Are you satisfied with your Fitbit Ionic?

[Comalito]

Having received so many negative aswers (which, by the way, I share) I really wish to know if most people or just some people are disatisfied with this product?

I won't ask again if Fitbit Ionic is worthwhile buying. I just want to know who is satisfied with the device? 

I am terribly deceived with my third trial.

Hoping that it is not everybody's case?

Comalito.

[Giampi71]

Best smartwatch I ever owned (I owned Pebble, Pebble Time, Android LG Watch, Android LG Watch R and I still own Polar M600, Tom Tom Runner 2).

What I am really satisfied of:

- Beautiful look

- Sharp and bright display

- Notification and sync perfect on my Pixel 3 XL

- Battery life

- Fitbit OS (I like to develop for Fitbit OS)

Looking to improve:

- Music handling (possibility to start music while already exercising)

- SDK evolution

- SpO2 (coming soon)

- Implementation of complication and/or possibility to launch apps from clockface

- Notification from apps (installed in the device)

- Improvement of running app (addition of goals like C3 would be a great start)

- Swimming app (with deeper metrics)

[Timmy1192]

The customer care just sent me an email and after inquiring about the matter, they have sent me a replacement!

The best part is that my warrenty had just expired a few days ago, still I’ve been given a replacement! 

I hope the new watch goes without problems, but I have to say that the customer care was amazingly fast, very helpful and very rapidly solved the case. 

[Mikegillett]

@Timmy1192 that’s great!  Customer Service is awesome. The community... it’s ok. Glad you get your replacement!

[SunsetRunner]

Like others have said the Ionic is a great idea, mostly good but has issues.

We bought the flagship device, but if issues are raised that are "built in" (I'm thinking of the watchface illumination in bed, or the custom exercise stats not staying set) Fitbit, are IMHO, appalling. They don't listen to customers and don't appear to want to give a timeline.

The moderators and customer service are terminally cheerful, I'm British and am suspicious of this. I don't wish to be thanked for "reaching out to Fitbit"; I'd just like a straight answers to the above issues or anything else I raise.

[Mikegillett]

@SunsetRunner,  I agree with you! Albeit I am not as suspicious about cheerful behavior, having worked retail before. I do want answers.

Why won’t the additions and features we suggest be added? Why did we spend near 300.00 for this when we could have gotten something else that had built in features?

Fitbit is lucky that Garmin is pushing the Fenix5 Plus starting at $700.00.  If it was lower, I would abandon this really quick. 

Does Fitbit like knowing that it offers subpar products and the only reason we don’t move over is due to price?

[gunnmike]

There are lots of things that we "settle for" based on price.

I also think we get wrapped up too much is what we want the device to do and misjudge the power of this and other forums. Just because a bunch of us may want a certain type of function doesn't mean that a company is going to go forward with it.

[Kyoshi_Steve]

I only expect the advertised features to work. I don't need any more. It worked on my first Ionic for 5 months.

[Margiea]

Same here. Unfortunately when the advertised features don't work for mel... notifications, but do for family members with same phone I have a problem. Fitbit customer service doesn't care and has never cared. Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Tab S2, an AT&T 4G LTE tablet

[SantiR]

Hello everyone! Thanks for your continuous participation on this thread regarding your experiences with Fitbit Ionic so far. Thanks for sharing both positive and negative experiences.

If you keep experiencing any difficulties while using Ionic; feel free to check for relevant threads within the board to find some helpful posts. Also, feel free to check the help site for troubleshooting steps and important information.

Additionally, if you have any ideas or suggestions you would like for your watch to have; please check the Feature Suggestions Board. This is the best place for asking. Feel free to search for existing feature suggestions or add you own original one!

See you around! 

[Builder]

No,  barely using it as a watch. Counts steps when I'm sitting down, went display messages keeps clearing them  and it's my brand new replacement for the one that would not charge 

[patesq]

I love my Ionic...when it works.

It crashed AGAIN today.  Again, after doing all of the standard troubleshooting (which I know well because this is the third complete crash since October 2017), I called customer service.  Went through all of their troubleshooting, including a factory reset.  Nothing. And, because it's one month out of the original warranty, even though the one I have is only 2 months old, there is nothing they can do but offer me a discount off a new one which equates to about the same price as a new one is already discounted today because it's Cyber Monday.  In fact, the discount on anything other than the Ionic results in a price that is more than the current Cyber Monday discount.  So, no, I am not satisfied with my Ionic and not sure I will spend the money to get another one that will just crash again in a couple of months.

[JadeeZombiee]

I used to be.

Now I can never connect to the device regardless of how many factory resets and troubleshooting things I try.

I am honestly so disappointed that the most expensive peice of tech they sell is the most broken and useless.

Half the time I want to throw it out the window.

I've had fitbits for nearly 7 years and never experienced so many issues.

