{"id":660179,"date":"2026-10-29T02:18:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-29T02:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660179\/"},"modified":"2026-10-29T02:18:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-29T02:18:29","slug":"everything-old-is-new-again-with-the-fitbit-edge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/660179\/","title":{"rendered":"Everything old is new again with the Fitbit Edge"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, I sank into my living room couch and watched a bedraggled, nihilistic Matthew McConaughey take a drag of a cigarette in season 1 of True Detective. \u201cYou know, someone once told me time is a flat circle. Everything we\u2019ve done, or will do, we\u2019re gonna do over and over and over again.\u201d I assume most people aren\u2019t thinking about fitness trackers or gadgets while watching that scene. But in that moment, I couldn\u2019t help but think about the Fitbit Edge on my wrist.<\/p>\n

The $179.99 Edge is a modernized version of the 2014-to-2020 era of fitness bands \u2014 your Charges, your Altas, your Inspires. If you\u2019ve ever owned one, you already know the vast majority of what the Edge is like. It\u2019s lightweight. You swipe on a small display that shows you basic health and fitness metrics. It lasts for about a week on a charge \u2014 though that shrunk down to about a day and a half with the always-on display enabled. It\u2019s a device that isn\u2019t trying to be much more than what it is.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

$180<\/p>\n

The GoodEasy to wearLong battery lifeSleeker lookImproved automatic activity trackingVery comfyPhysical side button!Works on iOS and AndroidThe BadKinda expensive for what it isThe alternative straps are really expensiveNo contactless paymentsSome of you will hate the bezels<\/p>\n

The difference is that the Edge feels more refined on the wrist. Where the Fitbit Charge 6<\/a>\u2019s display felt boxy, the Edge is fully rounded, giving it a softer vibe. The straps are interchangeable, but with an easier button-release system. The metal link bracelet gives it a more jewelry-like feel, though it costs almost as much as the Edge itself at $150. I\u2019m partial to the $60 magnetic strap, which mimics leather despite being made of silicone. The widgets borrow heavily from the Pixel Watch\u2019s Material 3 Expressive redesign. Though to be clear, this is a proprietary Fitbit OS, not Wear OS. Some of the new watchfaces are elegant, though others highlight the Edge\u2019s big black bezels. (Some things truly never change.)<\/p>\n

Functionally, it\u2019s also a step above the Fitbit Air. There\u2019s built-in GPS for tracking walks and runs without your phone. You can have alarms, view notifications, and control music. You can\u2019t take calls on the wrist \u2014 there are no microphones or speakers. Contactless payments are also a no-go. Andy Abramson, head of product at Google Health, says that\u2019s because \u201cless than one percent [of Charge 6 owners] used the feature\u201d and that Google instead prioritized a \u201csleek design, altimeter, and weeklong battery.\u201d That walks back some of the advancements that have come to the Charge lineup over the years, but if you want to put a silver lining on that, it narrows the Edge\u2019s focus. This is a fitness tracker. There\u2019s some glanceable information, but there\u2019s absolutely no smartwatch creep here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The metal links look nice, but do they look $150 extra nice??<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019m more partial to the magnetic strap.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The rounded face gives a sleeker look and feel on the wrist compared to the Charge 6.<\/p>\n

The big software change is the demise of the Fitbit app as we knew it. It\u2019s Google Health now, with an AI coach if you pony up for the yearly subscription. (You get three months free with purchase; otherwise it\u2019s $10 monthly.) I\u2019ve written about the overall experience in my Fitbit Air review<\/a>. The broad strokes are the same, though in the months since, Google has spent a lot of time tinkering with and iterating on it. Most notably, the company has beefed up automatic activity tracking.<\/p>\n

To test this, I tracked a handful of runs on the Edge without officially starting an activity. I then compared that to one tracked by an Apple Watch Ultra 4 and my iPhone\u2019s Runna app. I was surprised, but noticed limitations. For example, on a 2.4-mile run with a five-minute warmup walk and cooldown, the Edge correctly identified the exact moment my warmup transitioned into a legit run and then back into a walk. The estimated distance was also pretty decent at 2.55 miles. It wasn\u2019t quite as good at gauging my running speed. It logged me as running a 10\u201949\u201d mile pace, whereas my actual pace according to the Apple Watch and my phone was 11\u201938\u201d. This pattern was fairly typical across my testing, so it\u2019s more that this is a nifty way to still \u201cget credit\u201d if you forget to track an activity.<\/p>\n

