Ionic GPS Inaccuracies

[MP4]

Hi, 

I'm a new Fitbit user, bought an Ionic on Monday and I'm having some issues with the GPS. Went on a couple of runs (at a track) and the gps seemed to be completely out both on the distance travelled and pace per kilometre.

I'm a long time strava user so yesterday I went for a run with both the Fitbit Ionic going and the strava on my iPhone running at the same time. Here are the results:

Strava - 7.9km   @ 4:15/km

Fitbit - 7.2km     @ 4:34/km

The difference of 0.7km is quite big and the difference in pace is also worrying. I waited till both had connected to gps before starting the run and I run in London where gps signal should be good. 

Is my Fitbit Ionic GPS not working correctly? Any help/advice would be appreciated. 

Thanks

Matt

Moderator Edit: Updated Subject for Clarity

[Denodan]

Yes garmin have been making gps watches for years, but a gps watch is not a fitness or smart watch. Too completely different things. Sure they do make a fitness watch and like a lot of smart and fitness watches contain gps. I find my ionic and samsung as accurate as my garmin gps bike computer which i know is very accurate. Both my ionic and samsung gear sport when i go riding pretty well show the same speed and distance but no gps avaiable unless you somehow get military grade is spot on and will show a slight differince as i think any of them are only accurate within 3 meters so all may very slightly but within the 3 meter accuracy range.

As far as hr goes, the garmin sport watches, like all are not ad accurate at hr readings as apple and samsung which have both been compared to chest hr straps which are the most accurate.

As a matter of fact for cycling ionic does better then the garmin fitness watches, but the garmin are really optimised for running which they here do a great jobb and have the advantage of using a chest hr strap.

So a garmin gps watch and fitness are to completely differnt things so why you bring it up i dont understand as a garmin gps watch has nothinh to do with a fitness watch and pretty much all gps units work the same and all very slightly.

[Frank00]

The basic measurements of performance for just about any endurance sport are time and distance.  All watches can do time; few do distance well for ALL activities.  If you can't get distance right, you have no business calling a watch a fitness watch.

Also, NO watch's HR is as accurate as a chest strap - not a secret.  And guess what?... No chest strap is as accurate as an EKG and a few tech sites with paid reviewers might tell you differently.  

Garmins do an amazing job with all distances (running, cycling or otherwise) so I can't understand what kind of actual information you're basing your conclusions on.

If a watch can't measure distance properly it's a glorified step counter.

[Denodan]

Well apple and samsung have been shown to have the nearist hr accuracy while compared to the hr strap and both do better in this respect in hr accracy than any other smart or sports. Have seen reviews that cliam if you want the more accurate hr get an apple or samsung. Sure not perfect, but these 2 are the best of the bunch. Where everyone of them fall down is if your doing real hard out execise.

[Frank00]

When you say hard out exercise, are you referring to something like rep counts during a CrossFit workout?  Yeah.  One set of sensors on a single wrist is probably not enough for 100% accuracy.  

Although, there's no excuse for any fitness watch that claims to have GPS capability to be inaccurate with regard to an outdoor run or outdoor bike workout.  Are they 100% accurate?  The good ones are darn close and not off by 1/10th of a mile for each mile.  My Surge would be off by that much especially when speed training outdoors. 

My Garmin watches (I've had 3 in the past 15 years) consistently have measured distances no matter what my speed.  For example, I just ran an officially timed 5k and at the finish line, my Vivoactive 3 displayed 3.11 miles when I stopped the clock after I passed all the carpets at the finish line (I also started it about 10 feet before the start line).  The extra hundredth was probably due to my button presses.  It also consistently measures my outfit run distances.  That's what I'm looking for in a fitness watch.

I also owned the Microsoft Band 2 which had GPS accuracy like that of my Garmins.  My Pixel phone has GPS accuracy consistent with the Garmins and the Band 2.

What I am saying is if you're going to compete in the fitness space, your product better be able to do what good fitness watches are already doing and have been for over a decade.  The good ones can consistently and accurately measure outdoor distances.

[Denodan]

It maybe something to do with auto pause as all gps work the same and no reason why they all should not give the same results?

