Fitbit Ionic Watch Review

8.6
8.6 score
[Editors rating (8.6)] = (WalkJogRun) score (8.6)/10


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Are you trying to get fit? Do you want to shed a few pounds? Are you training for something? Do you want to monitor your daily activities? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then you've come to the right place. The Fitbit Ionic Watch Might be the perfect option for you. You'll get all the necessary features that you would expect from a fitness tracker, such as, steps taken, distance traveled, calories burned, heart rate, and sleep tracking. All of these things can be used to help you achieve your goals.

Yes, it does have a reasonably steep price tag, but with all the features you have available to you, most people think it's worth the extra money. This watch goes above and beyond what you would expect from this type of product. You can store your music right on the device or access your Pandora playlist wherever you go. It has a built-in GPS, so there's no need to connect to your cell phone if you don't want to. You can even get personalized fitness coaching right from your wrist.

The durable construction and comfortable design make this an excellent choice for most customers. Yes, has more of a sporty look and doesn't fit into formal events very well, but for everyday use it's perfect.

Editor's Pros & Cons
Pros

Water-resistant up to 50m

Personalized fitness coaching

Built-in GPS

Offers Fitbit Pay

Excellent battery life

Decent fitness tracking

Cons

Not a classy look

Fitbit OS is lacking

Lack of apps

Bulky design

Activities

The Fitbit Ionic Watch is perfect for a plethora of activities. Customers for most of their day-to-day operations. Since it's a combination of a fitness tracker and a smartwatch, there's almost nothing you can't do while wearing it. It looks great on your wrist when you're heading to the office, the gym, or lounging around the house.

If your primary uses for tracking your fitness, then you're in luck. That is where this product thrives. Whether you're training to run a marathon, you enjoy hiking, or if you're participating in a triathlon, this watch can give you all the metrics that you need to help progress towards your goal.

Next, you have the Smartwatch functionality of the product. If your primary use for this product is to use it as a smartwatch, Then it's right up your alley. You can wear it to the office so you can keep track of your notifications and the time. You can wear it while doing your housework or yard work, as it can store 300 songs (or more) so you can listen to music while you're working without the use of your cell phone.

Since the ionic is water-resistant up to 50 meters, you can even wear it swimming. There's no need to worry about taking it off if you were doing the dishes, participating in water sports, or heading to the pool.

Since the watch has more of a sporty or casual look to it, it might not fit in well for a formal setting. You can get away with wearing it to the office as it does give off a professional look. However, if you're attending a wedding or any other formal event, you might want to swap it out for something with a more elegant design.

Basic Features

With the Fitbit Ionic Watch, you're going to get all the basic features that you've come to expect from Fitbit products. You can track and monitor your steps, calories burned, distance traveled, sleep, and heart rate. These would become staples in most fitness trackers, and this one's no different.

If you're using the Fitbit in conjunction with the Fitbit app weather on your computer or your phone, you can get a more in-depth look of all of these stats. When looking at your sleep tracking, you can see how long you were in each stage of sleep (REM, deep, and light). This can be used to judge the quality of your sleep.

Since this Smartwatch gives you a continuous an automatic heart rate monitor, it's going to be able to track your heart rate zones. It will tell you if you are in the cardio zone, fat burning, or peak. Again, through the use of the Fitbit app, you can see a graph of all of these stats and a more in-depth look of your daily activities. Additionally, long as you're wearing the product all day, I can give you an accurate representation of what your resting heart rate.

Advanced Features

The Fitbit Ionic Watch comes packed with more advanced features that you're not going to find and some of the cheaper and lower-quality products. It goes above and beyond what an ordinary tracker will do for you.

Customers love that they finally have a Fitbit product that they can wear swimming. Since this watch is water-resistant up to 50m, it allows you to wear in the swimming pool. This is something relatively new to Fitbit products. That'll make me wear it swimming, but you can track your water sports just like you would any of your other activities.

Another fan-favorite is the fact that it's got storage. You can store about 300 songs directly on the device so you can listen to it while you're working out. There's no need to keep your phone on you just for music. You can connect a pair of wireless headphones right to this device and enjoy your music on the go.

Another one of the newer features is the NFC chip that's built into the Fitbit. The use of this chip allows you to access credit card information so you can pay for items with the Fitbit itself. It uses Fitbit pay, which works similar to Apple pay or Google pay. This isn't something that's accepted everywhere, so make sure the store takes Fitbit pay before you try to use it.

Finally, the watch has a built-in GPS. No more need to connect your watch to your phone, so you can track your runs. Unlike previous versions, you can truly leave your phone at home.

Accuracy

When you're wearing a smartwatch to track your Fitness, you want to make sure that your results are accurate. After all, what's the use of having a product that tracks your Fitness but doesn't give you the correct results? Thankfully, for the most part, the Fitbit Ionic Watch gives you reliable results.

Of course, there's going to be some slight discrepancies. However, it doesn't impact the actual results to drastically. Sometimes the step count can be off a little bit, but that's to be expected since you're wearing it on your wrist and not your hip. Overall though it does a decent job at accurately recording your fitness.

Additionally, this watch is going to help you calculate the number of calories that you're burning each day. This is generally fairly accurate, as long as you are inputting your information correctly. As long as you accurately record the stats that the app asks for it's going to give you a good idea of how many calories you burn per day. This may not seem like an important thing, but if you are trying to lose weight, it is essential. If you are measuring your calories in versus calories out, then, it becomes a crucial part of your routine.

