Ionic vs. Apple Watch Series 3

[Ralthan]

Apple just released info on the new Series 3. I have the Series 1 along with a Charge 2 HR. I actually use both right now because I like the Fitbit App more than the Apple one. The Ionic intrigued me, so I pre-ordered it last week. I am now reconsidering. Lets discuss pros and cons of each. Off the top of my head I see the following.

Apple Watch Series 3

Pros

LTE - Can make and send calls

Streaming of Apple Music over LTE (Big plus to me - but not much known at this time)

Improved fitness capabilities

Nice selection of bands

Charging is now compatible with Qi standards

Cons
1 day battery life - no sleep tracking

ID not refreshed - still looks a bit geeky

Expensive

Fitbit Ionic

Pros

4 Day battery Life

Fitness focused

Cheaper than AWS3

Cons

No LTE (Might be a Pro for some)

select bands

Not much of an App store (yet) or apps

Clunky looking ID

I would love for people to weigh in on this. I am up in the air on which to get at this point!

Tony

[SunsetRunner]

can i connect an Apple Watch 3 with my android phone ?

no ? so i need also to buy an expensible iPhone ?

not the same price.

[SunsetRunner]

I think it's interesting everybody keeps quoting $329 for apple watch, but that's for the 38mm with the smaller battery.  The comparably sized apple watch is the 42mm which starts at $359.  So that's a $60 difference actually.

[ManuelB]

Would you pay 399 for the Ionic if the 38 mm AW 3 is at 369? I really have issues with the pricing in Europe.

On the other hand there seems to be no real alternative to the fitbit friends on the AW.

[Gonfreaksss]

Great point.  Other than the battery life issues with LTE already mentioned above, half of the population does not own an iPhone.  So, unless all of your Friends and Family are using iPhones and have Apple Watches, you will no longer be able to connect with them through challenges.  

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

can i connect an Apple Watch 3 with my android phone ?

no ? so i need also to buy an expensible iPhone ?

not the same price.

---

[Voodoochildaro]

hi!
it looks like I am not alone 🙂

I got mixed feeling about both devices.

the big pro and cons, for my needs, are:

BATTERY LIFE and EXTERNAL BLUETOOTH HEART RATE SENSOR.

that's why I am in the mix.

Ionic totally wins with its battery life.

AW can be paired with polarH7 and that's pretty important to me. When lifting weights there's no wrist technology that can be compared with a strap chest and if I am not wrong Fitibit, sadly, won't be open minded enough to let external devices work with its trackers and that's such a shame.

Also, I love the Fitbit app but the three rings give me a better visual of my days.

I don't care that much about interacting with text and notifications...

Last but not least, as weird as it may be, I wear on my left wrist a big important automatic switzerland watch (it was my Mom's watch, she passed away 6 months ago, and I am wearing it all day) so I will wear the AW or the IONIC on my right wrist. I don't want to appear like an idiot with two watches but.. in the end I will not give a f about others opinion.

(still waring my blaze and sometimes my old 1st gen AW - not sure which one will look less weird between IONIC and AW3 lol)

[ggalexgg]

@Voodoochildaro maybe you should wait and see how well the ionic's new heart rate monitor works out, hopefully it's much better than any other wrist hr monitor out as it's supposed to be improved! or you could even get the ionic and return it within the 45 days if it doesn't work out and if you'd rather have the crappy battery life of AW3. 

i'm a fitbit fan so it's either ionic or charge 2 for me  if the ionic's hr monitor isn't significantly better i'll probably return it and keep on going with the charge 2. 

[RalfAlston]

@SunsetRunner No. No it cannot. Apple Watch relies on the content and information on an iPhone and for the connection to work, both ends need to be made by Apple. Apple encrypts much of the information shared between iPhone and Apple Watch, so it ends up being more than just a simple Bluetooth pairing.

[Voodoochildaro]

rude troll stuff 

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@alinajetly wrote:

if you Interested in buying the Apple Watch series 3? visit here : https://www.howtoisolve.com/where-to-buy-apple-watch-3-usa-uk/

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[bbarrera]

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@RalfAlston wrote:

@SunsetRunner No. No it cannot. 

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@RalfAlston @SunsetRunner

Technically you can get Apple Watch and Android working together, because of LTE on AW3, but you lose out on features and it isn't very practical solution.

[rfjouben]

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@Voodoochildaro wrote:

hi!
it looks like I am not alone 🙂

I got mixed feeling about both devices.

the big pro and cons, for my needs, are:

BATTERY LIFE and EXTERNAL BLUETOOTH HEART RATE SENSOR.

that's why I am in the mix.

