Is The Fitbit Charge 5 Worth it Without The Premium?

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Written By Dinu Sri

Dr H. T. D. S. Madusanka is an electronic expert with 10 years of experience, involved in the research and development of SMART HOME systems.

As a Fitbit Smartwatch Charge 5 owner, you will have to be premium to get more features. But I discovered that you can still enjoy your watch without paying a fee. 

Will that still be satisfying to use your watch without premium? That is why I tried the Fitbit Charge 5 watch for 02 weeks without premium.

Is it worth using the Fitbit Charge 5 without a premium membership? 

Fitbit Charge 5 without a premium membership

Yes, it is worth to use the watch without premium. In my testing, I tried several features on the Fitbit 5 watch, which have explained below.  

What does Fitbit charge 5 do without premium?

Here are my findings.

Allows to see Sleep Score and Sleep Stages

As you get to see the sleep score, you may know how well you have slept every night. You will see how interruptions happened, how long you stayed awake, and the sleep stages.  

Quality sleep is helpful to end your day and relationship with perfection. In my small research, I found that you can see sleep score without going premium. However, you will not see the heart rate as it lies behind the paywall.

Shows Insights

Without going premium, you can access various insights, such as distance, elevation, calories, activities, and nutrition. Also, you can see the data and information related to habits.

Although the premium allows us to see all of them in detail, I found it is enough to see them without graphs and other infographics as a smartwatch user.

Delivers Health Metrics

Delivers Health Metrics in Fitbit

Health metrics such as the Breathing rate, Heart-rate variability (HRV); Skin temperature; Oxygen saturation (SpO2), and resting heart rate (RHR) will be available for you. With these metric readings, you will get a pretty awesome understanding of your healthiness.

Note: Although you get to see every Health Metric without premium, you get a maximum history of one week. If you are a premium user, you will have an account for three months.

Try 23 Watch Faces

There is no relationship between the premium membership and the on-set Fitbit charge 5 features. Therefore, you can save up to 05 watch faces on Fitbit charge 5 devices. I found 23 watchface for the Fitbit charge 5.

As the latest watchface, Fitbit Charge 5 users will be able to enjoy Bloom which comes in two colors.

Contains 20 Workout modes

20 workout modes in Fitbit charge 5

I found 20 workout modes available for a typical Fitbit charge 5 user. The modes such as biking, swimming, golf, running, spinning, tennis, walking, and more day-to-day need workouts are the most needed workout modes.

The premium package consists of workout modes such as Core Crush, Get Moving, Intro to HIIT, Push Up Prep, beginner Bodyweight, and Yoga which is specific for professionals.  

Has ECG App

ECG app is among the most useful apps on the Fitbit 5 device. The app is responsible for taking an ECG and letting you have it through your smartphone.

You can use it without the premiums as well. Although you can use it as a US citizen, there are some countries that still don’t deliver the feature.

Some users had complained that they did not have the ECG app on their Fitbit charge 5 devices. If you do have one, follow the below steps to download and install the ECG app.

How to install the ECG app Fitbit Charge 5?

  • Keep your Fitbit charge 5 nearby
  • Tap on the Today tab
  • Tap Gallery and then apps
  • Choose ECG from the list of apps and then install

Has over 30 Apps

Fitbit Charge 5 presents a large number of apps, such as Weight Watchers, MINDBODY, Strava, RunKeeper, Habit, Fitline, Map My Run, and more. I found that a user may fulfill more features with these apps than given by the premium.

Note: You can install only 39 apps on the Fitbit charge device once.

Shows Notifications and messages

Fitbit Charge 5 Shows Notifications and messages

One of the most expected qualities of a smartwatch is to coordinate with the smartphone. I experienced that Fitbit charge 5 sends and receive notifications from my smartphone to my Fitbit charge 5. I tried several apps enabling the notifications, and my Fitbit device showed them.

Note: If you want to receive notifications, you will have to keep your phone within 30ft of the Fitbit charge 5.

Is Fitbit charge 5 worth it without Fitbit premium?

Yes, it is worth using a Fitbit Charge 5 without Fitbit Premium. The Insights, health metrics, compatible apps, notifications, and the ability to use several exercise modes make the Fitbit charge 5 worthy without going premium.

What is the difference between Fitbit free and Fitbit premium?

I found two main differences between the Fitbit free and Fitbit premium. Unlocking a vast range of processed data analytics and allocating more space from the servers are them.

Unlocking A Vast Range Of Processed Data Analytics

You will see daily readiness report, wellness report, Stress Management Score, sleeping skin temperature variation, blood glucose trends, and sleep score breakdown as Fitbit processes your data more and show them in advanced analytics

Allocating More Space From The Servers

Allocating More Space From The Servers in Fitbit charge 5

You will get more space from the server to have an enhanced experience. Having over 200 workout modes, 200+ mindfulness sessions, access to health metrics for up to 90 days, and more mindful sessions will be unlocked for a user.

I found the below page from the internet that displays the fee and features you get as a premium Fitbit user.

Conclusion

I think now you know how cool it is to use a Fitbit charge 5 even without premium. However, you will have a 06 month free premium period to see things better and decide as a Fitbit charge 5 new users.