Fitbit Ionic smartwatch review: completely fit wristwatch

We invite you to read our Fitbit Ionic smartwatch review in order to know everything about this wristwatch.

The undisputed star of Fitbit fitness accessories has decided to abandon its comfort zone. For the first time, the American producer wants to compete with Apple Watch and Android Wear smartwatches. Fitbit Ionic is, therefore, the first connected watch of the American giant able to exploit the applications developed by third parties. After several weeks of testing, I present my impressions.

Are you ready to discover everything about the Fitbit Ionic smartwatch? let's start then. We also invite you to read our selection of the best smartwatches 2018.

Fitbit Ionic smartwatch pros and cons

Before going to the detailed review of Fitbit Ionic smartwatch, let's see the major advantages and disadvantages of this wristwatch.

+ PROS

Autonomy
Integrated GPS
Fitbit application
Heartbeat meter

- CONS

Price
OS a little slow sometimes
No possible response to notifications
Limited swimming functions

Exit and price

Officialized at IFA 2017, Fitbit Ionic is available in Italy at the recommended price of 299$ (at the time of writing). The connected Fitbit watch is available in three colors: gray-blue / gray-silver, black / graphite gray and slate / burnt earth.
Discover more and the price here

Design and assembly

To be polite we can say that Fitbit Ionic is not the smartest smartwatch on the market. The Ionic follows the Blaze tradition with a square dial. In everyday life, therefore, it goes rather unnoticed and has the merit of being able to satisfy a wide audience with a universal design. However, those looking for a more elegant and fashionable design will look for another model, the Ionic lacks a bit 'of sex appeal with its thick edges around the screen. On the wrist, the watch is pleasant to wear and is easy to forget despite the weight of 46 grams. From a technical point of view, the Ionic case is made of 6000 Series aluminum, a magnesium-silicon alloy identical to that of the iPhone 6, which showed signs of weakness shortly after launch. Apple has therefore opted for the 7000 series aluminum for its iPhone 6s and iPhone 7 because it contains zinc, which ensures greater solidity. However, there is nothing wrong with the quality of the assembly and finishes. The bracelet supplied in the package is in silicone. For sports, it is very practical. Its fixing system (a buckle plus a button) is great for avoiding any risk of loss. Sometimes it is difficult to hook the final part of the strap that is inserted into one of the appropriate holes. It often happens to be halfway between two holes and the insertion of the hook is difficult. Fortunately, silicone seems to be able to last over time. Of course, the bracelet uses a proprietary format and you have to go through the Fitbit store to buy new ones (especially leather ones). Fortunately, changing them is very easy. In the middle, the 1.4-inch screen of Fitbit Ionic is clearly visible. Three buttons are on the sides (two on the right edge, one on the left edge). The one on the left allows you to go back, while the buttons on the right make navigation easier. The top button displays the statistics of the day, the second is dedicated to the launch of the exercises. On the back, there is an optical heart rate sensor. I will come back later on its effectiveness. Last but not least, the watch is naturally waterproof and you will be able to swim smoothly with your wristwatch.

Display

Fitbit Ionic is equipped with a 1.42-inch LCD touchscreen with a resolution of 348x250 pixels and a density of 302 pixels per inch. Like the recently tested Gear Fit2 Pro, the watch is coated with Gorilla Glass 3 glass for added strength. Unlike the Samsung smart bracelet, the Ionic display does not offer infinite contrast, but the clock is doing very well. Fitbit Ionic is characterized by bright colors and high brightness (1000 nit as Apple Watch 2). The readability is therefore excellent and Fitbit Ionic is a perfect companion for all kinds of sporting activities. I was pleasantly surprised by his diving skills, especially in terms of readability. As for the reactivity, it's not bad but the screen is sometimes a bit slow to respond and you have to rotate your wrist in an exaggerated way to activate it. This is occasionally annoying, for example when you are doing an activity and want to know the information quickly.

Special functions

In addition to its smartwatch capabilities, Fitbit Ionic is obviously a perfect tool to follow your sporting activities. You can find all the fitness features you know and love about other Fitbit products:

Pedometer

The Ionic translates the motion sensor data to count steps. Active days will be characterized by a large number of steps and days inactive by a small number of steps. As always with Fitbit, the result is quite optimistic.

Sleep monitoring

The watch automatically detects when the user falls asleep and wakes up. The app also shows the cycles of sleep and if you were immersed in a light or heavy sleep. Personally, I appreciated this information because it allows us to understand the state of rest or fatigue. Just get used to sleeping wearing this bracelet all the time, a situation that can be annoying for some people.

Nutritional monitoring

Manual monitoring of your feeding in the application is possible. However, it is always necessary to enter the information of your meals yourself, which requires some diligence.
Calorie consumption, monitoring of running, cycling, swimming, treadmill, weight training, etc.
As for swimming, although I have always been a little worried at the beginning of my swim, the Fitbit Ionic was able to withstand water without problems. The counting of the lengths is always difficult, especially if you have to go back during the swim for various reasons. The results can therefore sometimes be not very precise.

