Questions before buying a Fitbit Ionic

[SunsetRunner]

Hi,

Are looking at a Fitbit Ionic and just want to know what the people actually using it say and have also a few questions.

1. What is your personal opinion about the watch? Does it work as you thought? Functions, battery time and so on.
2. Can't find out if it support Spotify. Can only find that it support Deezer. Or is this only for the offline music?
3. I'm out running a few times a week and want to know that I have the info I want right at the display without any click. I want to have pace, time and distance at the display the whole time, is that possible?

Many Thanks!

Robert

[NellyG]

I cant answer the run question as I dont use mine to run.

My opinion is that mine is great. Excellent battery life, easy to use, excellent step tracking and the exercise app and smart track function effortlessly. My only problem early on was syncing, but once I figured it liked to be the only tracker on and account it was heaps better.

Spotify is not supported - only Pandora ans Deezer. I dontnuse either of them and just use my own music transferred from my laptop.

[soss3osp]

1) beta product with great potential. I would definitely wait about the next steps Fitbit is doing. Sometimes it seems as if they already gave up on the ionic. Many unsolved porblems (you can easily read around in this forum to draw your own conclusions).

2) no (but for me this is not an important issue).

3) if running is your main interest then the ionic is not what you are looking for. many people (me as well) report problems with gps and one i really annoyed when the run isn't documented because the ionic lost gps without eing able to reconnect.

go for some cheap running watch. the ionic will disappoint you after some short period of enthusiasm. reality is a cruel touchstone

[calumthomas]

Ok so my history with the Ionic is pretty patchy. I've actually owned two, not because the first broke but because I decided I much prefer the look of the Garmin Vivoactive 3. After several month's with the vivoactive I gave up, and decided I wanted to come back to Fitbit. Not because the Ionic (I actually bought the Versa first, but hated the battery life and small size) was better at anything than the Garmin, but because the app is so much better. 

Since owning my second Ionic there has been an update for it which appears to have fixed a lot of my niggles with it, it feels a little faster (it's no speed demon though), the apps now connect which I found before they never would (I use a water tracking app and it works mostly all the time) and the battery life is pretty good. The display is so bright its wonderful. 

It supports bluetooth audio controls for any app you're using on your phone- it doesn't have spotify on board though. Only Deezer. I'm fine with that because for the sake of running I just downloaded a Running album from Itunes and loaded it onto my Ionic. It takes a while though and can be a bit finicky. 

As for running it will display three stats at any one time without having to touch anything, these are:

Top: Distance (Can be changed to several stats including pace)

Bottom: Duration (can also be changed to several stats including pace)

The Middle stat can display a whole range of stats including heart rate, duration time of day and lots of others, these can be selected or unselected in the settings menu and can be swiped through- the top and bottom stat are static and cannot be swiped through. So if you want time, pace and distance on show at all times that's perfectly possible 🙂 

Moderator Edit: Format

[Ericws]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

Hi,

Are looking at a Fitbit Ionic and just want to know what the people actually using it say and have also a few questions.

1. What is your personal opinion about the watch? Does it work as you thought? Functions, battery time and so on.
2. Can't find out if it support Spotify. Can only find that it support Deezer. Or is this only for the offline music?
3. I'm out running a few times a week and want to know that I have the info I want right at the display without any click. I want to have pace, time and distance at the display the whole time, is that possible?

Many Thanks!

Robert

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1-  My Ionic works better than I expected.  Love it.  4-5 days' battery life.  A 3-mile run using GPS and music takes about 8-10% of battery life.

2-  No Spotify.  My Pandora Plus works perfectly.

3-  Yes.

Love my Ionic!

[jwebb72]

Love the Ionic! Battery lasts a good 5 days and yes, during a run you can have 3 different metrics displayed at once like pace, time, and distance. Syncing is sometimes an issue on my unsupported phone but works flawlessly on my galaxy tablet. Music syncing and playback while on a GPS run is great too but there might be issues if you're using older Bluetooth tech. earbuds. Mine are 4.1 and never cut out.

Keep in mind, most people on this forum are having problems with their Ionic which is just the nature of most product forums so expect a lot of negative comments, but rest assure, the majority of users are quite happy with their Ionic. Check out some youtube reviews from trusted reviewers like Rizknows or Desfit (both Garmin fanboys) also. I know Desfit wears a product for a good month before making a review. Just my opinion of course.

[MikeGn]

1. Yes.

2. I don't use the watch to play music. I see no problem in having a phone in the pocket while doing a workout.

3. When you are in Exercise application, it displays various statistics about your workout. You will have to swap application screens until finding the required one. From here, you don't have to do anything - the Exercise app support always on display. I don't know about running - I use the watch for gym workouts.

Ionic so far is the best watch for gym workouts, the guiding Fitbit Coach app is brilliant. This is what I purchased Ionic for.

BTW, I am really surprised by huge amount of negative opinions on this board, since I have no problems, incl. update to OS 2.

Maybe, there are Ionic batches of various quality. Otherwise, this is just a troll attack, but I presume Fitbit knows to handle them.

[DarthRidiculous]

As stated before .. I am not a troll … I am a pissed off Fitbit user who just paid $300 for the top of the line device that does not work as advertised.

Fitbit has serious problems with their software since it clearly does not work as advertised.  They have seen these issues for months on their forums and yet they continue to sell a defective product.

If the forums are for users with issues .. then why are so many of the users stating the same issue with their Ionic not connecting to their device over and over.

… so stop trying to be a salesman for a defective product and realize that there are numerous issues that need to be addressed for such and expensive device.

