What do you Think of your Ionic so Far?

[gibbyhome]

So I just ordered the new Ionic and it should arrive on Friday and was wondering about the ones that have received their Ionic so far what do you think?

• is it very heavy or light ?
• is it to big ? 
• what to you think about transferring music?
• how is the battery life? 
• is the screen bright enough?
• do it stay on long enough to read your text messages and can you respond to texts from the watch.
• how is the accuracy 
• I'm sure I will have a lot to say once I get mine in, i'm going from my Microsoft Band 2 that I loved and will miss dearly

[jharla1]

I posted my initial thoughts on the reddit fitbit sub:

https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/comments/72mgvk/hands_on_with_the_ionic_just_me_not_some_review/

Glaring issues still outstanding are the inability to load clock faces without it timing out.  If you find one you like and you get it to load, don't try to switch it as you may not get it back.

Also as I noted in my post, set up is ridiculously long clocking in at half an hour.  Appears to be pretty common.

It would appear to me to be a problem on the server side of Fitbit.  Anything involving loading or updates on the platform takes forever.  Numerous issues with Pandora.  I was simply trying to get it to load my stations.  Support ended up having me just try to add one at a time.  The watch works on connecting to Pandora in the background so we left it as "check in later."  Couldn't tell you when it finally updated the Pandora list (which it only loaded one station, not the two I tried), but it eventually got there.  If I had to guess it probably took more than an hour.

So hopefully they resolve the load times before it really goes out to the masses in early October.

You can read the rest of my thoughts on reddit, but will happily chime in here.  Forgot to even post on the community boards.

I (cautiously) like it so far with the assumption these bugs will be worked out.

[Benood]

Just received mine 7 hours ago, initial impressions are good.  I've been waiting to upgrade from Surge for a while, Ionic is lighter and feels far smaller.  

Only niggle at the moment is not having the time always visible and I've not got the hang of flicking my wrist to turn the screen on.

In the UK there's little in the way of apps yet and I've not started to look at them really, the few changes to the Fitbit app itself - are all going in the right direction.  Initial setup I did over Bluetooth and it took about an hour. 

[GySgt_Seidell]

I received my Burnt Orange Ionic this afternoon (Richmond VA).  I have charged it, installed the OS/any updates and setup the settings.  I have installed two playlists, consisting of about 140 songs, which only used up about 1/3 of the Ionics storage space.  I have synced my Strava account and set the city for the Weather.  I have not had a single issue thus far and the Ionic is working perfectly.  Tomorrow is the day I will put it through its paces, as that will be my first 10K plus step day.  Since I have preordered the Fitbit Flyer and do not have a bluetooth headset, I will continue to use my iPhone with my device, until the Flyer arrives.

Folks, this is one sweet fitness wearable and I am so glad I preordered it.  It is better than I had expected and definitely not disappointed!

Moderator Edit: Format

[kwaasen]

---

@CopperWolf808 wrote:

---

@gibbyhome wrote:

So I just ordered the new Ionic and it should arrive on Friday and was wondering about the ones that have received their Ionic so far what do you think?

• is it very heavy or light ?
• is it to big ? 
• what to you think about transferring music?
• how is the battery life? 
• is the screen bright enough?
• do it stay on long enough to read your text messages and can you respond to texts from the watch.
• how is the accuracy 
• I'm sure I will have a lot to say once I get mine in, i'm going from my Microsoft Band 2 that I loved and will miss dearly

---

Maybe @RoyG96 can chime in since he also got his Ionic in today! 🙂

Edit: He is talking about what he thinks and set up in this Preorder/Release Date Thread

Anyone who uses the Ionic in water? As I am a bit annoyed with the Flex-2 I have some questions about the swim tracking.

1. What do you think of the calorie usage while swimming? (I refuse to believe swimming takes less to do than walking) 

2. Does it add any form of activity if you are taking a dip? I get that you have to do anything for 10 minutes or more to track activ minutes. But I would like to be given some sort of credit for splashing around a little in water. I mean, it does count the steps between the kitchen counter and the table...

---

[KhalidB]

I received my Ionic last night and am using it with a Google Pixel XL with Oreo. I don't usually write reviews for things, but I'm doing it because I think fitbit did a great job here.

Pros:

- clear and vibrant screen in sunlight. It's also worth noting that it adjusts its brightness very quickly and smoothly -- no other watch (including the Apple Watches) I've ever used does this.

- watch looks like a sleek stealth fighter and I am a fan of the new clock faces (especially the default). Looks great.

- I like how focused this watch is on working out. 

- HR is accurate.

- GPS is accurate.

- comfort. I wore it while doing yoga and sleeping and I easily forget it's there. It's very light.

- battery life and sleep tracking I don't have much to add here except to say that these are both best-in-class. After a day of heavy use the battery went down by 10%.

Pros that apply to any fitbit device:

- fitbit support is really awesome, this reminds me of the old wonderful days of Amazon support.

- fitbit has a wonderfully positive community

- the fitbit app is fantastic.

Cons:

- setup took a couple of hours, fitbit says this will be smoothed out in the next couple of weeks.

