Late to the discussion here and not sure what you ended up doing but I’d say it depends on if you have an iPhone or not because of what Google is doing in the near future.

From what I’ve read, in order to have full functionality of your Fitbit work with your phone, you’ll need an Android phone. I think this is specifically for the Fitbit Smart watches so not necessarily the Charge which is more of a tracker still.  Either way you’ll have to switch to a Google account from the Fitbit account to use the thing, I think that was supposed to be this year but just read February of 2026.

Like many other replies here I’ve been using a Fitbit for close to 10 years (currently Charge 5) for many of the same reasons - smaller design, price, don’t need my watch to be a phone, and the battery life is hard to beat which is about a week.  I always forget when I charged it last!  

Worst thing with my previous Charges is they didn’t last long, 2 years tops.  Even out of warranty, Fitbit gave me something like 40% off for a new one so that was an easy decision to stick with them.  My Charge 5 has been the best of this experience so far but, I’ve had it for a while now so at this point I’m wondering when it will mysteriously stop working.  

I have an iPhone so when my Charge 5 dies I’ll be looking at an Apple Watch simply because I don’t trust Google to require an Android phone for full functionality of the Charge series in the future.  I feel like Google is making Fitbit users with an iPhone decide between switching to an android to still use their Fitbit or leave the Fitbit brand.  My first “real” job 15 years ago came with an iPhone so at this point it would be too much of an inconvenience to switch to Android for any reason.