Full disclosure, I ordered the Fitbit Charge HR only after I gave up on Jawbone fulfilling my preorder for the Up3 and once I realized the Fitbit Surge was like having a VCR strapped to your wrist. Further complicating my decision was the reviews that were all over the place on Amazon. Either people loved it or they thought it was the biggest piece of crap ever. I am writing this review to try and offer a realistic perspective for those looking to buy the Fitbit Charge HR.First, disregard the reviews from all the "personal trainers" and "hardcore" gym goers out there. It's amazing how everyone becomes a trainer or gym rat when reviewing a piece of workout equipment. Wrist based heart rate monitoring is still in its infancy and if, and I stress if, you are so hardcore that a possible 5-10 beat variation is so critical then you need to stay with chest based HR monitoring for awhile. The Charge HR isn't for that. Not to mention, I haven't seen that it is off like others have said. I was skeptical and I have a Garmin Running GPS watch with a chest HR strap and I see the two being pretty consistent.Second, I cannot stress enough the quality of the Fitbit app and web based dashboard. They are motivational and intuitive and they give you goals to shoot for. I have yet to see any sync issues or any of the other nonsense I have seen in other reviews.Finally, $150 is a lot of money but it less than other comparable products out there. To me this is the perfect entry level device. If you like the concept and are disciplined, then you can upgrade to another device. if you are trying to get a snapshot of what you are doing on a daily basis and how you can make some life and fitness improvements, this device is a perfect way in. If you are a "personal trainer" or just "crushing it" beyond what the Charge can handle, you should probably do another set of burpees, stick with chest strap HR monitors and save your "insightful" reviews for Flex magazine.Bottom line; the Charge HR is well worth the money. No product is perfect but this one does perform as promised. Amazon has the best customer relations of any company out there so if you don't like it you can send it back anyway. I hope this review helps. I know when I was looking, these reviews can be ridiculous, contradict and misleading. Give it a shot! You won't be sorry!I've been wearing the Charge HR constantly (excluding showers and charging) for the past 30 days. This is why I'm using it and what I think of it.About me:39 years oldMale6'0" @ 260 lbs (a month ago)I've fluctuated between being an active person (marathon runner active) and a sedentary person (pizza and tv most nights) my entire life. Different life events have contributed to the periods of sloth and gluttony in my life. I always reach a breaking point where I commit to reclaiming my health. I'm writing this a little over one month after my most recent breaking point. 260 is tied with the heaviest I've ever been (I was this heavy at 22 too).I'm not just relying on the Charge HR as my only fitness tool. I am also working with a personal trainer.In my first month, I have gone from 260 lbs down to 248 lbs this morning. I suspect that much or nearly all of that is fat. I saw the initial water weight loss, then my weight leveled out for over a week even though I was in a 1,000 calorie per day deficit and then it slowly started dropping again. I've maintained a 1,000 calorie deficit the entire month.What I like so far:* Sleep tracking. This one surprised me. I didn't think I would place much value in this feature. But I've been able to correlate various daily activities, pre-bed activities, and the resulting quality of sleep. I've also noticed that I have considerably more energy and less lethargy on days where I hit my sleep goals and get a good sleep efficiency score.* Heart rate tracking: I'm listing this in both the Pro and Con list (read Con's to know why). For the Pro piece, I like that it tracks my heart rate all day. I've been able to see, since I started losing weight and regaining my cardio health, that my resting heart rate has dropped. I also feel that the heart rate gives me a better calculation of calories burned. For example, I have an electric bike. I can turn the motor assist feature on or off depending on the kind of ride that I want to have. A tracker that only used motion sensors and altimeters wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a hard ride and a motor assisted ride.* Battery Life: I generally get about four days out of it before I get an email reminding me that it's time to charge it. Yup, it sends me an email to remind me.* Call notification: Again, liking this feature surprised me. I frequently leave my phone on silent. Sometimes if it is in my pocket I may not even feel it vibrate because I wear loose jeans (remember, I'm a big guy). With the Charge HR vibrating on my wrist, it catches my attention to incoming calls immediately.* Silent Alarms: I'm a light sleeper so I tend to sleep with earplugs. So if I'm in a deep sleep, I don't always hear my alarm go off. But again, having the Charge HR vibrating on my wrist wrests me from sleep immediately.