Connectivity

For you to set up your device, you have to have access to a smartphone or a computer. You have to connect through a Bluetooth connection, and it will walk you through the setup process. Generally, you can set everything up using the Fitbit app. You can find this for free in the Google Play Store, Apple Store, or on a Windows computer. Yes, you can use your computer for syncing and setting up your device. However, some customers reported issues with slow connectivity. That said, once the product is connected initially, there aren't very many problems in the future.

As long as you have your smartwatch went to your cell phone, you can receive notifications right to your wrist. This can come in pretty handy if you're in the middle of a workout, at work, or otherwise busy. You can check your notifications and see if there's anything that requires your immediate attention. The downfall, however, is that you can't respond to your notifications. This is common among Fitbit products. If you want to return to one of your messages, you have to pull your phone out of your pocket.

Apps

When you connect your device to your phone, you're going to want to use the Fitbit app. As mentioned above, can be found for free on the Apple Store, Google Play store, or on your Windows computer. The use of this app will let you view the metrics of your activities. You can see a graph of your heart rate, your steps taken over a range of time, the more in-depth look of the quality of your sleep, and so much more.

The Fitbit Ionic Watch Comes pre-loaded with a couple of apps. It's going to start with your alarm, weather, music, timer, and today (shows your progress throughout the day). There isn't very much app support for this device, which customers have complained about. Yes, there are some third-party apps available for download, but there isn't a lot to choose from.

You can download the Pandora app on to your smartwatch and link it to your account. This is beneficial because it'll let you access your playlist while you're working out. Additionally, through the Fitbit app, you can add your music to the device, so you don't have to carry your phone when you're out and about.

Comfort

One thing that most customers can agree on, this product is extremely comfortable. The lightweight design makes it, so it doesn't feel like a burden on your wrist. In fact, it weighs less than most of the other SmartWatches on the market today. Whether you're working out or wearing it on an everyday basis, the tracker feels excellent and doesn't get in the way.

If you don't like the feel of the band that comes with the Ionic don't worry, the bands are easily interchangeable, so you can find one that fits you better or feels better against your skin. Some customers mentioned that the band that comes with the Ionic isn't always breathable if you get one that doesn't allow for airflow you can always pick one that picture needs better.

Style

For the most part, customers are content with the overall style and look of the smartwatch. However, they do have one slight complained about it. It has a look that you would associate with a Fitbit or an athletic watch. It has an aluminum frame and either a plastic or leather wristband, it's not the look of a smartwatch back you would consider classy or elegant. It does, however, look like something that you would wear at the gym, casually, or even to work.

One thing that it does have going for them, though is the customization. There are a plethora of styles and colored bands that you can pick from so you can make sure that you get something that best fits your personality. It's not only the bands that you can change up though. You can customize the watch face to best suit your needs.

Durability

When you're spending a decent amount of money on a product, you want to make sure that it's going to last. You don't want it breaking on you or falling apart shortly after you purchase it. Thankfully, that isn't something you're going to have to worry about with this product. The high-quality materials combined with the robust construction make sure that you aren't going to have to worry about premature wear and tear.

There were some concerns about the clip holding on the bands. Customers were afraid that they were going to break because they're so easy to change. However, after a decent amount of wear and numerous band changes, consumers mentioned that they had no problems with the connection at all. The new band stays in place snugly and securely with no worry about them breaking.

First and foremost, this is a fitness watch. It is expected that you're going to go hard while wearing it, heading to the gym going for a swim or heading out for a run. It is going to be able to take all of the abuse you throw at it and thrive.

Size

The Fitbit Ionic Watch makes it a lot easier to determine what size you should get. When you make your purchase, you're going to get both a small and large size, so you don't have to try to guess. In the past, you had to choose a size and risk getting one that doesn't fit. You don't have to worry about that anymore.

Since you're going to get both a large and a small size band, it's going to cover a majority of customers so you can get something that fits. The small band will fit a wrist size of 5.5 to 6.7 inches; whereas, the large band will fit 6.7 to 8.1 inches. If whatever reason neither of these bands can accommodate you, you can always purchase an additional band that would suit you better.

Battery Life

The Fitbit Ionic Watch has a pretty good battery life considering it's a smartwatch and fitness tracker in one. If you're starting with a full charge, you're going to get about four days before you'll need to charge it. However, if you're using the built-in GPS, it's going to drain the battery a little faster oh, and you might only get about 10 hours.

If the Fitbit is entirely dead, it only takes about 2 hours to reach a full charge. Customers can appreciate the fact that it doesn't take too long to charge the battery up, so you don't have to go too long without it.

Bottom Line

If you're in the market for a fitness tracker that can also be used as a smartwatch and don't mind spending a decent amount of money, then the Fitbit Ionic Watch might be a good option for you. Keep in mind, it is primarily a fitness tracker, and that is where most of the features lie. It can be used as a smartwatch in the sense that it can give you your cellphone notifications as well as offer a few apps. However, the app support isn't stellar, which causes complaints from customers.

The fact that it's easy to use and has an exceptional battery life make this an excellent option for many people. You get personalized Fitness coaching, a built-in GPS, and it's water-resistant up to 50m. Yes, you can take the swimming without fear of moisture damage. One of the best parts is it that it can hold music on internal storage, so you don't have to bring a media player with you to the gym.

All in all, it's a pretty decent fitness tracker; however, it lacks a little in the Smartwatch Department. That said, most customers are pleased with the product and would purchase it again.