The best Fitbits for your fitness and health

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In 2025, you mightiness wonderment if Fitbit is inactive relevant. Despite getting acquired by Google, Fitbit remains 1 of the astir recognizable names successful the industry. Fitbit trackers aren’t meant for the astir hardcore of athletes, but they’re inactive fantabulous devices for tracking wide enactment arsenic good arsenic monitoring definite wellness and wellness metrics similar EKGs and humor oxygen levels. 

That said, this is simply a transitional play from the Fitbit of aged to immoderate Fitbit volition beryllium successful the future. 2023, successful particular, was a messy year. There were aggregate Fitbit server outages, and I wasn’t impressed with the determination to sunset bequest assemblage features similar challenges oregon the information that each Fitbit accounts volition soon necessitate you to log successful via Google. Speaking of which, the Fitbit-to-Google relationship migration started successful 2023 and is required if you bargain newer products similar the Fitbit Charge 6 oregon Google Pixel Watch 3. The Fitbit app besides got a new, much Google-like makeover, which didn’t spell implicit good with galore users. (Google has since made adjustments based connected feedback.) And successful 2024, overmuch of Fitbit’s leadership, including co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman, near the company arsenic astir a 1000 Google employees were laid off.

You tin look astatine however Google has handled the Nest acquisition arsenic a roadworthy representation to however things are going. The Googlefication of Fitbit volition continue, but determination are reasons to instrumentality with its trackers successful the meantime. Fitbit trackers are comparatively affordable, particularly since they often spell connected sale. All the devices besides travel with a escaped proceedings to Fitbit Premium, the company’s subscription work that provides guided workouts, meditations, and entree to much in-depth metrics. So far, it appears Google takes its Pixel Watch lineup seriously, too. With the Pixel Watch 2, the institution expanded extended warranty entree and improved replacement options. You conscionable person to spell successful with eyes wide open.

If you’re not dormant acceptable connected a Fitbit successful particular, cheque retired our usher to the champion fittingness trackers and watches.

Best Fitbit smartwatch

Pixel Watch 3 (41mm, Bluetooth)

Score: 8

ProsCons
  • We yet get a bigger size!
  • Moderate artillery improvements
  • Lots of neat Google integrations
  • Good moving updates
  • Readiness and Cardio Load scores not locked down paywall
  • It’s champion with a Pixel phone
  • Loss of Pulse detection is Europe-only for now

Where to Buy:

The beingness of the Pixel Watch, present successful its 3rd generation, has thrown a wrench into Fitbit’s smartwatch lineup. Technically, it’s a Google product, but Google owns Fitbit, truthful they’re all Google products now. Fitbit powers each of the Pixel Watch’s wellness and fittingness features. But really, this is the smartwatch that Fitbit ne'er could negociate to physique connected its own.

The Pixel Watch 3 is simply a important update implicit its predecessors. It yet feels similar Google’s nary longer playing catch-up to its rivals. This clip around, the screens are brighter, the bezels are smaller, and there’s present a 45mm size for larger wrists. The larger size doesn’t look chunky, either. Internally, the processor and wellness sensors are the aforesaid arsenic those of the Pixel Watch 2, though the third-gen instrumentality has an ultra wideband spot that allows you to unlock Pixel phones and immoderate BMW car models.

The 45mm and 41mm Pixel Watch 3 successful  colorful boxes

It’s got the aforesaid beauteous plan with a circular domed show that looks mode much elegant than the squircle Versa oregon Sense smartwatches ever did. On your wrist, it looks similar a watch, not a tracker dressed up arsenic one. The show is simply a spot fragile for our taste, but arsenic of 2023, you tin get a Preferred Care extended warranty successful the US and Canada. This is 1 crushed we urge the Pixel Watch 3 implicit the original, since astatine slightest you person a much affordable fallback should thing hap to your display. Google besides announced an enactment wherever you tin skip lawsuit enactment and mail successful broken, out-of-warranty Pixel Watch devices for discounted replacements.

As for fittingness features, the Pixel Watch 3 is overmuch amended for runners than it utilized to be. It includes a caller moving dashboard, precocious signifier analytics, customized moving workouts, and adjacent AI-generated workout suggestions. It’s besides introduced a caller metric called Cardio Load, which measures the strength of your workouts and suggests a people based connected your fittingness goals. It’s conceptually akin to Garmin’s Training Load. The Daily Readiness Score has besides been revamped and is nary longer locked down the Fitbit Premium paywall. On the wellness front, users present person Loss of Pulse. If the ticker detects you’ve mislaid your pulse, it’ll telephone exigency services connected your behalf.

Additionally, Google has strengthened the watch’s integrations with its ain services arsenic good arsenic different Pixel devices. For instance, you person offline Google Maps and a Google Home Tile. You tin presumption your Nest Doorbell camera provender oregon power your Google TV from your wrist, and there’s besides the enactment to grounds audio with the Recorder app and transportation it to your phone. With Call Assist, you tin usage your ticker to archer anyone calling you request an other 2nd to prime up the phone.

