I reviewed the Fitbit Air, and it (almost) completely won me over

The Fitbit Air is 2026’s most hyped wearable product release yet, helped by its back-to-basics design, innovative AI coach, and reasonable cost.

Hype doesn’t always translate to long-term desirability, though, and those same advantages can quickly turn into reasons to abandon wearing the Fitbit Air soon after purchase.

After two weeks with the Fitbit Air, I’ve got a good idea if it’s a threat to Samsung, Apple, and Oura, or if it’s a flash-in-the-pan hype product that’s all set to be forgotten.

Price, specs, and availability

The Fitbit Air is available to buy now for $100 through Google’s own online store, Amazon, Best Buy, and other retailers. There are four colors: Obsidian, Lavender, Berry, and Fog. These colors match the Google Pixel 10a.

It comes as standard with the Performance Loop Band, which is made of recycled polyester and stretchy yarn. Alternatively, you can purchase a silicone Active Band in the same colors for $35, or the polyurethane Elevated Modern Band with a stainless steel buckle in Moonstone, Porcelain, or Obsidian for $50.

To use the Fitbit Air with Google Health’s AI Coach, you will need to pay for the app’s Premium subscription, which costs $10 per month or $100 per year. Alternatively, Google Health Premium is also one of the benefits in the Google AI Pro subscription for $20, which also includes extra Google storage, AI tools, and YouTube Premium Lite. The subscription is an option.

The Fitbit Air competes with other screen-less fitness trackers, including the Oura Ring 4 and Whoop MG, which both require a subscription, and smartwatches such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 and Apple Watch Series 11.

Fitbit Air design

Distraction-free and almost unnoticeable

The Fitbit Air is a return to the early days of fitness tracking hardware. It consists of a central, screen-less module that contains the sensor array and fits into a custom band.

As standard, it comes with the fabric Performance Loop Band. It’s 18mm wide, has a metal clasp, and a hook-and-loop fastening.

The Fitbit Air is as basic as connected wrist wear gets, which is a huge part of its appeal. It weighs just 11 grams, and it disappears on your wrist. For context, my Oura Ring 4 Ceramic is 7 grams, and a Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 is 46 grams with the strap.

It’s a genuine 24-hour-a-day wearable and is unnoticeable when you use it to track sleep. The simple fastening makes it highly adjustable, and tightening it up when exercising takes seconds. If it gets wet, it doesn’t take long to dry.

Like a smart ring, the Fitbit Air’s simple design makes it ideal to wear opposite a mechanical watch, and I like the way the available strap colors match the Pixel 10a.

Also, like a smart ring, it doesn’t deliver notifications and doesn’t vibrate on your wrist unnecessarily. You can set an alarm to wake you up with a subtle vibration, though.

The Fitbit Air is suitable for everyone, doesn’t get sweaty or annoying to wear, is virtually unnoticeable once you’re used to it after a day, and the small amount of customization allows you to make it your own.

Fitbit Air app

Welcome, Google Health?

The Fitbit Air requires the Google Health app, which has replaced the Fitbit app and the Google Fit app. It’s free to use, but does have a Premium subscription option for $10 per month, which provides access to the Google Health AI Coach. I have been testing the Fitbit Air with Google Health Premium.

The top of the main screen is dedicated to key data points, such as steps, readiness, sleep, and progress towards a weekly cardio goal. You can scroll through this panel to find more details, such as calorie burn, current heart rate, plus manually added information like hydration and meal logging.

A Fitness tab accesses workout plans, either those you’ve created or pre-made plans from Fitbit. Scroll down the page, and you get a repeat of many stats shown on the main screen. The Sleep tab shows data related to your sleep, along with mindfulness and breathing exercises.

The final tab is Health. Top of the list is the Vitals screen, where your breathing rate, blood oxygen, resting heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), and skin temperature variation can be viewed. You can also find yet more ways to see the same data presented on the main screen. Google Health isn’t afraid to repeat itself.

I had no problem connecting the Fitbit Air to Google Health, and it has remained connected throughout my time with it. The app’s design is modern and makes great use of space, but it does take a while to learn, and there is still work to be done on the design and formatting.

A lot of data and graphs are hidden beneath several button taps, and you’ll have to spend time learning where to find the most useful data. For example, to find your resting heart rate overnight, you don’t tap the Sleep button or go to the Sleep tab, but the Health tab instead.

Google Health also focuses on the here-and-now, and finding historical data, such as previous workouts, or data that extends further back than a week, takes a while to find. Workout plans and data from them are a mess, and the deeper you dig, the more confusing it all gets. On the surface, the app is fine, but when you want details, it quickly gets confusing.

Fitbit Air performance and accuracy

How does it compare to the competition?

In addition to daily movement and sleep, the Google Health app tracks a host of exercises, from running to swimming, and yoga to kayaking.

During my time with the Fitbit Air, I have compared its results to the Oura Ring 4, the Whoop MG, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 8.

For the most part, the Fitbit Air, Oura Ring, and Whoop all agree on the average heart rate during a workout, but the Fitbit Air does overestimate calorie burn compared to them.

During sleep, it also mostly aligns, but is often harsher with its overall sleep score compared to the Oura Ring. However, it’s during sleep that I’ve seen the biggest discrepancy in its data compared to rivals.

The Fitbit Air consistently reports a much higher average resting heart rate during sleep, often recording figures around seven beats per minute (bpm) higher than the Oura Ring, and three bpm higher than the Whoop.

It has settled down a little the longer I’ve worn the Fitbit Air, and is possibly still calibrating, but over-counting data like resting heart rate and calorie burn will cause problems with other data points and progress towards goals. The Fitbit Air is not a medical device, so the figures are estimates.

