US$149.99 / AU$198 at Amazon
The Fitbit Luxe has the look you’d expect from its name. Encased
in stainless steel, available in black, gold, and silver, and
backed with a line of fashionable accessory bands, it blends
readily with stylish outfits. Its slender, thinner profile is also
discreet on your wrist—of Fitbit’s lineup, it’s the smallest and
least obtrusive model.
But a refined appearance is mostly what you get in this posh
(and more expensive) take on Fitbit’s cheaper Inspire 2 tracker.
You’re looking at a bump up in glamour rather than feature set,
which doesn’t benefit fitness enthusiasts. A couple of key hardware
upgrades even compromise performance compared to the Inspire 2.
Good looks,
constrained premium features
You’ll notice one of the Fitbit Luxe’s main upgrades at first
glance—the 0.76-inch color AMOLED display, which is roughly the
same size as the Inspire 2’s monochrome PMOLED screen, but on a
thinner body. (The Luxe measures 1.43 x 0.69 x 0.4 inches, or 36.3
x 17.5 x 10.1 mm, which makes it a touch shorter, wider, and
skinnier than the Inspire 2.) And at first glance, the screen is
crisp and bright, making it easy to read…in theory.
Unfortunately, the Luxe’s interface bungles the appeal of the
display. (Disappointment over the interface is a recurring theme
with the Luxe; more on that below.) The size and text wrapping is
at times comically bad. You’ll notice this most when skimming
through message notifications, where you often get just one word
per line. Trying to keep up with chats or email actually began to
test my patience, unlike with other Fitbit trackers with limited
screen real estate. Having an option for a smaller font or tighter
line spacing would have been useful.
In notifications, the
amount of words you can see on a single line borders on comical. Image: Alaina Yee / IDG
The Luxe’s touch-only controls are also problematic. On paper,
the nixing of side buttons sounds like a step up, but in practice,
it makes menu navigation less enjoyable. To go back in a menu, you
must double-tap on the screen, which sometimes results in selecting
the option on-screen instead. Taps and swipes don’t always register
on the first try, either. Interaction with a tracker is something
you’ll do daily, and prioritizing form over function is wholly
impractical here. Having to repeat motions to use the device keeps
it from being a seamless part of your routine.
The one Luxe enhancement that satisfies is the SpO2 sensor. For
most people, the readings of blood oxygen levels will be good
enough for a general idea of your health and subsequent changes to
it. It doesn’t match a pulse oximeter in accuracy, though. The Luxe
underreported my oxygen saturation by two to three percentage
points compared to a pulse oximeter. The Luxe has the advantage in
terms of style for sure, though. You don’t need to remove your nail
polish for a proper reading, as you do with pulse oximeters.
Solid
fitness tracking and decent battery life
While its fancier hardware features fail to dazzle, the Luxe
does a good job at keeping tabs on your physical activity and
wellness. Fitness trackers and smartwatches still aren’t precise
tools for measuring distance traveled, heart rate, sleep, and the
like, but the technology has improved enough to indicate how well
you’re faring.
The Luxe tracks steps, heart rate, sleep duration and stages,
menstrual health, Active Zone minutes (times when your heart rate
climbs high enough for your activity to count as moderate or high
intensity), and exercise. Some exercises can be tracked
automatically, like walking and running, but don’t count on
accurate assessments. My strength training sessions didn’t
register, and dance confounded the Luxe just as it has every other
tracker I’ve used in the past eight years. One session was recorded
as Sport, while another was broken up half into Swim and half into
Aerobic Workout.
Speaking of swimming, the Luxe has an IPX8 rating, with water
resistance up to 50 meters. This tracker handles submersion in
water just fine, though your skin afterward might not. (It’s highly
recommended to dry off the tracker and let your skin air out before
continuing to wear the Luxe.)
The default silicone
band can cause skin irritation if you don’t dry off after swimming
or showering. Image: Alaina Yee / IDG
As for GPS tracking, the Luxe relies on phone-based GPS to map
your route and calculate your pace. To toggle it on and off for
walks, runs, and bike rides, tap on the exercise in the Exercise
menu and scroll down.
You’ll be able to power all of this stat recording for up to
five days, which is respectable but not as impressive as the
less-expensive Inspire 2, which is rated for up to 10 days. Going
up to a color display hits battery life hard. You can stretch that
time longer when not active—in the two months* that I tested the
Luxe, I could go as many as nine or 10 days during slothy periods
(just daily walks). But you can often get more battery life on
Fitbit trackers with low activity, so that’s not a quality unique
to the Luxe.