Because it’s 2025, Pixel 3 owners tin besides present instrumentality vantage of Google Gemini, which began rolling retired to watches moving Wear OS 4 with Google Assistant successful July. The AI adjunct tin urge restaurants, adhd calendar events, make playlists, summarize emails, and grip different analyzable queries. It’s not ever perfect, but it’s mostly helpful.

If each you privation is simply a fittingness tracker that looks similar a smartwatch, you tin see the $149.95 ($50 off) Versa 4 since it’s the much budget-friendly option. But there’s nary existent constituent successful the Sense 2 since the Pixel Watch 3 tin bash each the aforesaid things — and more.

Read my afloat Pixel Watch 3 review.

Best fund Fitbit

Fitbit Inspire 3

The Fitbit Inspire 3 connected  apical  of a plant

Score: 7

ProsCons
  • Good entry-level fittingness & slumber tracker
  • Bright OLED display
  • Lightweight
  • Huge bezels
  • Limited features compared to cheaper Amazfit Band 7

Where to Buy:

The Inspire enactment hasn’t ever felt, well, inspired. But the $99.95 Inspire 3 is different. With a colour OLED display, it’s reminiscent of the Fitbit Luxe of 2021, lone with a matte achromatic integrative lawsuit alternatively of a metallic one. It’s a large throwback to classical Fitbits for radical who lone privation the basics.

The Inspire 3 doesn’t overcomplicate things. It’s a fittingness band. You won’t get built-in GPS, contactless payments, oregon integer assistants. Still, what it lacks successful smarts it makes up for with Fitbit’s precocious slumber tracking, accent absorption features, and irregular bosom complaint notifications. The OLED show is besides a measurement up from the Inspire 2’s monochrome screen, and you inactive get 10 days of artillery life. (Though it’s much similar 2 to 3 if you alteration the always-on display.) 

Close up   of Fitbit Inspire 3 screen. The Fitbit is resting connected  a vibrant greenish  plant.

The Inspire 3 has a assortment of accessories, including a clip attachment if you privation to way steps discreetly. There’s adjacent a gold oregon metallic mesh strap if you privation to formal it up a bit. 

To beryllium honest, the Inspire 3 and the Luxe are rather similar; however, the second has go progressively hard to find successful caller months, arsenic it’s nary longer listed connected the Google Store oregon immoderate different US retailer. That said, opting for the Luxe volition nett you a nicer lawsuit astatine the disbursal of 5 days of artillery life, assuming you tin find it.

Read our sum of the Fitbit Inspire 3 here.

Best Fitbit fittingness tracker

Fitbit Charge 6

Score: 7

ProsCons
  • Solid fittingness and wellness tracking diagnostic set
  • It’s $20 cheaper!
  • Adds much apps
  • Can broadcast HR to fittingness equipment
  • The haptic fastener is amended than the groove
  • YouTube Music is the lone enactment and that’s $11 monthly
  • The Fitbit-Google modulation is simply a lil bumpy
  • It’s not a carnal broadside button

Where to Buy:

The Charge bid has ever been popular, and the $159.95 Charge 6 is nary exception. It’s Fitbit’s higher-end fittingness set but easy competes with the much costly Versa 4 connected features. It features a colour OLED surface positive an EKG and EDA sensor. You besides get built-in GPS, NFC payments, and SpO2 sensors — the lone happening you’re truly missing is simply a integer assistant.

The lone qualm we person with the Charge 6 is the always-on display. While it’s beautiful, it’s a large artillery drain. The Charge 6 has an estimated 7 days of artillery life, but that dwindles down to astir 2 if you person the always-on show enabled. This is the aforesaid contented that we had with the Charge 5, but it’s reasonably emblematic for Fitbit trackers these days.

Altogether, though, you’re getting a hellhole of a batch for the price. It’s the lone FDA-cleared EKG wearable you tin find for nether $200, and the lone different Fitbits susceptible of EKG and EDA readings are the Sense, Sense 2, and the Pixel Watch 3. So unless you’re dormant acceptable connected the smartwatch signifier factor, the Charge 6 is the amended wide deal. 

Person wearing Fitbit Charge 6 connected  outstretched arm.

Compared to its predecessor, the Charge 6 besides adds an improved bosom complaint algorithm, Bluetooth compatibility with immoderate gym equipment, and a fewer apps — namely Google Maps, Google Wallet, and YouTube Music. While YouTube Music works well, I’m not stoked that it requires an further $10.99 monthly subscription. That said, it’s amended than nothing, arsenic Fitbit discontinued onboard euphony a portion back.

In presumption of hardware, the Charge 6 besides features a haptic fastener alternatively of an inductive groove. It’s not a carnal button, which is simply a small disappointing, but it’s much reliable frankincense acold than the inductive groove, truthful I would number this arsenic a nett positive.

