My Life With The Fitbit Air
I've never needed a watch to remind me to breathe. Turns out, I do need something to remind me to stand up.
That's the honest reason I picked up the Fitbit Air. Not for the sleep scores, not for the heart rate graphs, but because I wanted a nudge. Something quietly sat on my wrist, keeping me a bit more honest about how much of my day is spent glued to a chair. Two weeks in, and it's actually working.
🎯 Why I Skipped Whoop and the Apple Watch
I'll be upfront, I've never owned a Whoop, and I'm already sat firmly in the Apple ecosystem, so the Apple Watch was the obvious "safe" choice too. Neither of them made it onto my wrist, and it wasn't an accident.
Here's the thing about Whoop that put me off before I'd even tried it: you don't buy the hardware, you rent it. The band comes "free" with a membership, but that membership is £169 to £289 a year, and if you ever stop paying, the band stops working. Full stop. It becomes an expensive bracelet.
The Apple Watch is a different problem entirely. It's a brilliant bit of kit.
I'm not knocking it, but it's a screen. My whole reason for doing this was to move away from another glowing rectangle nagging at me with notifications, not add a smaller one to my other wrist. It's also not cheap, with the current Series 11 sitting at £369 RRP.
Between a subscription I couldn't cancel and a screen I didn't want, neither felt right. That's a lot of ongoing commitment, or ongoing spend, for something I wanted to try, not marry.
⌚ Enter the Fitbit Air
The Fitbit Air is Google's answer to exactly that problem; a tiny, screenless pebble that clips into a fabric band, does its job quietly, and doesn't demand a subscription just to switch on.
No screen means no notifications buzzing away, no temptation to check the time mid-meeting, no extra glowing rectangle competing for my attention. That was the whole appeal. I've got enough distractions in my pocket already.
💷 The Money Bit
This is where it really separates itself from the other two, so let's do the maths.
The Fitbit Air costs £84.99, one-off, and that's yours to keep. It comes with three months of Google Health Premium thrown in for free, which unlocks the AI coaching and deeper sleep insights. After that, Premium is optional at around £8 a month or £79 a year if you want it. Crucially, the core stuff; steps, heart rate, sleep tracking, the day-to-day nudges doesn't need a subscription at all. Here's how the three stack up:
Fitbit Air
- Upfront: £84.99
- Ongoing: Optional, ~£79/year
- Works if you stop paying? Yes, core features stay free forever
Apple Watch (Series 11)
- Upfront: £369
- Ongoing: Optional, ~£9.99/month for Fitness+
- Works if you stop paying? Yes, but you've paid £369 to get there
Whoop £0 (bundled)
- Upfront: £0 (bundled)
- Ongoing: Mandatory, £169–£289/year
- Works if you stop paying? No, the band stops working entirely
Put that way, the Fitbit Air is the only one of the three that doesn't ask something ongoing of you, whichever way you look at it.
🚶 What It's Actually Done for Me
I wear it round the clock; sleeping, working, the lot and only take it off to charge (about an hour once a week) and when I shower. It's water-resistant, but I'm just not a fan of a soggy band for the rest of the day.
The sleep reports are nice to have. But if I'm honest, they're not the star of the show for me yet; two weeks isn't long enough to spot real patterns, and I'm not chasing perfect sleep scores. It's motivation dressed up as measurement, and for me, that's exactly what was missing.
⚠️ The Honest Bits
I'm not going to pretend two weeks makes me an expert, and I won't pretend it's flawless.
No screen means you're fully reliant on your phone to see anything; fine for me, but worth knowing if you like glancing at your wrist, which is exactly what the Apple Watch does better.
I also can't yet tell you how I'll feel about the Premium price once my free trial runs out; ask me again in three months. And since I've never worn a Whoop or an Apple Watch as a fitness tracker myself, I can't tell you which has the deeper data, only that the Fitbit Air gives me plenty without asking for my bank details, or £369, up front.
🔋 Early Verdict
For under £85 and no ongoing obligation, the Fitbit Air has done exactly what I needed it to do: get me off the sofa a bit more often, without becoming another screen shouting for my attention. Whether it stays on my wrist in three months' time, subscription or not, is a story for another day.
Have you tried the Fitbit Air, or are you firmly team Whoop or team Apple Watch?
Let me know in the comments.