Fitbit Charge 3 Fitness Activity Tracker

Tldr summary: Charge 3 is the activity band I have always wanted, finally.Who you are and what you do will dictate whether this review will help you. I am over 45, female, professional, busy and I want stay healthy and become healthier over time. I care about my health but I also have other stuff to do.I use a Fitbit because I want to try to keep moving throughout the day and be mindful but not obvious at work and then try to do low and moderate intensity workouts 3 to 5 times a week. There, I said it. The Fitbit needs to fit the rest of my life and it finally does. I feel the Charge 3 has something valuable to offer for the person who is in the back or middle of the fitness pack.Appearance first: I want my Fitbit to match my professional persona at work and not exude a gym vibe. This has always been my problem with activity trackers in general; I think they are unattractive at work with a suit. I really like the Charge 3 size; it isn't too wide, it isn't too thick, the face isn't too big. To me, it can look like a watch and not some giant work out thing. I switched out the band for more professional and feminine straps from Amazon and I think it looks like jewelry at my professional job.The Fitbit has made this the easiest band to change straps. It is no problem at all and feels secure. I can tell when it is clicked into place and I lost a Fitbit before so this is important to me. I bought the black Charge because I can buy off brand, affordable straps and not worry about metals clashing. I do not pay for the "designer" bands from Fitbit... I bought 2 leather slim profile and one rose gold slim band for less than $20 each on Amazon. I have the plastic cheap one it came with for actual sweaty or swimming work outs. I think a man could buy a thicker strap and it would look masculine.Visual/face: I like the face of the Charge 3. I have it set to see time, date, and stat. It is a lot easier to scroll through the other available information than the Alta and it is a lot more readable. I like the choices of watch faces but I don't anticipate changing it now that I found one be that works for me.Function: I like the heart rate, the sleep cycle, the waterproofing. I like everything about what it shows me. I think the sleep cycle is accurate for me. The heart rate is accurate. The heart rate tracks all day without missing a reading. The battery is better than my Alta and lasts 5 days for me. I don't do notifications or use the smart watch features so cannot comment on it and that may be why my battery is lasting longer. I use the 2 minute breathing a couple of times a day. I use the 250 steps an hour challenge now that I can see it on my new watch.Other review comments: I did the Firmware update and have no problems connecting to my work iPhone or my personal Samsung phone and tablet. No issues syncing so far. I wore with my Alta at the same time and steps matched. I have been testing my steps for 4+ years and I find Fitbit accurate for me. I agree My Fitness Pal is best for food tracking vs the Fitbit app.App: I realistically don't want to join a gym and it is too cold for me to make myself swim right now. As you can tell by reading this, I am not a hard core person for exercise. I am trying the Fitbit Coach and I like it. I travel and I like that I can just do the exercises anywhere and there are a lot of choices of activity. I like that there are inside and outside exercises and things in can just do in my living room or hotel room. I like that there are all different lengths of exercises from 10 min to 18 minutes to an hour. It is a small commitment, no equipment needed, as convenient as you can get, and a lot of variety. I am trying for a month and I think this is what I have been looking to add to the my walking 10,000 steps a day.I see the Fitbit as a tool but I don't want it to annoy me. Most of the time I found the badges and challenges tiresome and making something out of nothing. I do like knowing I walked to the Moon but really it is just kind of not relevant. I was only using the Fitbit for steps and checking the app once a week or maybe less. Now I feel like I am going to take advantage of the more sophisticated offerings. I like seeing the graphs that show REM sleep and resting heart rate and cardio insights. This is the first time where I feel the app is offering me more than just glib surface information.Other bands I have used: I had the One, which I liked because it was hidden but didn't do much. I had to dig down my shirt or look at my phone to see my steps. I bought the little tiny Fitbit Flex 2 and the metal holder was ridiculously hard to get the Fitbit in and out of and didn't show anything - you had to look on your phone. The Alta had a slim profile but was hard to see and super hard to change bands. Ultimately I lost the Flex2 due to a necklace malfunction and abandoned the Alta for not being useful enough to justify wearing something I thought was ugly. I briefly had delusions of fitness grandeur and have a Garmin Vivoactive HR. It was too hard core for me and too big and plastic. Alas, Garmin made me realize I am just not into fitness as a "lifestyle."