First Impressions of the Fitbit Air
| 4 min read
A little over a week ago I took delivery of my new Fitbit Air, so I thought I'd jot down some of my thoughts after using it every day to track my health.
I recently started running again, for which I use my Suunto Run to track. I've had it for a little while now and it tracks all my walks and runs. It's pretty good, but I wanted something that I could wear along side a proper watch, so it needed to have no screen and just silently track my health as I'm not interested in replacing a proper watch with a wrist phone.
The Whoop band was an obvious contender, but the £200+ per year subscription that leaves me with a brick if I ever cancel is a deal-breaker and there was nothing else that I could find on the market...that was until the Fitbit Air came along.
Fitbit Air on one wrist, watch on the other
Price
The Fitbit Air costs £85 (~$100) and unlike the Whoop, is a one-off purchase. You also get 3 months of Fitbit Premium, which basically adds Gemini to the app to help provide context, motivation, and workout schedules. After the 3 month freebie it's $10/month, but crucially the device and app work fine without Premium. You just don't get the "AI Coach" which is probably a positive for lots of people. 🙃
I already have a Gemini subscription that gives me access to Fitbit Premium, so I get it with no extra cost anyway.
AI Coach
Although the "Coach" has made basic mistakes a few times - like referring to my Suunto watch as a set of smart scales, or incorrectly stating I'd done a 10km run instead of a 5km one - generally speaking I've found the extra context and advice it gives to be very useful. It has helped me to tweak some of my strength sessions and improve my form while running.
My hope is that the basic mistakes the AI is making is down to teething problems. If so, I'd like to think they will improve with time. Like anything AI generated though, it's important to not take the feedback and advice it gives as gospel.
Whenever it's made mistakes and I've called it out, it's always responds with the correct data and context afterward.
Comfort
Most of the time I don't even notice I have the Air on. It's so small and light - it just chugs away in the background, doing its thing. It's also about half the width of the Whoop.
I bought the rubber strap for mine too, which is more comfortable while running, and less absorbent than the standard canvas strap, so hopefully no sweat will sink into it.
The OEM straps are super expensive though, so I'm looking forward to aftermarket ones becoming available.
Battery life
Google advertise the Air as having a 1 week battery life. I can attest to that - I'd easily get a week out of this.
It's also super quick to charge. Earlier in the week I was down to around 30% battery, so I chucked it on charge while I jumped in the shower. 20 mins later when I put it back on, it was nearly fully charged.
This is great news as I'll be able to keep it topped up when I shower, then pop it back on when I go to bed so it can track my sleep.
The Google factor
This is the major downside to all this - Fitbit are owned by Google, so they're likely to use the data in all kinds of unscrupulous ways.
But the way I'm looking at it is that the gamification, the data, and the motivation that this little thing provides is helping me to get out and exercise. That's because I love data, so being able to review it all after my workouts, and see progress is hugely motivating. So if it helps me to get fit, and stay fit, it's a price I think I'm willing to pay.
I'm kind of at the point in my life now where I just want things to work for me. If there's tradeoffs, so be it. Anything for an easy (and healthier) life.
Final thoughts
This post was a little all over the place. But overall, I really like the Fitbit Air. The data is keeping me motivated, and although the AI Coach makes mistakes, it is helping me navigate the data and improve my training, so I'll take that as a win.
For me, it's an easy decision between this and the Whoop. The Fitbit wins out.
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