May well be to do with auto pause?, and how soon it stips after you pause? If it does not instantly pause then will always be out to some degree. I think you will find its not an issue with gps, but more like how quick anto pause is starting or stopping.

[SunsetRunner]

In my case it's not to do with autopause or autostart, as I don't use them. I suspect it's just some daft programming error, rather than poor GPS. I wish they'd hurry up and correct it

[Frank00]

Yeah.  I didn't have auto pause on my Surge and it just couldn't measure distance correctly.

[Denodan]

What a joke mate. The ionic is crap and ad for fixing issues we are still waiting. This thing is so bug ridden its not funny. I tried to love mine and fitbit overall but even with thr lastest firmware uodate failed to address the main issue. Get a garmin mate or samsung or better yet an apple watch if you have an iphone.

The beauty is your not locked into having to use their apps so if one app is giving incorrect results another app may give better results. A smart watch does give you more options. It just not as convant as the fitbit.

[Denodan]

As for it being more or less accurate while cycling i am not so concerned as at the end of the day the apps distance on my samsung matches my garmin bike gps very well indeed.

A lot of people make the mistake of not waiting for confirmed gps lock before starting and wonder why they are out.

I do know from reading reviews that fitbit ionic accually mantains a much stronger gps signal over the garmin vivoactive 3 and fenix.

If a smart watch is not for you have you looked at garmin?

I look at it this way. Sports watches are trying to become smart watches and evolving towards that, so feel the fitness watch will either become dead or totally go the smart watch way.

Unless garmin go the full smart watch i think they will die.

I think fitbit realise this and why they bought out pebble and the ionic is their first attempt so one over on garmin.

I dont think they will ever stop gps watches at all as they are a different breed, but unless their sports watches evolve into a full smart watch cannot see them continue with a sports watch.

But think all sports watches are heading towards smart watch territory.

Smart watches have got into the fitness due to lots of money in fitness products.

So for me a smart watch is a jack of all trades and tracks my execise well enough, hr more accuratly than a sports watch and gives stats on my activity which is good enough for most people and does a far better job at other tasks than any sports watch.

The harmful thing with fitbit is no mapping within the watch, no graphics or anything other than the apps.

Love how onboard after a ride get map and graphs on my watch. I can even cycle of run with other apps and shows a map, though have not tried.

At least garmin you get graphs and maps also and stats on the watch without always needing the app.

This sort of thing is sadly missing on the ionic. It just seems an experiment to me and an unfinished unused product that has the potential to do far more but are not use this oppertunity to do so.

[Frank00]

I agree they will all converge on a smart watch model, though most watches that consider themselves "smart" can't do fitness accurately at this time; including this Ionic.  This is one of the reasons this thread is so active. 

Fitbit tried to do "smart" before they could even do "fit".  Good marketing and paid reviewers are a great way they've gotten a decent amount of sales.  Also, Fitbit's online community through the phone app is very user-friendly.  Fitbit has the social piece firmly in place.  Where Fitbit really fails is in their abandonment of the serious running community due to the distance inaccuracies. 

I can't see Fitbit getting big enough to compete with Apple in the "smart" sector and they are already pricing the Ionic near that of the Apple watch.   

If I have a choice of Apple or Fitbit for a smart watch at near the same price point, I'm not going to choose the Fitbit.  I already know all the good apps will be on Apple. 

So if the ionic can't do accurate distance for running and I know it won't have the app compatibility of the Apple watch why would I choose the Ionic as my "smart" watch?

Since Garmin has the "fit" part down already and a loyal following in the running and cycling communities, it will be easy for them to simply integrate "smart" (e.g. Instagram app).  It's just software.  I think Garmin will have no problem competing in the "smart" category, if that's where they want to go.  To date, they've always kept the running and cycling communities satisfied with their niche products.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't give two turds about an Instagram feed when I'm at the gym, and if I'm already holding my phone, I'd rather view apps on the larger phone's screen than on my watch. 

Most watches that try to do everything without any established foundation, don't do any individual thing great; Jack of all trades; master of none.  This can be bad for a company going after the big boy on the block (Apple).

