Fitbit Blaze Review: This Is Why People Hate Smartwatches

The cock-a-hoop photos in the Macy ’s window sell a gorgeous machine . It ’s flowing and a perfect blend of class and 80 retro - aesthetics . The magazine spread and the shots in internet advert and even the exterior of the box concur : the Fitbit Blaze is a goddamn spectator . Then you spread the box and the machine issue forth out and you cry because all of a sudden it is despicable - as - balls 2013 and Fitbit honestly gestate you to wear that on your radiocarpal joint ? !

Fitbit Blaze

Leontyne Price

All Images: Alex Cranz/Gizmodo

All Images: Alex Cranz/Gizmodo

$ 200

What is it ?

Fitbit ’s first attempt at a " stylish " smartwatch .

Argentina’s President Javier Milei (left) and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., holding a chainsaw in a photo posted to Kennedy’s X account on May 27. 2025.

Over two days of battery life !

No Like

William Duplessie

It ’s worthless .

The Blaze is Tinder pretty . It ’s gorgeous from afar and a hot deal up near . That ’s where you’re able to see how cheap the finish on the metal parts are and you’re able to shiver while touching the sweat - resistant rubber radiocarpal joint band . A leather band is available too , but it ’s unfaltering flavor like a belt off pocketbook — versus the more supple isthmus found in a premium smartwatch like theHuawei Watch .

But the material wrongdoer is n’t the band or the metal cage . It ’s the chunky little figurer at the affectionateness of the Blaze . Fitbit has n’t reinvent the cycle with this trend of physical fitness tracker — where a productive computer sits in a cage on your wrist . or else they ’ve gone back to something originally and clunkier — like those cave dweller who said “ Nah adult male , square wheels are better . ”

Starship Test 9

And this thing is gawky . Its sits high on the radiocarpal joint and looks like a Casio spotter mated with your mom ’s six - yr old Android earpiece back behind the shed . But then they did n’t grab the infant when it come out ? And it migrate into the electronics department at Target and took up with all the Apple Watch knock offs and it ’s sometime ENOUGH mammy AND DAD . IT CAN DO WHAT IT WANTS .

It ’s a shame this is such a flaming eyesore of a gimmick because god damn , god damn , are the inner workings of this affair a pleasure . Chiefly it can go for mean solar day without ask a recharge . I started using it directly out of the boxwood , with less than half barrage life history , and did n’t need to schnorr up the charger for more than 24 hours . The battery charger is as fearsome and toylike as the gadget itself , but the Blaze is still chug along , more than three days by and by .

Battery life has always been , and will continue to be , the primary weak point of wearables . Few citizenry have really express the desire to charge their watch or their chicken feed or their pants like they charge up nearly every other equipment they own . Things that get coated in a thin film of your perspiration day by day ? Those are the thing you do n’t want to plug in at the end of the Nox . The Blaze ’s epic battery life take a little of the bite out of it being a chargeable wearable .

Lilo And Stitch 2025

But the Blaze ’s guts have one big problem . A problem that winks at you gaudily whenever you take the scout off and flash against your skin recently at night when you ’re trying to sleep . The Blaze has an optical heart rate sensor . Optical heart rate sensor have become increasingly pop with every wrist wearable that acts like it want you to keep spare . They ’re lurking there in the vigil and the fitness tracker and sending out their little flashes of brightness to better measure the current of rakehell just beneath your skin .

But optic kernel pace monitors are notoriously unsound at accurately get a reading , and the best way to get that interpretation is to wear the wearable high gear up on your carpus like a … dork . You retrieve that kid who wear his deoxythymidine monophosphate - shirt pucker into his sweat pants and was rocking velcro shoe in gamy shoal ? That ’s who you channel when you wear an optical center charge per unit monitor as science mean .

If you do n’t wear thin one as think you get weird results . Like the time I was revel a recess on the john and my Blaze said my tenderness rate spike . My roommate suggested I straight off see a Doctor of the Church and deplete more character . A more fittingness - savvy friend suggest I reposition the watch further up on my carpus .

CMF by Nothing Phone 2 Pro has an Essential Key that’s an AI button

The friend was right ( I did enjoy a few days of Brassica oleracea italica just to be secure ) .

The Blaze ’s heart rate feature article — like the heart rate characteristic in every gimmick that apply optical detector — is more parlor trick than reliable data point .

But FitBit ’s proprietary watch OS is the real mass . Most smartwatches fall into two family : Apple Watch OS or Android Wear . Samsung , Pebble — those guys are outliers and now they ’re join by Fitbit ’s software . But where those oeuvre to compete with the big guys , FitBit is rivet on doing just one thing .

Photo: Jae C. Hong

Getting you pull .

There are no perplexing apps to struggle with . You will not be turning off your twinkle with your vigil or navigating the hateful streets of New York City with it . You will apply it to watch how far you take the air your frankfurter , and how many footstep you wax ( also , presumably , you will use it to tell sentence ) .

There ’s only a few “ apps ” to mess with . The Today app gives you all the above info and Exercise countenance you clip and trail real workouts . The star of the FitBit show is FitStar . It run you through a series of workouts designed to get you off your ass .

Doctor Who Omega

The Fitbit Blaze , with a small large number of uncommitted straps and unbelievably expert assault and battery life , wants to be the watch you bust all the clock time — in the shower , at the place , and on a test — and grab the grocery of people who desire more than what the fantabulous Fitbit Charge HR offering , but less than the $ 300 - plus entry level smartwatches like the Huawei Watch and Apple Watch . And if you want a fitness focused time part for long trot and extended bout of gym rattiness , then the Fitbit Blaze is first-class . For the rest of us it ’s an eye sore strapped to your wrist .