Hands-on review: Is the Fitbit Air the best model yet?

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I knew I was in trouble when I saw the first images of the Fitbit Air. I was smitten from the beginning. I’m all about simple and non-flashy wearable tech, so the Fitbit Air was speaking to me, personally. Then I saw the $99.99 price and stopped breathing for a second. Google’s first take on a faceless fitness tracker launched recently, and I’ve worn it nonstop for nearly a month to test out its features.

My favorite element of the Fitbit Air has to be how it feels to wear. By far, it’s the most comfortable smartwatch or fitness tracker I’ve ever experienced. And since this is an honest review, I even like the Google AI fitness coach, which has given me almost daily workouts and has kept me on track more than any other fitness routine I’ve tried in recent years. Here are my thoughts about the budget-friendly Fitbit Air and who should consider owning one.

Worth the $100 for the comfort and simple looks

Google designed the Fitbit Air to feel as if you’re wearing nothing, and I can confirm this is the most comfortable thing I’ve worn on my wrist. I’ve been wearing my beloved CMF Nothing Watch 3 Pro for months now, but I set it aside to test the Fitbit Air. The difference in comfort, size, and weight on my wrist was significant, especially while sleeping.

The Fitbit Air is tiny compared to my CMF Nothing Watch 3 Pro.
Credit: Lauren Allain / Mashable

The Fitbit Air weighs 12 grams or 0.03 pounds. I don’t notice that I’m wearing it during the day or while sleeping. That’s about half the weight of the popular faceless fitness tracker, the Whoop 5.0, which clocks in at 26.5 grams. 

I took off the Fitbit Air to shower and swim in saltwater. That’s not necessary since it’s water-resistant up to 50 meters, but Google recommends taking it off to shower, as soaps could cause damage. Other than that, I wore it nonstop and got several compliments on the look. Some friends at dinner even assumed it was a bracelet and not a fitness tracker. 

Week-long battery life and quick recharging

Google claims the Fitbit Air will get up to seven days of battery life on a single charge, and they weren’t lying. In my testing, I got a bit over eight days of wear before my watch got to about 4 percent and I set it on the charger to make sure I didn’t miss a night of tracking sleep. For comparison, the Apple Watch 11 gets about 24 hours of battery life per charge. 

The brain of the Fitbit Air easily pops in and out of the bands.
Credit: Lauren Allain / Mashable

In addition to the impressive one-week battery life, the Fitbit Air takes hardly any time to recharge. On my first test, I reached a 100 percent charge in 67 minutes. That dropped to 65 minutes on my second recharge. After just 10 minutes of the Fitbit sitting on the charger, it had reached 44 percent. 

Because of this excellent battery life and quick recharging, you don’t have to worry about skipping a night of sleep tracking or missing out on steps on account of the fitness tracker recharging.

Google Health Premium kind of rocks 

I tested the Fitbit Air with Google Health Premium, which comes free for the first three months. After that, it costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 for an annual plan. Built with Gemini, Premium comes with advanced AI features like the ability to ask Coach health and fitness questions, dive into mindfulness sessions, and get a customized weekly fitness plan. I told Coach I was focused on getting stronger and lowering my resting heart rate, and it popped out a five-session plan each week that incorporated my Hydrow rowing machine.

The Google Coach formulated a weekly fitness plan for me that was simple to adjust.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health

Video of each activity helps with understanding each workout or stretch.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health

I’m not heavily on the AI train, so I’m a bit ashamed to say I love Google Health Premium, specifically the personalized workouts. I grew up in a Catholic school, which is to say, I’m a hardcore follower of the rules. So when the Google Coach told me to stretch, row for 20 minutes while keeping my heart rate in zone 2, and then stretch to cool down, I damn well did it. And that was enough to majorly up the frequency of my workouts.

Sleep, nutrition, and hydration tracking on the Fitbit Air are exceptional

We’re all looking for a fitness tracker that gives us great sleep metrics in detail and automatically detects napping. Since I barely noticed wearing the Fitbit Air, I’m giving this the award of my new favorite sleep tracker. The detailed sleep metrics are insightful, and with each night I wear it, they get even better since Google is getting used to my sleep norms.

The Fitbit Air did an accurate job at automatically detecting naps.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health

Testing out the ability to capture a photo of food to log in the app.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health

Google also lets you track nutrition with the Fitbit Air, and that can be as easy as scanning a barcode or taking a photo of your plate. It even breaks down macro goals, so you can aim for the ideal amount of carbs, fat, and protein each day. Hydration tracking is also simple, and Coach would even send me a reminder to get my ounces in before it was time to wind down for the night, since I have a tendency to chug 20 ounces right before bed, leading to a midnight wake-up.

Like all AI-driven tech, the Fitbit Air has some flaws

No AI is perfect, and when testing the Fitbit Air, I landed in some errors. I skipped my daily workout, and Coach asked me if I did any other activity. When I said I had picked blueberries in the yard in the afternoon (gotta be some yoga moves in there), the Fitbit said it had logged that I ate one cup of blueberries. While that was probably true, I was trying to log light movement.

In all fairness, I did probably eat one cup of blueberries while picking.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health

I also noticed some inaccuracies when working out. Each Fitbit Air workout crafted by Coach begins with a warmup, which is usually stretching. Start the workout, and the app shows you a video of a person doing the stretch, which is incredibly helpful. However, the written description of the stretch didn’t always match the movements the person was doing in the video.

And of course, using AI health and fitness is not meant to be a replacement for getting professional medical care.

Is a screen-less fitness tracker right for you?

It took me a while to get accustomed to wearing something on my left wrist that did not tell me the time. I’m used to it now, but I could see this driving some people nuts. However, I prefer not to have instant access to my emails or text messages, so the faceless design is my ideal, though I understand it’s not for everyone.

In a way, the Fitbit Air is a great option if you’re heading more into the analog life and you’ve Bricked your phone, for example. But because there’s no face, everything about the Fitbit Air is done via the app, which is located on (you guessed it) your phone. So while you won’t get texts on your wrist, you do have to look at your phone to check steps, heart rate, and other metrics.

Is the Fitbit Air worth it?

I’d recommend the Fitbit Air to anyone who likes the idea of an affordable fitness tracker that doesn’t double up as a smartwatch. It’s a simple fitness tracker that’s comfortable to wear and includes plenty of health and fitness tracking. It’s also one of the budget-friendly options, costing $99.99. However, I found the added features from Google Health Premium to be well worth the price, so add on another $99.99 per year for access to those deeper insights.

I don’t think the Fitbit Air is great for people who are strongly anti-AI. The benefits of health and fitness tracking lean heavily on AI. At times, it felt creepy to get a Google Health notification that confirmed I had arrived on vacation at my destination and had already gone for a walk on the beach.