Fitbit Edge matched Garmin’s heart-rate reading but overestimated a 5 km run

TechRadar’s Matt Evans compared the Google Fitbit Edge with a Garmin Fenix 9 Pro during a 5 km run, after testing the Fitbit for only a couple of days. The Edge costs $179.99, £159.99 or AU$269, while the Fenix 9 Pro costs around five times as much.

The watches recorded similar average heart rates: 156 bpm on the Fitbit Edge and 153 bpm on the Garmin. Evans said the Garmin’s accuracy had been checked in earlier tests against a Frontier X2 heart-rate monitor and an Apple Watch Ultra 4.

The GPS distance readings differed more. The Fitbit recorded 5.45 km, compared with 5.15 km on the Garmin, a gap of about 300 meters. Evans said the Fitbit also often showed a running speed 30 seconds or more ahead of the Garmin during the run. The distance gap amounts to about 6% over this run.

Evans noted that wearables can take a few days to learn a user’s movement patterns and baseline metrics. He plans to repeat the comparison on longer runs with fewer trees. He said the difference may be acceptable for casual exercisers, but could lead keen runners to choose another device. TechRadar’s full review was still to come.