Feedback about Fitbit Ionic

[MelissaRN]

I've never owned a Fitbit product.  I recently began using the Fitbit app as a way to log water, food and steps and I am enjoying it and finding it motivating.

I'm thinking about making the plunge and purchasing the Fitbit Ionic.  (I also was looking at the Blaze.)

So question, would you buy the Fitbit Ionic again?  Do you regret it?  Love it?  Think it's worth it or not?

Any feedback is appreciated.   Thank you in advance!  

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[jwebb72]

@Phleygas 

tap on the exercise app, there's a settings cog in the upper left corner of the screen. Under that setting scroll down and you'll find "always on screen", turn that on.

@Swing43

Hold the left button until music/fitbitpay/setting screen pops up. Swipe left and you'll find "screen wake" option, set that to auto and your screen will turn on when you raise your wrist to look at it instead of manually tapping.

[motoscribble]

Yes the sync feature is a joke. Works, doesn't work, works, doesn't work..... and on and on. Why they did not allow the use of USB to a PC via 10BT wire shows that the designers are clueless to just how ineffective wireless and bluetooth can be and is most of the time. It has a setting to constantly sync and mine did not sync for 2 weeks, and not before deleting the bluetooth connection and a phone reboot. They should list wasting your time troubleshooting their poor design as one of the main features!

[Wizegeezer]

I upgraded from a Surge and think the Ionic is great. GPS is more accurate than the Surge and it takes seconds to sync with the satellites vs. up to a couple of minutes for the Surge and faster than some Garmins that I've owned. 

I use the music feature to listen to podcasts when I run. Works just fine with a cheap Anker bluetooth headphones.

  Battery life is good, long enough to run a marathon . 

Syncing with the Fitbit app is more reliable than the Surge. Works every time with my Pixel phone but I had problems with my previous Samsung.   

Heartrate seems higher than the Surge, not sure which is more accurate. 

Sleep tracking is much more detailed than the Surge .  There's enough battery life you can wear the Ionic around the clock for 3-4 days before charging. 

Run cues doesn't work since the previous update, I hope this gets fixed soon since I use run cues to measure intervals. 

Overall, I'm pleased. 

[SunsetRunner]

I would purchase the Ionic again! Absolutely! It has served me well. 

[shuffler]

Yes works well for me so far and I like the fact the ionic is still evolving.

[Swing43]

Thanks for sharing that information . It does help some.  I think my settings changed when I got the last update. I still just wear Ionic for a planned walk and to bed. My Surge works better for most things and especially a day out of town to do shopping. I would just stick with Surge, but with 3 newer models I'm sure Surge will go away soon.

[Made-in-808]

MOS DEF NOT! Had I read the reviews here back when I purchased mine in late Nov. 2017 I would have steered clear of Fit Bit. Nothing works when troubleshooting to fix. Lack of support and nothing but vanilla responses from moderators here. This was a beta release and I feel robbed by this company. Any of these positive votes are trolls for Fit Bit. This will probably be deleted too once someone in their org reads this but if you are reading this and not with them stay away from this product until they get it right if that ever comes.

[Boothy11]

i wouldnt !

the amount of down time , around any up date is frusrating . I am trying to use my Ionic the monitor weightloss and exercise but when it doesnt work for days at a time , makes it useless, every single time there is an update i have to contact customer support

i have wasted hours and hours on the phone , yes it gets silved for a few weeks then i have to do it all over again , biggest waste of £250 ever

[ioniccrash]

This is my second day with Fitbit Ionic and I think I'm asking for a refund. Fortunately I purchased it on Amazon and they are usually nice when returning any purchase.

Never had a smartwatch before, and I guess the technology is still too primitive:

• Heart rate is completely off. Usually readings are lower than actual HR. Sometimes I am at 140bpm and it says 80, huh? I know wrist reading is more difficult than using a chest band. But then why buying a thing that just does not work properly?
• Calorie counter is too generous. Anyway I already knew that you should never trust calorie counters by any gadget or gym equipment, otherwise you will overeat and get fat.
• Step counter is accurate as long as you are walking on the street. However weird readings start to happen when you are moving around your home, or in the gym. For example I like elliptical bike and I grab the central grips, but still the hand is slightly moving sometimes. So the Ionic counts SOME of these movements as steps, and doesnt count others. This leads to a complete mess, as I just don't know how many steps have I made. Of course any lifting movement counts as a step, for example biceps or shoulder exercises. Yeah this is an activity watch so it makes sense to accept that lifting movements can be counted as activity. But oh well...
• I would like an "always on" option for screen, it is just annoying to get it OFF all the time.
• Screen is beautiful but the crystal gets dirt too easily, and then it doesnt look as great as in youtube videos or promotional pics....
• It is not exactly comfortable, maybe this is because I haven't worn a watch for more than 10 years.