Ionic totally wins with its battery life.

AW can be paired with polarH7 and that's pretty important to me. When lifting weights there's no wrist technology that can be compared with a strap chest and if I am not wrong Fitibit, sadly, won't be open minded enough to let external devices work with its trackers and that's such a shame.

Also, I love the Fitbit app but the three rings give me a better visual of my days.

I don't care that much about interacting with text and notifications...

Last but not least, as weird as it may be, I wear on my left wrist a big important automatic switzerland watch (it was my Mom's watch, she passed away 6 months ago, and I am wearing it all day) so I will wear the AW or the IONIC on my right wrist. I don't want to appear like an idiot with two watches but.. in the end I will not give a f about others opinion.

(still waring my blaze and sometimes my old 1st gen AW - not sure which one will look less weird between IONIC and AW3 lol)

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Voodoochildaro

I had used two prior versions of Polar product with the chest strap. When I received my Surge I tested both chest stap devices agaist the Surge and also agaisnt the handheld pulse meter on a few different cardio machines and manually taking my pulse. I found that the Surge was pretty accurate as compared to the chest strap and of course the meters on the machines themselves were way off.   Since the Ionic is supposed to be better than the Surge I am assuming that the heart rate monitoring will be just as good if not better than the chest strap.

I will admit that this was all in a cardio setting and not lifting weights and I was wearing the chest strap under my shirt which could effect the reading of the pulse strap so your own results may vary.

[Voodoochildaro]

well you answered yourself. it was just cardio, so this is kind useless, since trouble comes when you start a serious workout, lifting weights as explained before. what's weird is advertising the wrist unit like it could track heart rate while lifting weights but it actually is still pretty much inaccurate.

thanks so much for your opinion anyway.

[Voodoochildaro]

just as an update, just sow this video from the Fitbit youtube channel.

https://youtu.be/c8omHcUSCXE

check it out from 0:16 to 0:30 and look at the strap. I mean, how the hell do you take an advertising video where yourself pieces (strap and watch) are looking so inaccurately assembled?

even this very little thing would be just enough to go AW. Is it just me?! my charge 2 strap needed to be replaced after less than one year. What should I think? sad to say but that's not gonna happen with AW

I am still in between btw

[Tommyrazzle]

Why do you consider weights any more 'serious' a workout than cardio?  

[Cyberwiz]

Personally for me

Ionic pros:

long battery life 

sleep tracking 

fitness tailored

ionic cons: 

small apps base. Hope there are more apps added in the future. 

I do not care much about AW as I already have an iPhone, so apart from the line compatibility I gain nothing much more. 

[ManuelB]

Personally for me:
Ionic pros:
long battery life
great fitness app - still did not find an alternative for ios
fitbit community/competition - competition against the same people for
almost 2 yrs now - hard to replace

Ionic cons:
Design (eyesore)
experience with build quality from 2 fitbit devices
doubts on new software on ionic

[Voodoochildaro]

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@Tommyrazzle wrote:

Why do you consider weights any more 'serious' a workout than cardio?  

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well my bad, apologize, didn't meant to say cardio is not a serious workout.

maybe the word "challenging" is more appropriate?

When lifting weights your heart reach high peaks faster to low down again pretty faster.

In this area wrist technology is pretty poor and cannot detect your real heart rate like a chest strap.

Anyway I will be more than happy to be wrong with the new ionic.

[Voodoochildaro]

ok, in the end I am placing my IONIC order right now, I want to trust FitBit once again, even if I got the feeling that the Ionic is still a work in progress.

IONIC PROS:

- heart rate technology, green and red light, with its future improvement.

- real time heart rate on clock face

- battery life

- the look. yes call me weird but I like it.

IONIC CONS:

- poor number of apps, but they will hopefully grow?

- no external hear rate (this is the worst! hopefully they will finally let my madaf polar work with it??)

- cheap band material (unless they will be different from other units)

[blackofe1]

fitbit ionic has a very serious pro: if you do not have an iphone, this is your only choice. in my case (i have a windows phone) it's the only choice at all - since ms stood us up with their band.

[rfjouben]

I mostly do heart rate training and have done weight in a circuit training environment but not crazy about weight lifting in general and the chest strap technology I have is older so it does not record the information it is just an instant read. I would be interested about hearing your experience with lifting weights using both the Ionic and the chest strap to see how reliable both record your readings. I also feel that anything =-5% of actual heart rate is good enough as I am using it for general fitness and heath as opposed to competitive sports which may be different from other users.

[Voodoochildaro]

I'll be more than glad to share my results, I will compare with polar h7 and let you know asap!