Aside from taking it off to recharge, I’ve worn the Fitbit Air nonstop for over three months. Google’s first take on a faceless fitness tracker launched in late spring, and I was smitten from the beginning. The tracker has a simple and non-flashy design that I love. Plus, it sells for under $100.
Credit: Lauren Allain / Mashable
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. But after three months of use, I have a few complaints. 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.
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 for over three months, 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.
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.
After three months of using the Fitbit Air, I’m still totally shocked by how quickly it recharges. If I don’t have an hour to spare, I love knowing that I can stick it on the charger for 10 minutes and get several more days of life.
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.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health
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.
After the first few months, I gave my Google AI Coach extra fitness goals. I explained I wanted to do two core workouts each week and add in a morning stretching routine. It took me less than five minutes to add both of those goals into my routine on the Google Health app. It all immediately populated in the “fitness” tab on my home screen. Because of how easy Google makes this, I think the Fitbit Air is an awesome tracker for people who want more consistency with weekly workout goals.
Sleep, nutrition, and hydration tracking on the Fitbit Air are exceptional, mostly
We’re all looking for a fitness tracker that gives us great sleep metrics in detail. 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.
If you tend to nap like I do, the Fitbit Air might prove frustrating. It picks up maybe 50 percent of my naps. In addition to the tracking struggles, it often takes hours for nap metrics to land on my daily report after I wake up, even with manually refreshing the Fitbit several times in the Google Health app. When it didn’t capture my naps, I asked the AI Coach what happened. It said either the watch band was too loose or I slept for under 20 minutes, which is the threshold for detecting naps.
Since the band was just as tight as it was the night before when it accurately tracked my sleep, that wasn’t the issue, nor was the time since I slept for about 45 minutes. This scenario has happened plenty of times, which means I’m not convinced the Fitbit Air is a great model for those who like to nap.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health
Google 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.
The Fitbit Air does not like cycling or stairs
I loved the fitness tracking on the Fitbit Air when I was rowing indoors during spring pollen season and when the temperatures got way too sticky in the summer. But when August rolled around, I committed to getting on my bicycle. I cycled almost everywhere I needed to go, like to the grocery store and a doctor’s appointment. Overall, I got quite frustrated with the Fitbit’s automatic cycling detection. It only captured about 75 percent of the rides I took.
Over the weekend, for example, I took off on my bike for groceries. I cycled for about 12 minutes to reach the store, spent 20 minutes walking while in the store, and another 12 or so minutes cycling home. When I got back, my Google Health app had notes about my walk but nothing about either biking session.
I have location permission open all the time for my Fitbit to access, but the lack of built-in GPS on the fitness tracker has proven to be a downside. If you’re heavy into cycling, I’m not sure I’d recommend the Fitbit Air. You can manually tell the Google Health app you’re heading off on a ride, but I’m not thrilled about going to the extra effort.
Credit: Screenshot: Google Health
The Fitbit Air will also not track stairs climbed. I didn’t notice this at first, but Google Health sends me a weekly progress report that lists total steps, total miles, active minutes, sleep, heart rate, and more. Front and center of this report is total floors climbed, which forever remains at a giant zero, the same as last week. This isn’t a dealbreaker for me, but if you’re a stair-stepper person or like to make sure you’re getting those flights in, the Fitbit Air will have no idea besides adding the steps to your daily total.
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.
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.
I’m still in love with the overall look, and durability is awesome
I’ve mentioned it before, but the look of the Fitbit Air is something I can’t get over. I dig it, and it makes me happy to look down and see how simple and effortless it looks and feels. I’ve also spotted a few other people sporting the Fitbit Air while out in public, and I think it looks awesome on them, too.
I can also speak to its durability. After three months of non-stop wear, the included band, made of recycled polyester and elastane yarn, looks brand new. I wear the fog colorway band, and while that seems light enough to get super dingy, it has zero evidence of wear.
Although I haven’t tested it out, the Fitbit Air Elevated Modern Band looks awesome, and I’ve added it to my Christmas wish list.
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?
After testing for over three months, 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 also think the Fitbit Air is a great tracker and well worth the price if you don’t want a massive watch on your wrist. The level of comfort and minimalist style is something I’m still in awe over. Durability is also exceptional.
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. It’s also proven it’s not a great fitness tracker if you cycle often or you want to keep track of climbing stairs.