[Denodan]

To me the ionic could have been great, but a totally broken and half finished product. I love the design, but samsung are catching up fast and next to gramin does has thr best fitness features and accuracy is better than fitbit. For running the samsung has miles more than fitbit like cadence and lots of graphs on screen, etc that is sadly missing from fitbit.

Just got sick of the problems with ionic and syncing. Sometimes would connect and other times took ages and needed to either unpair or pair blutooth several times or reboot my phone so frustrating.

Fitbit are rushing out apps that either dont work or slow. Syncing and either loading watch faces of apps are painfully slow.

The garmin the screens are very poor even compared to the ionic. Think samsung are catching up to garmin fast and update firnware more often and the samsung sport is better than the apple watch. Fitbit are far to slow at fixing issues. Since the last uldate the weather app does  not work and still have not addressed a fix. They are to interested in pushing out watch faces and playing app catchup yet failing to fix the issues. Sorry dont support a company who does not address or fix a broken product. The ionic could have saved fitbit but fails.

[tulahoob]

Hi Matt

As a month has passed with no firmware update, and increasing frustration from the community with the GPS issue, would you mind giving us an update please.

Thanks

[Denodan]

They are too slow in addressing the bugs the last firmware has failed to fix and the weather app is still broken. Fitbit dont give a stuff, yet they hurry broken apps and watch faces rather than puttinh their time into getting the ionic right.

[samgillespie]

Hello Matt I agree i feel we have been patiently waiting for a resolution to this, personally i wish i had bought a Garmin as I can no longer pace my runs properly but as i invested a considerable amount of money into my ionic i am reluctant to spend more again on another device. However with no regular updates we are all left wondering how long this will take. I also buy a lot of Fitbits to give as prizes to my customers my faith in a brand that i loved has been damaged.

[Denodan]

While i still got my ionic, my main fitness watch now is the Sansung Gear Sport. Just so sick bugs still fixed, slow updates that are not addressing the real issues, buggy apps and clocks.

While biking i do wear ny ionic and samsung, its better. Has stats onscreen and graps, even maps my bike run onboard the watch, something that fitbit is sadly lacking

[SunsetRunner]

Yes I agree, I feel we're not really being kept in the loop at all on this. I wish I'd opted for a different product too.  In the last software update they did fix a bug in the running app, pertaining to split times, that a few of us had mentioned on the forums, but I never saw any comment on the message boards with an acknowledgement of the problem, they just fixed it.  If they fix this GPS problem then I'll probably feel happy enough with the ionic, but as it stands I feel I'm foolish for buying it

[Dudemanbubba]

I had purchased my Ionic on 11/28 from Amazon and was able to return it on the 1/3 and received a full refund.

I have gotten the Apple Watch 3.  GPS is better and more consistent.  My 6 mile walk has had a 0.1 mile differential over several walks for the total, which is much more tight than the Ionic had been getting me.  My wife and I get different total distances for the same walk both with Apple Watch 3's by as much as 0.15 to 0.25 miles over a 6 mile walk.  However, the numbers are consistent from one walk to the next for me.  My wife likes to swing her arms a little more than most when we walk and I think that somehow throws off her distance on her Apple Watch over time.

I really was a Fitbit fan...  key word was.  I believe the Ionic was a quick way to try and get into the smart watch market and wasn't fully vetted.  Plus, it wasn't designed by Fitbit but was acquired and tweaked if I understand it correctly.  I think Fitbit dropped the ball and have left a lot of people hanging.

[tonny123]

Ionic has the looks but GPS accuracy is non-existing. Using Ionic along with Garmin FR 935 and on 15km trail Ionic is whole 3 km off! That's totally unacceptable. I checked both map plotting and they look almost identical.

I was in contact with support and they said "Here is your ticket number and we will forward this information to our developers". I really hope they will be able to fix this issue rather soon. There are many many other issues with Ionic that can/need to be addressed but this one is like the biggest.

[Denodan]

As far as accuracy goes my ionic never has gps accuracy issues  i have a garmin bike gps also and comparing them are pretty close indeed and know my garmin is accurate as it also has live mapping abd direction capability, etc.

Dont know why yours is out, but mine, the accurate is accually pretty good.

[SunsetRunner]

Do you use it for running? If you do, do you run at several different
paces. I think this is where the problem lies.