When Google announced the Fitbit Edge, my assumption was that it would be a great in-between for the Pixel Watch and Fitbit Air. In a way, that’s true, but this isn’t the product I thought it was – it’s just a new, slightly better Fitbit that leaves me wanting more.

At $180, the Fitbit Edge is closer to the lower end of Google’s wearable lineup than it is a proper middle ground. It’s closer to a Fitbit Air with a screen than it is a “Pixel Watch Lite.”

That starts in the software, which has been updated to visually resemble this new era of Google Health. The main “Clock” face brings about a new assortment of options that draw inspiration from the Pixel Watch. There’s a baker’s dozen of these faces available, with the “Modular” series being my personal favorite. 

These support complications just like on Pixel Watch, allowing you to quickly see various data points around fitness tracking, or even pull in weather conditions. It’s not nearly as flexible as Pixel Watch – personal favorite weather data points such as UV index and sunset are missing, for example – but it’s a good glanceable bit of information, something the Air completely lacks.

What’s more frustrating than anything about the faces is that it’s all powered through the same basic and clunky interface that Fitbit trackers used for years. It’s incredibly slow and clearly not native to the Health app. It gets the job and works better than I remember it being the last time I used a Fitbit tracker, but it’s still a poor experience compared to the rest of the software.

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