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5 Best Fitbits for 2023: Top Fitness Trackers

How to find the right Fitbit for you.

Fitbit is the go-to brand when it comes to fitness wearables. That’s for good reason: It offers high-quality products at different price points, ranging from budget to premium options. When looking for the best fitness trackers around, it doesn’t matter if you’re a serious workout enthusiast or someone who simply wants to track their physical activity. Fitbit has you covered. We’ve tested out every Fitbit on the market to help you decide which is best for your lifestyle. 

CNET’s reviews of Fitbit, the Google-owned brand that’s got so many people excited about tracking their steps, consider features like sleep tracking, activity tracking; heart-rate monitoring; heart rate tracking; and stress tracking. There are even workouts available in the Fitbit app when you invest in an optional Premium membership. Whether you’re shopping for gifts or just perusing the different Fitbit devices out there, here’s a roundup of the best Fitbits available right now.

Fitbit

If you’re looking for a fitness tracker that offers the best available features for collecting health data, while also being comfortable, easy to use (no buttons) and easy to read outside in the sunshine — all at a reasonable price — Fitbit’s Charge 5 wins. In fact, the Charge 5 was recently awarded a CNET’s Editors’ Choice Award

The Charge 5 tracks things such as your heart rate through an EKG reading app, your stress level through an electrodermal activity sensor, and your blood oxygen level and skin temperature. It also tracks your sleep patterns, including breathing rates, sleep stages and restlessness. The Charge 5 monitors over 20 different physical activities, including swimming (it’s water-resistant), yoga and cycling. It also has a built-in GPS, which is great for runners and has 20 exercise modes.

The Charge 5 is compatible with iPhones and Androids. However, iPhone users can only see notifications on the Charge 5 screen, while Android users may send quick replies.

$149 at Amazon

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Vanessa Hand Orellana/CNET

The Versa 3 is a Fitbit smartwatch that combines the best features of the Charge 5 tracker with the «taking calls on your wrist» aspect of a smartwatch rather than purely a fitness tracker. Although Fitbit’s best smartwatch and best Apple Watch alternative may not be quite as smart as its Apple or Galaxy Watch competitors, it is compatible with both Apple and Android operating systems, and can also be paired with either Alexa or Google Assistant. One of the best features of the Versa 3 is its strong battery life — up to six days without the «always on» display and with moderate use. (The Apple Watch, for comparison, has a less-than-ideal battery life of a day and a half.) 

The more expensive Fitbit Sense provides more health data, but the relevance of all the data Sense gives you might be moot, depending on if you know how to read medical charts. You’ll save money and lose little by going for the Versa 3 smartwatch instead. 

A note about Fitbit’s Premium subscription: For $10 a month or a one-time payment of $80 for a year, Fitbit’s Premium subscription can give you more insight into your sleep and stress patterns, as well as things such as guided meditation and workouts. The Versa 3 comes with a three-month trial of Premium, and the Charge 5 comes with a six-month period. To find out more about whether Fitbit Premium is worth it, check out this guide

Fitbit Premium also includes what it calls a Daily Readiness Score, which is Fitbit’s assessment of whether you need to take it easy today or if you should push yourself based on your goals for the week. This is now available for some Fitbit models, including the Versa 3.

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Screenshot by Sareena Dayaram/CNET

The Fitbit Inspire 2 is the cheapest device for adults, and it gets the job done. The «easy» Fitbit tracks health essentials that include Active Zone Minutes and heart rate. The Inspire 2 comes with a free yearlong premium subscription so you can unlock personalized health insights and programs to help you improve your nutrition, sleep and other aspects of health. 

The Inspire 2 doesn’t have GPS, and it doesn’t include special features such as being able to measure your blood oxygen level, but this tracker is a great (and more affordable) introduction to fitness tracking if you or someone you know is interested in monitoring their health information. The Inspire 2’s included subscription to Fitbit Premium is also far more generous than other Fitbit models.

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If you want to count your steps and look like you’re wearing jewelry instead of a fitness device, the Fitbit Luxe is for you. It offers many of the same features as other Fitbits, such as goal-based workouts, but it does so in a smaller and more fashionable form that might be best for smaller wrists. (The design in general is smaller, so the text on the watch’s screen may also be too small for some people to read.) You can also pick it up for $50 off at most retailers right now. 

Aside from its sleeker appearance, the biggest difference between the Luxe and other models might be its focus on general wellness tracking over more specific health data. When the Luxe calculates your stress rate, for example, it uses activity levels, sleep and heart rate instead of an electrodermal activity sensor as seen in the Charge 5 and Sense.

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This one is pretty simple: The Fitbit Ace 3 is specifically for kids to help track sleep and activity, two crucial things for young bodies. Goals can be set on the Ace 3 for active minutes as well as reminders for going to bed and staying active. For kids who have their own phone, the tracker can also deliver call notifications (you know, for when you forget to call Mom).

The Ace 3 comes in cosmic blue with green adjusters, black with red adjusters or a «Minions yellow» for kids who are fans of the goggle-eyed animated creatures.

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Technologies

Bishop Takes Rook: You’ll Be Able to Learn Chess on Duolingo Soon

The course is in beta now but will be available to everyone in a few months.

«Hola, ajedrez» means «Hello, chess» in Spanish. You’ve always been able to learn Spanish on Duolingo. And you’ll be able to learn and practice chess on the language learning app soon. Duolingo announced on April 22 that beta testers can practice the centuries-old board game in Duolingo now, and others will be able to learn the game on the app in a few months. 

Chess will be the first new Duolingo course since the app began offering math and music lessons in 2023. And Duolingo hopes that to bring the classic board game to more people of all experience levels. 

Duolingo chess lessons aim to be friendly to beginners

I spoke with a Duolingo rep about the upcoming lessons. He said the company wants to continue expanding what people can learn through the app, and chess was an early contender.

