Google’s just launched the Fitbit Air, a screenless wearable that slips onto your wrist to track your fitness activities, sleep, and other health stats. It’s a lot like the Whoop Band and others you’ve seen on the market – and it comes in at a compelling price point without the need for a subscription to cover the basics.
This practically weightless tracker (0.4 oz/11 g including a band) can be worn with three different styles of wrist wraps, and does all the tracking you’d expect – activities, steps, and sleep. It can also track your heart rate, blood oxygenation, skin temperature, cardio load, and heart rhythm with FDA-approved background AFib detection.
Since it doesn’t have a screen, there’s no fiddling with controls or getting distracted by notifications, and you can look forward to a full week of battery life. Five minutes of charging will top it off for a day’s worth of tracking.
Meet Google Fitbit Air | Lighter, Gets Mightier
The Air will automatically detect biking, running, walking, elliptical, and rowing. It’ll track other stuff that gets your heart rate up too – but it just may not accurately label what activity that is. It will also learn exactly what activities you’re getting into over time, based on your inputs in the app.
Speaking of the app, the Fitbit app is being rebranded to Google Health, along with a major revamp of the interface to make it more intuitive and customizable on both iOS and Android. All your stats will appear in there, and they can sync with other fitness services like Strava. Basic logging is included at no charge, while a subscription unlocks a raft of premium features.
That includes coaching to meet your fitness goals, proactive workout suggestions, AI-powered insights from your activity stats, medical record summaries, a workout library developed by expert trainers, and access to an AI assistant that can answer your health questions with evidence-backed responses. You don’t have to infer what your stats and trends mean all on your own, because it’s all presented as wordy content.
You’ll also find mindfulness sessions covering meditation, guided breathing, and more. Plus, you can adjust your workout schedule as needed (to accommodate days on vacation, for example) and get tips on the best way to do that by chatting with the AI coach. That’ll cost you US$9.99 a month or $79 a year.
The tracker supports connected GPS when it’s paired to your phone, so it can chart the routes you take on a map and combine that with your fitness stats, for logging on Strava and the like. It’s rated for 164-ft (50-m) water resistance, so you should be fine swimming in a pool with it. Lastly, it can vibrate to wake you up in the morning, and alert you when its battery is low.
The Air is priced at $99.99, which is about the same as the Amazfit Helio Strap, and half what you’d pay for a Polar Loop – both of which are subscription-free. That’s great for tracking the essentials. If you want more insights from Google Health, it’s cheaper with the annual subscription than the basic Whoop package (which starts at $199, goes up to $359 depending on the features you want).
On the face of it, the Air’s price and updated app make a strong case for it against its rivals. The inclusion of mindfulness features and content could effectively negate the need for additional dedicated services like Calm or Headspace, which each cost $70-$80 a year.
For hardcore athletes, the proof is in the insights and post-workout analysis, and those folks might want to wait for detailed reviews and head-to-head comparisons with Whoop’s offering to see how they stack up. But any way you slice it, the Air looks like a well priced deal if you’re happy to hop on the screenless wearable train.
Find the Fitbit Air in the Google Store where you can pre-order it now, and snag a three-month free trial of Google Health Premium. Deliveries begin around May 26 in the US.
Source: Google
