thinking of buying an ionic

[soccersnaps]

So I love my charge2 but have been looking at the ionic for built in gps to save carrying my phone when running/cycling.

So have read these forum pages, ive 3 questions to ask..................

Has anyone got anything good to say about the ionic????   

whats all the issues with development and production software???????

doesnt the ionic come with functioning software straight out of the box????

thanks  Steve

[USAF-Larry]

@soccersnaps, I love the Ionic so far, and the few problems I've had with it are minor compared to the functionality of the smartwatch.  The only two problems I have encountered is the occasional crash of the tracker during an exercise tracking activity, and the slow syncing.  I have had lest problems with syncing since the Android app update to version 2.62.1, but it still gets slow sometimes. Fitbit is aware of both of these problems and is working on solutions to them, hopefully to be fixed soon.  When my Ionic arrived, I set it up on my phone's Android Fitbit app in a few minutes, including setting up WiFi for the tracker. As soon as it was set up, it started a download/install of the tracker firmware update, which took less than 10 minutes. Haven't had any problems other that the two mentioned above.

[soccersnaps]

Ok thank you, thats posative, i may wait a bit longer before buying to see if some of the bugs are all sorted.....thanks for the reply

[MarciM]

Love my Ionic! I had a few sync issues early on, but all is well now. No issues and I highly recommend making the switch. 

[Stepfunction]

So far, the Ionic has proven to be an absolute **ahem**ing nightmare.  Syncing is impossible. It feels like a product which didn't go through a proper QA process. At this point, I'm honestly considering returning mine and waiting for the next version that Fitbit comes out with.

[LwrHrtRt]

@soccersnaps

The positive comments you find on the Ionic will be in the minority at this point.  The only reason to buy the Ionic at this point is if you're an employee and/or own stock in the company.  Don't take my word for it.  Look at the experience of your fellow forum users.  The trend is:

1. Great difficulty syncing.

2. Canned responses from Fitbit.

3. People giving up, and for the fortunate ones, have returned and gotten something else.

It's too bad really, the watch has a great feature set.  I've tried to run down various variables.  Tried different phones, pcs\macs with and without dongle, factory reset countless times, reset even more,turned off all other bluetooth devices in the immediate area.  Limited success. Elation at times but then it would fail to sync reliably.

My hypothesis is that the Ionic can not reliably hold a sync connection.  As the data it has to sync grows, it becomes more and more difficult to assure the connection will hold that long. I'm not sure if the data will then pickup where it left off on next connection.

[NellyG]

The positive comments may be a minority at this point, but the main reason for that is people come onto HELP forums to get help when they have problems. So the many many happy Ionic users arent here. They are off enjoying their Ionics. 

I am neither a shareholder nor an employee and I love mine.

[edit001]

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@NellyG wrote:

I am neither a shareholder nor an employee and I love mine.

My story: 

Disclaimer : I am not saying or insinuating that you are not correct on your statement, but given my experience in the last 5 years with the big brands, sport watches and their forums I get very skeptic when I read statements like the one above:

I was active on lots of forums being an sport watch gadget fan and because these days ALL brand names sport watches have issues at launch that forces you to look for a fix.

I always encountered people on the forums that always claimed that they don't own stocks, are not employed by the respective company but the more I read what they wrote the more they stood out from the crowd by being always very positive about everything regarding the company, the products. At times their actions were a bit extreme contradicting me (and others as well) on my issues that I had with my watch even if I had hard proof about the issue,like for instance many runs where the GPS tracking was very poor with lots of tracking errors, evidence that is hard to dismiss....

I can say that their behavior was even troll like at times and even if it did upset some and got reported  they miraculously never went away or got visible punished... they continued to do their "job".

My advice to @soccersnaps :

1. Buy the watch from a good seller that has a good return policy.

2. Use it, test it based on your own criteria, judge it based on your usage patters and needs.

3. Decide if it's worth keeping or returning

What I learn all this time is that what works best of you is unusable for the guy standing next to you so don't judge a product entirely based on some else opinion especially these days when you can test it yourself. 

About me and the Ionic

I do love the Ionic, I kept it but based on my previous experiences with Garmin and mostly Suunto I had reasonable expectations from it so I am not disappointed. Also I use the Ionic strictly as a Sportwatch and I don't use or care about it's smartwatch features (something that a lot of people complained about) and I can't comment on those. I read on these forums about people outraged that a 300$ watch was launched in a poor state.... I guess they did not read about the experience people had with the Suunto Spartan that was launched in truly poor state, with so many problems instability's and missing features that you could hardly call it functional back then... Should I mention that the price I paid for that watch was 800$? 

I found the software of the Ionic to be stable, functional, good.... although a bit limited but it's understandable given that was just launched. I am sure it will evolve, it just needs time... that's how things works these days with the sport watches. The GPS performance is good, not as good as my old Polar v800 but a lot better then my Fenix 3 HR a more expensive watch with very mature firmware now. The Ionic screen is good, the brightness is very good, the light adjustment is very good. The buttons are nice, the tactile feedback is good, the watch design and materials are very good as you would expect from a 2017 product. The strap is nice and comfortable, it did not give me any rash like I got from my Fenix 3.

The Ionic software is fast, it did not stutter and I did not encounter any lag. It did not crash on me yet.

