If I requested you to examine a health tracker on a random particular person’s wrist, what would your imaginary wearable appear to be? For years, they’ve largely regarded the identical — plastic or steel rectangles hooked up to some generic silicone or nylon strap.

Fitbit likes to say its wearables resemble jewellery. But it’s troublesome to make a health tracker that truly seems to be like jewellery and does all the things from logging your steps, sleep and exercises to telling you to breathe and calm down. The firm tried its hand at a trendy health band in 2016 with the Alta, however that system was just a slightly narrower Charge with a finicky display and has since been discontinued. With the Luxe, Fitbit is singing a well-recognized tune, as soon as once more promising a “fashion-forward health and wellness tracker… in an effortlessly stylish bracelet design.”

Pros

• Slim and cozy design
• Capable well being monitoring
• Good battery life

Cons

• Tiny display is difficult to learn

Design apart, the Luxe packs virtually all the things you’d need from a health band: a coronary heart charge sensor, oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring, sleep monitoring, water resistance and primary syncing together with your telephone. At $150, this may very well be a terrific possibility for these searching for a easy no-frills tracker that stands out from the gang.

Design

Fitbit’s earlier claims about how fashionable and stylish their trackers are have been questionable. They’re all simply rectangular blocks with few minor variations. When saying the Luxe, the corporate painstakingly detailed the way it crafted the Luxe’s case, saying the system’s “breakthrough design has a soft, gentle shape inspired by the human body that sits lightly on your wrist with a jewelry-like look and feel.”

It used methods like steel injection molding to make the chrome steel case, “providing the warmth expected of handcrafted jewelry, all while delivering a level of precision needed to enable its advanced sensor technology.” After throwing in a number of dozen mentions of how elegant the Luxe is, the corporate finally ends up calling this “one of Fitbit’s most fashionable and comfortable devices yet.”

Co-founder James Park mentioned “We’ve made major technological advancements with Luxe, creating a smaller, slimmer, beautifully designed tracker packed with advanced features – some that were previously only available with our smartwatches.” Meaning that Fitbit was capable of squeeze superior parts into the teeny tiny physique of the Luxe, which is about as huge as my index finger and simply 1.43 inches lengthy. It’s certainly very small and skinny, with a profile of 0.4 inches. That’s about as thick because the Apple Watch SE, however a few third of the width. It’s additionally about three quarters as huge as a Fitbit Charge 4, and a hair thinner.

So sure, the Luxe is a dainty little factor, which is good for folks like me who’ve small wrists. The chrome steel case itself is barely curved alongside the sides, making it much less blockish than the Charge 4 and the Alta. But the strap you decide could make all of the distinction. When paired with the silicone possibility you get within the field, the Luxe nonetheless seems to be kinda primary. Swap it out for, say, the Gold Mesh model that Fitbit additionally despatched me, and voila! Instant type elevation.

That’s good, however you would make most different health trackers look engaging by swapping in a fairly band. Where the Luxe stands out is in its dainty measurement and slender width, and that’s excellent news for these of us who need one thing smaller. The added bonus of the Luxe’s footprint is that it by no means bought in the best way once I was typing or performing a handstand.

The unhealthy factor in regards to the Luxe’s measurement is that its display is correspondingly small. This is a 0.76-inch AMOLED panel working at a 124 x 206 decision. It’s surrounded by a thick bezel, which might be hiding all of the Luxe’s sensors. But this makes issues like your exercise stats very onerous to learn. The display itself is crisp, shiny and colourful. But when you have bother studying tiny textual content, you may want a much bigger system. Fitbit instructed Engadget that an replace is coming quickly that can embody bigger textual content, although we nonetheless don’t know the particular timeline nor how this may look when it rolls out.

Navigation and in use

Like the Charge 4 and Sense smartwatch, the Luxe has no bodily buttons. But in contrast to the opposite two, this tracker doesn’t even have an inductive strong state sensor that detects strain to set off an motion. The solely approach you’ll be interacting with the Luxe is thru its touchscreen. Thankfully, Fitbit makes use of an ordinary one right here as an alternative of its fake touchscreen that you just needed to forcefully jab for it to detect a faucet. With the Luxe, you may swipe and faucet on the display similar to on any smartwatch, albeit with a really rudimentary OS.

