Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: I walked 9,000 steps with both - here's the tracker I'm recommending to friends this year

It's been a big year for Google, which released its first Fitbit in years and then the latest Pixel Watch within just months of each other, leading to natural comparisons between the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5.

Anyone who looks at these devices can see one big difference (two if you look at the price tags), but after testing them both for a few weeks, I learnt these potentially had more in common than just being on my list of the best Fitbits.

I put both the Fitbit Air and Google Pixel Watch 5 through their paces, doing my usual 8,000 steps a day, multiple running and strength workouts, nights of sleep, and daily movement.

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5

Specifications

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: A quick overview

The key difference between the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5 is purpose. One (Fitbit Air) is a genuinely reasonably priced fitness tracker, designed to sit and work discreetly on your wrist while you go about daily life. It'll record your steps, workouts, sleep, and stress all in the background. It's less advanced than the Google Pixel Watch 5, but it's also a third of the price.

The other (Google's Pixel Watch 5) is a premium smartwatch. It's designed to be your left-hand woman throughout the day, and it's designed to provide advanced insights into your wellbeing, from exercise to heart health.

That said, those insights are very, very similar, as they both use the Google Health app. They are especially similar if you sign up for the Premium version of the Google Health app at an additional cost of £7.99 per month (or £79.99 per year). Read on to find out just how similar, and how to choose between the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5 for your next upgrade.

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: What are they like to wear?

The most obvious difference between these two devices is the design. The Fitbit Air is a lightweight, screenless band with a stainless steel buckle. The sensor sits over the wrist, tucked under the nylon band, which is secured with Velcro. The Pixel Watch 5 is undoubtedly more premium, with a domed full-colour screen housed in aluminium with a comfortable silicone strap.

During testing, I noticed that the Google Pixel Watch 5 was more comfortable to wear. While the Fitbit Air is more discreet and can sit next to a small, regular timepiece, looking like a sporty bracelet, it is a little bulkier than I was expecting, and the Pixel Watch doesn't have the same rough-feeling material against the skin.

The Google Pixel Watch 5 has a raised face, but it also sits flush against the wrist, more so than other smartwatches I've tested, so I found it barely noticeable during the day or while I was on my walk. The screen has a default always-on mode, but you can turn this off, so it only comes to life when you purposefully raise your wrist.

That being said, you can wear the Fitbit Air on other parts of the body - such as around the ankle or arm - and you can't do this with the Pixel Watch. It would be inconvenient at best and impossible for most.

Winner: Google Pixel Watch 5 is more comfortable, but it depends on your preference

Fitness tracking on the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5

If your main goal in buying one of these devices is to improve your fitness, the Fitbit Air is a great choice at under £100, saving you money you can spend on signing up for the Premium version of the Google Health app.

It does all the basics you can expect from even the cheapest Fitbit (like recording workouts, step count, calorie burn, heart rate, and sleep data) so excellently that it knocks basically any other Fitbit out of the water. Instead of viewing these insights on your watch, you see them in the Google Health app, where you'll get a Gemini-created rundown of your day and activities, highlighting wins and areas to improve. You can also create workouts or take suggestions from a pre-made plan based on your fitness goals, and send those workouts to your watch to follow.

It automatically picked up my walking workouts, too, so didn't have to take my phone out to get going. It truly works alongside you. I was so impressed during testing. I could leave the Fitbit Air on my wrist to tick along throughout the day, and on some days, the only times I opened the app were in the morning and at night. But there all my data was, ready to dive into, with full insights available. It's a hands-off, refreshing way to incorporate health insights into daily life.

All this is true, unless you're a runner or want to see your step count on your wrist as you walk (it updates as you go in the app). Then the Fitbit Air lacks one basic feature: a screen. This isn't a running watch, but the Google Pixel Watch 5 could be. It has all the same fitness-tracking features as above, but you can also see the details on your wrist. This is pretty essential if you're doing a workout where you need to see your distance, pace, and how long you've been moving. Of course, if you're a casual jogger, you may be able to go without this.

Winner: Fitbit Air - unless you want a watch for running workouts

Sleep and health insights on the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5

The Pixel Watch 5 is packed with new health features, including a Blood Pressure Trend report, insulin monitoring, and a Sleep Disturbances report. It's as much an independent health monitor as a smartwatch and fitness tracker, comparing your everyday vitals to your baseline and flagging any potential issues.

