The Fitbit Luxe is a new premium fitness tracker that looks similar to the Fitbit Inspire 2, but with some significant differences in both design and specifications.
It’s worth noting that although the Luxe is marketed as a ‘premium’ fitness tracker, it isn’t the mysterious premium Fitbit watch that was teased at Google IO in May 2021. The Luxe uses Fitbit‘s own operating system, whereas the forthcoming device (which doesn’t yet have a name or release date) will use Google’s Wear OS.
Although we’re expecting a lot of Fitbit’s current-gen smartwatches and fitness trackers to get a big discount for Prime Day 2021 on June 21 and 22, we’d be surprised if the Luxe gets a price cut as well, since it’s not yet been officially launched. Amazon might surprise us, though. We’ll be hand-picking all the best Prime Day deals, and will let you know if something unexpected happens.
The Fitbit Luxe isn’t available yet, but we’ll bring you a full review very soon.
Fitbit Luxe price and release date
The Fitbit Luxe was announced in April 2021, and is available to pre-order now. It will begin shipping on July 1 2021.
The Fitbit Luxe costs $149.95 / £129.99 / AU$199.95 for the standard edition, and $199.95 / £179.95 / AU$299.95 for the special edition with the soft cold colored Gorjana link bracelet.
That puts it nicely in between the Fitbit Inspire 2 (which launched at $99.95 / £89.99 / AU$179.95) and the Versa 3 (which costs $329 / £299 / AU$499).
Fitbit Luxe design
Unlike the company’s Versa and Sense smartwatches, the Luxe has Fitbit’s classic slimline design, with a rectangular display and narrow band. As mentioned earlier, at first glance it could easily be mistaken for the Inspire 2 – it follows the same ‘Biologic Industrial Design Language’ – but there are some important differences.
While the Inspire 2 has a plastic case, the Luxe uses smarter-looking stainless steel in gold, black and silver tones.
Another big difference is the screen. While the Inspire 2 has a monochrome backlit OLED display, the Luxe shows your fitness stats on a full-color AMOLED. That smart screen does have an impact on battery life, though; whereas the Inspire 2 can last up to 10 days between charges, the Sense is only expected to keep running for five.
There are more strap options for the Luxe, with silicone, leather, and metal designs. Unlike the Garmin Lily (also released in 2021), the Luxe isn’t marketed specifically for women, but many of its design options have a feminine look – particularly the optional stainless steel link bracelet from jewelry designer Gorjana.
Fitbit Luxe fitness tracking
The Fitbit Luxe has all the activity monitoring tools you’d expect from a modern fitness tracker, including daily step counts, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and breathing rate. It offers 20 exercise modes (both indoor and outdoor) and can start tracking certain activities automatically using SmartTrack.
It doesn’t have on-board GPS (for that, you’ll need the Fitbit Charge 4, Versa 3 or Luxe), so you’ll have to connect it to your phone’s GPS to track runs, walks and bike rides, and calculate your pace. If you’re training for an event or trying to improve your times, you’ll be better off checking out our pick of the best running watches (or the best cheap running watches if you’re on a budget).
The Luxe can can monitor for signs of stress (such as changes in heart rate) and will give you a stress management score. If you’re starting to feel the strain, you can then follow a simple breathing exercise on the Luxe, or try a mindfulness exercise in the Fitbit mobile app.
The biggest difference between the Inspire 2 and the Luxe is the addition of an SpO2 sensor, which detects changes in blood oxygen saturation, which can be an indication of potential health issues.
Fitbit Luxe smartwatch features
The Fitbit Luxe is designed primarily for monitoring your wellbeing and exercise, and as such has relatively few ‘smartwatch’ features. You can receive app, text and call notifications on your wrist, and you get a timer and stopwatch but that’s about it. Unlike the Versa 3, Sense and Charge 4, there’s no NFC for making contactless payments via Fitbit Pay.
The specs sheet might change in the future, though. Fitbit is known to roll out additional features (such as watch faces) for its devices through firmware updates after launch, so the Luxe may get more everyday smartwatch tools in future.
If the Luxe isn’t the watch for you, we’ve also rounded up the best deals on the full range of other Fitbit devices.