Fitbit up to date its Sense, Versa and Encourage traces final yr, however the Cost collection continues to be in want of an replace within the form of the Fitbit Cost 6. Not less than a minor one.
Proper now, the Fitbit Cost 5 stays among the best Fitbit fashions the corporate is producing proper now, putting an ideal steadiness of slim health tracker and smartwatch performance. We predict a brand new mannequin will doubtless launch this yr, however what’s going to it supply? And when?
A few items of data have been launched on-line, telling us about a few of the necessities of the Fitbit Cost 6. Nevertheless, in any other case, we’ll need to depend on a little bit of technical know-how and guesswork to foretell what the health tracker could have.
Fitbit Cost 6: reduce to the chase
- What’s that? The most recent health tracker from Fitbit
- When does it come out? Most likely this summer time
- How a lot will it value? Not clear in the meanwhile however in all probability round $150 / £150 / AU$220
Fitbit Cost 6: possible launch date
The Fitbit Cost 5 was launched in August 2021. It is really not That outdated, however it was launched lower than 18 months after the Fitbit Cost 4 in April 2020. In case you copy and paste that launch hole into the Cost 5 launch, you find yourself with a Fitbit Cost 6 launch date that has already handed, so the Cost 6 is more likely to come out this yr.
Nevertheless, you solely have to take a look at the Fitbit Versa 4 and Sense 2 to see that Fitbit’s outdated launch schedule has been thrown out the window. There was a yr distinction between the older Versa fashions and a full two years between Fitbit Versa 3 and Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 4 and Fitbit Sense 2.
An analogous two-year hole would depart the Cost 6 releasing in August 2023.
Fitbit Cost 6: Design
The Cost 6 will look virtually an identical to the Cost 5 based on “a supply” cited by 9to5Google (opens in a brand new tab) in September 2022.
Which means a curved glass prime and steel edges across the OLED display screen. We’re very pleased that the Cost 6 appears the identical. The Cost 5 is a pleasant wearable, and the Cost 4 and Cost 3 have stored the identical cute model.
It additionally means the Cost 5 will inhabit the identical design area, someplace between a primary tracker and smartwatch. It isn’t a foul place to be, and the Cost 6 fills the area in between properly.
Fitbit Cost 6: No Wi-Fi, however has every little thing else
A Fitbit watch believed to be the Cost 6 additionally went by means of the FCC course of, as evidenced by NotebookCheck (opens in a brand new tab). All devices bought legally in the USA find yourself within the Federal Communications Fee database, which information the wi-fi communication requirements used. These paperwork recommend that the Fitbit Cost 6 has NFC, GPS with GLONASS, and Bluetooth Low Power, however no Wi-Fi. That is precisely what we might anticipate from the Cost 6, particularly since that is what the Cost 5 additionally has.
Nevertheless, there’s a complicating issue right here. The “FB423” designation that this gadget has within the FCC recordsdata can be talked about within the newest model of the Fitbit Cost 5 guide.
It means that Fitbit might have merely switched to a barely totally different formulation of the Cost 5 late final yr, when the Versa 4 and Sense 2 arrived. The FB423 may very well be a Cost 5 that makes use of a number of totally different wi-fi chips. Nevertheless, we predict the wi-fi connections utilized by this watch would be the identical because the Fitbit Cost 6.
Fitbit Cost 6: cEDA sensor
The clearest new characteristic for the Fitbit Cost 6 is the one launched within the Sense 2. The Sense 2 presents the corporate’s as soon as interesting EDA sensor. This estimates the sweat manufacturing in your pores and skin and takes it as an indicator of stress.
Fitbit’s Sense and Cost 5 have “first era” EDA know-how, which requires energetic participation to operate. You begin your stress monitoring session, along with your hand touching the electrodes on the watch face. Wait two minutes and the Fitbit will inform you how careworn you’re. It isn’t a very pure interplay.
Fitbit Sense 2 has a cEDA sensor, a steady electrodermal exercise sensor, that may work within the background. This logs when there are EDA “occasions” and asks if there was a selected emotion related to them.
It is just a little squishy, fuzzy, however not less than you do not have to derail your day to make use of the EDA characteristic, as you at the moment do with the Cost 5. The cEDA detection is an apparent candidate for the Cost 6’s characteristic listing.
Fitbit Cost 6: sensible options
An improve to wi-fi funds from the Cost collection is one other apparent path to a Cost 6 improve. The Cost 5 presents Fitbit Pay, however the follow-up ought to actually assist Google Pay as effectively, identical to the Sense 2 and Versa 4. How a lot it issues is dependent upon The place do you reside. Loads of banks assist Fitbit Pay within the US, however within the UK not one of the ‘conventional’ banks besides Santander are on board. Many extra banks assist Google Pay there.
The precise mechanism throughout the newest Fitbit fashions just like the Sense 2 is that they carry Google Pockets, quite than Pay, because of Google’s possession of Fitbit. For us finish customers, it is not a lot of a distinction, however the newest incarnation of Pockets is designed to retailer tickets, digital ID playing cards and the like, in addition to cost strategies.
Now could be the time to delve into the options we predict are least doubtless. We wish some type of music management within the Cost 6 that is not about controlling by way of the notification system.
Which means a micro app that acts as a distant management for the music taking part in in your cellphone, a reset of the Spotify mini app that was faraway from the Cost collection within the Cost 5. Or full native music playback, as seen within the Garmin Venu Sq 2 Music and Huawei Watch GT 3.
Nevertheless, we predict this is not within the playing cards except we additionally see a change in Fitbit’s high-end watches. Sense 2 and Versa 4 have additionally misplaced all type of music management. As we wrote in a latest opinion piece, the Fitbit you as soon as knew isn’t any extra. It is a unhappy scenario.
The truth that we have now one other request for a characteristic present in older Cost wearables tells you one thing concerning the path of Fitbit’s devices. We wish the altimeter to return within the Cost 6. It was current on the Cost 4, however misplaced within the Cost 5. An altimeter is used to find out how excessive you climb when strolling or working, expressed as flights of stairs. It is a good characteristic for passive health monitoring while you will not be utilizing the Cost 6’s GPS as a part of an energetic coaching session.
Fitbit Cost 6: Third-party apps and future options?
Will Fitbit Cost 6 have third-party apps? We do not suppose so.
The department of the Fitbit OS utilized by the Cost watches is that of the Encourage and Luxe watches, not the Sense 2 and Versa 4. Whereas the Cost watches can do rather a lot, they are not meant to be like smartwatches.
And when Fitbit all however disadvantaged high-end watches of third-party app assist, it does not make sense for the descendant Cost 6 to go the opposite method.
A number of the hottest Fitbit information shortly simply dropped: The corporate patented a way for measuring blood stress that has the wearer press in opposition to a force-measuring display screen. It is a methodology of getting the outcomes of a blood stress cuff without having a extra bouncy band just like the one on the Huawei Watch D.
Might it’s a part of the Fitbit Cost 6? We strongly doubt it. Bear in mind, we have been advised that the Cost 6 will look the identical because the Cost 5, and that the stress know-how in all probability would not work effectively with such a small floor space. As all the time, even submitting for patents is just not a great way to foretell future {hardware}.
