It’s been a while since we had a new Fitbit. So long, in fact, that people had begun to think Google – which bought the brand in 2021 – was less than committed to the products. A growing view took hold that Google was focusing on its Pixel smartwatches and integrating Fitbit’s popular activity-tracking capabilities into its own products.
But now we have the Google Fitbit Air, a screenless tracker that is designed to blend in rather than stand out.
Not many products want to be simply forgotten about. But sometimes, that is a good quality. Google spent the past decade or so persuading us we needed screens everywhere. Now it is going after the holdouts – the ones who are taking a step back from displays but are fine with the constant monitoring.
The Air is more like the Whoop band in appearance and focus. There is no display to drag your attention away, no constant notifications drawing your attention to messages or app updates. You can’t use it to pay for coffee while out for a walk, nor can you sync it up to your smart-home features.
For €99, the Google Fitbit Air tracks your health and nothing else. That’s a good thing
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Its sole focus is tracking your health, which makes it refreshingly simple. The Air is also 20 per cent lighter than the Luxe, Fitbit’s previous attempt to make wearables look less utilitarian and more like something you would choose to wear.
I rarely feel weighed down by my wearables, but that could be because they are specifically chosen not to resemble a small brick strapped to my arm. Still, the Google Fitbit Air lives up to its name – I forgot I was wearing it.
Despite its simple appearance, the Air does a lot. It tracks steps, distance and how many calories you are burning each day, along with heart-rate tracking and information on heart-rate variability. It also provides notifications for irregular heart rhythms such as atrial fibrillation. Exercise tracking is automatic, so everything just works quietly in the background.
Instead of scrolling through menus, you let the Air do its thing. If you want more detail, turn to the new Google Health app, which includes the rebranded Fitbit Premium features as part of Google Health Coach. The coach now includes nutrition and cycle tracking along with more flexible goals – you can set weekly targets, follow fitness plans and alter those as you see fit.
I asked it to create a running fitness plan for me while taking into account a recent injury. It asked a few more questions about the medical advice I’d been given, and – with a few caveats – gave me a rehab-focused plan designed to build strength before moving on to the requested cardio.
The Air also has a temperature sensor and gyroscope, similar to the more high-end wearables, and it estimates blood oxygen while you sleep. Apparently, Google has made the sleep tracking 15 per cent more accurate. Honestly? I couldn’t tell if it was more accuate. My schedule is varied, so it could be telling me my sleep score is perfect and I’d have no real reason to doubt it.
There is no screen, which means you are quite dependent on your phone for information. There is no feedback without it. You might miss real-time heart-rate tracking for workouts, for example, or have to wear an actual watch to tell the time. If you have a Pixel Watch already, you can switch between the two for activity tracking, or wear them together. The Google Health app will allow you to distinguish between the two when it comes to tracking.
In some cases, the device will link in with certain exercise equipment to share your heart-rate data. For those of us who prefer outdoor exercise, it may not work as well.
The trade-off might be worth it though, especially if you are trying to wean yourself off screens. And the bonus is that you get about a week out of a full charge.
It’s early days for the Fitbit Air. But so far, it does what I need at an affordable price.
Good
The Air lives up to its name: lightweight enough to forget you are wearing it. It measures all of the markers that have become standard – sleep, activity, heart rate variability – but the Health Coach will help you make sense of it all.
It is budget-friendly too, at €99.
Bad
If you want to see real-time tracking as you work out, this is not the device for you. You can review your activity but it has to be in the app.
There is also the matter of the subscription for the Health Coach to take account of.
Everything else
There are multiple bands for the Air that are designed to suit your lifestyle, from the rubbery sports band to the more high-end bands Google has named Elevated Modern.
If you want the Health Coach features, that is part of the Health Premium plan and comes with an ongoing cost. However, subscribers to Google’s AI Pro plans have access to Health Premium as part of their subscription. That includes owners of the Pixel Pro devices, who get the AI plan included with their device for a year. Google is also including three months free when you buy the Air. After that, it will cost you €10 per month or €100 for the year.
Verdict:
Air by name, airy by nature. Google’s newest wearable may hit the right spot for those who don’t want to be a slave to screens every hour of the day.