You could technically get the Charge 5 astatine a discount. However, I’d lone bash that if it’s importantly cheaper and terms is your main consideration. The haptic button, portion not what I wanted, is acold amended than the inductive groove, and you person much app options. Turn-by-turn navigation is besides useful for walks, and it astatine slightest offers immoderate signifier of euphony playback.

Read our Fitbit Charge 6 review.

Best Fitbit for kids

Fitbit Ace LTE

A close-up representation  of a teenage miss  wearing the Fitbit Ace LTE connected  her wrist.

Score: 8

ProsCons
  • Great physique prime for a kids’ watch
  • Cross platform
  • Fun games that necessitate carnal enactment to unlock
  • Voice calls and substance messaging with preselected contacts
  • Family radical chat
  • You’ll person to complaint it each night
  • Only 2 colour options (but aggregate set options)

Where to Buy:

The $179.99 Fitbit Ace LTE isn’t truly a accepted fittingness tracker, though it does way progressive minutes. Instead, it’s a smartwatch with a premix of kid-friendly games and activities and thoughtful, family-oriented connection features. It’s a walled garden, but an adorable one.

Instead of rigorously tracking wellness stats, the Ace LTE tracks “active minutes,” which capable a cute advancement metre called a Noodle that runs astir the look of the watch. Active minutes gain clip with the Ace LTE’s built-in games that, combined with activities, unlock customizations for your kid’s avatar (called an Eejie) that lives successful the watch, arsenic good arsenic its small house. You tin besides unlock antithetic games and virtual items by connecting antithetic ticker straps.

With a $10/month subscription, you get real-time determination tracking and some dependable and substance messaging to preselected contacts done the Fitbit Ace app (rather than the modular messaging and telephone apps). As of November, that includes different household members with Ace LTE watches, arsenic good arsenic a household radical chat betwixt parents and kids.

Person wearing Fitbit Ace LTE

I similar that the Ace LTE is built much similar a cross-platform smartwatch for adults than different kid watches we’ve used, similar the plasticky Garmin Bounce. It uses the aforesaid charger arsenic the Pixel Watch 3, and gets astir a day’s worthy of artillery connected a charge. My kids bask it but aren’t obsessed with it — though they person been known to tally laps up and down the hallway to gain much crippled time. 

Google says the Ace LTE is champion suited for kids aged 7 to 11, and that sounds right. My oldest is 10 now, and she’s been utilizing an Ace LTE for astir a year. Once she hits mediate school, I deliberation she’ll beryllium frustrated that she can’t usage it to speech to her friends. But for now, it’s great. We precocious got 1 for our 8-year-old, and it’s wild that they tin substance each different from their watches. It besides means my 8-year-old tin spam the radical chat with emoji, but that’s good too. 

— Nathan Edwards, elder reviews editor

Read our hands-on with the Fitbit Ace LTE.

What’s coming next

Google volition apt present the Pixel Watch 4 astatine its Pixel event connected August 20th. Recent leaks suggest it’ll beryllium capable to complaint 25 percent faster than the Pixel Watch 3 and bash truthful connected its side, which could marque the wearable easier to repair. It’s besides reportedly thicker than the existent exemplary — apt to accommodate a bigger battery — and whitethorn beryllium sold successful new colors to lucifer the Pixel 10 series. It might adjacent retail for the aforesaid price arsenic the Watch 3, meaning it mightiness beryllium worthy waiting until Google’s forthcoming lawsuit earlier deciding connected which exemplary to buy.

Should you adjacent bargain a Fitbit close now?

Fitbit officially became portion of Google successful 2021. Nothing changed overnight, but technically, it’s Fitbit by Google now. The Fitbit-to-Google migration started successful earnest successful the summertime of 2023, and caller users volition beryllium asked to log into Fitbit utilizing their Google accounts. In 2026, this will beryllium mandatory for everyone. In February 2023, Google angered longtime Fitbit users by shuttering longtime social features similar Challenges and removing measurement streaks. (Step streaks person since been added back and expanded to Android.) Meanwhile, the Versa 4 and Sense 2 weren’t arsenic feature-rich astatine motorboat compared to their predecessors, starring immoderate to consciousness that Google purposefully did this to enactment the spotlight connected its Pixel Watch. There person besides been aggregate large server outages successful caller years, with the astir caller having taken spot successful July.

There’s immoderate hostility here, and the aboriginal of Fitbit hardware is murky. Especially fixed the information that Google laid disconnected astir a 1000 employees from its hardware departments spanning Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest. If you’re buying a tracker for the archetypal clip and privation it to past you a while, it mightiness marque much consciousness to opt for a Garmin oregon Amazfit tracker. Similarly, if you’re looking to upgrade to an older Versa oregon Sense smartwatch, you mightiness privation to spot wherever the particulate settles. However, if you cognize you privation a Fitbit, past spell ahead. If you’re not successful a unreserved oregon are undecided, present is not a atrocious clip to beryllium backmost and observe.

Update, August 12th: Adjusted pricing / availability, added caller details regarding the Pixel Watch 3, and mentioned Google’s forthcoming Pixel 10 event. Sheena Vasani besides contributed to this post.

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