Google announced the Fitbit Air this week, a screenless fitness tracker that goes after the Whoop crowd and positions itself as the next generation of the brand. Amazon responded the same way it usually does when a new product drops: by making the previous generation significantly cheaper. The Fitbit Charge 6 is now $119, down from its regular $159, and our take is that for most people it remains the better buy regardless of what just got announced.
A screen still matters, and the Charge 6 has one of the best on any fitness tracker
The Fitbit Air ditches the display entirely, which works for a certain kind of user who wants pure background tracking without any interaction. The Charge 6 takes the opposite position: a 1.04-inch touchscreen that gives you real-time stats during workouts, turn-by-turn directions from Google Maps during runs or rides, and Google Wallet for contactless payments when you leave your phone behind. These are not features you can replicate with a screenless tracker, and for anyone who actually looks at their wrist during exercise, the difference is significant.
The health tracking covers the full range: built-in GPS for accurate outdoor distance without needing your phone, continuous heart rate monitoring, ECG readings, sleep tracking with a sleep score, blood oxygen monitoring, and stress management tools. The Charge 6 connects directly to gym equipment that supports heart rate sharing, so your treadmill or rowing machine picks up your real heart rate rather than estimating from grip sensors. Battery runs seven days on a single charge, which covers a full week of workouts and sleep tracking before you need to think about plugging it in, and the IP68 water resistance rating handles swimming and heavy sweat without issue.
Six months of Fitbit Premium membership come included in the box, which normally costs around $80 on its own and adds personalized insights, guided programs, stress management sessions, and a more detailed sleep analysis. That effectively brings the real cost of the tracker down to around $40 for the hardware alone if you were planning to subscribe anyway.
The Fitbit Air will appeal to people who want the simplest possible tracker and don’t mind paying for the novelty of the new format. The Charge 6 at $119 appeals to everyone else: GPS, a proper screen, Google Maps, Google Wallet, ECG, sleep tracking, and six months of Premium included, from the number two best-selling fitness tracker on Amazon with over 20,000 reviews and more than 8,000 units sold last month.