Garmin Cirqa versus Fitbit Air: How these two fitness trackers compare

A new Whoop competitor has entered the villa: the Garmin Cirqa , a new screenless fitness tracker that's designed to be as unobtrusive as possible. It joins the lineup of recent screenless devices alongside Google's Fitbit Air , which was released this past May. The devices share many similarities, but the Cirqa is $100 more expensive than the Fitbit Air — is it worth the price jump?

Both the Cirqa and the Air offer all the basics you'd expect: step, sleep and workout tracking alongside features like in-depth heart health analysis are all present. They even share many of the same weaknesses, like a water resistance rating of 50m (meaning they can only handle light swimming) and a reliance on phone-connected GPS, Though they're quite similar, there are some meaningful minutiae that can help you decide which fitness tracker is right for you.

Price: Arguably the biggest difference and deciding factor between the Garmin and Google devices is the price. The Fitbit Air retails for $100, while the Cirqa goes for $200. For those who haven't dabbled in fitness wearables before, the Air's price is much more approachable.

Battery life: The Fitbit Air's battery lasts an impressive seven days, but the Garmin Cirqa has it beat with a purported 10-day lifespan. To be fair, seven days is still quite a long time, and for a full charge, both devices take approximately 90 minutes. The Fitbit does have a slight speed advantage here, with a quick charging feature that can provide a day's worth of battery life in five minutes.

Size difference: Both the Cirqa and Air are small devices, but Google's device wins for the most unnoticeable. With a band, it weighs just 12g and measures 17 x 34.9 x 8.3 mm, while the Cirqa is 20.7 grams (21.2 if you get a L-XL band) and 27 x 47 x 9 mm. While the Cirqa is still quite small, if you're looking for a band you'll completely forget you're wearing (a particularly useful feature if sleep tracking is a big part of your planned usage), the edge goes to the Air.

Subscriptions: You can unlock even more features with the Cirqa and Air through subscriptions, either Google Health Premium ($10 per month) or Garmin Connect+ ($7 per month) respectively. Subscribing to Google Health Premium unlocks a significant amount of features , including workout plans, mindfulness sessions, more detailed sleep tracking and what Google calls "proactive insights." It's important to note that it's a very Gemini-reliant service, so if you're not the type who enjoys chatting with an AI coach, it might not be your cup of tea.

By comparison, Garmin Connect+ feels much more optional. Almost all analytics are included in the device with no subscription, and paying for the service is really only necessary if you want the device to provide guided breathwork or design specific workouts for you.

A button: A small but significant difference is the presence of a button on the Cirqa. Unless you want to select an activity via the companion app before beginning, the Air solely relies on automatic workout recognition (also a feature of the Cirqa) to start tracking. The Cirqa, on the other hand, has a singular side button that can be used to start a workout manually. This can ensure a workout is logged precisely when you begin, and eliminates the need to scroll through the companion app to start your activity.