REVIEW: Fitbit Air – A Fresh Start for Fitbit

John Reilly June 2, 2026

Google’s Fitbit Air represents something of a statement of intent from the search giant. The Fitbit app is gone, replaced by the new Google Health platform, and in its place sits a slim, screen-less tracker that’s clearly aimed at those who want health data without the bulk of a smartwatch. I’ve been wearing one for the past few weeks, switching over from six months with a WHOOP, and I’ve got a fairly clear picture of where it excels, where it falls short, and who it’s actually for.

Design & Build Quality

This is where the Fitbit Air earns its stripes, and it’s genuinely hard to fault. The device is remarkably slender, barely wider than a finger, and practically disappears on the wrist. The woven Performance Loop band on the Lavender (light blue) review unit is soft, lightweight, and comfortable enough to forget you’re wearing it, whether you’re sleeping, working out, or just going about your day.

Compared to the WHOOP, which I found bulkier and prone to catching on clothing, the Air feels like a meaningful step forward in wearability. It looks more like a bracelet than a medical device, which will matter to a lot of people. One small caveat on the Lavender colourway: it looks lovely out of the box, but lighter fabric bands have a tendency to pick up stains over time, so that’s worth being conscious of.

If longevity of appearance matters to you, Obsidian might be the safer long-term choice. Band swapping is also impressively simple as you pop the sensor out and snap it into a new band in seconds, something that sounds trivial until you’ve wrestled with a WHOOP battery pack. I’m looking forward to seeing more first and third-party band options become available to Irish users as the product matures.

Software

The Google Health app replaces the old Fitbit app entirely, and it’s a fresh, modern redesign that organises everything across four tabs: Today, Fitness, Sleep, and Health. The Today tab gives you a customisable tile view of your key metrics at a glance, while the Health tab is arguably the most useful, letting you track HRV, resting heart rate, blood oxygen, and more within personalised ranges so you can quickly spot trends.

Sleep tracking is well presented too, breaking down your sleep stages alongside metrics like time to sleep, restlessness, and interruptions. The overall experience is solid and more than functional, but it does feel like a platform still finding its feet.

The Google Health Coach, included as part of the Premium subscription, is designed to give personalised feedback and build workout routines, and it genuinely has potential, but right now it leans heavily on text-heavy notifications and guidance that can feel a bit much.

Google has already acknowledged this and announced updates are coming, which is reassuring, but as many reviewers have rightly pointed out, you shouldn’t buy a product based on a promise. What’s here today is more than good enough, but there is definite room for improvement.

One thing I’d also like to see from Google is clearer communication within the app about how long the Fitbit Air takes to calibrate to your specific sleep, workout, and usage patterns. Knowing when to expect the most refined and accurate metrics would go a long way in managing expectations during those first few weeks.

Usability & Features

Step tracking held up well against my Pixel Watch 4, matching it closely and feeling, if anything, slightly more accurate on a few days. Sleep tracking is where things got a little inconsistent, with one or two sessions where no score was returned at all.

The app suggested I may have been wearing it too loosely, though I’m inclined to think the device is still calibrating itself to my patterns. It’s not a dealbreaker, but something to be aware of early on. Coming from WHOOP, I do find myself missing certain features, particularly the WHOOP Age and Pace of Aging Guide, which offered a genuinely useful perspective on long-term health trends.

The Fitbit Air doesn’t have an equivalent at this stage, and that’s a gap worth noting for anyone making a direct comparison. On the charging side, the Air uses a proprietary magnetic pin charger, which works fine and gets you to full in around 90 minutes, but it’s frustrating to add yet another cable to the drawer/wall plug.

Given that Pixel Watch 4 users are likely a key target audience for this device as a complementary addition to Google’s wearable ecosystem, it seems like a missed opportunity not to allow compatibility with the existing Pixel Watch 4 charger.

Battery

Battery life is genuinely impressive. Google claims up to seven days on a single charge and that figure held up consistently in testing. On my first full charge I didn’t need to plug it back in until day seven, and it still had some charge remaining at that point.

In practice, stretching it to eight or nine days seems plausible with lighter usage. The one trade-off compared to WHOOP is that you do need to remove the Air to charge it, whereas WHOOP’s on-wrist wireless charger means you never have to take it off. Given the Air only needs charging once a week though, it’s a minor inconvenience rather than a real frustration.

Conclusion

The Fitbit Air is a well-designed, comfortable, and genuinely wearable fitness tracker that makes a strong first impression. The hardware is excellent, the battery life delivers, and the Google Health app, while still maturing, offers a solid foundation.

There are rough edges, particularly around the Google Health Coach’s tech heavy responses, the lack of charger compatibility with other Google devices, and the occasional missed sleep session, but none of these are deal-breakers.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the upcoming app updates bring, and it’s clear Google is actively listening to feedback. For €99 with three months of Health Premium included, it represents strong value, especially when you consider the alternative of an ongoing WHOOP subscription at a significantly higher annual cost.

Fitbit Air Pricing & Availability

The Fitbit Air is available now directly from Google’s Irish online store and from retailers including Currys and Harvey Norman, priced at €99.

It comes in four colour options: Obsidian (black), Lavender (light blue), Berry (bright red), and Fog (light green).

Each device includes a three-month trial of Google Health Premium, the subscription tier for the Google Health app, which is priced at €8.99 per month thereafter.