The Ionic is not perfect, and NEVER expect from a new product to be perfect these days NO matter the brand name or the price of the watch. If you seek a product bug free you will never find one.... If you are looking for a product with just a few bugs look for a product launced at least 8 to 12 months ago.

I have issues with syncing, HR reading when my heart is above 125BPM, the watch activating the screen as I turn my wrist to read the time

The Ionic has great potential to be a great watch but it all depends on the software team... 

[soccersnaps]

thank you all for your replies, im still not sure i want to buy a product that doesnt seem to be fully fixed yet, ive decided to wait and see if some of these bugs gets fixed

[edit001]

Also make sure that the Fitbit is what you are looking for in a watch.

I've chosen Fitbit especially for their ecosystem, apps and community.

What Fitbit has right now, no one has and it's a major plus for a lot of people and a source or motivation that's very important: biggest community, the ability to post your activity in a social media way where you can get comments and cheers, you can make friends, challenge them... You have Fitbit Coach that can help you a lot to loose weight and get fit.

What I am trying to say here is that you need to take everything in consideration when you buy a watch... not just the hardware and firmware bugs...

Also, always look what the other brands are offering in the same price range... it might suite you better

[DramaQueenDiva]

I've just had the syncing issue that other Ionic users have had, but other than that, I love it.  It does what I want it to.  In terms of the syncing issue, there is nothing wrong with the ability for my watch to pair with another device, otherwise it wouldn't pair with any of my devices (including my computer).  Likewise, the issue has nothing to do with the Bluetooth on my phone, otherwise my phone wouldn't be able to hook up to the Bluetooth in my car (which it does flawlessly).  So the issue seems to be purely a bug, which, as far as I know, is something that Fitbit is hard at work trying to find a fix for.

[LwrHrtRt]

@NellyG

Please share your configuration, firmware version, etc. If you're not having any major issues, I think we'd all be interested to know what your phone is and how you have the app settings.  At the end of the day, I'm don't want to be negative about Fitbit or the product, I just want it to work as intended.  So I'm asking, hopefully coming off as nicely, what's working for you.

Thank you.

[RealSting]

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@soccersnaps wrote:

So I love my charge2 but have been looking at the ionic for built in gps to save carrying my phone when running/cycling.

So have read these forum pages, ive 3 questions to ask..................

Has anyone got anything good to say about the ionic????   

whats all the issues with development and production software???????

doesnt the ionic come with functioning software straight out of the box????

thanks  Steve

---

Forums are where most go to post issues, not praise! Look at YouTube for what people like and sometimes don't like.. plenty there giving FitBit free advertising!

I'm generally happy with mine. 

[Julia_G]

I am so far very happy with the Ionic.

My "disclaimer" is that I do not use all its features.  I don't use notifications and, since I live in the UK I also do not have access to Pandora (and I have not tried to download my own music) nor do I have an account with the only bank that supports Fitbit Pay (so I don't use the wallet app).

However, I am extremely happy with the functionality of the watch as a fitness device, and to address a specific issue that has been raised, I confirm that my Ionic syncs quickly and reliably, so far every single time without fail.  So syncing issues are by no means universal, and satisfaction is not limited to employees or shareholders (of which I am neither).

I sync using my iPad running iOS 10, for those who want details.

[soccersnaps]

As i stated, im already a fitbit user

[soccersnaps]

thank you Julie G

[NellyG]

@LwrHrtRt 

I have a Samsung Galaxy S7 on Android 7. If you want more info let me know but be clear on what you are after - I'm not that technically minded (but I can look up in 'About Phone' if I know what you want.

My (very minor) issues so far are some syncing problems (but it always syncs eventually) and Smart track failed to recognise a swim (once - I restarted and it was fine today). And I know I could use the Swim workout but smart track has always been spot on with my swims appart from Tuesday.

I also dont use the wallet as my card is not supported (mastercard) though my bank is (NZ in Australia). I dont used Pandora either (wrong country), or Strava for that matter (just no interest in using it)

I fully agree with whoever said buy from a reputable seller. I woukd go further and say buy from the Fitbit Online store - then if it is not what you wanted or hoped for then you can return it for a full refund within 45 days. If you are unsure then as far as I am concerned that is the way to go.

@edit001 there is obviously nothing I can say that will convince you that I dont work for Fitbit etc so I wont bother trying. As you can see from my posts I am a member of the Community Council and I expect I wouldnt be if I wasnt basically pro Fitbit - no apologies there - I have loved all of my Fitbits. And they have all worked very well, appart from what I would call minor issues occasionally. Having said that if I have a problem I say so and if I need Support I ask, and keep asking until I feel I have been satisfactorily answered. 

[LwrHrtRt]

@NellyG  Thanks.

I don't use all the bells and whistles either. The notifications would be nice but not necessary. I'd be happy if it would just sync reliably.

I have no other choice at this point but to hope that Fitbit does right by us that are having problems.

Thanks again.

[soccersnaps]

So the wife bought me the ionic for christmas..................so far all is good, syncing is spot on compared to my charge 2, music has worked although it took 40 mins to load 178 songs, but hey , thats okay.

HR seems 2 beats higher but a run and a bike ride tomorrow will see if this is comparable to charge 2.

On the whole, no issues yet, looking forward to running/cycling without a phone

[soccersnaps · Accepted solution]

So bike ride today and all synced well, hr on a par with charge2, ride recorded in strava ok...very pleased with the ionic.