Fitbit Luxe Smart Watch
Design:
Fitbit hasn’t always been able to back up its claims that its trackers are stylish and hip. They are all just rectangles with a few small differences. When the company announced the Luxe, it went into great detail about how it made the Luxe’s case. It said the device’s “breakthrough design has a soft, gentle shape inspired by the human body that sits lightly on your wrist and looks and feels like jewelry.”
Its stainless steel case was made with techniques like metal injection molding, which gave it “the warmth of handcrafted jewelry and the level of precision needed for its advanced sensor technology.” After talking about how stylish the Luxe is a few dozen times, the company calls it “one of Fitbit’s most stylish and comfortable devices to date.”
James Park, the company’s co-founder, said, “We’ve made major technological advances with Luxe. It’s smaller, slimmer, and has a beautiful design. It’s full of advanced features, some of which were only available on our smartwatches before.” Fitbit was able to fit advanced parts into the tiny body of the Luxe, which is only 1.43 inches long and about as wide as my index finger. With a thickness of 0.4 inches, it is indeed very small and thin. That is about the same thickness as the Apple Watch SE but only about a third as wide. It is also about 3/4 as wide as a Fitbit Charge 4 and a hair thinner.
So, yes, the Luxe is a small thing, which is good for people with small wrists like me. The edges of the stainless steel case are slightly rounded, which makes it less square than the Charge 4 and the Alta. But the strap you choose can change everything. When you pair the Luxe with the silicone option that comes in the box, it still looks pretty simple. Switch it out for something else, like the Gold Mesh version Fitbit also sent me, and you’re done! Instant style elevation.
That’s nice, but you could change the band on most other fitness trackers to make them look better. The Luxe stands out because it is small and thin, which is great for those of us who want something smaller. Because the Luxe has such a small footprint, it never got in the way when I was typing or doing a handstand.
The Luxe is a big phone, but because of that, its screen is small. This is a 0.76-inch AMOLED screen with a resolution of 124 x 206. It has a thick bezel around it, which probably hides all of the Luxe’s sensors. But this makes it hard to read things like your workout stats. The picture on the screen is clear, bright, and full of color. But if the text is too small to read, you might need a bigger device. Fitbit told Engadget that an update is on the way that will make the text bigger, but we still don’t know when it will come out or how it will look.
How to get around and use
The Luxe has no physical buttons, just like the Charge 4 and the Sense. But unlike the other two, this tracker doesn’t even have an inductive solid-state sensor that can detect pressure to start an action. You’ll only be able to talk to the Luxe through its touchscreen. Fitbit is smart to use a standard one instead of its fake touchscreen that you had to forcefully tap to work. You can swipe and tap on the screen of the Luxe just like you can on any other smartwatch, though the OS is very basic. If you swipe up from the main screen, you can see your daily progress and the percentage of your battery. If you swipe down, you can access Settings and turn on Do Not Disturb, Sleep, or Water Lock modes. You can switch between Notifications, Exercise, Relax (guided breathing), Alarms, and Timers by swiping to the left or right. In each of these sections, you can scroll up and down to find more functions. To go back, double-tap the top of the screen (or swipe right). All done. You’ll need to use the Fitbit app on your phone to make more changes, like moving your favorite workouts around in Exercise. Walk, Run, Bike, Swim, Treadmill, and Workout, which is a catch-all for almost everything else, are here by default. When you’re working out, the Luxe will show you how many calories you’ve burned, how long it’s been, your heart rate, and, if it’s important, how many miles you’ve gone. That’s a lot less information than you can see at a glance on a bigger screen, but that’s what you give up for a smaller tracker. You can swipe up to see more options, like a pause button, but that’s about it.
Fitbit will also show your cardio zone below your heart rate with words like “fat burn” and “peak” as you work out. This is helpful information, but it’s so small. Even though I have pretty good eyesight, I had a little trouble reading it (and it got harder when I was waving my arms about as I ran). Aside from its small screen, the Luxe works just like most other basic Fitbit trackers. Even though notifications are annoying to read, it’s nice that you can send a quick pre-set reply or emoji from your wrist. The device will also buzz when you’ve been inactive for too long or when your goal number of active minutes has been reached. When you raise your wrist, the screen wakes up to show you the time (in thankfully large font). If you wear the band to sleep, it will use your heart rate to figure out what sleep zones you’re in. After three nights, it will tell you things like your resting heart rate. The Luxe will automatically record your activity if you’ve been running, walking, swimming, biking, or doing more for at least 15 minutes. You can also change that minimum amount of time through the app. The Luxe, on the other hand, doesn’t have GPS built-in like the Charge 4, so you’ll need to connect it to your phone to map your outdoor runs.
Fast Pair, which works with Android devices, is something that has come out since Google finished buying Fitbit. This made it easy to set up the Luxe and sync it with my Pixel 4a. I charged up the Luxe, and a window popped up on all of my Pixel review units asking if I wanted to connect to the tracker. I tapped “Yes,” and since I already had the Fitbit app on my phone, I was soon going through the “Welcome” pages. This is much easier than the old way, where I had to open the app, hit the button for “Add New Device,” and then wait forever for my phone to find the wearable.
Battery life:
Fitbit says that the Luxe will last up to five days, and I was able to use it for a full week before it died. That’s even though I didn’t wear the band to bed most nights and tracked more than one workout every other day. If you leave the Luxe on when you go to bed and connect it to your phone’s GPS a lot, your runtime is likely to be shorter.
Wrap-up
The best thing about the Fitbit Luxe is not how it looks, but how big it is. This small device is impressive because it can do so much, and people with smaller wrists will like how it fits. But its size is also one of its problems. The screen is small, which makes it hard to read. Still, for $150, the Luxe is a well-made fitness tracker that can track almost everything and is very useful. This is a good choice if you want a simple activity band that is smaller than most. At least, as long as your eyesight is pretty good.
Buy it if
You want a fitness tracker that looks good.
The Luxe is one of the best-looking fitness trackers on the market. It is stylish without being too flashy. The best way for a fitness tracker to work is for you to wear it every day, and this is one you’ll want to.
You like doing aerobics at the gym.
GPS isn’t one of the Luxe’s strong points, but it does a great job of tracking your heart rate, making it a great tool for indoor interval workouts like spinning.
You want to do things better.
Fitbit’s user experience is based on giving you positive feedback, letting you know when you’ve done something good, and giving you friendly tips every now and then. It encourages you to make changes to your life that will last and help you save money in the long run.
Don’t buy it if
You’re a serious runner
If you do a lot of running, cycling, or triathlons, you won’t be able to use the Luxe because it doesn’t have GPS built in. In those cases, you should look for a sports watch instead of a fitness tracker.
You want to use a smartwatch.
The Fitbit Luxe isn’t meant to compete with the Apple Watch, and the Fitbit Versa 3 or Sense is a better choice if you want a device that can handle music, payments, podcasts, calls, and more.
| Pros | Cons |
| Sleek, attractive design | Small screen limits visible data |
| Bright, crisp AMOLED display | Fitbit Premium required for full experience |
| Impressive heart rate monitoring | SpO2 monitor not yet activated |
| product | Expected Price |
| Fitbit Luxe | Rs 23,999 |
