Ionic vs. Surge: a runner's perspective

[bmw54]

Having burned through three surges in less than two years, I was excited by the announcement of the ionic and preordered mine immediately. After receiving it I took my surge off and never looked back. The ionic was so feature-rich I couldn't wait to start using it.

Within days I was caught up in the drama of how to set running cues (without them reverting to factory settings within a day) and just figuring out how to use my ionic, the ecosystem of settings are scattered across the tracker, the app and the Fitbit website.

Running with the ionic seemed ok, aside from learning how to jerk my arm up to get the screen to display (or should I just tap the screen a couple times? Or should I press the left button?) and when it displays, look fast, because it will vanish in seconds!

All that I learned to live with. And then I ran my first race. Strange, ionic was measuring  me at 12 minute miles. Chip-time indicated a more reassuring 6'20". And distance, ionic measured the 3.1 mile course as 2.3 miles. That's strange, I must have done something wrong.

But it was the same with my next few races, crazy inaccurate pace and distance. A full log of my experiences and discoveries is scattered through the GPS Innaccuracies thread.

Then, after 5 months of use, I woke up Friday morning and ionic's screen was black. And wouldn't respond. After an hour with Fitbit support (which entailed the production of a detailed video of me following all their restart instructions) I was authorized a replacement ionic. I fedex'd the dead one immediately.

This left me in the middle of Boston marathon training without a tracker. Until I remembered my surge. After finding it I put it on charge and reactivated it. Today I wore it for an easy 10-miler.

The surge erased all of ionic's aggravation:

Imagine! When you glance down at the surge the screen is on, with large numerals that are easy to read and don't fade away in seconds.

After months of winter running, I didn't have to care that my long sleeves might brush against the screen and pause or stop the exercise. This has happened to most of my longer training runs this winter, even after I set ionic's screen wake to manual, strange things happen to it under long sleeves.

Once I realized how trouble-free the surge was I came to realize what a pain in the **ahem** my ionic had become: difficult to read, prone to interruptions (during long sleeve season, anyway), and most critically, very inaccurate when most needed.

I will be happy when I receive my ionic replacement, it's attractive and measures my sleep, sometimes it shows me text messages and I like the trek watch face. Plus the battery holds a charge for days and I should be able to swim with it on.

But for any run that involves strategic pacing, the ugly surge will be trapped to my wrist. Ionic's not up to the task, it has failed every time I most relied on it.

[SantiR]

@bmw54 I hope you're doing well! Thanks for sharing your experience and feedback with the Fitbit Community. 

I'm glad to hear that customer support was able to identify the root cause of that situation and that are sending you a replacement device. 

I'd say, give the replacement a try. The one you had seemed to not be working so properly, so perhaps any other issues you had with it was because of that? 

What kind of strategic pacing are you looking for? Also, what happened when in long sleeve season? 

I also think the Surge is a great device. However, my Ionic has been working better than my Surge!

Let me know once you receive the new Ionic; please follow these replacement set up instructions, and let me know how it works!

Keep me posted! 

[bbarrera]

@bmw54 wow that is some tale you have. The pacing challenges would have left me feeling the same, as a cyclist it bothers me when GPS bike computer's barometric altimeter is say 10-20% different from other riders on a climbing route. At least Garmin, Strava, and TrainingPeaks have a "correct elevation" feature when the ride is known to have 5000' of climbing and it is obviously wrong when I only get 4000' (happens on days where I start ride in 30s, and temps rise to 50s and 60s).

Some interesting stats on what runners use -- there is a retired pro cyclist in Australia (Shane Miller aka GPLama) that reports on wearable and bike computer usage at large events like Nov 5th 2017 New York City Marathon or 2017 Boston Marathon. For NY City marathon, 5389 runners uploaded to Strava (about 11% of registrants) in time for GPLama to run stats. These were the top 6 trackers:
   4070  75.5% Garmin
    678  12.6% Strava Mobile App 
    245   4.5% *Unlisted*
    163   3.0% Suunto
    112   2.1% Apple
     78   1.4% Polar

     30   0.6% Fitbit

Fitbit had 30 total (9 Surge, 9 Blaze, 6 Ionic, 2 Charge2, and 4 "Fitbit" (MobileRun on app?). The 2017 London marathon had over 100 Fitbit Surge, a better showing for Fitbit than New York, Chicago, or Boston. Even so, Garmin rules when it comes to runners uploading big events to Strava. I've been thinking of doing my first triathlon this year, right now the Forerunner 935 is at the top of my list (4 times a year I can get 20% off at REI, or twice a year at Clever Training).