Chess is «one of those things that … any age group can learn … but then also something that takes the 10,000-hour theory to really master,» Edwin Bodge, a senior product manager with Duolingo, said. «We thought it would fit with the Duolingo medium really well.»

When I asked why people would use Duolingo over other chess learning sites and tools, Bodge said a lot of other chess content is geared toward advanced users, not newcomers. «We really saw a great opportunity to try and cater to more of a beginner, medium (player) and try and increase access to the game,» he said.

The chess lessons are slightly different from others you might find on Duolingo, like Spanish and math, but the progression system is similar. And from what Duolingo showed me, the lessons really do start at square one, or A1 on a chessboard.

Chess lessons feel similar to other Duolingo lessons

When you start, Duolingo asks how much you already know about chess, like in other lessons on the app. Duolingo will then adjust the lessons according to your response. If you say you’re brand-new to chess and have no knowledge of the game, early lessons will focus on how each piece moves before moving on to capturing other pieces and checking the king. Other lessons are similar to mini-puzzles where you might be asked to capture different pieces using a single piece, like your knight or rook, in four moves or fewer.

You can access hints for each lesson, but if you get something wrong, your opponent will react to show you you’ve left a piece open for capture, like in a real match. And if you keep getting something incorrect, Duolingo will show you what to do. «If you get it wrong multiple times, eventually we’ll show you an arrow that shows you exactly where to move,» Sammi Siegel, a software engineer with Duolingo, said.

If you are subscribed to Duolingo Max and make a mistake in a language lesson, the app can explain the mistake — and what the right solution is — with a feature called Explain My Answer. However, that feature won’t be available with the chess lessons for now. It’s not always easy to explain why something is right or wrong in chess because there are so many millions of different moves.

«We want to get better at fuller explanations,» Siegel said. «There is some mix of AI and model training that we’re hoping to use to better explain why a certain move is wrong.» Because there are so many moves in chess, it’s possible to make moves that could be correct but aren’t the best options. In such instances, Duolingo will show a banner that lets you know that a move isn’t wrong but isn’t necessarily the best move. 

Duolingo also said each section represents a range on the Elo rating system, the method by which a chess player’s skills are calculated. As you progress, your lessons will be tougher and more challenging. This is similar to the CEFR language proficiency levels attached to the different language sections in the app.

You’ll also have the opportunity to have «mini-matches» or full-on games against Duolingo’s chess coach, Oscar. These matches will scale in difficulty to challenge you as well, so you aren’t facing a grandmaster-level chess player after your first week of playing the game. But that doesn’t mean you can slack off and play sloppily. If you make a mistake, like leaving your queen open to capture, Oscar will take advantage and leave you scrambling to recover.

While playing against Oscar is good practice, you won’t be able to face off against other players when these chess lessons launch. But Duolingo said matches against other people are something they are looking into, so you might be able to play against a friend over the app in the future. «One of the big reasons why we’re doing this is we think we can get a whole generation of people interested in chess,» Bodge said.

Duolingo’s new chess lessons are now available in the beta version now and will start rolling out on iOS in English in May. Duolingo said it is working to bring these lessons to Android devices and more languages in the coming months.

For more on Duolingo, check out how well the free version prepared me for a trip to Italy and our review of the language learning app. You can also check out our best language learning apps.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Sunday, April 27

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for April 27.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.


Today’s NYT Mini Crossword isn’t too much of a stumper. A lot of words contain A and E, for some reason. Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

The Mini Crossword is just one of many games in the Times’ games collection. If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get at those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Outdoor spot to people-watch, maybe
Answer: STOOP

6A clue: Big name in health insurance
Answer: AETNA

7A clue: Broadway theater helper
Answer: USHER

8A clue: Easy to understand
Answer: CLEAR

9A clue: When many show up to a job interview
Answer: EARLY

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: What «salsa» literally means
Answer: SAUCE

2D clue: Electric car maker since 2003
Answer: TESLA

3D clue: «… in one ear and out the ___»
Answer: OTHER

4D clue: Tatum ___, youngest-ever Oscar winner (at age 10, for Best Supporting Actress)
Answer: ONEAL

5D clue: Defensive maneuver in fencing
Answer: PARRY

How to play more Mini Crosswords

The New York Times Games section offers a large number of online games, but only some of them are free for all to play. You can play the current day’s Mini Crossword for free, but you’ll need a subscription to the Times Games section to play older puzzles from the archives.

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Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections: Sports Edition Hints and Answers for April 27, #216

Hints and answers for the NYT Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, No. 216, for April 27.

Looking for the most recent regular Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle and Strands puzzles.


Connections: Sports Edition might be a breeze, as long as you know your sports-league commissioners. Read on for hints and the answers.

Connections: Sports Edition is out of beta now, making its debut on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 9. That’s a sign that the game has earned enough loyal players that The Athletic, the subscription-based sports journalism site owned by the Times, will continue to publish it. It doesn’t show up in the NYT Games app but now appears in The Athletic’s own app. Or you can continue to play it free online.  

Read more: NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Comes Out of Beta

Hints for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections: Sports Edition puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Dunk it.

Green group hint: Get it moving.

Blue group hint: They run the leagues.

Purple group hint:  Like house, kind of.

Answers for today’s Connections: Sports Edition groups

Yellow group: Parts of a basketball hoop.

Green group: Propel a ball.

Blue group: League commissioners.

Purple group: Home ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections: Sports Edition answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is parts of a basketball hoop. The four answers are base, glass, net and rim.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is propel a ball. The four answers are bowl, fling, hurl and roll.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is league commissioners.. The four answers are Bettman, Goodell, Manfred and Silver.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is home ____. The four answers are field, plate, run and team.

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