* FitBit App: It's a good app. If you're already a smart phone user, you'll learn the app basics almost immediately. But there are little features here and there that I've found that I really like. There are plenty of reviews on the app so I won't go into a ton of details. But it's definitely a strong "pro" for FitBit products.* FitBit.com Dashboard: The dashboard provides you with a more detailed view of your information that the app doesn't. I like that I can dissect the details of my activities throughout the day and that all of the information that I sync from my Charge HR to my phone is available on the dashboard too.* Cost: I found the price to be well worth the features.* Fit and Feel: I haven't worn a watch in nearly a decade so I'm having an adjustment period to having something on my wrist 24/7. However, it's lightweight and I like that it has a standard watch band. It's very sturdy and I can't imagine how it could accidentally fall off. I haven't had the lint problem that some people have mentioned with the silicone material that the band is made of.* Syncing to my phone: The Fitbit syncs all day automatically. I love the little reminders that pop up after a sync to tell me to keep going or that I'm almost at my step goal.Cons:* Screen placement: I wish FitBit would have placed the screen on the bottom, rather than the top of the band. It's a minor annoyance that to look at the display, I have to actually lift my elbow to actually get a good viewing angle on the display. If the display were on the bottom, I'd only need to turn my wrist slightly.* Heart Rate Sensor: Like everybody else, I've had trouble getting a heart rate out of it when I'm working out. I think the app compensates and fills in the missing information when I sync the Charge HR to my phone because the app doesn't show any gaps. But when I'm doing intervals, I like using my heart rate as gauge to tell me when it's time to do the next high intensity activity.* Screen timeout: I'd like to have the option of keeping the screen active. Right now, when I activate the screen, it displays the information I want for about 5 seconds and then times out and goes dark again. If I'm trying to get my heart rate up to a target zone, I don't want to have to keep hitting buttons every few seconds.* Not waterproof: I would love to be able to take it swimming or scuba diving.* Syncing to my Macbook: I have been able to get the Charge HR to sync to my Macbook a couple of times. But the process is tedious and you need to manually tell it to sync. Half of the time, the sync fails to find my Charge HR nearby.Jury is out:* Waterproof/resistant: I know that they're marketed as splash proof. I live in the Northwest where it rains half of the year. I expect that I'll start running again soon as drop a little more weight (it's hard on my knees as heavy as I am now). I've had other fitness products (like wireless headphones) that claimed to be sweat and rain proof that didn't hold up under Northwest rainy conditions. We'll see with the Charge HR.* Friend challenges: When I bought the Charge HR, I gave the app permission to go through my contacts and Facebook friends. It found that I have several friends who also actively use FitBit products. We're constantly challenging each other to mini contests of who can get in more steps and other similar competitions. I may start using this feature more but for now, I think I'm more motivated by my personal challenge to meet my goals than by challenges that my friends issue. But I'm not a very outwardly competitive person. I like to beat the person that I was yesterday, not my friends.Final Thought:Overall, I'm thrilled with the Charge HR. It's not perfect, but it does what I need it to do. The app is great and all of the information that it has provided has given me a chance to really take charge of my fitness. The motivation needs to come first. Don't expect to just buy a device and to suddenly get healthy. But if you're already motivated and you want more information to help you tailor your habits, this has worked great for me... maybe it will for you too?It works well but the battery drains too quickly as the “all day sync” cannot be turned off. Consequently the Fitbit continuously tries to sync to my phone. The only solution is to turn off Bluetooth on the phone, until a sync is required, usually once a day at most.I had a charge hr when it first came out but after about 3 years that died. I ordered another from amazon but it was constantly running out of charge. I would charge overnight and itvwould be dead by the afternoon.I do like my Fitbit however I find there are now more up to date models on the market that do more than this one. The heart rate monitor is hand so you know when your burning the poundsDisappointed at the lack of easy setup instructions. Having a previous Fitbit instructions not clear about setting up replacement. Alarm won't set correctly, synchronization takes ages, if it ever sets. Not best pleasedNot convinced it's genuine it's red not orange and my daughter has to turn all the apps off or has to charge it everyday! Pay a bit more and get it genuine from argos or currys is my advice