By https://www.techradar.com/author/matt-evans
Publication Date: 2026-05-31 00:00:00
The Google Fitbit Air is here, and early adopters are getting to grips with the new screenless fitness tracker and its AI-powered premium Google Health Coach.
I’ve shared my early thoughts after a few hours of testing and we’ve covered existing Fitbit users’ disappointment and anger over some of the app changes — but how does it compare against an Apple Watch, perhaps the best-known and certainly the most commonly-spotted fitness wearable on wrists everywhere?
To find out, I went on a 10-kilometer evening run (braving the UK heatwave) with the Google Fitbit Air on one hand, and the Apple Watch Ultra 3 on the other. I was also wearing the Polar H10 heart rate monitor, intending to use it as a litmus test for accuracy, but the chest strap malfunctioned so I don’t have any meaningful results to publish here.
I’m primarily looking at metrics such as heart rate and calories burned. Both wearables use optical…
