Many report here various issues with the Ionic, blaming the firmware/software and very critical of Fitbit for not fixing it. However, I suspect only a small fraction of the problems causing so much pain to users here are actually due to the software. It's more likely a hardware, corruption, or user setting issue. The reason I suspect this is that using this same software I've had very positive results. I don't think I'm unique, as 55% of the ratings on Amazon have 5 stars. OTOH, 14% have the lowest 1 star rating, usually citing similar issues as this thread. So there may be issues, but not necessarily software.
I have been using my Ionic for a month now with this 32.10.20 firmware release. So far I've been extremely happy, and don't want to take it off except to charge during my shower. Here's my experience on some of the issues others have mentioned.
CHARGING
I lose 20%/day (1%/hour) in normal operation, and 10%/hour with the GPS on during bike rides. The watch will charge at ~1%/minute for full charge in 1.5 hours. Oddly right after I put on the watch, it'll gain a bonus ~3% of charge on my wrist over a couple hours, before going back down again. I suspect this might be my warm arm affecting the charge sensor.
I turn off "All-Day Sync" and update manually a 2-4 times a day when I want to see my sleep or activity summary. I have "Always Connected" and "Keep-Alive Widget" turned on without effect on battery life.
One day (after an automatic App update?) I suddenly saw lots of continuous syncing between the watch and my Android phone (Moto Z2) even though I still had turned off "All-Day Sync". My phone and watch were both loosing charge fast, with my phone charge dropping 10X faster than normal and the watch dropping at 20%/hour, twice as fast as with a GPS! I noted a new (quick-fix?) App 2.74.2 became available that morning and downloaded that one. I also rebooted my Ionic (not the factory reset) by the three button method (hold down all buttons until the display flashes, then shows the Fitbit icon.) I do this once in a while with any potential problem since it's quick and there's no penalty as settings and data are not affected.
By doing the App update and Ionic reboot, the rapid discharge stopped on both my phone and Ionic. The rapid syncing also stopped. I went back to the 20% discharge/day on the Ionic. Never had a problem with charging again since.
SYNC
On occasions I have trouble syncing. I suspect it's usually the phone. I upgraded my phone during the last month, and my new phone (Moto Z2) is actually a bit worse keeping connection! My watch face has a "Bluetooth" icon to show if it's connected. If I see this icon turn red, I usually just open my phone to the Bluetooth settings and hit the Ionic setting a couple times until it turns on. If it fails to link in 10-30 seconds, I reboot my phone (rarely) and sometimes reboot the Ionic (very rarely - only twice ever for this reason).
GPS
I did a report on my GPS accuracy in the other Ionic GPS thread. The bottom line is that I was very surprised to see the Ionic had much greater position accuracy than either of my top of the line Garmin handheld units (Edge 1000 and eTrex Touch 30) at much greater price with a larger unit and antennas.
The total ride distance with the GPS appears to be consistently low by ~3%, odd considering the greater GPS accuracy.
When I go into bike mode (usually in the open), I get a satellite connection within about 10 seconds, on about the time it takes me to turn on my other two GPS on the handlebars.
The altitude during the ride varies from the two Garmins by a lot, yet oddly the net climb is usually within a couple percent of the other Garmins with a barometric altimeter.
Heart Rate
I was highly skeptical of any optical based wrist HR measurement versus the electrical based chest strap I use with my Garmin GPS. During my ride, I'd keep the Ionic set to show HR while I climbed hard up and down hills. I was surprised to see the Ionic typically within 1 or 2 BPM of my Garmin chest strap. Sometimes I would see a bigger difference of 5-7 BPM, but it was not so much a difference in HR but time. That is, the Ionic HR would lag a couple seconds, both going up and down in HR, but otherwise the curves match.
I had a friend take all my data from one ride for the two Garmins and the Ionic and compare them in software. He saw the HR data was essentially on top of one another, except for positive and negative spikes here and there with the Ionic. I suspect some of the spikes were from when I was playing with my watch. I note that if I twist my wrist to see the reading, the watch changes position and that can cause spikes too. I found it's better to leave the watch band slightly loose and push it up on my arm slightly, where I have less wrist twisting. But even in a lower position, it was fairly accurate overall.
Sleep Logging
I was stunned at the performance of the Ionic in logging my sleep. It seemed to automatically figure out to the minute when I fell asleep and woke up. It also correctly sees the times I wake up at night. When it says REM sleep, I do remember some dreaming. Although sometimes I remember dreams but it says Light Sleep instead of REM. In general, I find it fairly accurate, and am amazed it does all this automatically.
If I take an hour or two nap, the Ionic never fails to record it, also with accurate start and stop times. But if I nap less than 3 hours, it can't map the sleep states, and just shows rest and awake periods.
Since the watch does on this on its own automatically, I can't see how it matters if an Android or iOS phone is sitting next to it. It should work for both.
Display
I found a nice digital face I like that reports some stats, weather, and the time with seconds. The first face I tried used Dark Sky's that was often off by 10 degrees!! That was the problem with Dark Sky as their web site was reporting the same wrong info. I found a different watch face that allowed use of AccuWeather, which was much better accuracy. I also like that it has a Bluetooth icon that shows it's connected properly all the way to the web, so the indication is accurate and up to date. I also allows me to monitor my phone's Bluetooth connection to assure sync operation.
The screen is colorful and amazingly bright - very readable in all conditions, including bright sunlight. I found that if my shirt sleeve covers the light sensor on the inside edge of my arm (left side of the watch), the display will go dim. So I need to make sure to properly pull back my sleeve to get the correct brightness.
I have not yet done music transfer, as I usually just use my phone or laptop to send to my ear buds. So I can't say anything on that. Nor have I use an exercise session besides the Bike activity.
In sum, my experience with this firmware update has been outstanding. For those having troubles and frustrated, blaming the firmware/software may be unproductive since updates may never fix the issue anyway, if it isn't the cause. Better to first check your settings, do some reboots, and discuss hardware issues with Fitbit support. In many cases, you might need a replacement. As I detail above, some watches really do work very well with the existing software.
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