Just when I thought fitness tech was getting a little boring, something new came along to keep me interested. First, it was smart rings. Now, it is screenless fitness trackers. I have tried a few wearables, but none has convinced me to ditch my smartwatch. Having notifications, calls, GPS tracking and fitness data on my wrist is convenient, even if I barely use half of those features. I have also been waiting for a device that might change my perspective on fitness tracking and, more importantly, motivate me to work out. My Apple Watch has not quite managed that.
Then came the Google Fitbit Air, a screenless fitness tracker designed to monitor your health without constantly demanding your attention. I have been wearing it for around a week, both during the day and overnight, while comparing its readings with my Apple Watch Series 12. Here is my take.
The first thing I noticed about the Fitbit Air was how lightweight it felt. The tracking capsule weighs 5.2g, while the total weight with the band is around 12g. At 8.3mm thick, it is unobtrusive enough to wear throughout the day without constantly reminding you that it is there.
The capsule has a sleek, pebble-like appearance, with an LED light on the side. It looks premium without being flashy, which suits the minimalist approach Google is taking across its tech portfolio. The band deserves credit, too. It is soft, breathable and uses a Velcro-like fastening mechanism that makes adjustment easy. I found it comfortable during both daytime use and sleep. Even after shower(s), I did not find the strap uncomfortable.
The Fitbit Air is water-resistant up to 50 metres, and interchangeable options include a silicone Active Band and an Elevated Leather band. These give users some flexibility to change the look.
Comfort is the Fitbit Air’s biggest win. I barely noticed it on my wrist, including when I went to bed. For a device intended to track your health around the clock, that is an important quality rather than a minor design advantage.
I have grown accustomed to checking my smartwatch whenever it vibrates. Sometimes it is an important notification; more often, it is something I can easily have ignored. The Fitbit Air removes that temptation altogether. There is no display, notification stream, or screen lighting up when I move my wrist. Instead, the tracker collects data and sends it to the Google Health app. LED indicators and tap gestures handle certain interactions, but the experience is deliberately limited.
I found this surprisingly liberating. Without a screen, I was less tempted to glance at my wrist every few minutes. However, there is a trade-off: whenever I wanted to check my health information, I had to reach for my phone.
The Smart Wake alarm was also something I got a little confused about. Fitbit’s feature is designed to vibrate your wrist within a window of up to 30 minutes before your set alarm time, ideally when you are in a lighter stage of sleep. In practice, the vibration was strong enough for me to feel, but it did not actually wake me up and I would not rely on it alone if getting up on time is important.
What I think is the screenless approach works best if you treat the Fitbit Air as a passive tracker rather than a smartwatch with features removed. It is a different way of interacting with wearable technology, and I can see why some people would prefer it.
The Fitbit Air is only half the experience. The other half is Google’s Health app, which brings together the information collected by the tracker. I found the app detailed and engaging. It organises information around sleep, heart rate, breathing and other health metrics, making it easier to explore readings and trends rather than simply looking at isolated numbers.
The app also presents information such as sleep scores, recovery readiness and weekly cardio load. Other supported features include Active Zone Minutes and Workout Intensity Maps, giving users more ways to examine their activity.
Syncing was smooth but took some time every time I opened the app during my testing. I also liked that the app made me curious about my own health data. Fitness tracking can quickly become a numbers game, but a well-organised app gives those readings more context and encourages you to return to them.
Google is also promoting Gemini-powered health coaching, intended to help users explore their health information conversationally. I opted for a weekly 50,000-step goal and often talked about it to the health coach about how to reach the goals, what are the benefits of the exercise that I do and also talk about your current health metrics.
The results it gave me were helpful. However, it is free only for three months and you will have to pay Rs 4,999 per year or Rs 499 per month if you wish to continue using such features. And that, I think, is decent money if you want to get your hands on the Health Coach, Smart Wake Alarms and some other metrics.
I compared the Fitbit Air’s readings with those from my Apple Watch Series 12 over roughly a week. Heart-rate readings were broadly similar in my experience, with my average heart rate around 64 beats per minute. HRV readings were also close, at approximately 88 milliseconds. SpO₂, skin-temperature readings, steps, calories and other general activity metrics appeared broadly similar as well.
That is encouraging for a tracker designed to collect health information without a screen. At least in my limited testing, the Fitbit Air did not feel wildly out of step with the Apple Watch across these measurements.
NOTE: These similarities are not proof of medical-grade accuracy. Wearables use different sensors and algorithms, and readings can vary with fit, movement and other factors. A week of comparison can highlight differences, but it cannot establish which device is objectively correct.
But the good thing is- Fitbit Air supports continuous heart-rate monitoring, resting heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen measurements and skin-temperature variation tracking. It also offers features such as irregular heart-rhythm notifications. These features can help users observe patterns, but they are not a substitute for medical assessment.
One limitation is that the Fitbit Air has no built-in GPS. It relies on your connected smartphone for location data during supported outdoor activities. You will need to carry your phone if you want connected GPS tracking, which reduces the freedom of leaving your phone behind.
Sleep tracking is one of the main reasons to consider a screenless fitness tracker. The Fitbit Air is comfortable enough to wear overnight, but my experience with its sleep data was less convincing.
When I compared its readings with those from my Apple Watch Series 12, the results differed. The Apple Watch appeared to capture some details more accurately in my everyday experience, particularly brief awakenings. For instance, on nights when I woke up twice to use the loo or for another reason, the Apple Watch recorded those interruptions and reflected them in its overall sleep assessment. The Fitbit Air missed some of these wake-ups.
That difference matters because sleep tracking is not just about telling you how long you were in bed. The ability to identify interruptions can influence how you interpret your sleep duration, stages and overall score.
I cannot establish from this comparison alone that the Apple Watch is always more accurate. Both devices can misinterpret sleep and wakefulness, and a week of personal testing is not enough to validate either system. Still, the missed awakenings were noticeable enough to make me question how much confidence I should place in the Fitbit Air’s sleep score.
Battery life is another area where the Fitbit Air makes a good case for itself. Google claims up to seven days, and my experience was broadly in line with that promise. The tracker lasted around seven days during my testing, with use spread across daytime and overnight tracking.
I also liked how the band notified me about the low battery. When the tracker had around 24 hours of battery life remaining, it vibrated and displayed a notification on my phone reminding me to charge it. And the charging was quick in my experience. I needed only around 30 minutes to charge.
The Google Fitbit Air is a comfortable, well-designed screenless fitness tracker that gets several fundamentals right. I liked how light it felt, how easily I could wear it throughout the day and night, and how the Google Health app made my health data more engaging. Its battery lasted around seven days in my testing, and the screenless design felt surprisingly liberating after years of wearing a smartwatch.
My heart rate, HRV, SpO2, skin temperature, and general activity comparisons with the Apple Watch Series 12 were broadly similar, but you might miss a few things like I missed sleep data or activity.
Then there is the price. At Rs 13,999, the Air feels premium for a tracker, given you will have to buy a Rs 5,000 subscription to access Health Coach and detailed sleep metrics. Its minimalism is a genuine selling point, but not everyone will consider the missing screen a benefit worth paying for.
Would I keep it? Yes, alongside my Apple Watch rather than as a replacement. The Fitbit Air is best suited to minimalists who value comfort and want a less distracting way to track their health.