Fitbit is taking a pointy flip. Its first new fitness tracker since 2023’s Charge 6 is not an improve—it is a rethink. The $99 Fitbit Air ditches the display completely, relying as a substitute on refined haptics and passive monitoring to ship a quieter, much less intrusive expertise.
The transfer places Fitbit nearer to Whoop’s philosophy of always-on, screenless wearables constructed for holistic well being monitoring, just like the Whoop 5.0. Just like its rival, the Air is designed to fade into the background, pairing every week of battery life with Fitbit’s full suite of well being sensors. At this worth, it is some of the accessible entries but within the screenless tracker class.
The {hardware} shift arrives alongside an even bigger software program push. Fitbit’s app is being rebranded as Google Well being, with a redesigned interface that also retains core exercise, sleep, and well being metrics free throughout Android and iOS.
Tied to that replace is the broader rollout of Google’s Gemini-powered Health Coach. Out there by means of a $9.99 month-to-month or $99.99 annual Premium subscription, the AI assistant gives customized exercise plans, adaptive wellness recommendation, and extra superior sleep insights—marking a deeper transfer into software-driven health steering.
Fitbit Air: The Screenless Gamble That May Pay Off
Let’s begin with the fundamentals. The Fitbit Air is about to hit shops on Might 26 and contains three months of Google Well being Premium. It is going to be accessible in Berry (crimson), Fog (silver), Lavender (purple), or Obsidian (black). Every band colour is obtainable in several supplies.
The default Efficiency Loop band is a light-weight material designed for consolation. Different band types like Energetic and Elevated Fashionable use a rugged plastic. Google will even promote a particular version Stephen Curry Efficiency Loop, that includes a brown-and-orange design and the basketball star’s title and Lock In motto.
The Fitbit Air’s Energetic Band is made from sturdy plastic (Credit score: Google)
Google says the Air is designed so you possibly can simply change bands to alter your search for sure events. The corporate additionally guarantees a seamless information monitoring expertise in case you change between a Pixel Watch and a Fitbit Air, as an illustration, to make use of the latter for sleep monitoring.
The Air tracks your exercise, train, sleep, stress, and different key well being metrics. Underneath the floor, it options an optical coronary heart charge monitor, a three-axis accelerometer and gyroscope to trace motion, a temperature sensor, and crimson and infrared sensors for blood oxygen saturation measurements. The Air does not have an built-in GPS for out of doors exercises just like the Cost 6. It may well monitor for Atrial Fibrillation (AFib, an irregular heartbeat) and has a built-in vibration motor for haptic suggestions and alerts.
It’s meant to be light-weight, snug, and sturdy in order that it’s nice to put on across the clock for holistic well being monitoring. The Fitbit Air is waterproof to 164 toes.
The battery guarantees as much as seven days of energy on a cost. It may well recharge from 0 to 100% in 90 minutes, and 5 minutes of charging is sufficient to energy the system for a day. Every week of battery life would put the Fitbit Air properly forward of most smartwatches and former Fitbit units. The Fitbit Charge 6 lasted solely three days with the always-on show enabled throughout our testing. The Whoop 5.0, however, lasted for greater than two weeks in testing and comes with a chargeable battery pack so that you by no means need to take the tracker off.
The Fitbit Air will likely be far more inexpensive than the Whoop 5.0, which requires a $239 annual subscription. The Whoop gives correct and dependable train and sleep monitoring, although its exercise information lacks element. As with the Whoop, you possibly can manually begin monitoring a exercise on the Fitbit Air within the app, or let the system mechanically detect your exercise. The Fitbit Air may very well be higher than Whoop at train monitoring if it is as detailed and dependable as earlier Fitbit units.
Google’s AI Coach Takes Heart Stage
The Fitbit Air’s {hardware} could also be minimal, but it surely leans closely on Google’s much more formidable Well being Coach software program. From my early testing final 12 months, it stood out as essentially the most succesful automated health coach I’ve used, largely as a result of it builds exercise plans naturally by means of dialog and adapts when your schedule shifts. That stated, it wasn’t flawless—exercise syncing may very well be clunky, and its sleep steering lagged behind its in any other case robust train insights. With Well being Coach now shifting out of preview, it will be fascinating to see how a lot of that has been refined.
Google says enhancements are approaching each fronts. Sleep monitoring is getting extra granular, with nap detection and higher nighttime evaluation, whereas the assistant itself is designed to really feel extra responsive, delivering shorter, extra helpful replies in chat. The core expertise stays the identical: You will begin with a fast onboarding dialog about your objectives, and the coach will construct a plan to match. This time round, although, it is much less inflexible—targeted extra on weekly targets than prescriptive every day exercises, whereas nonetheless providing detailed strategies on demand.
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Google’s AI-powered conversational coach (Credit score: Google)
In apply, that flexibility was already one among its largest strengths. Throughout my testing, the coach simply labored round my two weekly private coaching classes, mechanically logging them through the Pixel Watch 4 and suggesting extra exercises to fill out the week. The up to date model goes additional, letting you log classes nevertheless you need—by means of a tool just like the Fitbit Air, by importing information from providers like Peloton, and even by snapping a photograph of a fitness center whiteboard and letting the AI parse the main points.
That form of adaptability is compelling, particularly for anybody with a much less structured routine. I’m nonetheless a bit skeptical in regards to the sleep aspect of the equation. Higher detection is a step ahead, however to really compete with extra mature choices from Samsung and Whoop, the coach might want to ship deeper, extra actionable steering—not simply cleaner information.
Fitbit’s New Route Will not Please Everybody
The brand new Google Well being app will likely be organized into tabs for Health, Sleep, and Well being, together with a important At this time part summarizing your data. It is going to allow you to import information from third-party providers, export medical information to share together with your physician, and compete with buddies on expanded leaderboards for the best step rely and cardio load. Whereas I preferred the structure of the brand new app when testing it for Google Well being Coach, I’m positive the shift in title and magnificence will likely be jarring to longtime Fitbit followers.
Fitbit’s app is getting a brand new look and a brand new title (Credit score: Google)
Others could be dissatisfied that the Fitbit Air isn’t a direct replace to fashionable strains just like the Cost or Encourage. Google will proceed to maintain each the Inspire 3 and Cost 6 as a part of its present lineup alongside the Air and the Pixel Watch 4.
Collectively, the Fitbit Air and the revamped app level to a transparent new course for Fitbit below Google’s management. I will be placing each the system and the totally developed Google Well being Coach by means of their paces quickly to judge how they maintain up. Nonetheless, the concept of a extra inexpensive different to Whoop, paired with steering from Google’s AI, is certainly intriguing. Keep tuned for my full overview.
About Our Knowledgeable
Andrew Gebhart
Senior Author, Sensible Dwelling and Wearables
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I’m PCMag’s senior author masking sensible residence and wearable units. I’ve been reporting on tech professionally for almost a decade and have been obsessing about it for for much longer than that. Previous to becoming a member of PCMag, I made academic movies for an electronics retailer known as Abt Electronics in Illinois, and earlier than that, I spent eight years masking the sensible residence marketplace for CNET.
I foster many flavors of nerdom in my private life. I’m an avid board gamer and video gamer. I like fantasy soccer, which I view as a mixture of role-playing video games and sports activities. Plus, I can speak to you about craft beer for hours and am on a private quest to have a flight of beer at every microbrewery in my residence metropolis of Chicago.
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