Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Fitbit's App: Let me start by saying, the Fitbit app is unparalleled for sleep, diet and water tracking. I have tried to move away from Fitbit due to my propensity for longer runs, but the features covered in their one app bring me back every time. Simply stated, it presents the most holistic picture you're going to get of your health inside ONE app as a result of wearing ONE fitness tracker. Charge 4 as an Upgrade (i.e. GPS): Specific to the Charge 4, with a note that *ALL OTHER THINGS ARE EQUAL CALIBER TO THE CHARGE 3*, the GPS (which is really the only major new feature of the Charge 4) is good. The GPS takes seconds (maybe 10 to 20) to connect and then you touch the screen and off you go. I wore the Charge 4 and my Garmin for the first few runs to compare tracking (my garmin is a triathlon model, not a fitness tracker model, & used more for races and longer distance running due to battery life) and the GPS paired fairly well across both units. The Fitbit found its satellites far quicker than Garmin, but seemingly gives extra distance when going around corners. I have one corner I hit on my out and back 3 miles runs and the GPS maps indicate this is where the magic happened, but that being said I would usually hit the 3 mile mark on the Charge 4 around two or three strides ahead of my Garmin. No biggie for the shorter/daily training runs. I would say the Fitbit Charge 4 stops being your optimal choice if 1. You are fine with carrying your phone constantly and therefore do not need GPS or 2. you are going to be out doing your activity for 2.5-3+ hours. That's where the battery use for GPS expenditure becomes cumbersome. At a moderately paced half marathon, you're into Garmin/Coros/Suunto/etc. Special Edition or Base: Specific to the Charge 4, the special edition boils down to a unique band, that happens to be absolute junk (with reflective fabric!). The super special band looks a bit awkward with the unit, won't survive sweat for very long without needing to be washed or soaked, and felt & looked like it didn't fully connect into the unit at the clip ins and might randomly separate it tugged on the wrong way. (Could have been mine was defective, I don't know) my recommendation either way- save the $20 bucks, get the basic Charge 4, and if you're into colored/specialty bands, any band that is marketed for the Charge 3 or 4 will work with the Charge 4. I am currently using the Charge 3 special edition band (white rubber with black clasps) on my charge 4. It works perfectly. Out Of The Box: I had no issues with any part of charging it, pairing it, or the firmware updates needed at launch to bring it to current. No black screens of death either. Battery Life: And the battery does die faster when using GPS, but that actually happens to all fitness trackers not expressly made for GPS monitoring. You can't have built-in GPS tracking on a unit THIS size, with ALL the fitness tracking features it has, and expect battery to last a full week. With active GPS use for an activity a day plus all day & night wear/fitness tracking, I'd estimate you'll get 3 to 4 days out of each charge.