{"id":546055,"date":"2026-07-27T10:32:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:32:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/546055\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T10:32:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T10:32:12","slug":"im-switching-my-fitbit-air-for-the-garmin-cirqa-tech-advisor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/546055\/","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m switching my Fitbit Air for the Garmin Cirqa \u2013 Tech Advisor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first big-brand competitor to hit the market was the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techadvisor.com\/article\/3148029\/google-fitbit-air-review.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Fitbit Air<\/a>, which arrived just a few months ago, bringing along a completely revamped Google Health app along for the ride. I absolutely loved my time with the Air, and I\u2019ve been using it since that review period to help stay on top of my overall fitness, which, at a time when I\u2019m working freelance hours and caring for a baby, has been tough.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a big fan of Garmin smartwatches, however (I currently love the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.techadvisor.com\/article\/2865737\/garmin-venu-x1-review.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Garmin Venu X1<\/a>), I\u2019ve been very eager to see what Garmin\u2019s interpretation of the concept would look like, and after my short time with it, here are three reasons why the Cirqa is replacing the Fitbit Air on my wrist.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_1079.jpg\" alt=\"Garmin Cirqa worn on a wrist\" class=\"wp-image-3197018\" width=\"1200\" height=\"674\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"imageCredit\">Thomas Deehan \/ Foundry<\/p>\n<p>It makes good on the \u201cno subscription\u201d promise<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As much as I love the Whoop Strap, the fact that the device becomes about as useful as a paperweight if you stop paying for the subscription is absurd, and it\u2019s exactly why the Fitbit Air, without such terms attached and a very reasonable \u00a384\/$99 asking price, is such a tempting prospect to a lot of people.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The problem, however, is that while you do get a decent fitness tracking experience right out of the box, the true power of the Fitbit Air doesn\u2019t really come into focus unless you fork out for the additional Google Health Coach service, which carries a monthly cost of \u00a37.99\/$9.99 (or an annual fee). <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By comparison, the Garmin Cirqa offers a far more robust fitness tracking experience with all of the bells and whistles you could possibly want.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Just like with having a Garmin watch in tow, you\u2019re getting access to all of the workout details that are perfect for those who want to make gains wherever possible, with insights into everything from the estimated sweat loss to whether or not the exercise pushed your body to its highest threshold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The first big-brand competitor to hit the market was the Fitbit Air, which arrived just a few months&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":546056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[356,111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-546055","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-gadgets","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}