After the recent Strava heat map  / military base kerfuffle, I'm pretty sure that Strava finally implemented some API changes that will restrict future data collection like Shane Miller has been doing.

[datalore]

If you're in serious training for a triathlon Garmin is the way to go. I have several friends with the 935 and that watch is nice. 

[bmw54]

@SantiR, first, thanks for taking an interest in my post. (sorry if this posted twice, I replied this morning but it doesn't seem to have been added to the thread)

You wondered about strategic pacing. Here's week 9 in the marathon training plan I'm using:

The Sunday long-run specifies pacing zones. I've found that helps me prepare for the actual event. Beyond that, though, I use pacing in competition of all distances. I like to moderate myself in the first mile; then, to know what mile I should start opening up and when to start my finish kick (although that's pretty much by sight). 

You also wondered about the sleeve phenomena: on a normal winter day, long sleeves have paused or stopped ionic's Run mode. That's a pain. On more elaborate days I'll look at my ionic and it will have broken out of Run mode and into some floor exercise mode that I never use. (that seems to be when I have my heavier raincoat on). I thought I'd solved this by changing screen-wake to manual before my run. But that strategy didn't work either.

On days with no sleeves I'll look at the ionic after 8 or 10 miles and see it's 'connecting'. When this happens it never seems to establish another connection.

Some posters recommend that I stop and wait for ionic to establish another connection. But at that point I may have run miles since the dis-connect and I don't believe in stopping my run to mess with my tracker... the stats will not be accurate regardless. 

You've probably seen some of my posts in the GPS Inaccuracies thread and elsewhere. I've documented a lot of this.

My 'review' also mentioned the ionic's screen. Do not downplay this! While running fast I like to see my pace and distance. That means I have to jerk my arm up again and again, trying to fire up the screen. Failing that I double-tap the screen. Push the left-button. When the screen lights up it may stay on for just seconds if I don't hold my arm steady. I hardly get a look... certainly not at the cues.

If I were gently jogging I might be able to hold my arm steady. But when I approach race pace my arms are supplying some of the forward momentum.

I look forward to receiving my replacement Ionic, it is very pretty. And I'll try it out running. Maybe it will even maintain connection to my earbuds longer than three minutes. But, in comparison, the Surge makes things so much easier.

[bmw54]

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@SantiRwrote:

@bmw54 I hope you're doing well! Thanks for sharing your experience and feedback with the Fitbit Community. 

I'm glad to hear that customer support was able to identify the root cause of that situation and that are sending you a replacement device. 

I'd say, give the replacement a try. The one you had seemed to not be working so properly, so perhaps any other issues you had with it was because of that? 

What kind of strategic pacing are you looking for? Also, what happened when in long sleeve season? 

I also think the Surge is a great device. However, my Ionic has been working better than my Surge!

Let me know once you receive the new Ionic; please follow these replacement set up instructions, and let me know how it works!

Keep me posted! 

---

@SantiR: as an update, I ran my first race of the year, a 5K, today using my old Surge (my new Ionic is still on its way). As I a suspected, the surge clocked accurate distance, pace and mapping. This is in sharp contrast to what I was getting with the ionic. Right off the starting mat, my crusty old surge gave me accurate pacing, something I hadn't seen (ever) with the ionic.

how ironic! After months of frustration with the Ionic, I had the solution gathering dust in my desk drawer. 

[SantiR]

@bmw54 Thanks for your reply and for sharing your experience on this thread. Also, thanks for the information about strategic pacing, very interesting!

