Fit Bit ionic or Garmin Vivoactive 3

[Jay6ixavenue]

I can't decide  whether to get the fit bit ionic, or the Garmin Vivoactive 3. Any advice on how I can choose between the two. I wanna use the sports watch  for running,walking,and Basketball. I have a strava and Runkeeper account that I know syncs well with the Fitbit,but I also have a Nike+run club account that I know works well with the Garmin. Can anybody give me advice on which would be the best option for me, please and thanks.

[datalore]

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@datalore I'm running my own 'not-on-app-store' apps on Apple Watch and iPhone. For Garmin bike computer I wrote a simple app for my MacBook Pro to open .fit activity file and extract sensor battery data, and calculate % battery loss per hour (varies based on turn-by-turn nav, and backlighting). Never bothered writing an app or widget for bike computer, but I have downloaded and run apps/widgets from the Connect IQ store. A free developer account, download some stuff, and off you go.

If you've been programming since 11 then those platforms are just as open for free personal hacking as Ionic.

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I had no idea Garmin had an open platform. They give you access to all the sensors as well? Wow, that's a point in Garmins favor. Thanks for the info @bbarrera

[jocoyn]

I wound up returning my vivoactive due to the low vibration but the replacement is fine. The vibration is not as intense as it was with my Charge HR.  I think it would wake me up if I had to rely on it to get me out of bed. I can definitely feel it and feel the move alerts etc and even on the bad one I could feel the Activity alerts.  

I think if you are talking about Garmin or the complaints I am seeing on the Ionics. They are new devices. Some will have QC issues so figure out what you want. I really like the Vivoactive 3 a lot. The Connect dashboard is beyond amazing and being able to export the GPS data in multiple formats is very helpful to me. 

I will say fitbit has the edge on floor counting so t hat would be something if it is important to you. 

[JGobeil]

I returned my Vivoactive 3 because HR measurements were all over the place.  Also, although battery life was OK for general use, it was extremely bad when using the GPS.  I use my fitness watch for trekking and I need longer battery life when using GPS.

My Ionic works OK - no setup, sync or music problems like many.  HR measurement is OK and battery life is adequate.  I enjoy having music with the watch but I miss the depth of the Garmin App.  The Fitbit app is good for general fitness like sleep, resting HR... but it is a joke if you want do study details about exercises.

[Robstunner]

While much more expensive, my Fenix 5 lasts over a week with 17hrs a week of GPS running. If you are looking for long GPS runs or hikes, you might want to take a look at spending a little more for a fenix.

[bcalvanese]

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@Robstunner wrote:

While much more expensive, my Fenix 5 lasts over a week with 17hrs a week of GPS running. If you are looking for long GPS runs or hikes, you might want to take a look at spending a little more for a fenix.

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They are on sale at BestBuy for $100.00 off, so only $200.00 more than the Ionic right now.

My fenix 5 is on day 10 and I still have 13% battery left. And I workout with GPS every single day for 1 to 3 hours.

[LPKA]

yes I had Fenix 3 and other ones before but VA3 is OK due to the size and weight. Fenix is to much of a weight, I have it 24/7 and after 2 years, my arm was showing the fatigue . I had to remove the watch. Now my limit is 50g. that is the main reason. not the money.

[bbarrera]

Garmin 935 is 49 grams, its basically a Fenix 5 in a plastic case. Which means its lighter and has better ANT+/Bluetooth radio reception. Plus it has a quick release kit that allows easy mounting on bike, a nice feature for triathletes.

[SunriseRun1253]

I also use the Nike Run app. I would not recommend the Ionic. I can't list all the troubles because I become frustrated. But I will explain that SmartTrack function on the Ionic is extremely faulty. There are times when it records longer than what I've actually used for biking, and the rest of the time it does not record at all.  It picks and chooses when it records my walks - never has properly recorded my runs. The way the feature is supposed to work is that it is to detect and log a minimum of 10 mins of exercise.

As a runner who used SmartTrack with the Charge HR I understand how that technology works on the user end.  Yes there were a few crazy times when it said I exercise for a long period of time (over 2 hours) and I didn't. But most of the time it was spot on. I would do a 5k and it would have it recorded to my satisfaction. Unfortunately neither of the two worked with the Nike Run app as far as Heart Rate.  I followed the steps, and although I assumed it was compatible it was not. 

