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Today marks the long-awaited announcement of the Google Fitbit Air — and the tech giant has revealed that preorders for its upcoming screenless fitness tracker start now, ahead of launch on May 26. The Whoop rival, which features a fabric band and weighs just 12g, is priced at $99.99 / £84.99 (about AU$140), making it a lightweight, minimalist option for health monitoring.

Features are exactly what you’d expect, including sensors for heart rate, step count, calorie burn, skin temperature, and blood oxygen. All that data is fed into the new Google Health app, which offers all the usual exercise, sleep tracking, and health guidance. You also get seven days of battery life and fast charging support, so it’s a device that you can quite easily ‘set and forget’.

Google Fitbit Air preorders – US

• Google Store: from $0 with a trade-in
• Amazon: from $99.99

Google Fitbit Air preorders – UK

• Google Store: get £35 in Google Store credit

Google Fitbit Air: specifications

Should you buy the Google Fitbit Air?

As someone who’s still rocking an ancient, slowly dying Fitbit Versa 2, I can see myself being tempted to upgrade to the Google Fitbit Air.

The price is the key thing, and at under $100 / £100, it’s definitely well within budget. Battery life is solid at up to 7 days, and it supports all the standard health, exercise, and sleep-tracking features I like about my current Fitbit. So, if you’re after a no-fuss health and fitness tracker on a budget, it could be a very smart buy.

However, if you’re an advanced user who likes access to your phone from your wrist, or if you’re perhaps a running enthusiast who wants GPS tracking for your runs, then I can see the Google Fitbit Air being a bit too feature-sparse for you. If that’s the case, I’d suggest a read-through of our best smartwatches guide for all our latest recommendations that may better suit your needs.

James Pickard is a Deals Editor at TechRadar. After many years of scouring the net for the cheapest games and tech for his personal use, he decided to make it his job to share all the best bargains and coupon codes with you. James also has almost a decade of experience covering some of the biggest sales events of the year at Eurogamer and VG247, including Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Amazon Prime Day. When not deals hunting or stacking coupon codes to get the biggest savings, James can be found on the PS5, watching a classic film noir or cheering on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.