Fitbit Charge 5 Leaks reveals new color touchscreen

In a year where everything revolves around Wear OS, it looks like Fitbit is dedicating 2021 to its trackers. After adding the Luxe to its lineup last spring, we’re now seeing render leaks for a potential Charge 5 for this fall.

The renderings are courtesy of prolific leaker Evan Blass, who tweeted the images on Saturday. At a glance, the rumored Charge 5 is heavily inspired by its new version Luxury tracker with a curved color touchscreen. On the sides, it looks like Fitbit is also continuing with the capacitive controls, which the company introduced on the Charge 3 instead of buttons. The decision to stick with capacitive controls hasn’t really been popular, with many complaining that they aren’t as easy to use in the middle of training. As for the strap color, it looks like we’ll see at least three options in cream, black and bluish gray. Meanwhile, the tracker’s case appears to be available in black, silver, and gold.

That said, we can’t say more about the Charge 5 as the renderings don’t include a preview of its sensor array. It’s probably safe to assume that you’ll get all the usual stuff like accelerometers, gyroscopes, barometers, SpO2, and optical heart rate sensors. Chances are it also has built-in GPS. The much-requested functionality was finally added to the Charge 4 in spring 2020, as well as NFC payments. It would also help differentiate it from Luxe, which lacks both of these features and is aimed at a more laid-back and forward-thinking user. But other than the design, we’re unlikely to see any other major changes. (Maybe adding a skin temperature sensor?)

The Charge lineup has mostly complied with iterative updates over the years, and as one of the company’s most popular products, Fitbit has adopted an “if it’s not broke” strategy. An interesting point will be the battery life. Fitbit’s multi-day battery life makes its gadgets stand out in a world increasingly dominated by high-end smartwatches that can barely last longer than a day. However, color touch screens are much more power hungry than monochrome screens. This wasn’t a problem on the Luxe, but again the Luxe didn’t have a built-in GPS either.

It makes sense that Fitbit will focus more on its trackers this year. Not only does he have it take out the guns last year, but it’s also unlikely to make much headway on the high-end smartwatch front until next year. While CEO James Park told Google I / O that the company work on a Wear OS 3 smartwatch, Google recently noted that the new platform would not be available for non-Samsung watches. until mid-2022 at the earliest. It would also give Qualcomm time to shape hell and provide portable chips that actually use the technology of this decade.

We won’t have to wait too long to find out more about the Charge 5. Fitbit typically sticks to a spring-fall launch cadence, and it typically has a launch event around the end of August.