I'll keep this part short - the music functionality is a nightmare. You have to link your laptop and ionic to the same network. (Impossible for dorms and hotel stays.) Then you transfer each playlist one by one taking an abnormal length of time to do so. I would say I've spent at least and hour an a half figuring out and transferring music to my ionic.  Also - if you don't owe the songs (ie you subscribe to Apple Music) no can do on that transfer option.

I do not know about the Garmin product you mentioned. Best of luck!

[jocoyn]

Well, after nearly a month on Vivoactive 3, I am returning it. Too many unresolved FW issues that I simply could not work out with Garmin Tech Support.  I did not want to miss my 30 day return window so I will be shopping.  I hate the thought of spending even more and not sure what I will do.  The big downside for me with Ionic is if the dashboard is not a whole bunch more than what I can get on my Charge HR, it is not what I want. I am just going to write up my requirements over the holidays and see what comes closest.  I was not putting on a lot of custom stuff, I was not abusing it, I was ejecting it after each use but when it had repeated sync failures and failures to transmit data to connect, it was useless.  I know the Ionic has had its problems as well.

FITBIT  some words to you:  WATERPROOF, BETTER DASHBOARD with 5 HR zones, with ability to track parameters (for example I could look week to week at how my speed was improving with Garmin Connect, I could actually see my HR data, I could export all my data and could export exercise data as GPX files --- I don't even KNOW what I can do with an Ionic because the specs are so high level.  .............music is not a biggy ..........

[LPKA]

Thanks for the info. Did not know about 935. it is the same as Fenix 5 just 49 grams. 

And after the update. I see no change in Ionic. All the requests where not done and they don't care about the final user.

So I bought 935 - got a good deal for 440 eur, and selling Ionic with all other stuff and goodbye Fitbit.

[bbarrera]

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@jocoyn wrote:

The big downside for me with Ionic is if the dashboard is not a whole bunch more than what I can get on my Charge HR, it is not what I want.

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@jocoyn Fitbit dashboard is basically the same for all devices. Use MobileRun on your phone to track a walk or run if you want to see some of the additional details you get with Ionic's GPS. It won't have HR, but you can export it and you will get map. It hasn't been confirmed by Fitbit, but from some detailed reports on this forum it seems the Ionic currently uses step count to estimate distance for both walking and running.

[jocoyn]

It does appear the 935 consistently has better reviews than the 5. Apparently the plastic housing does a better job with RF transmission. I think I will go to Best Buy and take a look at one - as a woman the Vivoactive screen is the size of the 5S and it is pretty big. But very comfortable. But I gather the actual screen on the Vivoactive 3 and the 935 is the same and the differences is the buttons.  Honestly the lack of a touchscreen would not deter me. I have had too many wake ups with my vivoactive back light coming on during sleep even with gesture mode off.  

I will actually make a list of some of the data I want to track to see if the ionic or even the blaze is capable of reporting on it, [though with regular kayking I really do want waterproof]. Mapping is not as much a concern with me. If I am in the woods, I carry a GPS. If I do get GPS data on my watch I want to be able to export it as a GPX file. Period and HR should be in the data stream. The main things I want to use are RHR measurements, speed improvements, HR variability, Recovery time (VA3 does this but does not log it in Connect), etc.

I seriously like the Fitbit company but the data is just not there.

[jocoyn]

Picked up the 935 today. I was searching the Ionic pages and realized it would not even give a heart rate zone alert.  There is going to be a real learning curve on this device but there are already a lot of useful features I know I will use.  I really hope Fitbit picks up on some of this stuff and listens to folks who want a better dashboard, more usable data etc. AND darned alerts

[Razkov]

First and foremost, apologies for typos, typing this on my phone.

I've had the Fitbit Charge 2 and switched to VA3 and actually preordered. Now, I can tell you that the rep count for the weight/strength training is more annoying than useful, if they had a way to switch that off and record your weight/training than that would be perfect. However, there is no such option and Fitbit records theirs without that nonsense. So I ended up choosing cardio and then changing the activity within the app after I've recorded it all. 

Sleep tracking isn't as good as Fitbit on the VA3, has incorrect wake up times compared to Fitbit charge 2. Don't get me wrong, Fitbit also had a few issues here and there. But Fitbit providesld better sleep details. Resting HR on the Fitbit seems to relate to only sleeping (resting?) HR which I've become used to but the VA3 gives it for the whole day, which isn't bad in itself. 