Many of these aren't available on the Fitbit Air, but some are supported, such as the Blood Pressure Trend reports. It's not a blood pressure reading, but rather insights from an algorithm that compares your data with insights from half a million users and 60 billion hours of heart rate data, so it seems very accurate, and it can flag if your blood pressure is starting to trend upwards.

Insulin Resistance Trend can also be found on both the Fitbit Air and the Google Pixel Watch 5. It's designed as an early detection tool, a non-invasive way to track whether your metabolic health is ticking along normally, using insights from your sleep, fitness, and manually-added nutrition data.

And naturally, as you're not looking at the screen of your Google Pixel Watch 5 while you're asleep, the fact that all the data is in the app makes no difference, whatever device you're using. It's also almost the same data, including sleep stages, duration, and AI insights into the quality of this sleep, but it doesn't have the Sleep Disturbances report, which is exclusive to the Google Pixel Watch 5, for now.

So the Google Pixel Watch 5 has the edge here, but for how much longer, as Google has provided Fitbit Air users with the same sleep data and similar health metrics?

Winner: Google Pixel Watch 5

Smartwatch features on the Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5

The Google Pixel Watch 5 is a smartwatch, so it's the better option for Android users looking for a digital assistant to help as much at home and in the office as in the gym. The Fitbit Air doesn't have a screen, so it lacks basically all smartwatch functionality.

The Google Pixel Watch 5 is maxed out with Google connectivity. You can pay for a coffee with Google Pay, check out your calendar for the week, set a timer, use your camera remotely, make phone calls, return texts, and so much. Thanks to the improved integration with Gemini, you can also do most of these without touching a single button.

Proactive Suggestions takes into account key information like location, calendar, and messages to display what you actually need. For example, when I was testing the watch, I went to get on a train. My ticket popped up from the app so I could tap through the gate without getting my phone out.

Gesture-led actions came about on the Pixel Watch 3 but they are new and improved for the 5. You can pinch your fingers together to start and stop workouts, answer phone calls and text, and more.

Winner: Google Pixel Watch 5

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: Battery life

The Fitbit Air can last for seven full days and nights on a single charge. The Pixel Watch 5 lasts just 30 hours (on the 41mm option), which is a huge difference. Undoubtedly, the screen and smartwatch features are to blame for the difference, but it seems to be a persistent problem with smartwatches of this calibre. The Apple Watch Series 11 and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 9 have it too.

It makes a difference in daily life. With the Pixel Watch, I found I had to keep taking it off to charge, which meant I didn't have it when I wanted to go for a workout, log steps, or go to sleep. 15 minutes on the charger can get you a full night of battery and more, but it's still a delay.

The Fitbit Air works quietly in the background, maintaining battery and ticking along.

Winner: Fitbit Air

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: Battery life

The Fitbit Air is £84.99, and the Google Pixel Watch 5 is £369, available from the Google Store or third-party retailers like Amazon.

Both are new devices, so I don't expect them to go on sale for a long while, but I'll keep an eye out for deals in the winter seasonal sales all the same.

This is obviously a huge difference - and that difference is reflected in the features. I remain impressed by the Fitbit Air. Its wearability, connectivity to the Google Health app and price are all excellent and offer real value in the world of £300+ fitness trackers. Gym lovers, step-count obsessives, and sleep trackers will be over the moon with it. However, it doesn't offer the vast array of features that the Google Pixel Watch 5 does, and if you're looking for any smartwatch capabilities (right down to setting a timer), then it will be the better option by miles.

Winner: Fitbit Air

Fitbit Air vs Google Pixel Watch 5: Which is better?

The Google Pixel Watch 5 is the better all-round fitness tracker and smartwatch, with so many impressive features that I'd be here for hours going through them all. At £369 (with the optional £7.99 Google Health Premium subscription), it is a serious investment.

You can still buy the Google Pixel Watch 4, and it'll be cheaper than the newer model. It has many of the same smartwatch and health tracking features, given it also supports the new Google Health app. As a good middle ground, it's also worth having a look at the Fitbit Charge 6.

The Fitbit Air will be the better option for some people, however. If you're on a budget, you can't do much better for the insights this device offers - even with the free version of the Google Health app.

Overall winner: Google Pixel Watch 5