs $9.99 / £7.99 / AU$14.99 per month, or $80 / £79.99 / AU$129 if you sign up for a year’s membership. Take a closer look at Fitbit Premium Pros and Cons.
Winner: Fitbit Inspire 3 Even with the discount, the Fitbit Inspire 3 is the cheaper of the two trackers, so if you’re on a budget, it’s definitely the best.
Fitbit Inspire 3 vs Fitbit Charge 5: Design
Design-wise, the trackers aren’t separated by a million miles. Both are small and unobtrusive, and designed for 24/7 wear. The Fitbit Inspire 3 is the smaller of the two trackers, with a polycarbonate chassis measuring 1.5 inches tall, 0.7 inches wide and 0.46 inches thick. It weighs 23 grams and has a bright and colorful AMOLED display.
The Fitbit Charge 5 is a little wider than ever – it’s 1.4 inches long, 0.89 inches wide and 0.44 inches thick. The screen is larger on the Fitbit Charge 5, and it’s also an AMOLED touchscreen. Both screens are excellent and are easy to see even in direct sunlight. On the Fitbit Inspire 3, the tracker’s touchscreen gives it a great feel for the price, which is a huge selling point when compared to the Fitbit Inspire 2.
The Fitbit Charge 5’s larger screen certainly makes it easy to see your data on the go. If you use this as a fitness tracker and want live feedback on your speed or distance traveled, it’s much easier to see on the Charge 5 than on the Inspire 3. However, if you compare any Fitbit with likes Apple Watch Series 8However, the screens on both Fitbits are much smaller.
Like all the best Fitbits, the Inspire 3 and Charge 5 are compatible with other Fitbit accessories, including metal straps and an exercise clip, which allows you to wear the tracker over your clothes during workouts.
Winner: It’s a draw – Both fitness trackers are lightweight, attractive and have excellent color screens. I would argue beauty is in the eye of the beholder here, and the best design depends on what you hope to use the fitness tracker for. If you want a small tracker that’s comfortable to wear 24/7 and you’re not too bothered to check your smartphone’s notifications on it, go with the Inspire 3. If you’re hoping to use the tracker while running or hiking check your pace, you’ll probably appreciate the screen Slightly larger than the Charge 5.
Fitbit Inspire 3 vs Fitbit Charge 5: Fitness Tracking
Looking at the two trackers side by side, there’s one major difference from a fitness-tracking perspective — the Charge 5 has built-in GPS, while the Inspire 3 uses the GPS on your phone. While this latter approach isn’t the end of the world, it often means that tracking isn’t entirely accurate, and that you need your nearby phone to know the speed and distance on your tracker.
Both activity trackers will track your heart rate, steps, calories, active zone minutes, stress, SpO2, and sleep. On both tracks, you can load up to six different exercise shortcuts on the watch, but there’s a list of 21 different options to choose from, including running, walking, bike, kickboxing, Pilates, tennis, and golf.
During the activity, you can scroll and see live feedback on the watch, but on the small screen of the Inspire 3 we found that this wasn’t the easiest thing to do. Both Fitbits will also use SmartTrack Automatic Exercise Recognition to automatically recognize when you exercise and start recording. This is a useful feature, but it can be a little complicated — when testing the Fitbit Charge 5, a two-hour cleaning session was automatically recognized as a swim, but perhaps that says more about our test’s aggressive vacuuming approach.
Winner: Fitbit Charge 5 From a fitness tracking perspective, the built-in GPS is a huge plus, and elevates the Charge 5 from a good fitness tracker to a great fitness tracker.
Fitbit Inspire 3 vs Fitbit Charge 5: sleep and health tracking
As mentioned above, the Inspire 3 and Charge 5 are both designed to do more than just count your steps. Both have blood oxygen tracking (SpO2), which tells you how well oxygen is distributed in the blood, blood glucose tracking, heart rate tracking, breathing rate, and menstrual cycle tracking.
The main difference between the two trackers from a health perspective is that the Charge 5 has an ECG app, which lets you assess your heart’s rhythm for atrial fibrillation — a heart rhythm disorder that can be dangerous. It also has an EDA scanner, which detects small electrical changes called electrical skin activity (EDA) responses on your skin, giving you feedback on how stressed you are.
Both trackers give you Fitbit’s standard sleep tracking metrics, although on the trackers themselves, you’ll only be able to see your total sleep time and sleep score from the night before. In the Fitbit app, you’ll be able to see your sleep degree and sleep stages and set a smart wake-up alarm, although you’ll need to be a premium user to get additional sleep data, like deep and light detailing and REM sleep cycles.
Both devices also have Fitbit’s latest Daily Readiness Score, which is based on three different metrics — fitness stress (activity), heart rate variability (HRV), and your last sleep. Users will be given a score each morning indicating their bodies are ready for exercise. Depending on your daily readiness score, your recommended target active zone minutes will change and Premium members will get personalized redemption content.
Winner: Fitbit Charge 5 While these two trackers are very similar, the EDA and ECG sensors on the Charge 5 give it a slight edge over the perfect health tracker.
Fitbit Inspire 3 vs Fitbit Charge 5: Battery Life
The Inspire 3 and Charge 5 both have decent battery life. The Inspire 3 has a battery life of 10 days, while the Charge 5 has a battery life of seven. Either way, this can vary slightly if you’re using Always On Display.
The reason for the difference? The Inspire 3 doesn’t have GPS, so tracking activities aren’t a huge drain on battery life, while the Charge 5 does.
Winner: Fitbit Inspire 3 -Again, this is tricky, because built-in GPS is one of the huge advantages of the Fitbit Charge 5. However, if you’re looking to charge your fitness tracker just a few times a month, the ten-day battery life of the device Inspire 3 is impressive.
Fitbit Inspire 3 vs Fitbit Charge 5: Smartwatch Features
We’d argue that none of these fitness trackers were actually designed to be smartwatches — the small screens make it difficult to read messages from your phone. However, both can show call, text, and app notifications from your wrist if your phone is nearby, and both are compatible with iOS and Android devices.
None of the fitness trackers have Alexa, Google Maps, Google Assistant, or Google Wallet – features that are available on newer watches, such as google pixel watch. However, the Fitbit Charge 5 can be set up with Fitbit Pay, while the Inspire 3 cannot.
Winner: Fitbit Charge 5 There isn’t much of a smartwatch perspective, but if you want to make payments from your wrist on the go, the Charge 5 has the ability to do just that.
Fitbit Inspire 3 vs Fitbit Charge 5: Verdict
When it comes to deciding the best fitness tracker for you, the answer lies in what you hope to do with Fitbit. If it perfectly tracks your steps, heart rate, and sleep, the Inspire 3 will do all of the above in a neat little package, giving you real insight into your overall health at a more affordable price.
However, if you’re hoping to use the tracker to get around your first 5 kilometres, or track your progress as you build up your daily walking lengths, the Fitbit Charge 5 is a better choice, as it has built-in GPS for more accurate tracking. However, if you’re a dedicated runner, this probably isn’t the tracker for you (and we might argue the lack of a fitness tracker). Spend a little more and buy 55It is more user-friendly while running and still allows you to track multiple sports zones and your sleep, see suggested workouts and get accurate recovery data.
