The Fitbit Air is being touted as a fantastic fitness tracker, but I don’t think its worth has quite yet been proven. Google-made and third-party bands do not make for a comfortable experience, and competitive trackers blow it out of the water in terms of fit.
I was a little late to jump on the Fitbit Air bandwagon. For some time, I grew accustomed to using an Oura Ring, as reviews in the past have showcased. The form factor is wonderful, and the newest model, the Oura Ring 5, gives users a more comfortable experience because it’s so much thinner. I haven’t used the newest edition, and instead walked myself back to fitness bands like the Whoop 4.0. I still had the hardware even with yet another new model available, but I find it works just fine.
It’s expensive, though.
For $25/month, you get the basics as Whoop sets them. Whoop sets them high, to be fair, just like Oura does. Elevated metrics and studies bump the price up, but Google has proven that a good health suite can be free with hardware. We’ve documented the Google Health app well, and it sets a fantastic bar for a subscription-free service. Of course, you can always opt into the AI coach powered by Gemini for an added $10/month.
What bothers me after using the Fitbit Air for a few weeks is the comfort, or lack thereof. Coming from Whoop’s knitted bands and clasp system, I find the Fitbit Air to be difficult to forget about. That’s what you want, after all – a band that goes unnoticed minutes after putting it on. The main point of contact should feel better than it does, and these proprietary bands just don’t do it for me.
They feel stiff, don’t seem to breathe very well, and have given me the first taste of contact dermatitis that I’ve ever experienced on a wearable. Maybe it was tighter than it needed to be, or maybe these bands don’t have any give with the natural swelling and contracting your skin does throughout the day.
The Google-made bands I’ve tried just don’t have any serviceable stretch. Granted, I haven’t used the more expensive Elevated or Active band because of the added cost at around $50. Just the Special Edition Stephen Curry band and the default Performance Loop band have lived on my pebble. Still, compared to the included strap that comes with Whoop’s fitness trackers, Google’s hardware severely lags behind.
I’d love to have a band option with a similar clasp system – something set-and-forget. By comparison, the Fitbit Air Performance Loop band requires a bit too much patience for something I need to remove and put back on daily.
The market is already flooded with Fitbit Air adapters that let you use the hardware with Whoop’s bands, but that’s literally just a band-aid. It completely negates the reason the Air exists – minimal footprint on an 18mm strap. On size alone, the Fitbit Air beats Whoop hands down.
You could make the overarching argument that the Fitbit Air’s affordable price is made possible because the sensor’s enclosure isn’t made from more premium materials, like aluminum or titanium – the latter might be overkill. That feels more like an excuse, since even additional band options don’t seem to be as premium.
The third-party landscape doesn’t offer much better than Google does, yet.
Your best bet is finding Fitbit Air bands from Amazon and even dropshipping websites like Aliexpress. Google’s good-faith move to make Fitbit Air band designs available ‘s enclosure design available hasn’t yet paid off. I haven’t found many creative or premium designs hit online stores, and if there are shops selling Fitbit Air bands, they’re generally getting them from Aliexpress.
Hopefully, that changes and we begin to see premium bands with unique hardware from accessory companies with solid track records – looking at you, UAG, Nomad, and Spigen. Those are just a couple of companies to call out, but the option is there for an accessories brand to develop some good options.
All that’s to say the Google Fitbit Air is a solid fitness tracker with an affordable price, but it would be S-tier with more comfortable bands.
More on Fitbit:
- Google’s inevitable ‘Pixel Watch Ultra’ should copy the Fitbit Air
- Google’s Pixel Watch 5 takes notes from the Fitbit Air in latest leak
- These cheap Fitbit Air bands are better and cheaper than the official options
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