The Fitbit Luxe tracks your steps, but it's a lot more than that

The Fitbit Luxe is looking to make fitness tracking a fashion statement. While we've seen smartwatches offer lifestyle models as alternatives to their sporty counterparts, the Fitbit Luxe is the first activity band we’ve seen in a long while that’ll pass as jewelery.

At a glance, the Fitbit Luxe bears a resemblance to many of the best fitness trackers. But its elevated, jewelry-inspired elements blend with a color touchscreen and stainless steel casing with metallic finishes. Plus, you can get replacement designer straps to improve the look. 

Although you won't find GPS or voice assistants like you might on many of the best Fitbits, the Luxe has Fitbit's Activity Zone Minutes, sleep tracking, stress management tools and up to 5 days of battery life. You'll also get a free trial of Fitbit Premium, the company's virtual workout and data analysis service. 

It first launched in mid-2021, and a software update later that year added support for an always-on display and the ability to see blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) data, bringing it in line with the brand's other trackers. 

Fitbit Luxe review: price and availability

The Fitbit Luxe launched in mid-2021 and cost $149. However, by mid-2023, the price dropped down to $99.95. It's a fully-featured fitness tracker, much like the Fitbit Inspire 3, but with a more fashionable design. 

You can use it to count your steps, track your sleep, and record your workouts. However, it doesn't come with GPS built-in, so you'll still need your phone to track your runs or outdoor workouts. 

You can complement the fashion-inspired design with any of the Luxe's replacement straps (it comes with a standard silicone band), and there's a braclet-style special edition in partnership with jewelry brand Gorjana, available for $199 from Amazon. 

Fitbit Luxe review: design

Fitbit's smartwatches have gradually grown more fashionable, but the same can't be said of its smaller trackers. The Fitbit Charge 6, for example, doesn't look like something you'd want to wear to a nice occasion. Same goes for the Fitbit Inspire 3.

The Luxe's metallic casing retains the oblong shape, but it makes better use of the space with a larger display to highlight your metrics mid-workout. And it's fairly light, despite looking like a premium bracelet. 

When the Luxe came out, Fitbit's other trackers had greyscale displays, and the Luxe really stood out with its color touchscreen. Although I wish the 0.76-inch screen was brighter against direct sunlight, the home screen, exercise animations and notifications look great in color.

These vibrant displays are now standard in the range, and even the best cheap fitness trackers have color touchscreens, but it still looks good on the Luxe. I used the silicone straps, as I find them better for exercise, but there's plenty of choice. 

Fitbit Luxe review: fitness tracking

The Fitbit Luxe is primarily a fitness tracker. It counts your steps, monitors your heart rate, and tells you how many calories you burned in a workout. It doesn’t have GPS, so it can’t track your outdoor runs or walks if you leave your phone behind.

I’d usually recommend any of the best running watches or best sports watches for seasoned athletes who require personalized training data, so no built-in GPS shouldn’t be a deal breaker for a casual exerciser.

Otherwise, this activity band has more than 20 exercise modes. The Luxe also gets SmartTrack automatic workout tracking. It picked up my daily dog walks without me needing to launch a workout, and it should also be able to detect running, elliptical exercise, outdoor cycling, select sports and swimming. 

However, it incorrectly guessed I was on the elliptical when I actually — and ambitiously — took the stairs up 10 flights one afternoon, but I could edit the entry in the Fitbit app. Getting my heart rate up (even if it's just doing stairs) counts towards Fitbit's proprietary Active Zone Minutes feature, too.

Active Zone Minutes monitors the time you spend in the fat burn, cardio or peak heart-rate zones while exercising. Your mission is to earn the AHA’s and WHO’s recommended 150 Active Zone Minutes each week.

I’ve long been a fan of this feature rather than the outdated 10,000 steps threshold, and am excited that such a good-looking device can actually guide me towards my activity goals.

And when you wear the Luxe to bed, it can sense how well you're resting. In addition to tallies of how much time you spend in different sleep stage cycles, you’ll receive a sleep score. I landed in the 70-90 range (out of 100) every night. 

Keep in mind that with a Fitbit Premium membership, you'll unlock more sleep insights and actionable data. Premium is also where you’ll find the bulk of the stress-management tools.

The Luxe doesn't have the Sense 2's stress tracking sensor, but you can still access your stress management score, calculated by your heart rate, activity, and sleep. Fitbit then offers actionable advice to help.

Fitbit Luxe review: features

It doesn't come with built-in GPS, but the Luxe also misses out on contactless payments. It's disappointing, as these transactions with Fitbit or Google Wallet are convenient, especially if you want to pay without your phone. 

Luckily, you still get most of the non-health-related tools you’d want. The Fitbit Luxe can be used to set an alarm or timers, and it mirrors your smartphone notifications. I will say dozens of pop-ups on the small screen gets annoying, so I recommend limiting which notifications you want pushed to your wrist in the Fitbit app.

And if you were hoping for a fitness band with a voice assistant built-in, you’ll need to look to the Fitbit Sense 2 or Google Pixel Watch 2 (which blends Google's apps with Fitbit fitness tracking). 

Fitbit Luxe review: battery life

FItbit says the Luxe’s battery should last 5 days, which is a less impressive battery life than some of the company’s other trackers. The Inspire 3 battery life lasts up to 10 days, while the Fitbit Charge 6 lasts up to 7 days.

I needed to charge my unit up after just 4 days, but those days included overnight wear for sleep tracking and many hours of pulling GPS data from my phone during outdoor walks. It charged up to 100% from dead in about two hours.

Should you buy the Fitbit Luxe?

Don’t let the Fitbit Luxe’s looks fool you. It’s a very capable fitness tracker, especially for activities like walking, yoga and indoor cycling. The small display and lack of GPS don’t make it an ideal companion for serious runners, swimmers or bikers, but any casual exerciser will be satisfied.

Plus, the Luxe supports a number of sleep and stress tools, embracing a more holistic approach to wellness. That said, for the price, I wish it had a few more tricks up its shiny sleeve.

The Fitbit Charge 6 has GPS and NFC, making it a more complete fitness tracker. But if you’ve been waiting for a fancy-feeling fitness tracker that won’t clash with your fine jewelry — and can be worn from the gym straight to work or dinner — look no further than the Luxe.