- the software has so many bugs that need to be fixed (no fitbit pay and the initial Pandora setup required a restart ...)

- Apple Watch Series 3 is better in almost every department (except battery life and sleep tracking)

Moderator Edit: Format

[thebaldgeek]

Pros. Screen is bright.

GPS seems solid.

Cons. 1 hour set up.

Pandora is broken.

Music is broken.

Fitbit pay is broken.

Strava Sync is broken.

Bluetooth synch is glacial.

Watch faces are broken.

Unable to change the picture backgrounds - so UI is cluttered is unreadable in places.

Stutters when navigating around.

Crashes when trying to join wifi and locks up Bluetooth sync from that point on (reboot both phone and Ionic and good luck).

Band is stiff and uncomfortable.

SpO2 sensor is turned off and no ETA when it will be activated.

All in all, I like it.
Its rushed to market but I love being on the bleeding edge.

[MatthewFitbit]

@thebaldgeek Can you elaborate on the things you've stated are "broken"? What exactly are you trying to do that isn't working as expected?

[KhalidB]

@thebaldgeekI enjoyed your post.

[thebaldgeek]

The setup is what it is. We got there in the end, the fact that it took an hour of many reboots and super slow firmware updates is what it is.

Pandora. I have a Pro account and it just will not link over to the watch. I am told that I might have to let it try and sync all night.

Music is broken because I can not get it to join any Wifi.

Fitbit pay is broken -  and Fitbit know this, they say it will work 'one day'.

Strava Sync is broken. I may have been a bit quick on this. Seems the Ionic really does have glacial sync. My run showed up after about 3 hours. We will see how this goes.

Bluetooth synch is glacial. Slow and glitchy. My phone is a Pixel XL with Oreo. I bet that is the problem. 'New' unsupported hardware/software.

Watch faces are broken. This is probably related to the slow Bluetooth sync speed. If you try and change the face it often times out before the new face is synched and so your watch ends up with no watch face. This happens around 95% of the time. It's just not worth trying to change faces at this point.

Unable to change the picture backgrounds - so UI is cluttered is unreadable in places.

The text is white on a photo that has white in it, so you can't read the text. We need an option to just set all backgrounds to a solid black color. Also I find the background images very distracting and noisy. You just don't need them.

Stutters when navigating around. This will improve with firmware updates no doubt. I wonder if it is related to the Bluetooth issues.

Crashes when trying to join wifi. I have very simple wifi at home so I can join IoT type devices to it for this very reason. So far the Ionic is the only device that will not join it (the fact that it often reboots while trying to join it and leaves the watch in a 'trying to obtain an IP address' state that also locks out Bluetooth points to firmware issues rather than my wifi at this point).

Band is stiff and uncomfortable. It might soften up. I'm told the sport band is better. Will spend the money perhaps and try it.

SpO2 sensor is turned off and no ETA when it will be activated. I really wanted a fitness tracker, not a half assed fitness tracker with half assed smartwatch features tacked on. Where is the skin temperature and skin conductivity to start to give us a stress metric along with SpO2?

Yes, I like the GPS, but the wifi, music, notifications and other fluf just take away from what should be a core fuction. Fitness.

As I said, it looks like a solid hardware platform (you cant fix a dim screen with a firmware update) that has been rushed to market with very little QA or field testing.

I remain very hopeful and honestly, the fact that Fitbit have a solid API (very important to me) and links with many other 3rd party apps means that I was excited to stick with them and look forward to a bright Ionic future.

Earily adoptors (should) know (for the most part) what they are getting into.

Moderator Edit: Format

[Martinefski]

Lots to like about the new watch although sadly the heart monitor is just as inaccurate as the Blaze was during certain exercises. I was hoping for with the new sensors there would be an improvement with accuracy.

Just as before while using a stair stepper or elliptical the heart tracker can be off by a lot. I am not sure if this is caused by a more constant bend to my arm or what, but it can easily be off by 60 to 70 beats per minute. 

Several times today cross checking my heart rate vs a chest strap I would see differences like 110 vs 180 or 120 vs 140. These are fairly huge discrepancies and definately a let down for me.

i am not sure why the Fitbit technology is so poor when it come to this measurement but it is and it's the same as it ever was...... 

[ggalexgg]

I love it so much, coming from a charge2 I had no idea I would love or use some of these things.

The screen is so crisp and clear it's perfect. 

Most of the syncing is super easy and intuitive and made so anyone can do it easily.

Loading music onto the watch is super easy (but slow) from my macbook pro, I don't have win10 so I can't comment on that. I made an itunes playlist called "Ionic" and fitbit connect saw it immediately and let me upload the songs with just a few clicks.

Pandora is not available in canada, also who uses pandora? lmao. Cute.  

Picking a watchface is fun and I like the small customizations available. I chose "stats" because you can change it to a nice crisp blue and it has all the data I want right on the watch face. (side note: more, if not all, watchfaces need to have HR on them because between that and time is what i'm looking at my watch for)

I have a small wrist, but I use the 4th to last hole in the large band. It got a little sweaty under the band, I am going to get a sports band because I hope the material is a little bit more breathable and flexible. However, the standard band is good and does contour around my wrist pretty well, especially considering how bony my wrist it. 