Moderator Edit: Format

[SunsetRunner]

@SunsetRunner

1. Works well in some areas, doesn't in others. As a watch, step counter, even all day HR monitor it does quite a good job. It falls short when it comes to stress test. HR sometimes works, sometimes doesn't, accuracy questionable ), GPS works quite well, but there seems to be a weird bug in the distance computation which affects shown pace. As a nice, lightweight watch - not too bad, does all the watch should do. As a sports watch, when you really want to track something more than steps and you want to make a use of the captured data I see it as a toy. If I knew about Charge 3 back then, I would definitely wait and switch from Charge 2 to Charge 3 rather than overpay for Ionic. That's at least my experience.

2. Doesn't support Spotify. Would be nice though as I don't use Pandora or Deezer.

3. During a run, you can customise the stats shown. The middle stat of your choice can be always switched during the run by tapping it. Pace and distance are not that accurate. I wrote a detailed analysis of GPS data in HERE. 

[KatLDay]

No. No. Do not. It’s a terrible product! I regret buying mine every day, and I’m counting the days until Christmas when I shall be switching to an entirely different company. FitBit are bloody awful. The Ionic is an overpriced piece of cheap, ugly tat. The case was dented after a week of normal wear. The GPS is flaky. It overcounts metres in the swimming pool. Half the advertised functions don’t work, including music and payments. As usual with FitBit they launched some “experimental” features and then completely abandoned them. There’s a game called Treasure Trek for example which seems to stop working for everyone after a while. I was told to “contact the developer”! (Edit for clarity: FitBit IS the developer!) Then there was the debacle a couple of months back when it became impossible to log food. They will launch a new product soon and the Ionic will be forgotten entirely. They don’t care about supporting legacy watches. I recommend you buy literally anything else. 

Moderator Edit: Format

[NellyG]

@soss3osp As I said I am not a runner. The Ultramarathon  bit is my forum rank based on the number of posts I have made.

[SunsetRunner]

@KatLDay when it comes to third-party applications that stop working at some point Fitbit isn't responsible for that. If the app on your mobile phone stops working, do you contact Apple or Google or any manufacturer? Fitbit does lots of things bizarre way but apps are made by developers who should maintain compatibility with new firmware updates. It works that way everywhere 🙂

[DarthRidiculous]

Forget the third party applications.  My Ionic (with no third party app installed) reboots approximately every 5 minutes now.  Yesterday I had 11,000+ steps that were synced to the app and today the app is showing that I had 852 steps for yesterday. (… and the Fitbit just rebooted again).  It has stopped capturing my sleep patterns.

While the hardware may be good, Fitbit has serious software problems that is making the platform a unreliable piece of junk.

Moderator Edit: Format

[KatLDay]

@SunsetRunner at no point did I mention a third party app. Treasure Trek is/was created by FitBit. Not that they even seem to know this since, as I said, I was told by one member of FitBit staff to “contact the app developer”. 

Moderator Edit: Format

[SunsetRunner]

@KatLDay I admit I didn't know that. It shows how sometimes copy/paste responses fail big time 😄 I actually stopped using any apps except of pre-installed on Ionic as most of them I find buggy and limited, not mentioning tedious installation and horrible app store. This is nowhere near even Tizen based devices.

[LwrHrtRt]

@SunsetRunner

I really wanted to like my Ionic, but I have had many\all the issues posted here.  I paid $300 expecting a Cadillac experience and have since felt like a perpetual beta tester.  On top of that, FitBit has in the past put up specs and made promises that it later has reneged on.  To date, where is the Sp02 functionality in their original marketing material.  Forgetting that stuff however, the problems continue for its most basic function, sports watch that syncs data.  Almost daily I have to go through band-aid fixes and hope the stars align so I can get a successful sync.  Notifications fail most of the time.  If you use the GPS, expect to charge daily or within a day if you go more than 5hrs-6hrs. If you don't use the GPS, its about every 4 days.  Software is buggy...watch will reboot at times when you're in an exercise and it starts a sync attempt.

Here's the positives.  I like the dashboard. I like how it displays historical data.  Presentation is where they excel at.

Thanks,

LwrHrtRt

[Ericws]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

@SunsetRunner

1....GPS works quite well, but there seems to be a weird bug in the distance computation which affects shown pace....

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Q:  you are referring to pace during the run itself?  

[SunsetRunner]

Hi All,

Thank you for all your thoughts and ideas about Ionic. I have unfortunately not gotten much wiser, as there are as many positive comments as negative (and the negative ones are really negative). I think I'm waiting with buying an Ionic for a while because I don't want to chance to get a watch that I'm not happy with. It's still a lot of money and I can not afford to buy another watch if Ionic does not work.

Thanks,

Robert

[SantiR]

Hello everyone! Thanks for sharing your opinions regarding this topic. Also, thanks for sharing your positive and negative feedback too. 

@SunsetRunner I'm glad you were able top find some answers regarding this. For me, the watch works great. I enjoy using the hundreds of apps and clock faces it offers and it works well when exercising too. It will show your distance, pace, and time.

Currently, Fitbit does not support Spotify. However, you can vote for this Feature Suggestion:

• Spotify for Ionic/Versa

The more votes, the better. You can use Deezer, Pandora, or you can transfer music to your watch for the moment. 

Hope this helps. Keep me posted! 

[soccersnaps]

my ionic has worked great...........so far,    my experience of customer support scores 0 from 10. if my experience of the watch was all that mattered then its okay, however forget any chance of a warranty claim, forget any chance of any customer support. ,

Knowing how poor fitbit are at helping anyone with an issue, helping anyone with a warranty claim, knowing how very poor fitbit are at improving their products through the process of voting for improvements in suggestions here................go buy another manufacturers product...............fitbit is just dreadful in all aspects once youve bought the product