This is my first week back to Fitbit after ditching my Surge and going to Garmin. I bought what I thought was Fitbits best watch as Fitbit works with my Windows 10 Mobile device. Instead I got a product that seems incomplete. There are so many features that are just unstable or pending updates to even get working. Be it problems with Fitbit Pay, Coach, Music Transfer, Strava sync is broken etc. Or the yet to be enabled SpO2 sensor. So far the only thing better than my old Garmin is the sleep tracking.
The device does less, the support is worse (worked with them three times already in less than a week, they don't even have basic troubleshooting skills and barely speak English), and the forums are a disaster with people bashing each other and this Community Counsel thing that has several members on ego trips commenting on posts even when they dont have anything constructive to say and being very condescending or deleting posts because it made them look bad (yes I have seen all that in less than a week). I had really hope Fitbit has improved in the last couple years. The devices really haven't increased functionality besides some being water proof now, one of the higher end newer ones doesnt have stair/floor tracking. These really are just pedometers like they were many years ago and really don't do much else in regards to fitness. Almost every other device out there is useful for a number of other gym exercises and provide a lot more useful data to help measure improvement. The best advertisement for these devices is they are used in a lot of medical studies, but when you provide them for free why wouldn't they use them. And in a recent study at Stanford Fitbit had the best out of 7 devices for calorie tracking, but when all of the devices did horrible and Fitbit was only off by an average of 27% that isn't something to be proud of. For a while Fitbit was advertising the Ionic had the best GPS because they attached the antenna to the hosing instead of placing it inside. Not sure why they stopped even though in most test Garmin (the GPS company) has more accurate GPS tracking on older devices.
I switched to Fitbit because Garmin dropped support for my phone and I could no longer sync it except using my computer and even the computer app started developing problems because Windows in general is not a priority for them and they have a much smaller development team than Fitbit. So I figured with more resources Fitbit could have caught up or at least be making progress, but I was wrong.
Right now I really am at my wits end and don't know what to do. I am already supposed to exchange my device for a replacement with the retailer or send it into Fitbit. I am also already experiencing skin irritation from the strap, which thankfully is replaceable but I don't really want to invest more money into this device as I am considering just returning it instead of exchanging it.
I really just need a ray of hope. Because right now having this over priced device that does actually sync and provides me notifications most of the time is so painfully worse than my old Garmin that couldn't sync and wouldn't allow me to use any of the smart watch features.
I am asking for help and advise because I really feel stuck. Short of buying a new phone which I don't like any of the options. This gives me the option of a Fitness tracker that "works" but has no functionality (aka Fitbit) or one that doesn't work but does everything I need. Or trying to hunt down a third option or even just give up on fitness trackers all together as it would provide me about the same amount of data as Fitbit.
I am sorry for ranting but this is really just horrible for me. I don't know what do. My phone is supported for another two years and Microsoft should have their Windows Core OS on mobile by then allowing me to avoid the horribly unsecure and unstable Android and the over priced and poorly laid out iOS devices.
Seriously any help or advise that doesn't involve changing my phone would be appreciated. As is I am going to wait till this weekend to decide if I am exchanging or returning my Ionic.
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