[RunTrails]

Yes, I've been pleased with it. 

In the first weeks/months I had a ton of problems but the OS updates seemed to help, and I don't install many apps.  Battery life seems to be dependent on the apps you install on the watch.

Positives

Owned it since it first came out (so had it about a year now), often run 25 miles a week with it and those sync to Strava. I listen to Pandora using bluetooth headphones during my runs.  I also use it to pay for something about once a day at various stores, and love that feature.  Battery life is good and I barely notice I'm wearing it it's so smooth and light.

What negatives remain

1. I'm worried about how Fitbit goes about releasing hardware and software and the lack of transparency in their plans and releasing bug fix notes.  There's no good reason for being this secretive about what issues they fix with their products.  We know they're buggy products - give us hope you are making them better.

2. The lack of spotify is brutal.  Pandora does the job ok for my running but the auto playlist thing is really annoying in how limited it is, and the sync is both random and painfully slow when I plug in.  I still use Pandora because it's an amazing experience running to music with wireless headphones and a watch, but HOW ON EARTH DO THEY NOT HAVE SPOTIFY YET?!?!?

3. It's ugly.  I originally didn't think it was, but now I think it's ugly.

Overall I don't wish I had a different watch.  I do wish Fitbit would do a better job with software quality and communicating with us.  Having someone respond with "Thanks for the feedback, did you try resetting the device?" is only customer service if it also includes more helpful statements on occasion like "Your particular bug is fixed internally and the update is expected to be released to users in another few weeks", and then the release notes showing the list of those bugs for those of us who have encountered issues but haven't made time to file them or find out the status.

[tinybicycles]

Not at all.

Too many syncing problems and too much time wasted try to fix those problems, time that could be spent exercising, which is what I should be spending time on.

[hammadbiarif]

Definitely not happy.

First Ionic i got was in June 2018. Ocassionally, It would massively over estimate by heart beat (200 bpm when i am resting). And the sync would need to be re-setup every few weeks.

I returned it. The new one is neither updating nor syncing. Countless hours of my life have been wasted to uninstalling / re-installing stuff on this device. 

 

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey everyone! Thanks for the continuous feedback that you've provided.

It's really good to see that each one is providing the good things that you've found on your watch and what can be improved. This totally helps Fitbit to improve the services provided and trackers/watches. Our main priority at Fitbit is to help you and provide you with the best customer service. 

If you would like to learn more about Fitbit Ionic and each feature that it has, you can double check the Fitbit Product Manual. Also, if you have any specific error that you would like to troubleshoot, you can post it on the board and a Moderator will be happy to help you on this. 

I'll be around if you need further assistance. 

[Ebojager]

Answer: No. 

I just got one this week and was pretty happy up until the next day when it wasn't syncing and kept loosing connection to the app. The app is so laggy and I think is the main problem with the device. I notice it shuts down the Bluetooth during the sync, Im already so tired of resetting and pairing,  and having it not work. Installing and adjusting app settings always fail , that's the most annoying part. If the apps don't work for Windows, they shouldn't show them in my app. I almost think there is something wrong with the OS too, as a factory reset on my device isnt actually factory resetting, as it has my installed clock face still. By the way Im on Windows 10 and a so called non supported device, Alcatel Idol 4s with 4GB Ram and a Snapdragon 820, which specs are far greater than the supported devices. And if the actual working devices is so limited, they probably should have waited to release the watch.

I'm trying one more thing, a phone reset and a watch reset and if this doesn't work, and there is no update within my 45 day return policy its going back, sadly 😞

Moderator Edit: Format

[SunsetRunner]

@Ebojager that was exactly my mistake. Not enough research I have done about the product and the company before I decided to go with Ionic. I already owned Charge 2 and wanted to take it to the next level so I bought Ionic (a bit of an impulse running on the hype ). There are lots of issues that never really occurred to me ( for example syncing issues are scarce, for the last 8 months may 2 or 3 times I couldn't sync - acceptable, can't complain about that ). Some issues never happened because of features I never used, never needed ( like playing music or smartwatch-like functionality ). And if it was just this I would be quite happy with the watch.

But then there are other issues that show how little the company cares about the product and the userbase. Issues not being fixed for months, critical ones that exist at the core of basic functionality.

- Randomly crashing Exercise app ( critical, game breaker, made me stop tracking exercises at all )

- Problems with locking on the GPS - sometimes takes ages

- Not reliable distance, pace measurement during the running. According to Fitbit, it's due to using stride and something they call "step rate" ( no explanation what it is ). Why not just show two dashes for the pace when GPS is lost? And compute a distance between last known GPS points? I believe cycling works this way. Showing false metrics just to show anything is not what people probably want.