Swiping up from the principle display exhibits your every day progress and battery share, whereas dragging down enables you to entry Settings and allow Do Not Disturb, Sleep or Water Lock modes. Swiping sideways brings you thru Notifications, Exercise, Relax (guided respiratory), Alarms and Timers. You can scroll vertically on every of those sections to get to extra capabilities. Double faucet the highest of the display to return (or swipe proper). That’s it.

For extra customization, like rearranging your favourite exercises in Exercise, you’ll must go to the Fitbit app in your telephone. By default, you’ll discover Walk, Run, Bike, Swim, Treadmill and Workout (a catch-all for nearly all the things else) right here. When you’re exercising, the Luxe will present your energy burned, time elapsed, coronary heart charge and, the place related, tempo or miles lined. That’s far much less info than you’ll see at a look on a much bigger display, however that’s the sacrifice you make for a smaller tracker. You can swipe as much as see extra issues, like a pause button, however that’s about it.

As you’re understanding, too, Fitbit will present your cardio zone under your coronary heart charge, with labels like “fat burn” and “peak.” This is helpful info, however once more, that is so tiny. I’ve first rate eyesight and even I struggled barely to learn it (and it bought tougher once I was waving my arms about as I ran).

Cramped display apart, the Luxe behaves like most different primary Fitbit trackers. Though notifications are tedious to learn, it’s good that you would be able to ship a fast pre-set reply or emoji out of your wrist. The system may also buzz once you’ve been idle too lengthy, or once you’ve achieved your focused lively minutes. When you carry your wrist, the display wakes as much as present you the time (in fortunately giant font). If you put on the band to sleep, it’ll use your coronary heart charge to detect what sleep zones you’re in, and after three nights it’ll inform you issues like your resting coronary heart charge. If you’ve been working, strolling, swimming or biking (or extra) for at the least quarter-hour, the Luxe will mechanically detect and file your exercise. You can change that minimal time requirement to one thing else by way of the app, too. Unlike the Charge 4, although, the Luxe doesn’t have onboard GPS and might want to hook up with your telephone to map your outside runs.

Something that’s new since Google accomplished its acquisition of Fitbit is the introduction of Fast Pair, which works with Android units. This made setting the Luxe up and syncing it to my Pixel 4a a breeze. I charged up the Luxe, and a window popped up on all my Pixel assessment models asking if I needed to hook up with the tracker. I tapped sure and earlier than I knew it, I used to be going by way of the welcome pages since I already had the Fitbit app put in. This is way simpler than the previous methodology of first opening the app, hitting the Add New Device button after which ready endlessly for my telephone to search out the wearable.

There are another capabilities that the Luxe affords, however provided that you pay the additional $10 a month for Fitbit Premium. The firm is throwing in six months free with each buy, and that will get you extra perception like your exercise, coronary heart charge and sleep tendencies. It’ll additionally unlock month-long and year-long experiences in your wellness, detailed breakdowns in your sleep and stress, in addition to guided exercises, mindfulness and diet applications. Without the subscription, most individuals ought to discover the essential knowledge the Luxe gathers is adequate. But those that are eager on studying about their long run well being tendencies may profit from Premium.

Battery life

Fitbit guarantees the Luxe will last as long as 5 days and I truly went a full week of testing the system earlier than it conked out. That’s with monitoring a number of exercise periods each different day, although I didn’t put on the band to sleep most nights. If you retain the Luxe on once you go to mattress, and in addition join it to your telephone’s GPS loads, your runtime will seemingly be shorter.

Wrap-up

The most spectacular factor in regards to the Fitbit Luxe isn’t its type; it’s its measurement. The undeniable fact that this little system can accomplish that a lot is noteworthy, and people with smaller wrists will like the best way it suits. But its measurement can be one among its drawbacks — its tiny display makes issues onerous to learn. Still, for $150, the Luxe is a well-made and succesful health tracker that may monitor just about all the things. If you’re searching for a easy exercise band that’s smaller than most, this may serve you properly. At least, so long as you’ve near-perfect imaginative and prescient.