Would you buy the Ionic again?

[skiss777]

Hello...

I'm trying to decide which model to purchase, and I'm leaning toward the Ionic.  However, I'm seeing a lot of negative topics on this board.  Of course, that's in great part what the board is for - to help resolve issues.

Would you purchase the Ionic again, or would you recommend a different model?

Thanks!

[youhippy]

@BuckMulligan_ What iPhone are you using? Is it running the most recent OS? My Dad has an iPhone SE and he was able to set up and connect his Ionic.

[Josh-S]

Short answer: I wouldn't buy again due to heart rate inaccuracies, lack of working mode for indoor rowing (and lack of response from Fitbit to add it despite 100s of requests from the community), and incompatibility with my Xiaomi 9T Pro phone.

The very long winded answer:

My experience has been mixed with the ionic. I have owned it for several months and found it to be quirky. I basically do two types of exercise. Indoor concept 2 rowing, outdoor "power" walking.

  Before the latest upgrade to the firmware I was able to track rowing heart rate well with the generic workout mode (there is no indoor rowing mode despite there being literally 100s of requests over a 4 or more year period of time). Also I was able to get accuracy on my walking with the running mode. The walking mode oddly enough would have places were my heart rate measurement dropped to near resting levels. I know that this was inaccurate from both the way I felt and also, after having seen this checking against a heart rate strap which showed my heart rate was indeed in the above 85% max range. That's a huge difference. But like I said the running mode tracked much better, within a few beats a min with the strap. The general workout mode in terms of heart rate tracked well during the walks but had no GPS monitoring.

 Since the latest update to firmware the Ionic doesn't track heart rate well with either walking or running exercise. I place a big emphasis on this because I want to make sure I'm really maintaining the level of effort I want to get too. Though I could use the heart rate strap (a polar H10) it's not as comfortable and requires being able to see the phone instead of just lifting my wrist.

 The aforementioned recent firmware upgrade is supposed to give on watch access to the weeks workouts etc but on my watch it doesn't show the results. Although on the app I see all my workouts number of days etc on the watch itself it will maybe show 1 day out of 5 that I worked out. Sleep scores for the week are shown via app just fine but the watch shows nothing at all ever.

 My phone syncs just fine with the watch but doesn't get messages. This is a known problem and fitbit's response is that they only support certain devices. So if you go with Fitbit you should make absolutely sure that your phone is listed specifically as being supported. My Xiaomi 9T Pro works just find with my polar H10 heart rate strap. I don't see why Fitbit can't get it right for more phones.

 Having said all that, when the heart rate tracking is accurate (depending on firmware apparently) I like it. Its comfortable enough. I sleep with it to get some idea of the quality of my sleep though I can't speak to accuracy here. Its convenient to tell time (lol it is a watch after all) vs looking at my cellphone. it tracks resting heart rate which is interesting. The website has some nice features weight and food tracking if your into that sort of thing.

 Bottom line currently its a toy but not an accurate way to track my workout heart rate (we'll see in the future if there is a better update to the firmware). So I would recommend looking elsewhere.

Hope all this helps.

[Kchung]

My replacement ionic just died last week. I’ve noticed a trend with others who also had 2 of them and each last ~ a year. 
Luckily, I didn’t waste my own hard earned money on it. It was a Valentine’s Day gift. 
I’m thinking to save myself the frustration and switching to Apple. 
Goodluck.

[Kchung]

Ditto.. along with handfuls of others who have had the same poor luck too. 

[multiverse]

I would never buy another FitBit after my horrible experiences with my Ionic and with FitBit support (or lack thereof). I wouldn't even re-buy it with the 25% discount offered by FitBit when it fails after 12 months.

If it had worked as expected it would have been only mildly satisfactory as a fitness tracker for my needs.

It barely tracks swim workouts.  Neither the HR monitor nor GPS work while swimming. The lap counter is somewhat inaccurate, and you can forget about accurate lap timing, splits, etc.

If you're doing a particular Exercise, you can't use the timer feature to time your laps. 

The touch screen goes crazy or doesn't work when you're in the water, even above the surface, because water droplets confuse it.

If you're doing Interval training, you can't change the interval duration on the watch, and instead must go into the app to reprogram the watch to change the interval.

The HR monitor often stops accurately recording spikes in heart rate, as when running up steep hills. It looks like you were just strolling on flat.

Endless sync issues!  Just read any random forum post. FitBit has attempted to address these problems repeatedly with firmware updates, which is probably what bricked my Ionic, twice.

[John1206]

I had the Ionic for two years.  For two years, it provided the same type of Fitbit data that some of these other models provided, but I really invested in the Ionic for the music capacity feature - the prospect of one less thing to have to carry while running was something that piqued my interest.  Having had good luck with Fitbit customer service in the past - when the devices worked or when they were easily replaced under warranty - I felt in good hands trying the Ionic.

Before we get any further, I know it's a fitness watch;  however, it advertised the feature of holding music and that's what I was looking for.  

Two years after purchase, I have given up on the Ionic and gotten an Apple Watch.  The inability of the device to stay hooked into wifi during transfers; the hit or miss of the device syncing with my mobile device; the LACK OF SOLUTION for making music transfers to the device; the fact that I knew more about how to reset and reinstall the Ionic on my mobile device than some of the other features it advertised; and finally, the general apathy of customer service for Ionic support in these posts, made owning this piece of technology far too cumbersome to continue.