- Erratic HR. Horrible. I've made lots of comparisons here with chest strap during various activities through walking, cycling, running, weights, HIIT. Just comparing raw numbers. It's just bad. This makes calories estimates also less accurate. Fitbit can't work with external HR sensors ( that I would accept ) so even here it's just useless.

- Not working HR sensor in the water - understandable and I wouldn't point it out here but then some time ago the company posted this on their FB page:

- FitbitPay so poorly supported - it may look strange, but I actually was looking forward to this feature when I was buying Ionic. Here in the UK contactless payments are incredibly popular and common. I even tested it by opening an account in Starling. Never heard of this bank before, nobody had ( it was before, Santander appeared which is the only bank I ever heard of from the list ). I risked taking a picture of my passport and send it through an unknown to me Starling app ) and yes, it works. Came up useful when I went to get a lunch and forgot my phone - still, I could pay for my lunch. But then, I don't want to have to maintain an additional bank account. My bank ( HSBC ) and other really common and popular are not supported. It's a useless feature here.

- On top of that, a couple of days, ago my display went glitchy due to contact with water ( not even swimming, just a shower ).

- Issues with notifications like my watch starts notifying me about an incoming call few seconds after I already answered it.

- Lack of features ( like more advanced and detailed metrics ) - not a bug-issue but certainly reduces possibilities of using the watch and app.

Most of the issues listed above will never be fixed. I lost my exercise tracking data so many times due to Exercise crash that I just don't care anymore. Sometimes I track, sometimes not. If it crashes that's fine. I still have data from more reliable devices.

And in here I would like to thank moderators for convincing me that it's finally time to change the ship. Today, I should receive the new watch. This time I made lots of research so hopefully, I won't get burnt again. To be honest, I can still recommend old Charge 2 to many people who try to get more active, lose weight etc. My wife recently got three of these devices for her family to get them moving a little. For the price, it's a good device that does the job. I wish Fitbit took step back, looked at what they've done good, what they've done bad and rethink strategy but after experiencing Ionic I know it's just a wishful thinking.

[CuruiosGeorge]

I got the Ionic for its looks, battery life and the fact that it was waterproof and could count pool laps while swimming. I was fully aware when I bought it that it wasn't going to be a brilliant smart watch but should be a good fitness tracker. I use it primarily for swimming, walking, getting notifications of phone calls, texts and Calendar appointments, keeping daily calorie count and sleep tracking. It is useful on all of these fronts but also falls short on most

Swimming - it counts laps OK with the odd mistake and is easy enough to check while swimming. But you can only get your lap times form the watch before you close the session. Lap times are not shown in the app instead it shows a totally useless calories per lap. I have seen numerous requests to have lap times added but no progress in the last six months for something that should be an obvious and simple change. Very frustrating.

Walking - generally OK once you navigate the slightly convoluted menu, discover how to have walking included in the exercise list (not there by default) and figure out how to set the Split reporting function. Irritating that it can detect start of walking but not end of walking and will screw your average times if you forget to End as soon as you finish. Irritating that the the Control Music on Your Phone from Ionic function rarely works (as widely reported) and despite a complete factory reset of Ionic and re-install of app it will no longer work with my Samsung S8. Ionic Classic Bluetooth simply fails to connect despite being successfully paired. It did work once for about a week.

Notifications - generally OK except none of the reply functions work other than answering the phone.

Daily Calorie count - good, informative and motivating to do a bit more each day although I question the accuracy of its calories for walking (overstated?) but haven't got around to verifying yet.

Sleep Tracker - fairly good but I question it's ability to really distinguish the sleep phases as it often fails to detect when I wake up - but overall gives a good sleep history and encourages healthy sleeping hours.

Final frustration was that after a full factory reset it told me the Ace Clock Face I was using up until now was not compatible with the Ionic and refused to reinstall it.

The absence of any real technical support or development is the most frustrating thing. Fitbit seems to be content with a bunch of marketing airheads pattering away on it's social media trotting out suggested problem fixes that are known not to work. Meanwhile none of the ongoing issues which bother me have progressed at all in 6 months so I now assume that they will not progress at all and I should resign myself to living with them. 

Notwithstanding all of the above and the associated frustration I would probably still buy the Ionic again as I do not like style or battery life on Garmin and Samsung Gear. For my needs Apple probably has the best solution (possibly excepting battery life) but I am not an Apple person and reluctant to pay Apple Watch prices.

[Ebojager]

Wow, that's allot of problems. I have one that you may not have mentioned...mine wont factory reset under the current software, unless I'm missing something. After the reset and software update, my last clock face is still there, not the original one, my Pandora credentials are still there and start downloading my playlists, the uninstalled apps don't get restored. This isn't what I would expect from a factory reset unless Im missing something. When I've done this I've also logged out and reset or uninstalled the app before.

Windows 10 Phone v1709, Alcatel Idol 4s, 4GB Ram, 64GB Storage, Snapdragon 820 CPU