Main reason I considered the Garmins VA3 was because of the looks and no curved screen so less scratches etc. I just didn't like the look of Ionic plus in the UK the Ionic was going for £300 and the VA3 for £280, however I grabbed it from Amazon for £260 (preorder misprice?). Also, I don't care for music on the device. 

I have it 10% brightness and that's more than enough for me for outside and inside buildings, as well as night times so it doesn't blind me at night. It isn't as colourful as the Ionic but gets the job done.

Battery really only last 4.5 -5 days if you're lucky.. vibration has been fine for me, I keep it at the lowest settings and I don't miss any notifications.

The auto tracking for walking is rubbish on the Garmin VA3. Always vibrates when it starts and also used to use the GPS even when that was off I'm the walking settings. Fitbit recorded the walks very well and made it easy to see all the activities within the app. Garmin, not as friendly unfortunately... Somethings Fitbit has done much better than Garmin, but my personal preference on the looks pointed towards Garmin. Although, I really do miss certain tracking aspects of Fitbit. Garmin does have benefits, being able to go back onto the watch face and other widgets while recording an activity. There's probably more.. but that's all that comes to mind.

[jocoyn]

I have had the Forerunner 935 for several weeks now and am very happy once I returned the VA3.  I agree that Fitbit does better with sleep tracking but right now my husband's new Charge 2 is telling him is is only getting 10-15 minutes of deep sleep a night and he wakes up feeling rested.  My Forerunner is about the same as my old Charge HR in terms of sleep stats.  The Forerfunner has had enough time to work out the kinks that the Vivoactive seems to struggle with. I assume with all new devices but to me it goes back tot he Fitbit Dashboard not having the metrics I want. Battery life. Yes. I can go all day on GPS and all week without while tracking HR data at the same time.

[bbarrera]

@jocoyn thanks for the update. I see that Garmin announced the 645 (ships in February). Its positioned as a runners watch with always on display, music (Deezer and iHeartRadio), payments (NFC), and a bunch of 945 features (but not all). Like the 945, lots of sport specific data plus performance analysis, training features, apps, etc.

[Tich]

Just to save anyone the pain I'm currently going through... get the Fitbit! I switched from years of Fitbit ownership, having tired of Fitbit's poor hardware reliability (eg I'm on my third Charge 2 in 12 months, and the warranty is now out so next time it breaks it's game over!). Plus tired of things that have been broken or sub-optimal in the dashboard for years not being fixed. So I bought a Vivoactive 3 last weekend...

I'm afraid Garmin makes Fitbit look like the professional outfit. My VA3 simply won't last more than a day (and yes I've switched just about everything off, gestures/side scroll off, low brightness, removed 3rd party watch faces, etc). What a complete joke given they say up to seven days!

Next the HR tracking... again a complete joke! Now I know optical wrist-based HR monitors are never completely accurate, but the VA3 is utterly useless. This evening I was sat indoors resting - my Fitbit and Polar chest strap (and manual pulse measurements!) all confirm around a 52 bpm resting heart rate, whereas VA3 reported 80bpm. Worse in my gym workout today my pulse was (by manual pulse measurement) around 130bpm, the VA3 reported 59bpm. Same story when running, VA3 topping out at 135bpm, whereas Fitbit correctly spiking up to 170bpm to 180bpm, and generally sitting around 160bpm. Fitbit HR monitoring is rock solid in comparison to the Garmin.

Other issues are constant syncing issues, and needing to switch on/off the VA3 to get bluetooth syncing working again. Sleep tracking is completely broken (recorded only one night out of seven since I bought it). Oh and most of the third party activities are so poor quality you really wouldn't want to use them. The third party watch faces are nice looking but _really_ kill your battery (barely half a day). Also Garmin Pay not usable in the UK, so it's poor they advertise it so heavily.

Such a shame - the screen is amazing (love the reflective always on aspect), notifications are handled much better than my Charge 2, and the pool/length tracking is decent (although limitation of a minimum 17 metre pool, which is annoying as the one I use is 14 metres - stupid arbitrary limitation).

So disappointed. Everyone told me that Garmin are the professionals and I wouldn't regret buying one. There was another firmware update today, and if tomorrow's run shows similar poor HR tracking and battery life it's going back to Argos to demand a refund as it is completely unfit for purpose.