Prime choose
This easy-to-use tracker is snug to put on all day and gives correct measurements, with out an excessive amount of litter on the homescreen.
The Fitbit Encourage 3 offers exact readings, has battery life, and contains loads of options to appease individuals with various well being objectives. In some methods it’s a throwback, with its easy interface and small measurement, which we appreciated. A elaborate show and dozens of specialised well being metrics doesn’t at all times equate to a product that may deal with the fundamentals, equivalent to measuring step rely and resting coronary heart fee precisely, which is all some individuals want from a wearable.
This machine is very straightforward to make use of. The show is activated with a swipe throughout the display. When the Encourage 3 is synced via the Fitbit app, the house display could be modified to a wide range of backgrounds that present time, coronary heart fee, step rely, and different data. A swipe up on the house display offers you different metrics like distance traveled that day and SpO2 (blood oxygen), whereas a proper swipe on the house display brings you to timers, train applications, and different options.
Swiping down on the house display offers you entry to settings that can assist you to modify how usually you obtain notifications and a common settings function with which you’ll modify how lengthy the display stays on and select from three brightness ranges: dim, regular, and max. Earlier than altering these settings, warnings pop up telling you ways switching ranges may have an effect on battery life.
Its app is simple to make use of, too. Fitbit’s free app could be very straightforward to navigate, and peppered with suggestions and knowledge on particular metrics. It connects you to a big and lively social community, which can assist encourage you to fulfill your objectives. There’s additionally Fitbit Premium, the upgraded model of the Fitbit app, which prices $10 monthly or $80 yearly (first-time Premium customers can activate a six-month trial subscription). Guided exercises and audio mindfulness classes are among the many perks with this selection.
Via the free app it’s also possible to (manually) monitor blood glucose and connect with your cellphone’s GPS. The app additionally presents the power to set reminders to maneuver, create health objectives, and log particulars like coronary heart fee, sleep, and exercise for a stress administration rating. The app may support you in being attentive to meals and water consumption. Whereas not important, these are good add-ons which are offered in straightforward to know language for somebody fascinated with recording their dietary well being on one other degree.
Google bought Fitbit in 2021, and the most recent Fitbit gadgets are totally built-in with Google accounts. Individuals who purchase sure wearables (together with our runner-up choose, the Fitbit Cost 6) new now or who don’t have already got a Fitbit account are required to enroll in Fitbit with a Google account. For now, you may nonetheless purchase a brand new Encourage 3 and hyperlink it to an current Fitbit account. Assist for current Fitbit accounts “will proceed till a minimum of 2025,” an organization consultant instructed us, after which Fitbit house owners will probably be required to make use of a Google account for his or her gadgets. The consultant added that the corporate will “be clear with our clients in regards to the timeline for ending Fitbit accounts via notices inside the Fitbit app, by electronic mail, and in assist articles.”
New Fitbit customers usually are not solely required to register with a Google account, however they’ve to simply accept Google’s phrases and companies, which incorporates Google’s privateness coverage. These phrases embody how knowledge out of your Fitbit is collected and saved by Google and what knowledge out of your Fitbit that Google shares with third events. A Google consultant confirmed that current Fitbit account customers can proceed to log in with their Fitbit accounts via February 2, 2026.
It’s essentially the most correct and has a long-lasting battery. In our exams of step rely accuracy, the Fitbit Encourage 3 was off from our pedometer readout by simply 0.32% over a two-day interval—the very best of all of the health trackers examined. In a one-mile check of how precisely it recorded distance, the Encourage 3 had one of many higher tallies, being over by solely 0.03 mile.
It additionally confirmed indicators of a good battery life; some testers discovered it center of the street, whereas others had wonderful outcomes. After sporting the Encourage 3 for 2 days and two nights, which included a number of recorded exercises and auto-detected exercise, our testing had the Encourage 3 lasting about seven days earlier than needing a cost—it’s marketed as lasting 10 days.
Nonetheless, one tester, who has each an Encourage 3 and a Fitbit Cost 5, reported having to cost the latter rather more steadily, whereas “I can’t bear in mind the final time I plugged in my Encourage 3.” In a check measuring resting coronary heart fee, the Encourage 3 was off by 1 bpm, among the finest readouts we noticed.
The Encourage 3, like all Fitbit merchandise, has a one-year guarantee. Further bands in numerous colours and supplies like stainless-steel (in addition to a clip-on possibility) can be found for a further value.
Flaws however not dealbreakers
The band could be troublesome to regulate. The Encourage 3 has a versatile silicone band that closes with a plastic buckle and tang (consider the way you fasten a belt buckle). Whereas this isn’t unusual for health trackers, it generally took just a few tries to shut—that is one occasion the place the slim design of the Encourage 3 could also be a downside. The band doesn’t lay flat like, say, that of a thicker Apple Watch SE, and the tang is a bit flimsy, inflicting it to not keep in place when adjusting on the wrist.
The touchscreen isn’t at all times responsive. Typically when flicking via the touchscreen, we pressed too onerous, inflicting the Encourage 3 to activate a mode we didn’t need or convey up one other display that we needed to swipe out of. Once more, this can be a slight downside to the tracker’s comparatively minimalist design and smaller-than-most display.
The battery might not final so long as marketed. In one in all our exams, the battery fell about three days wanting the marketed 10 days of life, not nice however not horrible.