I'm glad to hear that your Surge did an excellent job on tracking your pace, distance, and mapping for the 5k run.

I'm sure the new Ionic will show accurate data in regards of that! Hopefully, the new unit will arrive soon so you can test it out.

Regarding the screen, there is an option for Ionic in which you can select to have the screen "always on" during your exercise. You should find this option under the Run settings (tap the gear icon on the corner and swipe down to the last option). This way you should be able to see your progress without pressing the buttons or twisting your wrist for the screen to come up.

Please let me know once you receive the new Ionic! 

@datalore @bbarrera I hope you're doing well! Thanks for sharing your experience on this thread!

Keep me posted! 

[bmw54]

As @SantiR asked, here's my last comparison of Ionic vs. Surge. For this past Monday's Boston Marathon I wore one on each wrist. Weather conditions were very bad (cold, wind out of the north-east and driving rain) so my strategy soon focused on finishing to qualify for next year's marathon vs. achieving what I'd trained for.

I started both trackers when the starting gun fired rather than when i crossed the mat, so the time for my first mile split and overall fitbit time are overstated by a five minutes.

Here's how the two-year old Surge performed. Distance and pace are very acceptable (I started it before crossing the starting mat and the race requires considerable diagonals as you try to pass groups of runners):

Run: Boston Marathon as tracked by Fitbit Surge

And here's how the Ionic performed:

 Boston Marathon as tracked by Fitbit Ionic

This normal for Ionic (both my original and replacement Ionics). GPS must have been lost out on the open roads of Hopkinton (no buildings, no trees) soon into the race. 

It's at this point in most threads that helpful posters pop in to recommend that I stop and wait for a GPS connection or restart the exercise. And, perhaps, do two or three factory resets first. That's not what I do in a race.

[Crazy-Fritter]

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@bmw54 wrote:

As @SantiR asked, here's my last comparison of Ionic vs. Surge. For this past Monday's Boston Marathon I wore one on each wrist. Weather conditions were very bad (cold, wind out of the north-east and driving rain) so my strategy soon focused on finishing to qualify for next year's marathon vs. achieving what I'd trained for.

I started both trackers when the starting gun fired rather than when i crossed the mat, so the time for my first mile split and overall fitbit time are overstated by a five minutes.

Here's how the two-year old Surge performed. Distance and pace are very acceptable (I started it before crossing the starting mat and the race requires considerable diagonals as you try to pass groups of runners):

Run: Boston Marathon as tracked by Fitbit Surge

And here's how the Ionic performed:

 Boston Marathon as tracked by Fitbit Ionic

This normal for Ionic (both my original and replacement Ionics). GPS must have been lost out on the open roads of Hopkinton (no buildings, no trees) soon into the race. 

It's at this point in most threads that helpful posters pop in to recommend that I stop and wait for a GPS connection or restart the exercise. And, perhaps, do two or three factory resets first. That's not what I do in a race.

---

Wow... that's ugly for the Ionic 😱 I've been reading lots of that type of info for the Ionic, my surge has been flawless as usual. Glad I picked up 2 on sale 😋

[jennaclockhart]

My ionic stopped at mile 5 of the Boston Marathon on Monday. I didn't have another one on my wrist, so ultimately had to rely on what the "average pace" was showing to try and mentally calculate what I was running. I couldn't gauge my splits or even tell how long I had been running/mileage because it kept auto-pausing. While we had bigger problems, such as preventing hypothermia, I was really disappointed. Not a great day for FitBit to fail. Additionally, they have offered zero support to remedy the issue. 

[bmw54]

@jennaclockhart: yours made it a bit further than mine! Congrats. After a while I decided to run by feel instead of my long-developed pacing strategy; it wasn't a day aggressive goals would be met.

Your post was a bit of a relief: I thought I was the only Fitbit user out there!

The Ionic's been a struggle since day one, if you were to trace my posts they'd describe a journey of discovering how its algorithms fail serious runners, and frustration as other 'serious' runners would try to tell me why pace information doesn't really matter. 

