Fitbit - Ionic Smartwatch - Charcoal/smoke gray

This watch RULES even if you are out of shape and looking for motivation (or the other extreme!). Nearly all the cruddy reviews elsewhere on the internet were pre-updates and Fitbit clearly was prepared to do a lot of improvements to it post-release, and REALLY came through (notifications, women's health features etc added). I have not seen any glitches in the watch in the 2 weeks I've been using it continuously. When you get the watch it's a blank slate and you load the latest software on it through the Fitbit app. It's very intuitive and has so many cool features useful to everyone which no other smart watch can match, and they are spot on. Just the sleep function is worth the price of the watch. It tells you everything of value at a glance regarding your sleep habits and automatically determines when you fell asleep, woke up, and for how long you were in REM, Deep and light sleep stages, with stats and a lovely graph to show you in detail. It even shows moments when you were awake throughout the course of the night and I have verified its accuracy by looking at the clock at night when I wake up. Amount of time in each sleep stage is important and this watch has cool tips and bits of info in the app to explain why it matters and how to improve things...The first thing I do when I wake up is check my sleep performance, and now I know when I'm going to have a bad day or will be inefficient at work and can plan accordingly. Battery life is also amazing. I went out of town twice for about 4 days each (one time was a ski trip) and didn't bother taking the charger and it was still at over 50% when I got home. I think the big difference in battery between this smart watch and others is do to the fact the watch was designed to just record data throughout the day, to be interpreted and displayed in the Fitbit app on your phone. There are minimal things that you do on the watch and mostly it will just be to occasionally check time, notifications, or see your steps .. For people who want a toy to fidget with all day, those are probably the people complaining about a lack of apps. Further about apps, this watch does everything you could want regarding sleep and fitness without needing any apps except the Fitbit app, which is where you manage most watch settings, display faces, goals, pretty much everything. The features in the app are based on the device you have, and the data is all in one neatly laid out space that can be navigated intuitively. The advantages this smart watch has over others regarding fitness and health just doesn't make lack of apps, or the fact that Fitbit Pay hasn't quite caught on with most banks yet, really of any significance. The text and call notifications on this are spot on from my Samsung Galaxy. There's no substantial delay between when they come through on my phone and when they come through on the watch. SUPER easy to use and I can leave my phone on silent all day at work while never missing a test or call (you can set the watch to vibrate even when phone is on silent - cool!). If you are a woman, you can track things most of us try to track mentally or even with a calendar etc., but never get around to it and it's insanely handy. All you do it put in a couple details and you will see in the app when things are expected to occur on the main screen in the Fitbit app. You can record things and it will update predictions, including fertility cycles. Very Cool! I will spare the men the details. Another awesome thing about this watch is when you reach any type of goal, such as number of steps in an hour or in a day or how long you slept, you get badges in your stats and little colorful celebratory notifications. It's really cool. It also does weekly and monthly stackups to show how you're progressing how often you met goals. As far as accuracy, I still haven't calibrated my stride length with GPS runs as it needs to be accurate or entered manually. I did interval running on a treadmill last night and set it to Treadmill setting to record the workout, and at the end it read a distance of 3.95 miles while the treadmill said 4.03. So less than 2% difference. Who knows which is more accurate between the watch and the treadmill but it's pretty cool that apparently the watch recalibrates your strides etc as you use the watch, per the instructions. I bought my sister an Apple watch for Christmas because she is that ADD type...and asked my BF for this since it's the most functional health/fitness watch out there for us non-Olympic athletes who want to track a big variety of health aspects and want health as the focal point of the device with useful motivational features (like Coach -very cool!, and music capabilities). It also looks awesome in spite of opinions from tech review companies and design is very functional and comfortable. FYI I'm a super duper busy full-time professional engineer(desk job), also working on my masters (ever more sitting), in my early 30s who jogs and mountain bikes occasionally and is to get back in really good shape. Again, this watch RULES.

