Fitbit Ionic Review: a lot of fitness trackers, hardly any smartwatch

The market for wearables has consolidated. Many players that initially set accents have gradually disappeared or were bought up. Misfit is part of Fossil, Withings is part of Nokia and Jawbone will soon close its doors. Fitbit is sometimes a Industry leaderwhen it comes to fitness products. In addition, the Chinese tech giant Xiaomi with its cheap but very solid trackers, Apple has secured the further place with its Apple Watch.

To position itself for the future, Fitbit is now using the Ionic on a completely new smartwatch, the foundation of which is based on the now bankrupt and bought-out company Pebble Technology. In the past, the company had more classic but rock-solid fitness trackers in its program:

What does a smartwatch have to do to be better or different than existing products on the market? It must be able to keep up with the well-known smartwatches from smartphone manufacturers and also offer excellent fitness functions. A high goal. Let’s see if Ionic did it.

Fitbit Ionic: design

Even if this point is always somehow subjective: The Ionic looks chic, but has no outstanding design, such as the Q Explorist from Fossil (determine current price). At first glance, it is more of a wristwatch than a fitness tracker. Compared to the Fitbit Blaze – the first Fitbit smartwatch – the Ionic has become narrower and lighter, the square look and the rectangular display have remained.

The smartwatch is largely made of aluminum. The case looks solid at first, but scratches quickly if you are careless – for example when typing on a MacBook with an aluminum case. In our case, the Apple computer didn’t get anything, but the Ionic doesn’t look very fresh anymore. Therefore, losing weight is recommended beforehand, but annoying.

In addition to the precisely processed metal and the plastic bracelets, the Ionic also uses resistant Corning Gorilla Glass 3 display glass that protects the color touchscreen. The edges are slightly rounded and the processing leaves a good impression. Above all, the clean and seamless transitions between the materials make the Ionic look like a single piece.

The Fitbit smartwatch is waterproof to a maximum depth of 50 meters. The supplied plastic band should not be attacked by the user’s sweat. Nevertheless, you should clean the watch regularly and dry it after strenuous workouts or swimming sessions so that the skin is not attacked.

Fitbit Ionic: hardware

The Ionic is small, light and packed with the latest technology. At the top is a high-resolution screen, which you can use to operate the clock and display relevant information. At first glance you notice: the display is extremely bright! The manufacturer advertises the watch with a peak value of 1000 candelas per square meter, which is twice as bright as many smartphone displays. The content is therefore easy to read in everyday life and when the sun is strong.

One of the special features of the Fitbit Ionic is the integrated battery. The manufacturer specifies a term of 5 days. We don’t achieve this in practice, but realistic are still a good 3.5 days. The continuous use of GPS reduces the runtime to 10 hours, it is said. That also seems to be a laboratory value: after a 4-hour ride on an e-mountain bike in Bavaria, the battery flashed: 28 percent. The Ionic is charged via a USB cable with spring contact pins. The duration for a full charge is between 84 and 90 minutes, a power supply is not included.

The Ionic has a large number of sensors, interfaces and technical components. Worth mentioning is the GPS already mentioned, which runs autonomously from the smartphone and enables more accurate route tracking when walking, running and cycling without having to take the cell phone with you. It took around 30 to 40 seconds for the position to be recognized in the Review. The exercise Interval timer can optionally also be used with the GPS, which is a good addition to Freeletics or P90X.

The Fitbit Ionic’s vibration motor works remarkably well at the factory. It can be weakened in the settings. Depending on the frequency with which notifications are received, this can have an effect on battery life.

Fitbit products are one of the few wearables to offer a heart rate monitoring with continuous measurement. The detection is done optically and can be recognized by a flashing green light on the back. The evaluation takes place in the app, and the resting heart rate can also be viewed there.

The Ionic contains an NFC chip for contactless payment. In Germany, this function is deactivated or cannot be used because the banks do not play along. It remains to be seen whether this will change in the future. The connection to the smartphone runs via Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy, the Ionic connects to the Internet via its own WLAN interface.

Fitbit Ionic: technical data

Fitbit Ionic: system

The Fitbit Ionic features the company’s own Fitbit OS operating system, which is based on Pebble OS. The system is operated using the touchscreen and the freely assignable buttons on the side. In the initial version, the surface was jerky at first and ran less smoothly. After some updates recently released by Fitbit, the system is now running reasonably smoothly and without noticeable delays.

A highlight of the Ionic compared to classic fitness trackers is the option to install apps on the watch. Unfortunately, the selection has not been particularly large so far: A total of eleven applications are available for installation, 10 of which are from Fitbit itself. These are weather, wallet or music apps. The product is new, maybe that explains the not yet visible developers and their creations. Perhaps Fitbit is doing the same here as Microsoft with Windows Phone: too late on the market and the competition from Android Wear and Apple Watch is already too great.

When the Fitbit is smart health connected to the smartphone, it displays notifications on the screen. The messages have an informative function, an interaction is not possible: You can see that someone is sending a message, but cannot send a short reply. After all: Incoming calls can be rejected or accepted. If you accept, you still have to use a cell phone or headset. The Fitbit has no speakers or microphone.

In general, the most important aspects of a smartwatch – especially the app selection – are not present. Most other functions of the Fitbit can also be performed by a “normal tracker” like the Charge HR. The actual novelty of the Ionic are two features: an automatic and very precise detection of sporting activities and sleep phases as well as the high-resolution videos that prompt you to do exercises. The training units are personalized and differ according to their duration.

All colors of the Fitbit Ionic

The Fitbit Ionic comes as standard in the three color versions dark gray with smoke gray, slate blue with copper colors and blue gray with silver gray. The scope of delivery includes two bracelets of different sizes for different arm circumferences. In addition to the classic plastic wristbands, there are breathable performance and Horween leather wristbands in black and cognac. Changing is child’s play and works via a proprietary plug-in system.

Buy Fitbit Ionic?

What is the Ionic now: a real smartwatch with fitness functions or a fitness tracker in the form of a watch? At the current time it seems to be the latter, the priorities are in the sports area. If more apps are added, the clear classification becomes more difficult. It is possible to play music using Bluetooth headphones, but there is currently no support for services such as Spotify and Co. The memory for storing up to 300 songs is available.

If you are looking for a good and reliable “fitness smartwatch” with a long battery life, you can still take a look at the Fitbit Ionic. At $149 , it is significantly more expensive than a pure fitness tracker, but the overall package is good and has potential for the future.

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