In the beginning I thought I'd be able to partner with Fitbit to develop ionic into its full potential. Certainly the Surge had approached that. But I was naïve; this is not their marketing strategy and they have no interest in serving our niche with accuracy and dependability.

I hope your marathon was successful, in spite of all the adversity.

I did not attain my time goal, but did shave a couple minutes off of last year's time and attain the 20 minutes under qualifying time threshold. 

[JRut]

@bmw54bmw54 thanks for posting your experience with the Ionic.  I have a Surge that I enjoy using but would prefer a lower profile tracker that can be worn with dress shirts during the day.  I was looking for comparative info on the Surge and Ionic when I came across your post.  Based on your experience and @jennaclockhart's experience I am definitely taking a pass on the Ionic.  I will endure the bunching up dress shirt sleeve, hope my Surge continues to deliver, and reconsider the Garmin options again.

[SunsetRunner]

I agree. The Ionic may be a nice smart watch but it does not get the job done for running. Especially when compared to the Surge. I wear a basic running watch along with my Ionic during marathons because the Ionic is simply not reliable.

[Heimdaal]

I have a surge. I was considering upgrading to an IONIC after reading this thread I have decided it’s a bad idea !

when will these issues be fixed FITBIT ?

[bmw54]

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@Heimdaal wrote:

I have a surge. I was considering upgrading to an IONIC after reading this thread I have decided it’s a bad idea !

when will these issues be fixed FITBIT ?

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@Heimdaal: in fairness to Fitbit, my Ionic is much improved over the past few months. I suspect that, unannounced, they've modified its firmware because I get far fewer disconnects - even in my longer 2+ hour training runs. Also, since July it's been far more accurate in pace/distance in the races I've participated in.

The real test will come when the weather gets cold and I start wearing long sleeves again. Due to design, sleeves tend to pause the exercise and redirect Ionic to other functions. 

But in the meantime I'm treating my ionic as rough as I please, it's held up to salt water, diving, falls from my bike and other impacts. And through all that it's still working just fine.

I should also state that the Ionic I'm wearing is a replacement. The first one died after four months of use. I can't help but suspect that there's significant variation in their manufacturing processes that lead all of us 'users' to have such varying levels of satisfaction.

[Heimdaal]

Good need. 

I pirchased an Ionic. 

Works great. No of the issues listed here. 

One beef. We need Fitbit pay fir Rabo bank the Netherlands. 

[Heimdaal]

Good news

I pirchased an Ionic. 

Works great. None of the issues listed here. 

One beef. We need Fitbit pay fir Rabo bank the Netherlands. 

[Andyfor]

Hello @bmw54

I have been reading all your posts about the Ionic.

I'm about to buy one here in Argentina, and, as the Fitbit retailer don't allow me to try the device (only to look it thru a glass) i bother you with a request: I believe you may be using manual cues (lap) during your training. Can you take a picture of the Ionic screen at the moment you press the lap button? I have to be sure it shows at least the lap time and the lap number.

Of course any other picture you can send me related to the manual lap feature will be welcomed.

One question more: do the lap times and distances syncronize with the Fitbit app/web?

Thank you in advance and best regards,

Andrea 

[bmw54]

@Andyfor: sorry I can't help with that, maybe if you open a thread with that question someone will assist. In general, though, if you are a competitive runner, don't get the ionic. I won't rehash all that's been written about it, suffice it to say that it's never made it past 10 miles in any of my marathons before losing connection or otherwise crashing.

fitbit's business model is selling the concept of fitness; not addressing the needs of competitive athletes. Others beat them at that game years ago.

[SantiR]

@Andyfor Welcome to the Fitbit forums! Thanks for your interest in obtaining a Fitbit Ionic. I'm glad you were able to find some in Argentina. 

It seems that another user was able to share the pictures you were asking for. Check them out on his post here. This should be very helpful for you. 

Also, the laps should sync to the Fitbit app/online dashboard too. Additionally, please check this helpful article about how to track exercises with Fitbit devices. 

@bmw54 Thanks for sharing your experience on this thread. 

Keep me posted!