Ok, so after a week, here is what I love/am concerned about with the Fitbit Iconic Pros Battery life - it lasts me almost an entire week without charging. Keep in mind this did not include me playing music and running GPS - just a regular high step week + a few Relax moments. Look/Feel - It stands out in a crowd (the burnt orange is really cool - great choice Fitbit) - and I barely know its on my wrist because it is so light weight. My partner asked me how I slept in it, and I told him about the awesome sleep functions, of course, but that I barely knew I was wearing it. Silent Alarms/Snooze - Ok, so this is funny because most health professionals will tell you to avoid hitting snooze, but we all do it. Now, on the Fitbit Iconic, you can actually click the little icon at the top left corner when your alarm goes off for a mini snooze (about 8 minutes). This can also be great for tasks, cooking, laundry, etc. Ease of use/function - This device doesn't do all that other smart watches do, but thats because, it's built to be a powerhouse with fitness and maintaining stability for your life. Image not having to remember to charge daily, knowing it's water proof and not worrying about your activities, and knowing your app isn't going to crash for weather. Fitness app + Visuals on your watch - This is something that Fitbit has always had that has helped them stand out. But now you can pull up beautiful workouts straight from the watch! Cons Lack of Apps - We know that there is potential for more apps to come, but as of now, the wallet function hasn't worked for me, I finally used Starbucks the other day and it was super easy to use, because it's a barcode essentially, but other than notifications, Starbucks and the weather, I haven't found the other apps to be that impressive. I can't wait to see what they come out with. Limited color choices - I know this sounds silly for some, but being able to change up my watch is important to me. I received the burnt orange and teal (darkish blue) and I love it, but I really do wish I didn't have to spend $60 on a new band to change it up. And also, There are only 3 options and they aren't really the most impressive for out of the box appeal. You'll definitely want the leather band. It doesn't look cheap by any means, but still, a little more variety/customization with band and watch would be great. Price - As of now, I do think it is worth every penny I paid for it. (Yes, I am not cool enough to be one of those people who tested it out for free, I'm a paying member). I do think the price is high to compete with other watches on the market. Notifications lack response - We knew this would stay this way, but it is a little sad I can't just send a quick reply saying "In a meeting" or "I'll call you in 5" from a click. If I can click snooze, can't I enable an auto response? Maybe it will come later.

After having my Ionic for nearly a week and putting it through its paces, I can say it's helped me retire my Apple Watch Series 3 on certain features that I look for in something that I want to wear every day to work, to the gym, and everywhere in between. Starting with the things I like about this watch: (1) it's stylish to a fault, looking nice while also not as eye catching as other brands of smart watches; (2) it's very comfortable and not intrusive when you want to wear it to bed and track your sleep cycle like my previous Alta HR was; (3) it's battery life last beyond five days or more, depending on how often you work out; and (4) it does just about everything you want in a fitness tracker, and coupled with the Fitbit app, it's the best kind of fitness tracker there is. For the things I don't like about this watch are: (1) it's OS is a little slow and not intuitive as the competition (a lot of button presses or swipes to get to certain features; (2) wish there was some voice command similar to Siri; (3) would benefit from a touch-to-wake feature instead of having to press a button or raise your wrist to your face to activate the screen; and (4) not using a universally acceptable charger such as USB-C, micro, and etc. These are all minor gripes about the design choices Fitbit has made and I believe they are only going to get better over time with each iteration of their Versa and Iconic line. Despite these small shortcomings, everything else Fitbit does, they do it very well in tracking sleep, nutrition, water, heart rate, weight, and so much more. It's almost the perfect smart watch, but without some other features that are usually found on either Android or iOS, it's definitely the best fitness tracker you can buy foremost, but comes in second place when it comes to actual smart watch functions such as having a digital assistant, voice command, and the like. You have to do everything manually to access common features. Things will only get better every year. Fitbit has a winner here. They just have to keep innovating and implementing what is already on the market, and then take it a step further. If you're on the fence about purchasing an Ionic, don't be. It's befitting on the wrist more than all the other Fitbit bands or watches out there. Totally worth the upgrade for built-in GPS, water-proofing, and more. Upgrade today while it's still on sale!

I bought my fitbit ionic on day 1 and have been testing it out the last two weeks. I had been using the fitbit blaze for over a year and let me tell you, this is a MAJOR upgrade. DESIGN: The ionic is very sleek on your wrist with a light feel. The online pictures don't do it justice as its curves and balance on your write are perfect. Unlike the blaze there is zero loss of 'green light' due to the fact that the ionic sits flat on your wrist. BATTERY: On normal usage without much GPS you can get 5 plus days on the battery. I did have battery issues with the firmware update took place and drained the watch 25% in an hour. DISPLAY: The ionic is BRIGHT even in direct sunlight. You can move through the apps with a quick flick of your finger left and right. Moving the apps around can be a little challenging but not too big of deal. WATCH FACES: Lots to pick from and I signed up on the site to make my own. After some trail and error I was able to import a mountain photo and time as my watch face. I LOVE this idea to make your watch face personal with a family picture. GPS Tracking: I went out to play basketball and the Ionic picked up I was doing a sport and logged the data in the app on my phone. It would be nice if the ionic did show more data on the watch itself and didn't have to reply on the phone app. I next started a walk by choosing, 'walk' on the watch and it logged my data perfectly with a map on the phone app as well. WATERPROOF: Works great in the shower with no issues MUSIC: I downloaded around 20 songs and 1 podcast to the watch. This needs to work easier with the ionic. I had to spend some time downloading the "fitbit connect" and than make new playlists in Itunes. If someone doesn't really understand how to use itunes and transferring songs this could cause some problems. 2.5 hours of data took too long to download...it took over an hour. APPS: Not much to talk about right now. I set up the "fitbit pay" on wallet with US Bank. It took a phone call to set up, but it should work well. It will be nice to buy a drink after a long hike without having to find your wallet. I'd love to see more apps sooner than later, hopefully with owning pebble we will get some cool nice apps. COST: Probably should be $249.99 right now, because it's a watered down 'smartwatch' right now. For $300 I'd would have liked to see a small speaker and mic for vocal announcements of miles ran, or if using the 'coach' app telling you when to move on to the next exercise. In the end, I love this fitbit and I think it will be a hit.