Automatic workout tracking has been reliable, and it takes a moment to start a workout from the button on the main screen. However, remember the Fitbit Air does not have a screen, so everything has to be viewed and managed in the Google Health app. There’s no built-in GPS either, so you have to rely on your phone.

Perhaps the biggest issue with the Fitbit Air and Google Health’s performance is how slow it is to update data. Sleep data, exercise data, and the AI Coach’s most recent advice take a while to show up in the app, which can be frustrating when you want to quickly see up-to-date information. It can also lead to overlap, and to advice being out-of-date when it eventually arrives.

Fitbit Air and Google Health AI Coach

The Fitbit Air’s big feature

Data is almost secondary to the Google Health app’s primary feature, which is the AI Coach. If you don’t pay for the subscription, this is the primary feature you’ll miss out on.

The AI Coach provides general overviews of your sleep, daily exercise, and workouts. It’s aware of weather trends, will take into account any medication you take if you tell it, and prompts you to interact with it to outline your daily exercise and activity plans.

During the initial setup, the AI Coach is surprisingly effective. I told it I wanted to maintain my current regime, and it accepted this, created custom workout plans, and keeps me honest and motivated each day. It does not push you to do more or send notifications suggesting you get out and run if you want to meet a target.

The AI Coach can interact with the app, and this can be valuable, as it reduces the time it takes to create and modify exercise plans. If you’re searching for the hidden data, you can also ask the AI Coach about it. This is where the app differs from less AI-focused health apps.

For example, I asked the AI Coach about my resting heart rate during sleep and if anything needed addressing. It summarized the data without me having to go and look for it, and then trying to interpret it myself. It adds in graphs and general advice in its lengthy reply.

Because the AI Coach is based on Google Gemini, you use natural language to chat about your data and plans. You can type this into the app, or use your voice. Google Health expects you to interact with the AI Coach, and a lot of the app’s value comes from building a “relationship” with the Coach.

Unfortunately, the usual negative AI traits exist. It’s very verbose, it always wants you to continue the conversation, and it doesn’t always get things right. While I found the workout plan generation helpful, it did need things clarified before it got the cadence and rep count right. Like other AI tools, it contradicts itself often, and it can get confused about what exercises you’ve done and when.

I’m not a fitness fanatic, and treat exercise as something I should do, rather than something I want to do. Google Health and the easy-to-wear Fitbit Air suit my requirements perfectly. Those who are more hardcore may find the app too basic, and the AI not smart enough to help them improve. AI skeptics will also find plenty to dislike.

That said, I really recommend giving it a try using the free Google Health Premium trial, as it may end up working for you. It’s by far the most useful and most personal AI I’ve used in a health and fitness app yet.

Google Health controversies and problems

Not everyone has welcomed Google Health

For my purposes and relatively basic health and exercise tracking, Google Health is a decent partner, once the layout has been learned.

However, experienced Fitbit device owners and those with years of data stored and tracked in the old app have not found the changeover to Google Health very easy.

Issues around food tracking, calorie tracking, integration with other connected devices, in-depth data points such as body mass index (BMI), a lack of customization, not enough workout options, and a push to use the AI Coach have frustrated many.

This has resulted in a 3.7-star rating on the Google Play Store at the time of writing for Google Health.

Everyone’s requirements and preferences for a health and fitness tracker will be different, so these issues won’t affect everyone, but will frustrate others.

From my experience so far, the Fitbit Air and Google Health are more suited to general fitness tracking, almost edging towards lifestyle tracking, rather than hardcore sportspeople.

Fitbit Air battery life and charging

Just don’t lose the charger

The lack of a screen and requirement for a continuous connection to your smartphone mean the slim, light Fitbit Air makes the most out of its battery.

Google claims seven days of battery life on a single charge, and this fits in with my experience so far. The app will send a notification recommending you charge the Fitbit Air when it reaches around 24-hours of battery life remaining.

It’s recharged using a proprietary charging puck, which magnetically attaches to the back of the main module. You do not need to remove it from the band to charge, and the magnets are strong enough that it won’t accidentally fall off. It takes about 90 minutes to fully charge the battery.

Perhaps the only downside of this decent performance is the proprietary charging block. If you lose it, you won’t be able to use your phone’s charger to charge the Fitbit Air. Google sells a replacement charger for $25.

Should you buy the Fitbit Air?

Make no mistake, the Fitbit Air is a data-gathering device for Health’s AI Coach, and AI Coach is the app’s primary feature. If you don’t want to talk to AI about your health and fitness, then you may find the entire Air\Health experience lacking.

The slow syncing and AI advice updates, sometimes questionable data accuracy, hidden data that’s a pain to find in the app, and more of a focus on lifestyle and general fitness tracking than some may expect, are also reasons serious sporty people may not enjoy the Fitbit Air and Google Health.

However, if you’re already into AI tools like vibe-coding and AI companionship, feel the Oura Ring isn’t quite sporty enough for you, don’t want to make health and fitness tracking your entire life, and appreciate wear-and-forget hardware, then I think you’ll really get a lot from the Fitbit Air.

Additionally, while there is a subscription attached to Google Health, you can pay for it and the Fitbit Air for two years, and still come out having paid quite a lot less than you would for the Oura Ring, Galaxy Watch 8, or Whoop.

Despite my review being complete, I won’t be taking the Fitbit Air off. I wasn’t expecting it to fit into my life quite so easily or quickly, but it has turned out to be a far more useful, interesting, and motivational fitness tool than I expected.