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Comment by DaftDank | Hacker News Reader

I had a Fitbit Charge 3, and had to replace it about 3 times IIRC in a little over a year period. The 3rd replacement happened a week after the warranty expired, which to their credit they still replaced it. But it once again died shortly thereafter, at which point I just bought an Apple Watch. Mainly for the ECG function -- my wife had bought me the Fitbit after I was diagnosed with atrial fibrillation, so I figured I'd rather have something that could help me check more than just my pulse to determine if I was out of rhythm.

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Interesting. In my experience it used to be the case that my FitBit would break once or twice a year—and like you they would always replace it. But I've noticed a trend toward reliability.

My Versa 2 has been operating like a champ since the day I got it when it came out. I push it too the limit in the outdoors with activities like surfing, snorkeling, et cetera.

Every year I buy the Apple Watch thinking this will be the year I switch. But again, just returned it on Friday. Hardware is super impressive, but it just feels like putting an iPad on my wrist. I don't want a computer on my wrist I just want to be healthy. And the battery life on the Versa 2 is just so much better. I put it on and only have to take it off about once a week for an hour to charge.

My Versa 2 started dying as soon as I got it would just lag every time you tried to interact with it (touch screen, button, gestures). Eventually it degraded so much that it would even stop measuring activity at random. Apparently it's a known hardware issue, even if it really felt like a software issue.

This all happened during the first lockdown, so I had to wait weeks for the stores to open and get it replaced.

But the replacement is going strong, I've had it for 9 months now.

I've had quite a few Fitbits break, which is frustrating, but their redeeming quality is their willingness to replace over and over again.

When it breaks, they generally offer a free replacement or the option to buy a newer version at half price, so since my first in 2016, I've had six or seven — three or four replacements and two half-price upgrades. (Charge HR replaced once or twice, Blaze replaced once, and Charge 3 replaced once.)

I suspect I'm still a profitable customer, but I suspect they'll become a lot stingier eventually.

My main concern with switching to a different brand is that I'm worried that they're be more breakable and less readily replaced. (Also, I'm on Android, so there are too many options and I can't decide.)

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