Hr monitor makes such a good connection with my wrist, it's obvious it's going to track way better and then it's also been improved. 

App store/whatever it is needs a bit of work aside from the fact that it's empty right now, but we aren't even at release day so it's fine. 

Overall, everything is a little bit slow but it's a brand new platform and device so I'll give it time to mature.  I'm at 63% battery life after an hour or so of GPS use and I've been syncing and tinkering around all day, so I'm guessing 3 days of battery will be normal maybe 4 on slow weeks. That's fine tho, I just need to be able to track my sleep. I can always charge during my shower. 

Fitbit has been a solid product here with good hardware, we can expect a lot of software to come out in the coming months and if they manage to get a good base of apps, then fitbit will have a homerun. 

[Cycleguy101]

For those of you who now have the Ionic, please share with us your 1st impressions. 

Thanks

Larry

Blaze owner

[Giampi71]

community.fitbit.com/t5/Ionic/What-do-you-Think-of-your-Ionic-so-Far/m-p/2212518

[pewaukeemike]

I received my Ionic Tuesday night after moving up from the Blaze. Here are my impressions compared to the Blaze:

- Better looking on the wrist, better fit on the wrist, weights less and overall a nice improvement compared to the Blaze from the fit angle. Plus the Ionic just looks like a finished product. While I liked the Blaze for what it is, with the way the screen pops out to charge it never really looked finished... the Ionic doesn't have that issue.

- Display - Very bright display at the highest level almost makes for a flashlight in a pinch. Extremely crisp display no matter what your using. Very solid display off, when you select display off, it's off, unlike the Blaze which would still turn on the display sometimes even when off.

- Well organized options to quickly get to what you want. Which means less swiping to get to your desired app.

--- A couple of examples of what I mean

--- Swipe left to select turning on or off the screen (Blaze takes 6-7 swipes)

--- You can reorganize where the apps show up on which screen to move those you use most often to the first screen and those you don't to a later screen

---The two buttons on the right serve as a way to "jump" to any two apps and open them.

- Nice addition of weather app. You can configure it so you have a home city which defaults to the initial weather screen and you can add other cities which show up by swiping left. Initially the city screen show the current temp, high and low temps for the day and rain chance, swiping up on any city provides the forecast for the next few days

- lots of clock faces (17) with more to come as people use the SDK that was released yesterday 

- Two timers like the Blaze but the countdown fills the screen blue from left to right as the countdown proceeds - nice add

Lots more to explore but so far I like the improvements!

Moderator Edit: Format

[DaDuck]

Initial impression:

1. Like the style, looks a lot better than Blaze.  Could be narrower, if they reduced size of digits

2. Greatly like the ability to customize clock faces and exercise data display

3. Too many artsy-fartsy clock faces and not enough data options

4. Like the weather app

5. Like arrange of apps, easier to get to app you want

6. Like app short cut by using buttons

[minigno]

Just wanted to add, I received mine today, and I'm very happy...some of the cons folks have listed as far as performance I'm not seeing (things that are not yet set up like payments and Pandora issues excluded from that comment, but those are knowns already).  I'm not seeing anything in the way of bugginess so far either.  I don't know if this is because I'm on a pretty fast internet connection, but I do have 5ghz wifi (vs a 2.4) and everything works great over it.

Setup: Took me 25 minutes to update, about as long as an iOS new version update typically takes for me.

Syncing watch faces: quick and easy.

Music: followed posted instructions that are now pinned in the forum...worked right away, music syncing is half done, looks like total will be 1hr...this is for just under 11 hours worth of music (which is about half of the available space).  That is a lot of music so 1hr does not surprise me, I think just moving folders to an external hard drive would take about as long.

So far my expectations have been exceeded for what I expected when I opened the box...I do hope software updates provide more functionality to already stated lacking functionality that was advertised, however these were not high priority needs for me when I decided to purchase the watch.  I'm also looking forward to see what comes out for newly developed apps and as a Fitstar subscriber I look forward to the personalized coaching sessions (vs the 3 canned ones) coming out in Coach (2018 I believe).

My 3rd Fitbit (previously One and Flex 2) and by far the best I've owned so far (it's only been a couple of hours, so you may want to take that with a grain of salt, but I'm extremely impressed).

Update: Modified a playlist to add one song, transfer happened in well under a minute.

[SHGrade]

In response to an earlier post:

Swimming takes less calories for me than walking, but I teach swimming, and this is highly variable depending on your form. 

[Sciencegirl35]

Mine is an unusable brick, I'm very disappointed. I wasn't expecting perfection from a brand new device but I did expect the basic functions to work. I'm not sure if I even want a replacement at this point. 

[minigno]

That stinks...but it happens in manufacturing.  I bought my wife a brand new iPad Pro last Christmas and it was bricked out of the box.  Contact support, I'm sure they'll send you a quick replacement and make sure they throw in free over night delivery.

[MatthewFitbit]

@Sciencegirl35 Sorry to hear that - I have followed up in your thread to assist.