Fitbit Coach

If Fitbit presents its watch as a "coach on the wrist" it is because it offers many guided exercises. Through the videos shown on the watch, you can perform workouts. At the moment only three videos are available. Other free videos should arrive later. If the idea is good, it is sometimes difficult to follow the video on your wrist and do the push-ups at the same time. A speaker would not have been bad to be able to follow the advice. Fitbit also offers other personalized exercises in the Fitbit Coach application. This is actually a new version of the Fitstar application, a company acquired by Fitbit. Personalized exercises will be offered, but you will have to pay a monthly subscription of 8 $ per month. These tailor-made training sessions will show you exactly what to do. With each exercise, it is possible to leave comments to adjust the workouts as best as possible. The goal here is to help you improve and encourage you to try different types of exercises.

Software

Fitbit Ionic works with an internal operating system of the manufacturer, Fitbit OS. Despite the promises of marketing the brand, I confess I'm rather disappointed with the possibilities offered by the watch. While the $ 40 million acquisition of Pebble may be a good omen for better results, its integration still leaves much to be desired. Of course, for the first time in its history, Fitbit offers a development kit (SDK) for developers. However, at the moment the application catalog of the Fitbit App Gallery is relatively empty. Apart from some partner applications that are very good (Strava, Starbuck, Pandora ...), I was not very satisfied. For example, fans of Spotify or Deezer streaming sites will have to wait and decide to transfer their songs to the internal memory (2.5 GB available) of the watch. There were wearables that made my life easier than that. Unable to reply to notifications Fitbit OS allows you to receive notifications on the Ionic (calls, messages, social networks ...). The problem is that you do not have a chance to answer, which creates a lot of frustration. You can only delete notifications one at a time or all together, nothing more. Because? Simply because the watch does not have a microphone and does not offer suggestions for answers.

Fitbit application

As always, the Fitbit app is one of Fitbit Ionic's best resources. It is always intuitive and pleasant to use. The app displays essential information on the home page in blocks that you can reorganize as you like. You can easily find all the activities you have done and you can always challenge your friends. As always, it is compatible with a large number of third-party services (Alexa, IFTT, MyFitness Pal ...). Furthermore, there is nothing wrong with synchronizing the smartwatch and the application. This happens quickly and without problems. The only problem I encountered was during the first configuration since it took more than two hours to download and install the update necessary to use the Ionic.

Performance

In the Fitbit Ionic data sheet includes 2.5GB of internal memory, for example, to store music. We also have an NFC payment chip (compatible with the US in particular), a GPS, an optical heart rate monitor, a gyroscope, a barometer and an accelerometer to measure all your physical activities. In general, the performance is good and the energy management seems well studied. However, as explained above, there are some delays, but I do not know if this is due to the processor or the system itself. GPS and heart rate monitor The GPS behaved well and the distances were accurate and consistent with what I was getting with my smartphone. As for the optical heart rate sensor, I found the results slightly better than reality even though Fitbit explained that its new algorithms made the measurement more accurate. Of course, the results are more stable, but the measure still seems a bit 'high. If the wrists are heavily involved in the sport, the detection results are basically useless. Of course, as with other fitness trackers, we must remain cautious about the information we receive, as it is always an estimate. Again, I encourage you to read the article written by colleague Stefan on the effectiveness and accuracy of cardiac optic sensors.

Battery

If you are looking for a durable smartwatch watch, Fitbit Ionic will delight you because it is one of the areas where the watch excels. As promised by the manufacturer, the Ionic is able to last almost 4 days before giving severe signs of fatigue and requiring recharging. There is no need to disable the cardio sensor or limit the brightness to get such a result so you can rest assured. This is a very different story if you use GPS heavily, as the duration will be greatly reduced. But it is not surprising. It is difficult to find in the field of the smartwatch competitors that they do best in this field. The only negative point concerns the charging method. As always Fitbit offers us a cable with a proprietary format that you will not want to lose or you will have to buy another one by force. Although it is convenient to use a magnet system, Fitbit offers only the charging cable and not the charger in the box. Given the price of the watch, I expected at least this.

Overall opinion

The Fitbit bet of the personal coach on the clock is successful? Not really in my opinion. As a smartwatch, the Ionic is a bit too limited. The system is still underdeveloped (it is not possible to reply to the notifications!) And seriously lacks applications. The payment system is not available in Italy and its design is a bit too simplistic to completely seduce.

However Fitbit Ionic is far from being a bad product. The watch is an ideal companion for all sports monitoring and benefits from the manufacturer's experience in this field. The application is always a reference. You can use the device for many activities (running, swimming, lifting weights ...) and its autonomy will surprise you. But at the end of the day, I'm a bit confused, because its price seems a little too high for a simple activity tracker and its features are not advanced enough for a smartwatch than the competition (Samsung Gear Sport, Apple Watch, etc.).
What do you think? Let us know in the comments. Thank you.