I have read that Garmin Vivoactive 3 is way more accurate for heart rate, counts on an awesome app, and is very light so should be more comfortable. However I dont like its aesthetics and the fact that it is round. To be honest I purchased the Ionic mostly because it looks gorgeous, I like the square format, and it has a high quality screen compared to other products in the market.

They say the sleep pattern readings are awesome, but again, is this important enough and what can you do if you have slept badly any day? You can't go back in time and repeat your night sleep can you? lol.

In addition I think this type of products may be useful for a short period of time, after which you can't learn/make improvements as its always "the same". This happened to me when I used a pulsometer 5 years ago, after 6 months I stopped using it as I didn't learn anything new and I just predicted very accurately my heart rate without even looking the watch.

So at this point Im debating myself whether I should keep my Ionic, return it and get a Garmin Vivoactive 3, or return it and never again use a smartwatch (at least while technology is still so patchy).

[Thx1158]

Apple Watch.

Sent from my iPhone

[vZedh]

Never experienced any serious issues. I would buy it again without any doubt.

[Made-in-808]

All I can say is what I have experienced and it's been nothing but non-positive with the Ionic. I hate slamming anyone on a public platform but when I failed to receive technical support because I bought it on ebay for a few pennies less than buying direct it started the snowball effect. I filled out their feedback survey and the response received was pretty much in line with the phone call and their rep. I'm not going to be fanatical about this and data mine stats but when reviewing the community forum I see a huge difference favoring the negative comments on the Ionic. My wife purchased the Blaze and when it arrived DOA out of the box she returned it to Amazon with no questions asked. Glad she uses them instead of ebay.

And I retract my comment about positive posts and FB Trolls. My emotions got the best of me that day. They just got a lucky batch and the negative ones the burnt batch. It happens..Cest la vie

[ioniccrash]

Hey made-in-808 sorry to hear that.

Yeah I made the mistake of buying the Ionic even after having read all the issues that users are experiencing. At this point the only reason I have to keep it is that I think it looks cool in my wrist.

But I expected much more after spending 260 euro (300 dollars) on it. If heart rate monitor is OFF, calories are not accurate and stepcounter is also erroneous, what the heck is working well in this watch? Oh, yeah, the watch, yeah the time is accurate lol.

[jack.]

Probably not. I've been mostly happy with mine and put up with all of the GPS issues, daily reboots to get syncing working, lag, etc. just because there wasn't really anything else in the price range that did what I needed but I picked up a Garmin Vivoactive 3 Music to replace it today. Hoping its a better experience.

[Made-in-808]

@ioniccrash You have my sincere condolences as well. May your Ionic journey to a better place where it actually works the way FB envisioned.

[ioniccrash]

Third day in.

Today I placed it upper in my wrist (avoiding the wrist bone). It feels even more uncomfortable but apparently more accurate heart rate. However the heart rate is not accurate at weight lifting. I think that the watch has some serious lag and/or doesn't behave correctly when the heart rate is much variable. For example in a elliptical bike with more constant heart rate it shows correct numbers after 30 seconds or so. It is important that the watch is tight enough.

During sleep the heart rate appears to be pretty accurate and I like the sleep analysis.

Step counter is more or less accurate no matter how tight it is or where you place it. As long as you are careful about not doing weird movements. When walking with it make sure your arm is swinging naturally. In example if you are carrying a shopping bag, do it with the opposite arm or steps won't count as your arm will be kind of static instead of swinging.

Will test it some additional days. I hope they fix the app soon. And I hope not to suffer those mysterious "double steps" some users are experiencing, like someone saying the watch counted 12,000 additional steps while he was sleeping (lol?)

[pointy101]

No no and no again ,the amount of issues out the box and then more issues after software updates 

My days as a beta tester are over ,I expect mine to be replaced under warranty ,then I'm off 

[SilviaFitbit]

Hey everyone! I appreciate the time that you took to share your experience with Ionic. Your feedback is always appreciated as this helps Fitbit to improve its future watches and features. 

If you have any issue with heart rate, you may want to confirm you're following the advice posted in this article What should I know about my heart rate data?. I read some of you were wondering about GPS accuracy, check this link for more information and How accurate are Fitbit devices?. 

Also, you may always confirm you have the latest firmware version of Ionic which is Ionic Firmware Release - 32.10.20 so you can have all the updates on your watch. 

Additionally, Moderators are always in the Community reading your comments and passing them to the correct team for review. 

Hope this helps! 

[Mark2018]

Nothing fixed in Firmware .20.

You can read it in all communities!

Unbelievable.

Good news would be to get information when all problems are solved!

Really frustrating!

[Swing43]

I love your description of how you feel.  I  still have a Surge,  which I love. But I disconnected the Ionic and reset to factory settings. My daughter's going to give it a try.  Maybe without my expectations she will like it better.