Otherwise, the AI coach is still a Chatty Cathy and requires some weekly hand-holding to get the most out of it. I\u2019ll say it again: The Google Health app can feel cluttered, and I get tripped up looking for information that used to be easy to find, like past workouts. However, if you\u2019re new to fitness and want guidance in creating and sticking to a custom AI-generated routine, this is still the best experience I\u2019ve had so far. The bar is in hell, though, and beware what you initially share with the coach. I regret ever telling it I used to have shin splints, as it remains convinced my perfectly fine shins are in danger of disintegrating with every run.<\/p>\n

\"Top-down<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s still such a Chatty Cathy.<\/p>\n

I wish I could tell you about the Health Guardian features, which should let Fitbit Edge users see noninvasive insulin resistance and blood pressure trends. Alas, the way my testing schedule worked out, I have to wait until November 1st to get my initial results.<\/p>\n

All in all, I enjoyed the Fitbit Edge as a low-key tracker. This will appeal to folks who just want the basics, but aren\u2019t willing to commit to the screenless life. I\u2019m thinking of the Vergecast listeners who occasionally write in, wondering what happened to simple fitness bands<\/a>, tired of the smartwatch agenda that took over the past few years. The only gripe I really have is $179.99 feels a tad expensive for what you\u2019re getting. Especially since the Fitbit Air is only $99, and for iPhone users, the Apple Watch SE 3<\/a> starts at $249. Brands like Xiaomi and Amazfit also offer much cheaper trackers with displays, even if they\u2019re not quite as sleek on the wrist.<\/p>\n

You have to admit: It\u2019s kind of funny that in 2026 we\u2019ve gone full circle and come back to this particular form factor. For the past two weeks of testing, I felt like I\u2019d been blasted back to what I thought was a bygone era in my career. My bet is still on smartwatches being the dominant wrist-based wearable in the years to come. However, this renewed yearning for simpler trackers feels significant at a time when AI health and fitness coaches demand more data in increasingly invasive ways<\/a>. There\u2019s a growing weariness that can\u2019t be ignored \u2014 and yet for many of us, it\u2019s not fully practical to truly log off with a screenless device. So if that\u2019s you, the Edge is here because hey \u2014 time truly is a flat circle.<\/p>\n

Agree to Continue: Google Fitbit Edge<\/p>\n

Every smart device now requires you to agree to a series of terms and conditions before you can use it \u2014 contracts that no one actually reads. It\u2019s impossible for us to read and analyze every single one of these agreements. But we started counting exactly how many times you have to hit \u201cagree\u201d to use devices when we review them, since these are agreements most people don\u2019t read and definitely can\u2019t negotiate.<\/p>\n

To use the Google Fitbit Edge, you must pair it with an iPhone or Android smartphone. That includes the phone\u2019s Terms of Service, privacy policy, and any other permissions you grant. The same goes for any third-party health integrations with other services. For example, if you choose to upload your medical records, you\u2019re agreeing to use CLEAR for identity verification \u2014 meaning you\u2019d be agreeing to CLEAR\u2019s terms of service and privacy policies too. There are several optional permissions for things such as location, Bluetooth, camera, background app refresh, notifications, and cellular data.<\/p>\n

By setting up the Fitbit Edge, you\u2019re agreeing to:<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re concerned about your health data being used to train Google\u2019s AI, that option is turned off by default and must be opted in to. Similarly, the terms and conditions for Google\u2019s acquisition of Fitbit require that your health data be stored separately and not used for Google\u2019s targeted ad business.<\/p>\n

Final Tally: three mandatory agreements, several optional permissions<\/p>\n

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See All Wearable<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, I sank into my living room couch and watched a bedraggled, nihilistic Matthew McConaughey take a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[589,39856,330,163,85,46,1530,141,920,2173],"class_list":["post-660179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fitness","tag-fitness","tag-fitness-tracker-reviews","tag-gadgets","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-reviews","tag-science","tag-tech","tag-wearable"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}