Does display stay illuminated?

[shipo]

Does display on the Ionic stay on at all times or does is spend most of its time blacked out as with the Blaze?

Moderator edit: edited title for clarity

[bbarrera]

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@Rich_Laue wrote:

@shipo the Surge and Ionic have entirely different technologies when it comes to sisplays.

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Both are LCD. The difference is that Surge is transflective and Ionic/Blaze are transmissive. 

[Dinozof]

Hi everyone!

I think it would be great to add the support for a lower power consumption mode on the watch so that the screen can be set in "always on mode" but in a low power consumption mode (maybe just the time in B&W). after all it's a watch so it is supposed to tell the time and i find it a bit annoying having to turn the wrist just to active the screen and see the time.

what do you think?

[Berdwa]

I went from a charge to the Pebble Time because I needed a watch as well as a tracker. Pebble health is nowhere near as good as Fitbit, but I don't want to devices on my arm. I'd love if the Ionic had the option to keep the screen on!

[racertempo]

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@Berdwa wrote:

Pebble health is nowhere near as good as Pebble health

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I hear you... Sometimes I am not as good me too. 

[davidf100010]

I don't get it. don't you have to lift and turn your wrist to see the time anyway? Unless you would like to have the watch not on your wrist sitting on a desk or something and still see the time then I could see something like you are saying.

[Berdwa]

😂 Touche. I should I've reread that before posting!

[Berdwa]

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@davidf100010 wrote:

I don't get it. don't you have to lift and turn your wrist to see the time anyway? Unless you would like to have the watch not on your wrist sitting on a desk or something and still see the time then I could see something like you are saying.

It's possible the Ionic could work better than past devices I've had with this feature. I'm a high school teacher. It's not uncommon for me to be demonstrating something using a document camera. I would only twist my wrist slightly or not at all to check the time without interrupting what I'm doing with the students. It works with an always on device, but I'm skeptical spending $300 to find out if this iteration of the wrist twist would work. I've owned several Fitbits, and lately a couple of Pebbles for the always on watch feature coupled with some fitness tracking. I really want to love the Ionic and get better fitness tracking, but I'm still mourning the demise of Pebble.

[Jim319]

Clearly, there are many who prefer a transflective LCD rather than the transmissive technology that the Ionic has. In fact, several tech reviewers such as Scott Stein on C/NET had for years preferred Pebble's display due to its always on, low power consumption feature. Most of the sports GPS running watches now use transflective always on screens primarily since it is more useful and address the one issue that is still a barrier to "tech" watch adoption - the need to do something to activate the screen..  When FitBit purchased Pebble, I thought for sure that FitBit would improve on its strengths such as its always on screen. Kudo's to FitBit for the relatively long charge life of its battery. That is the one feature that is always mentioned as a positive.

[Markje]

I have recently received my ionic I like it, hate the wrist gesture if i had known a watch would not tell the time without wiggleing my arm in a certain way.

I had to save to by this watch and am quite upset by this. Please some one at fitbit sort this out

[lelser]

I thought about getting the Ionic, but honestly I’m not buying another Fitbit until this is fixed. It’s not a feature, it’s a design flaw.

[lelser]

I keep getting the "get your ionic" ad in the app. I'm NEVER buying another Fitbit unless this is fixed. It's not a feature. It's a design flaw.

[shipo]

@lelser, you are certainly welcome to your opinion, however, my understanding is the current state of the small/low power color display panels (OLED?) such as those on the Blaze and Ionic do not have a dim/low power mode.  What this in turn means is Fitbit had two options, a low power/always on/monochromatic LCD display like the one on the Surge, or a full-color/higher power (when on)/OLED display.

The thing about the Ionic, and pretty much every other consumer product out there, is that the design phase is a series of compromises, and in this instance, the options were 1) Color, or 2) Always-On, needless to say Fitbit chose Option 1.  As much as I would prefer an always on display, I agree with their choice to opt for Color.  So, you can keep carrying the "it's a design flaw" torch, or you can look at the reality of the situation and agree they had to make a choice, a chose you don't happen to agree with.

Long story short, it was a design compromise, not a design flaw.

[lelser]

When the design choice for a watch makes it not be a useful watch that’s a problem. When the design choice for a sports timing device makes it impossible to use as a stop watch, that’s a problem.

Buy it if you like but my next fitness watch will work as a frigging watch.

[Markje]

Basically I saved money for a long time to buy a hr watch didn't even cross my mind that a watch wouldn't work as a watch would send it back for a refund if I could 


Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[shipo]

Updating this thread following my first 12 hours with my new Ionic (which includes one run)...

I was initially concerned the lack of a continuously on display was going to be annoying; I am happy to say the logic used to illuminate the screen based upon wrist motion is pretty intuitive.  I was initially thrown by my habit of a quick/virtually simultaneous wrist twist/glance at the face I had used with my Surge, however, after only a half day I've retrained my arm/eyeballs to lift/twist/pause/glance, and that is working quite well.

Long story short, while I might still prefer very low power always on display, the way the Ionic is programmed is no hardship.

[ninamenina]

I would also like an answer to this...is there an option to change how long the display screen stays on to help us in the medical field 🙂

[zummo1]

This feature is annoying as other have said, sometimes the wrist turn doesn't turn it on, so if they could make it so you 1) change the amount of time its on 2) change the sensitivty needed to get it to go on sure would be helpful... If I can buy coffee with it, but not actually see it seems like more a mixup in priorities rather than the device technical ability. And If I have to charge it a bit more , so be it

Think about this, you have developers sitting there designing hundreds of clock faces for it.......that you can see for a whopping five second burst....kinda silly

[kathytn]

I prefer it be MY decision on whether on not to conserve battery.  As is, it's useless while driving, sneaking a peak in a meeting, etc.   I want to be able to do a quick peak while driving or whatever.  Shaking/flipping the wrist doesn't cut it.

Also, the black screen displayed on the wrist is not very pretty.  Kind of ugly on a woman.

[ABlicious]

I am on the same boat if they would allow for it to be adjusted under settings to be able to modify how long the display stays on it would be awesone, the new faces are great and come in handy to keep track of pulse and respirations. It sucks that the display only stays on for about 5 secs though. 30 secs would be ideal if it could be adjusted 

[SunsetRunner]

For those of you concerned about changing backlight delay, there is a new user setting that lets you change from the default 10 seconds to one of three; 10, 15 or 20 seconds. It’s currently on the release 27.30.5.8 and presumably will be rolling out to general release soon.