*I’ve never had a Fitbit tracker without some kind of
quirk when I first got it—all have had crashes, blank screens, hard
resets, and the like at the start. When my Fitbit Luxe sample
showed a dead screen twice in the same evening, I decided to extend
my time with it to ensure I was evaluating it fairly. Since
applying a firmware update, I haven’t run into the same wonkiness,
much less needed to do a manual reboot or reset.
An interface that feels
too basic
With a name like Luxe, you’d expect its interface to be as slick
as its physical body. But the UI on Fitbit’s trackers have always
had a bare-bones vibe, and the Luxe is sadly no exception.
Menus are snappy when the display registers your touch, as well
as basic enough to figure out without the manual. You simply swipe
up, down, or side to side for access to different stats, settings,
and apps. Unfortunately, none of the interface is customizable. For
example, just six apps are available for the Luxe—Notifications,
Exercise, Relax, Alarms, Timers, and SpO2—but you can only remove
SpO2 from the lineup to reduce swiping. You can’t reorder them
either, so you’re stuck with what appears first when swiping left
or right.
Fitbit also doesn’t offer universal clock faces, meaning the
Luxe’s options don’t include any of the excellent ones from other
trackers. Instead you can only choose from faces that prioritize
aesthetics over function—and most clocks show just a single stat.
You have to tap to see anything of further use. I’ve taken to
changing the clock face based on what I’m doing, which is highly
inconvenient. It’s not a fast process.
Swiping to the left
and right cycles through the Luxe’s apps, but their order can’t be
customized. Image: Alaina Yee / IDG
It makes sense that trackers would have fewer apps and menu
options—for example, I don’t expect to be able to write custom text
messages. But not allowing a smidge of customization within those
limits on a model with a premium vibe is baffling.
Equally puzzling are the rather plain animations you get on the
Luxe. On older Fitbits, you would see different ones upon meeting
your step goal, doubling it, tripling it, and so forth. Some were
downright cute too, like birds flying by with a banner showing the
number reached. But on the Luxe? Just a sneaker inside a
circle.
Value
Compared to the US$180 Charge 5 and US$100 Inspire 2, the US$150 / AU$198 Fitbit Luxe might seem reasonably priced in the middle with its
stainless steel body, color screen, and touch-only controls. But
let’s talk about what US$150 (AU$198) bought you just a couple of months
ago.
The Luxe lacks key features that the now-discontinued Charge 4 had for the same price. It doesn’t
have on-board GPS, an NFC chip (and thus Fitbit Pay support), an
altimeter to track elevation changes or steps climbed, nor one or
two additional apps like Weather and Spotify that would be very
useful.
Yes, your money is buying you a sleek, more attractive tracker.
The Charge 4 was plastic and would never be mistaken for anything
but a slab of utilitarian tech on your wrist. Even the Charge 5
with its aluminum body is too bulky to blend in with jewelry the
way the Luxe can (especially if you pair the latter with the
optional and rather gorgeous link bracelet band or double-wrap
leather band).
The Luxe’s low profile
definitely looks sleek, but it doesn’t feel as luxurious as its
name or price implies. Image: Alaina Yee / IDG
Don’t get me wrong. I would prefer more stylish trackers to
choose from. But it feels like Fitbit has missed out on an
opportunity here to dress up the Luxe in a stylish and
pragmatic way. Even including an altimeter and a few more apps
would help, if not also on-board GPS. Drop the touch controls in
trade.
More puzzling is the fact that the Inspire 2 includes a full
year subscription to Fitbit Premium (US$80), while the Luxe only
throws in six months. (The Charge 5 also only offers six months.)
Pay less for a tracker and you get more time with the company’s
paid service, gratis. Fitbit likely is aiming to get more money out
of Inspire 2 users by hooking them on the extra fitness challenges
and games, more detailed wellness stats, long-term trend data, and
included workouts, but on the face of things, that difference sure
makes the Luxe feel less deluxe.
Should you buy a Fitbit
Luxe?
Spending an extra US$50 for the Luxe doesn’t put you quite between
the Inspire 2 and Charge 5 in terms of better, more detailed
tracking. You’re primarily paying for upgraded aesthetics, even
when it comes to hardware upgrades.
That said, the tracking the Luxe provides is solidly on par with
Fitbit’s other offerings, and its look is appealing, especially if
you (like me) prefer to keep it on even when going places where
style matters. It’s really a shame that its luxury focuses on
skin-deep glamour and ignores upgrades that enhance the quality of
the experience.
