Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop: Should you get Fitbit's new screenless tracker or opt for the more expensive, subscription-based original? | Tech Radar

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Google Fitbit Air vs Whoop: Should you get Fitbit's new screenless tracker or opt for the more expensive, subscription-based original?

How the screenless, AI-powered fitness trackers compare

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Last week, Google launched the Google Fitbit Air, its much-rumored screenless fitness tracker designed to be its entry into the set-and-forget 'focus wearable' market. I should say re-entry really, as the original Fitbit and Fitbit Flex bands were exactly this type of device: minimalist pucks or bands, with very limited scope for interaction, and no screens to speak of.

Right now the category of simple, screenless wearables is dominated by the likes of the best smart rings and by fitness trackers such as Whoop, which is undoubtedly the most popular of the wrist-based screenless fitness bands out there. Whoop has been in the screenless tracker game for years, and is a popular choice for serious athletes, biohackers and wellness enthusiasts alike.

But Whoop's offering isn't cheap, as you don't buy the device outright; instead you get it as part of an annual subscription to the Whoop app, with the subscription tiers increasing in price as more features are included.

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While I haven't yet had any hands-on time with the Google Fitbit Air (I'm expecting a review unit very soon), we can compare the listed specs, features and subscription prices to identify which fitness tracker is right for you.

Google Health Premium:

Whoop One membership: £169 /

Whoop One membership: £169 /

Up to 7 days, 90 mins charge (5 mins fast charge for 1 day's battery)

Up to 7 days, 90 mins charge (5 mins fast charge for 1 day's battery)

Above is a table comparing some of the specifications of the Google Fitbit Air to the Whoop 5.0 and premium Whoop MG bands. Perhaps a good place to start here is the weight, as Google states that the Fitbit Air weighs just 12 grams with a band or five grams on its own, hence the name. The Whoop devices weigh more than double that. The Fitbit is also far better for diving, as according to Google it's water resistant up to 50 meters.

The Google Fitbit Air can last for a week, while the Whoops offer only a few days of battery life each. However, they do come with a battery pack that can slot onto the device while you wear it to charge the device, which means you can get 14 days of constant data with no need to take the device off to charge it at all. In theory, the only time you'd ever need to take your Whoop off is to change the band, should you want to.

As more expensive devices, the Whoops incorporate stainless steel into their clasps, whereas the Fitbit is all plastic.

If you do choose to subscribe, you're essentially paying for the tracker again on an annual basis in order to get all the AI features and unlock advice to help you use those metrics. There's no doubt this is intended to be a core feature rather than an optional extra, but you do have the option not to subscribe. You could also pay monthly, but you end up paying around $20 US dollars more per year than an annual subscription (international pricing is TBC).

Whoop, on the other hand, requires a subscription to work at all, starting at a fairly reasonable £169 /

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You get those (along with a nicer Whoop MG band and a wireless charger puck) with a Whoop Peak membership, which costs £229 /

There's no doubt about it: over time, the Whoop will be pricier than the Google Fitbit Air by a significant margin. While the Google Fitbit Air is the cheaper option of the two, the breadth of the AI Coach's features might make it a better value prospect too, unless you want specific features like Whoop's Stress score, workout builder or the MG's electrocardiogram (ECG) functionality.

The Fitbit Air, Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG all pack PPG LED heart rate sensors, and all the best smartwatch features such as heart rate, step counting, calorie burn estimation, skin temperature and blood oxygen monitoring. I haven't tested the accuracy of Fitbit's sensor yet.

The key difference between the two Whoops, however, is that the Whoop MG has an advanced 'Heart Screener' sensor functionality which can be used for ECG scans, which can aid in detecting atrial fibrillation or irregular heart rate. According to Whoop, it "meets and exceeds clinical-accuracy standards".

The Fitbit Air doesn't have this functionality, but the Fitbit Charge 6 does — so if you're looking to keep an eye on your heart health, you'll need to opt for the Charge series or a more expensive Whoop MG.

The Google Fitbit Air's feature set includes a lot of the same stuff from the Fitbit app, including historic graphs of your movement and sleep data along with a Daily Readiness score, but many of the actionable insights are locked behind the Google Health Coach, the AI coaching service that comes with a Google Health Premium subscription. The Coach shows you demonstrations for different exercises, advises you on how to get better sleep, can generate meal and exercise plans, and can incorporate medical records.

Whoop's AI coach offers useful, actionable insights too, and its workout builder is based on a comprehensive library of fitness moves that also includes demonstrations. While Google allows you to upload your medical records to the app, serious biohackers can send away for blood tests in the US via the Whoop app, to get results for biomarkers such as hormone levels and vitamin deficiencies that Whoop's AI can incorporate. New features are rolling out that will also allow you to contact licensed clinicians through the app.

However, despite Whoop having a longer list of features, I'm looking forward to spending time with Google's health-focused LLM Coach to identify the breadth of its capabilities. I'm willing to bet that the flexibility of the Coach service, together with the ability to feed it your data, will make it an excellent value proposition.

The Whoop devices do have some innovations that Fitbit doesn't have, such as that innovative charger, the metallic physical elements and a more comprehensive feature set, but during testing I'll be specifically testing the breadth of the Fitbit's AI coach, trying to see if it can replicate some of the Whoop bands' best features.

Matt is Tech Radar's expert on all things fitness, wellness and wearable tech.

A former staffer at Men's Health, he holds a Master's Degree in journalism from Cardiff and has written for brands like Runner's World, Women's Health, Men's Fitness, Live Science and Fit&Well on everything fitness tech, exercise, nutrition and mental wellbeing.

Matt's a keen runner, ex-kickboxer, not averse to the odd yoga flow, and insists everyone should stretch every morning. When he’s not training or writing about health and fitness, he can be found reading doorstop-thick fantasy books with lots of fictional maps in them.

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