14 DAY TRIAL // Fitbit Ionic is supposed to be one the best fitness trackers around, with its great features and marketed precision, and that would be accurate most of the time. It will most likely polarize users into two major camps, and those are the people who love it and the people who hate it. And let's not forget the ‘meh’ people in the middle that don’t care all that much.
The Holy Grail of smartwatches is a device that’s both fashionable and highly precise. While the goal is worthy and achievable, it’s also difficult to attain. And, most of the time, the attempt to even manage such a successful combination results in failure.
That’s one of the reasons why most smartwatch makers will choose to go for either for precision or fashion. One of them is going to be the safer bet. That’s why most devices fall in either of these two categories. Companies usually promote them by their looks or their functions. So, guess how the Fitbit Ionic was marketed?
In any case, it’s safe to say the Fitbit Ionic didn’t do as well as expected, even if it’s not bad a watch by any stretch of the imagination. It was a combination of factors that resulted in poor sales, and I have to say that it’s mostly not the watch’s fault.
Design
One of the first things that you're going to notice right away is that it’s a pretty big watch. Even if we’re used to big smartwatches by now, it was a first for Fitbit. The previous device on the same line from the company was Blaze, which was considerably smaller.
There are a number of reason why the watch is bigger. First of all, it houses more sensors than before. It also has a more powerful hardware platform that needs to support a new operating system, and it also comes with a bigger battery.
Because it’s a big device, Fitbit chose a specific shape for it, which in theory should have been a good choice. It looks nothing like the competition, and it’s a little bit curved to follow the shape of the arm. It sounds nice, and it looks good in pictures, but the end result splits the community in half.
Some people liked the watch and others didn’t. The swath in the middle that didn’t really care about how it looks was pretty narrow, which brought on a polarization in the community.
The bigger watch body also means that the strap is bigger as well, and that’s not really a good thing. Fitbit didn’t realize, until later, that men are not the only people to buy the watch. Women might want one too, and the brutish size didn’t go well with women’s smaller wrists. It was later corrected with the release of the Fitbit Versa, which we covered in a review as well.
Functionality
If you’re a long-time user of Fitbit, you’ll notice that Ionic features a new operating system that's radically different from the previous generations. The most relevant differences include the addition of apps and watch faces.
It might sound like something that should have been available a long time ago, but Fitbit is not a company that moves fast or, at least, in a predictable way. And, unfortunately, it’s also the main reason why the Ionic wasn’t a success.
Simply put, the company waited too long between the releases of Blaze and Ionic. This period of time created unrealistic expectations in the community which couldn’t have been met by the company. So, the Ionic disappointed because it couldn’t have possible fulfill the huge expectations of the people waiting for it.
The introduction of apps was a good move from the company, but they chose to make their own operating system. This means that any apps made by third-party developers had to be specifically made for this OS, and we all know that usually goes terribly wrong. Let’s not forget the Windows phone. Microsoft, with all of its power, could not convince enough developers to get the platform off the ground.
The number of Fitbit apps has been slowly increasing, but it’s not near enough what it should be. Fortunately for the smartwatch, typical users won’t need a large number of apps, as pretty much everything they need is covered by the basic functions.
There are a few apps that seem to be really useful, like Deezer or Wallet. You’re going to ask for Spotify, but that’s not happening anytime soon. Unless Spotify makes an app specifically for Fitbit, you’re not going to see one.
Of course, the watch faces are a nice addition, especially since the previous devices from Fitbit only had a handful of choices. The fact that third-party developers can now make watch faces provided a huge boost to the library. The only problem is that not all that many watch faces are free, and most of the good ones have a one-time fee.
Specs
Ionic is definitely an upgrade, and it includes all types of interesting and useful sensors, including a 3-axis accelerometer, a 3-axis gyroscope, an optical heart rate monitor, an altimeter, an ambient light sensor, Wi-Fi, GPS, and NFC. It’s not clear what type of glass is being used, but it’s most likely Gorilla 3.
It’s important to mention that Fitbit Ionic is waterproof and can be submerged to a depth of 50 meters, which is a little over 150 feet. This should be more than enough for pretty much anyone. If you’re going deeper than 50 meters, it’s likely that you don’t really need a Fitbit.
Unlike the Versa, Fitbit Ionic comes with its own GPS sensor, which means that, in theory, you can track your activity without needing a phone. Since the watch can hold data for 7 days, there is more than enough time to sync with a mobile device.
The Good
The size has a perk that must not be overlooked, and that its battery life. While it’s not amazing, the battery life for Ionic can reach four to five days, depending on what you’re doing. For example, if you track your workout with the GPS active, it will be less than that. Otherwise, you’re not going to be annoyed by having to charge the watch too often.
Another nice feature is the inclusion of apps and watch faces. The sheer number of faces can really help users make the watch their own. Chances are you’re not going to spot another one like yours. Furthermore, the apps are a nice touch, and if you plan to use it for more than just fitness tracking, you might find what you need.
The Bad
A big problem with the Ionic is the synchronization function with the smartphone. Depending on the device you have, the synchronization might be spotty or perfect. I used it with a Samsung S8 and a Google Pixel 2 XL. In both cases, the notifications would stop coming after a while.
The problem would go away after restarting the watch and the phone. It’s most likely generated by the updates to the app, and Fitbit releases updates quite often. Also, the fact that both Samsung S8 and Pixel 2 XL were never officially supported didn’t help.
Finally, I have to mention the fitness tracking itself, which also comes with its own issues. In theory, the watch should detect automatically what you’re doing. This feature seems to work only for running and nothing else. I use my bike a lot, and it never started on its own.
Also, even when I manually start the bike tracking, the watch would stop the monitoring randomly. A bike ride of 10km would only have 6km because somewhere along the way the tracking stopped and never resumed.
The accuracy of the tracking seems to be much improved with the Versa, and that only tells me that whatever is wrong with the Ionic it was fixed with the newer version.
Conclusion
It was marketed more towards athletes, which was probably not a good idea. In any case, if you combine the huge number of customization options, including faces, with the battery life, the water resistance, and everything else offered by the official app, you will find out the Fitbit Ionic is at least worth a try.
