Everything old is new again with the Fitbit Edge

Last week, I sank into my living room couch and watched a bedraggled, nihilistic Matthew McConaughey take a drag of a cigarette in season 1 of True Detective. “You know, someone once told me time is a flat circle. Everything we’ve done, or will do, we’re gonna do over and over and over again.” I assume most people aren’t thinking about fitness trackers or gadgets while watching that scene. But in that moment, I couldn’t help but think about the Fitbit Edge on my wrist.

The $179.99 Edge is a modernized version of the 2014-to-2020 era of fitness bands — your Charges, your Altas, your Inspires. If you’ve ever owned one, you already know the vast majority of what the Edge is like. It’s lightweight. You swipe on a small display that shows you basic health and fitness metrics. It lasts for about a week on a charge — though that shrunk down to about a day and a half with the always-on display enabled. It’s a device that isn’t trying to be much more than what it is.

The difference is that the Edge feels more refined on the wrist. Where the Fitbit Charge 6’s display felt boxy, the Edge is fully rounded, giving it a softer vibe. The straps are interchangeable, but with an easier button-release system. The metal link bracelet gives it a more jewelry-like feel, though it costs almost as much as the Edge itself at $150. I’m partial to the $60 magnetic strap, which mimics leather despite being made of silicone. The widgets borrow heavily from the Pixel Watch’s Material 3 Expressive redesign. Though to be clear, this is a proprietary Fitbit OS, not Wear OS. Some of the new watchfaces are elegant, though others highlight the Edge’s big black bezels. (Some things truly never change.)

Functionally, it’s also a step above the Fitbit Air. There’s built-in GPS for tracking walks and runs without your phone. You can have alarms, view notifications, and control music. You can’t take calls on the wrist — there are no microphones or speakers. Contactless payments are also a no-go. Andy Abramson, head of product at Google Health, says that’s because “less than one percent [of Charge 6 owners] used the feature” and that Google instead prioritized a “sleek design, altimeter, and weeklong battery.” That walks back some of the advancements that have come to the Charge lineup over the years, but if you want to put a silver lining on that, it narrows the Edge’s focus. This is a fitness tracker. There’s some glanceable information, but there’s absolutely no smartwatch creep here.

The big software change is the demise of the Fitbit app as we knew it. It’s Google Health now, with an AI coach if you pony up for the yearly subscription. (You get three months free with purchase; otherwise it’s $10 monthly.) I’ve written about the overall experience in my Fitbit Air review. The broad strokes are the same, though in the months since, Google has spent a lot of time tinkering with and iterating on it. Most notably, the company has beefed up automatic activity tracking.

To test this, I tracked a handful of runs on the Edge without officially starting an activity. I then compared that to one tracked by an Apple Watch Ultra 4 and my iPhone’s Runna app. I was surprised, but noticed limitations. For example, on a 2.4-mile run with a five-minute warmup walk and cooldown, the Edge correctly identified the exact moment my warmup transitioned into a legit run and then back into a walk. The estimated distance was also pretty decent at 2.55 miles. It wasn’t quite as good at gauging my running speed. It logged me as running a 10’49” mile pace, whereas my actual pace according to the Apple Watch and my phone was 11’38”. This pattern was fairly typical across my testing, so it’s more that this is a nifty way to still “get credit” if you forget to track an activity.

Otherwise, the AI coach is still a Chatty Cathy and requires some weekly hand-holding to get the most out of it. I’ll say it again: The Google Health app can feel cluttered, and I get tripped up looking for information that used to be easy to find, like past workouts. However, if you’re new to fitness and want guidance in creating and sticking to a custom AI-generated routine, this is still the best experience I’ve had so far. The bar is in hell, though, and beware what you initially share with the coach. I regret ever telling it I used to have shin splints, as it remains convinced my perfectly fine shins are in danger of disintegrating with every run.

I wish I could tell you about the Health Guardian features, which should let Fitbit Edge users see noninvasive insulin resistance and blood pressure trends. Alas, the way my testing schedule worked out, I have to wait until November 1st to get my initial results.

All in all, I enjoyed the Fitbit Edge as a low-key tracker. This will appeal to folks who just want the basics, but aren’t willing to commit to the screenless life. I’m thinking of the Vergecast listeners who occasionally write in, wondering what happened to simple fitness bands, tired of the smartwatch agenda that took over the past few years. The only gripe I really have is $179.99 feels a tad expensive for what you’re getting. Especially since the Fitbit Air is only $99, and for iPhone users, the Apple Watch SE 3 starts at $249. Brands like Xiaomi and Amazfit also offer much cheaper trackers with displays, even if they’re not quite as sleek on the wrist.

You have to admit: It’s kind of funny that in 2026 we’ve gone full circle and come back to this particular form factor. For the past two weeks of testing, I felt like I’d been blasted back to what I thought was a bygone era in my career. My bet is still on smartwatches being the dominant wrist-based wearable in the years to come. However, this renewed yearning for simpler trackers feels significant at a time when AI health and fitness coaches demand more data in increasingly invasive ways. There’s a growing weariness that can’t be ignored — and yet for many of us, it’s not fully practical to truly log off with a screenless device. So if that’s you, the Edge is here because hey — time truly is a flat circle.