Fitbit is fast becoming to fitness trackers what Hoover is to vacuum cleaners. If you’re looking to buy a fitness tracker then the company pretty much has something for everyone now. The lightweight Fitbit Flex, the brand-new Alta, the Charge HR with heart-rate tracking, the GPS-enabled Surge and the Blaze smartwatch-hybrid. the big question is which Fitbit is best for you?
Whichever one you choose, you get the same excellent app, which does a great job of tracking your efforts and can even let you share your successes with other Fitbit-owning friends to help motivate you. There’s also support for other services such as MyFitnessPal for calorie counting and Strava for exercise sessions.
Now there are other models on the market of course, see our Best Smartwatch and Fitness trackers 2016, but if you’re set on a Fitbit here’s the differences between the models.
Fitbit Flex - £60 - Simple fitness tracker
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This is the Fitbit, the classic design that really made the company’s fortunes. In fact what you’re seeing is just a rubber wristband, all the clever bits are contained within a little module that tucks inside the wristband. The advantage of being that you can easily switch the band for another colour if desired, and it’s easy to give the whole thing a good wash as well. Beyond that the Flex is pretty simply, it counts steps and tracks your sleep patterns (if you wear it at night of course), there’s no screen here just five LEDs that give you a rough idea of your progress towards your daily goal.
Fitbit Alta - £100 pre-order - Helps you keep up with day-to-day life
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Just announced, this is the only Fitbit here that we haven’t yet tested as a team. The Alta’s essentially an upgrade for the Flex. It retains the slender design, and you can still swap out the band for different designs as they become available. The Alta packs in a lot of extra features though, its screen means it can tell you the time and keep you up-to-date with your efforts. It also has call, text and calendar alerts, so you don’t have to reach for your phone as often. It tracks your exercise in the same way as the Flex then but adds useful features around that. we’ll bring you a full review as soon as possible.
Fitbit Charge and Charge HR - Basic exercise tracking
![Fitbit Charge]( "Fitbit Charge")
The Charge and Charge HR are essentially identical apart from the latter’s heart-rate monitor. This is a big deal as with such a monitor, the Fitbit can track just how hard you’re working and provide feedback of proper exercise sessions, rather than just day-to-day activity. Both models also contain an altimeter, so they can tell when you’re climbing stairs or running up a hill and credit you appropriately for your additional effort. We can’t recommend the basic Charge now the Alta is available but the Charge HR is a good step up from the Flex for those who want to do real exercise.
Fitbit Surge - £150 - Fully-featured fitness tracker
![Fitbit Surge]( "Fitbit Surge")
This is Fitbit’s attempt at a GPS-enabled device, add in heart-rate tracking and you have a fully-fledged training device, putting it head-to-head with devices from the like of Garmin. The GPS tracking is accurate and it provides plenty of feedback via the excellent app. We weren’t convinced by the chunky design, but if you’re looking for a device that can do it all, without relying upon your phone, then the Surge is the one. It also works with your phone too, with notifications and even music control from your wrist.
Fitbit Blaze - £160 pre-order - smartwatch-styled tracker
![Fitbit Blaze]( "Fitbit Blaze")
Many of the devices here have smartwatch-like features but this is the first device from Fitbit that really looks like a smartwatch too. It’s still not a fully-fledged device, there’s no app store here nor any of the complexity that goes with such a thing. Instead you’re getting all the usual top-end tracker features in a more stylish, wear it everyday, package. That means an altimeter for steps climned, heart-rate monitor, smartphone notifications, music control and caller ID, plus it’ll sync GPS data from your phone when you exercise. Only one small problem, it’s not available until next month.
