GoKawiilGoogle Fitbit Air The Fitbit Air is a comfortably lightweight, screenless tracker centered around passive health and fitness monitoring and excellent sleep tracking. It pairs Fitbit’s approachable health platform with long battery life and streamlined fitness features, all at an accessible $99 price point.
Fitness tracking bands never fully disappeared, but they definitely stopped being interesting for a while. At some point, everything became either a mini smartwatch trying too hard to replace my phone or a wellness gadget for people who refer to bedtime as “recovery” instead of “the best part of the day.”
Then Google set its sights on passive tracking and launched a wildly affordable WHOOP 5.0 alternative. My first impression of the Air after 48 hours was that Google might actually be onto something with passive tracking again, and after a few weeks of wearing it, that early take mostly held up. The first-gen screenless tracker is not perfect, but it gets a good amount right at a hard-to-beat price.
The freedom of going screen-free
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
The biggest compliment I can give the Fitbit Air is that I routinely forgot about it. It’s roughly 25% smaller than the already slim and long-forgotten Fitbit Luxe, but the bigger difference is psychological. Without a screen vying for my attention or constant notifications buzzing on my wrist, it has the impact of a staple hair tie rather than a needy Tamagotchi.
At just over 12g, it’s also extremely comfortable. Like any review device, I slept with it every night, and wore it through a variety of workout types, but I also kept it on for beach days, travel days, long work days at my desk, and a Sunday spent almost entirely in my bed, plus one particularly messy chalk session with my toddler.
Kaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
I personally preferred the nylon strap over Fitbit’s alternatives, though if you forget to take it off for the shower, it’s gross when moist. It’s flexible and neat enough by day and was easily my favorite option for sleep tracking. If you can’t stand the sound of Velcro, the Active style works better for sweat and moisture, and the Elevated is classy on the wrist. I’m fairly confident we’ll also see plenty of third-party options flood Amazon in the coming weeks. Passive tracking only works if a device disappears into your routine, and the Air nailed that for me. I found it even more comfortable than my smart ring, which is saying something because I typically forget I’m wearing that as well.
The biggest compliment I can give the Fitbit Air is that I routinely forgot about it.
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