Nearly half a year after the wild success of Fitbit Air, Google’s wearable division just released a second fitness tracker with even more features. Fitbit Edge slots directly between the sleek Air and Pixel Watch as a goldilocks option for many users, but its price could be a deterrent for some.
Fitbit has coasted along since Google acquired it in 2021, releasing iterative updates to its existing trackers but falling short of launching anything groundbreakingly new. That changed this year, when Google introduced the ultra-slim Fitbit Air. During my extensive trial period, I loved Air for its sleek, lightweight, and simple design, though the AI-powered Coach hallucinated too much to be reliable for anything other than a neat toy to play with.
At first glance, Fitbit Edge is poised as an upscaled version of Charge with a bit of design language borrowed from Pixel Watch.
One thing noticeably absent from Fitbit Air was a display. This was by design, of course. Fitbit Air was meant to be a no-muss-no-fuss tracker with as few distractions as possible. No bright lights. No notifications. Instead, it just sits on the wrist, silently collecting data and ushering it into the new Google Health app.
Some users aren’t happy with such a simple device. They want to be able to see their data without grabbing their phone, opening an app, and syncing their tracker. For those users, Fitbit Edge may be a better option.
Fitbit Edge is an entirely brand-new device from Fitbit. It slides directly between the simplified Fitbit Air and the more robust Pixel Watch in both price and features. It also replaces a long-time fan favorite device, the Fitbit Charge, that originally launched in 2014. Rest in peace.
At first glance, Fitbit Edge is poised as an upscaled version of Charge with a bit of design language borrowed from Pixel Watch. Unlike the plastic and fabric that makes up Air, Edge has an oblong aluminum frame that comes in four distinct colors — matte black, satin silver, satin pyrite, and champagne gold — paired with a silicone Active Band in obsidian (black), fog (light blue), olive, and canyon (coral pink). Continuing its partnership with Stephen Curry, Fitbit also offers a Stephen Curry special edition fabric band.
The user interface is extremely simple. There’s only one button on the side that can be used to wake the device, or start and stop workouts. As for the 1.3” AMOLED color display, it’s fully touch compatible, so you can use it to swipe through data as you would on a typical smartwatch.
Google claims Fitbit Edge gets a full seven days of battery life. This will need to be tested after the device launches, but if it’s true, that would put it on par with the Fitbit Air that also achieves approximately seven days per charge. This number is even more impressive with Edge, though, since it also needs more power to light the always-on AMOLED display.
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When it comes to data duty, Fitbit Edge collects the important metrics you’d expect from a Google fitness tracker — continuous heart rate, oxygen levels, and sleep quality, and it includes an entire array of heart health features, like AFib detection, irregular heart rate notifications, and high/low heart rate alerts.
Google unveiled several new features in August, collectively dubbed Health Guardian, that are built into Fitbit Edge. Insulin resistance trends use heart rate data to look for signs of early blood glucose complications, all without penetrating the skin or requiring a blood sample. Meanwhile, blood pressure trends also use heart rate data to search for potential signs of high blood pressure without requiring a dedicated blood pressure cuff. Health Guardian is coming to Fitbit Air soon, but it will launch on day one with Edge. To get the most out of Health Guardian, however, the entire feature set, with sleep breathing quality thrown in, is reserved for Pixel Watch.
Two things that Fitbit Edge has that Air doesn’t — a built-in GPS sensor and an altimeter. Both can be used during outdoor workouts to map runs and track elevation changes. To get this data with Fitbit Air, you’d need to bring your phone during a workout session, but Edge can gather these on its own.
All of this is meant to prop up Google’s AI-powered Coach that’s built into the Google Health app. After nearly half a year since it launched, Coach is still fundamentally flawed, in that it can occasionally misinterpret data or even hallucinate results, especially if there are gaps in the data. Presumably, Google will improve Coach over time, and while it remains an interesting tool to tinker with, I wouldn’t stake your health on it just yet. Take whatever it says with a grain of salt, at least for now.
If you love Fitbit hardware or software, and you like fitness trackers with built-in displays, Fitbit Edge might just be for you. If you walk or run outside often and you want to map your runs without bringing your phone, Fitbit Edge also might be for you. However, for the vast majority of people who just want a simple fitness tracker that gets the basics right, it’s hard to overlook Fitbit Air, especially at just $99.99.
If the latter sounds more like your speed, check out the latest entry in our long-term Fitbit Air review that covers the device as it ages, as well as any new features and bug fixes that roll out along the way.
As for Fitbit Edge, it’s currently available for preorder at $179.99 — almost double the price of Fitbit Air, just for the privilege of an added display and a couple extra sensors, and $20 more than the defunct Charge 6. Only you can decide if the price is worth it, but to me, it makes Fitbit Air all that much more appealing. Fitbit Edge is expected to ship later this month when devices hit store shelves on Tuesday, October 27.
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