Fitbit has unveiled its new Fitbit Luxe – a stylish fitness tracker for women (predominantly) that brings an AMOLED screen to tape format for the first time.
Fitbit’s newer band-style wearables have focused on delivering value (Fitbit Inspire 2) or offering more technology (Fitbit Charge 4) – but the Luxe was certainly designed to deliver a better looking, more wearable device.
Although we were big fans of these two devices, the screen technology was a source of criticism. If those like the Amazfit Band 5 and Xiaomi Mi Band 6 can deliver a week of battery life with gorgeous AMOLED displays, then they have seriously dwarfed Fitbit’s monochrome screens.
However, this is an aggressive comeback from Fitbit, which has most of its top features, plus quality materials and specifications for £ 129.99.
While Fitbit has been a bit shy about the screen specs, the Luxe appears to have the same AMOLED display as the Versa 3 and Sense. And it still manages to deliver the same 5 days of battery life as the rest of its lineup.
And it’s not just the screen that is luxuriously treated. The Fitbit Luxe housing is made of stainless steel and is therefore a great optical and qualitative advance over the rest of the Fitbit tracker series. The Luxe is available in white, black and orchid (pink) and there is a special edition Fitbit Luxe Gorjana with a gold link bracelet for £ 179.99
And under the hood are many of the Fitbit Sense’s best features.
Fitbit Luxe in orchid
There’s skin temperature, HRV, and SpO2 (for respiratory rate and oxygen saturation), all of which are listed in the Fitbit Health Metrics – though skin temperature comes after you start.
It is water resistant to 50 m and tracks swimming in the pool. You can calibrate your Fitbit to the size of the pool to keep track of the lengths accurately.
And the stress detection comes from the Fitbit Sense and the stress score will be part of the mix. However, the Fitbit Luxe does not have an EDA sensor that allows users to check stress response using electrodermal activity.
There’s also no GPS on board (although you can use connected GPS from a paired smartphone) and it also supports the new Active Zone Minutes metric, which rewards you for time spent at higher heart rates. There are 20 built-in training modes, and workouts are also tracked automatically.
The Fitbit Luxe comes with six months of Fitbit Premium. This means the Luxe can access all of the delights of the Fitbit app – from advanced sleep monitoring, to guided workouts and mindfulness, to Deepak Chopra content and manual blood glucose testing.
The Luxe comes with a top-end price: it costs £ 129.99 and is available alongside the Charge 4. For those interested in style over GPS, this is a no-brainer.
