My Quick and Simple Review of Fitbit Surge

I received my Fitbit Surge a few days ago from Amazon. It comes with a simple packaging that contains the quick guide, charging cable, bluetooth dongle and the device itself.

Setting up the device to pair with an iPhone is quick and easy. All you'll need is to download the Fitbit app from the Apple AppStore. I will not go into the detail of how to setup as there are many guides on the internet that will guide you through it.

The device looks simple and clean. The band is made of elastomer material which is soft, flexible and comfortable for daily wear. Controlling the device is by swiping left and right on the touch screen to cycle through the clock, steps, floors, calories burnt and heart rate. To go into the Settings and Exercise mode, you will need to press the left button and then followed by swiping to select the desired option. It is not too complex for anyone using this device. The device also provides simple notifications of SMS/iMessage and phone calls.

I took the device for a run and test it against my TomTom Multi-Sports GPS watch. I love how the Surge displays the information during your exercise. You can swipe left and right during your activity to see your pace, average pace, heart rate etc. And by the way, I love my TomTom too. :) 

The end result for Fitbit isn't too good though. First of all, the Surge took almost 3 minutes to acquire the GPS signals while the TomTom took about 30 seconds. The next most important issue is that the Surge's GPS is not accurate. I was running on the pavement along the road, but Surge shows me running like a drunkard man. TomTom mapped my route very well.

Fitbit Surge showed me running off the road

TomTom showed precisely where I am running

Fitbit Surge measured me running for 5.40km while TomTom indicated that I have ran for 4.97km. TomTom is correct. I did a route measurement using OneMap and it showed that my route should be around 5km.

OneMap shows that my running route should be about 5.056km

When the distance measurement is off, my pace will be off too. It is off by about 30 seconds on Fitbit. However both Fitbit and TomTom show my average heart rate at 142bpm.

As I live in Singapore and bought the set from American off Amazon, I am not sure if the GPS is tuned for our region. Other than that, I have no other complains.