There really is no reason, in this day and age, that having a feature filled device requires so much coordination between routers, wifi networks, turning off Bluetooth on any other device in your home, and other items which just all in all were a hassle.  Does it show notifications?  Yep, occasionally.  Does it keep track of steps and provide rudimentary GPS?  Yes, it does.  However, at this price point, it seemed to be a lot of work, for not a lot of results.  I like the sleep tracking, but in the most recent months, using the device and the dashboard - if I didn't want to pay for premium services - became more work than I was interested in.  

This isn't sour grapes - if it were, I'd have thrown it away a long time ago.  However, as the technology advanced, the Ionic just sat there - and instead of Fitbit investing in updates or attempting to resolve issues (and let's be honest, you can spend days on this forum going through the various issues), they simply rolled out more products with similar features, but less ambition than the initial Ionic.

I've appreciated everyone who has either tried to help, given an out of the box solution, or simply provided the knowing, shrug of the shoulders "is what it is" on this forum, but the answer is sadly a resounding NO.

[Cantryboy]

I would...I love my watch!

[geminiman7]

No. Too  inconsistent with Bluetooth issues, notifications, apps + more. It STILL won't repair with my Bose headphones after yet another firmware update, and it was working before the updates, and it's been 6 months now. I NEED music when I workout. I'm done & moving to Samsung next year. Fitbit is really  Screwed up now.

[tonupkid]

NO.................

This question has been asked several times and ive always replied yes, however i wouldnt now.

My ionic was bought for me for Christmas 2017 along with a pair of fitbit flyers.  Ive never had a single issue with either device and have loved both.

My ionic has always synced and music transfer has been easy from my pc and every update has been a breeze. 

And then, a couple of weeks ago, the dreaded latest update, and its gone pear shaped since then.

Fitbit have not made any statements (as far as my internet research shows) that they are doing anything about the latest update, to help owners with their problems, and as helpful as these forums are, most replies by the moderators are just links to help pages. 

So no, i wouldnt buy a fantastic piece of hardware that has been ruined by the software it runs.

[jagannath]

Alright, I am terribly disappointed with this stupid product. I started using the product (brand new) since june 2019. And by September 2019 (within 3 months) the corrosion started. I contacted fibit in December, sent them photographs and then the chat got disconnected. I re-initiated the conversation a week later - the customer care made me dig through all the details - the ebay seller ID etc., only to finally say she cannot honor the warranty agreements since it was an unauthorized seller. This was a gift from my wife and her usual method of shopping is google for the product and choose the cheapest option suggested by google. So on that day, looks like ebay reseller - jpk0914 was selling it at $199.95 , but jpk0914 is not an authorized reseller.

1) I am stuck with a corroding watch and fitbit cannot do anything about it

2) I think fitbit is dumping this faulty product onto resellers to avoid the warranty issue

3) I just purchased a fitbit versa 2 special edition(from macy's this time, thank god!) for my wife, a month ago - It reads space-grade aluminium on the back. Not sure if it is just a gimmick.

I think I will jump ship to Garmin, as soon as the corrosion gets deep enough to fry the circuitry.

Terribly disappointed by charge HR two years ago - broken strap, bad battery life.

Terriby disappointed by Ionic now - Corroding case and poor sales-network and support.

google, are you listening?

[SunsetRunner]

The issues with notifications and iPhones is that Apple changed the way it worked and didn't tell anyone (probably to get everyone to buy an Apple watch).  So as a result Fitbit (and Garmin etc.) are scrabbling to make their devices work with iPhones again hence no timeline for when it will be sorted.

[Ricsb65]

While I don't doubt that's the case, I'm sure Fitbit employ some smart people and its just a software update at the end of the day.

im not convinced Fitbit are adequately supporting this older model and are probably putting resources into later devices.

[MattJ71]

Short answer:  YES.  I've had it since launch day, and I haven't had a single problem with it.  All of the OS updates worked perfectly the first time.  The battery life (to my surprise) has not degraded at all during its life.

On the battery life topic, this actually amazes me.  I fully expected a slow degradation of the battery and the inability to hold a charge.  However, I'm still getting a solid 4 to 5 days per full charge.  It is no worse now than on the day I got it.

[AARrose]

I am unsure, also sitting on the fence too,  ionic was great for me, had used it for more than 1 year, for swimming, jogging etc.Now the biggest problem occurred during the recent late Dec 2019 software update, and installing new clock face, the whole screen turn blank, no more green light to detect, pulse, etc.Had done all the 3 button n 2 buttons factory rests, no result. Ionic can still sync with my android, but what's the point when I cannot read the 4 digit code on the blank screen.Screen is dead, though there are occasional vibrations or the ionic when sync was done. Still waiting for customer support reply email on how to fix this.

AAR

[Melissa517]

I would not purchase Fitbit products ever again!  First off, the sleep tracker is a **ahem** and will not track correctly.  I have tried everything under this side of clear space to fix this...to no avail! 

[Melissa517]

Customer support sucks that is for sure!  I called up and the person was very rude and not so helpful!

[Chad80]

I wouldn't. I loved it while it worked, but now after a firmware update it doesn't track steps or HR. I'd expect this if i bought a fitness watch on Amazon for $50 or less, but not after spending $250 for a watch from what should be a reputable brand like Fitbit. Seems suspicious that it stopped working after the update. Plus, it's very difficult to get in touch with someone from fitbit to help you. 

[Galinha]

If you're going to use it in water, stay away.

This watch is not waterproof as claimed.

I have had 2 fail in the last 4 months, replacement number 2 is being sent out free of charge.

Thinking I may sell it to get my money back and go for a Garmin instead.