I have had the IONIC for a few weeks now, it was my first "Smart Watch" and was a gift from my husband for my birthday. I had previously used the Alta HR, which worked fine for what it did. I didn't have any complaints and never once contacted the help desk or spent time on the fitbit Forums. Now I find I am spending an incredible amount of time sorting through the community to find issues to my problems... or even worse, on a help chat with a fitbit person who's only suggestions are ALWAYS "Turn it off and back on again" and "Factory Reset" ... All of which I have done.. Then finally they said "Well that's all I can tell you to do". This is an Advanced Fitness Tracker that does not do it's job very well as it commonly stops tracking in the middle of a run or biking exercise, creating huge inaccuracies. (Hmm, a fitness tracker that doesn't track fitness... marvelous). It is NOT a smart watch... the few apps it has work marginally (including the fitbit Provided Apps). If your Activity Tracker is not currently synced to the phone it will provide you NO information of value... except for maybe the time... but if you have changed time zones, it doesn't even do that. (Funny how with a GPS this device can not automatically take a survey of your location to determine the correct time without being synced to the phone.) And this device is notorious for sync issues. I am currently within my return window and am strongly considering that option. Would I buy it again? Absolutely not. It's a fancy Activity Tracker that allows you to customize the face... that's pretty much it. Not the Smart Watch it advertises it's self to be. Keep in mind... I was very excited about this device when I received it. I had high hopes from all of the promises the fitbit Website made. Every moment with it has been a further disappointment because it doesn't meet the expectation in which fitbit claimed it to be. I hate that I get overly excited when something it was designed to do actually works... which is a rarity. By the way... I posted this exact same review on the fitbit forum in an answer to a question if someone should buy it... and the moderator deleted it... so there is customer service for you.

This was a great watch for the 1 year that it worked for me. The reason that it stopped working was due to the fact I had to do an update on it. Normal process of making sure battery is more than 50% and is near your phone. During the update, it decided to shut off on me and never turn on again. I contacted Fitbit and they redirected me to a forum to look for answers. I got back to them saying that all the tips did not help. They pretty much said that there is nothing they can do and offered a new watch at a discount. It’s not like it was a special discount it’s your normal wait a couple months and a store will eventually have it 20% off discount. I understand that this rating looks low, but if you’re willing to read my backstory I can give you my reasoning. Fitbit is a company that bought out Pebble. Pebble was a very innovative company with a very minimalistic taste. I enjoyed Pebbles growth. For them to incorporate a microphone and texting through the watch with an always on display that lasted at least a week off of one charge sounded way better than an Apple Watch to me at the time. After I found out Fitbit took over, I assumed Fitbit would easily incorporate everything that Pebble was. I was wrong. Even though years has gone by, there wasn’t much growth in the Fitbit line. The battery life never improved, there was no personalization like Pebble, very little design improvements, and still no texting. Pebble had all of that and more and their watch looked highend and was less expensive than any compareable Fitbit watch. 1 year hoping that Fitbit would improve and I get a dead watch after their own update. I supported Fitbit, because they bought Pebble and I fell in love with the software. Don’t get me wrong, the app is great when it syncs. The information on it was right there when you need it and the community is strong. After my Fitbit died, I decided to give the Apple Watch a shot and I was wrong about everything I thought I knew about the Apple Watch. The 18 hour battery life they advertise was what I hated from the start, but it’s wrong. The ionic and the Apple Watch have the same battery life. The Apple Watch has way more functionality and is a very similar price to the ionic. It’s true from a fitness perspective that the Fitbit software may be better and easier to look at, but I’d rather have confidence in my devices especially if it’s a similar price and go with the low end Apple Watch. Apple has more potential in growth anyway. I would rate the iconic a 1 star, but they have their software and community going for them. If Fitbit can develop a better watch at lower cost, maybe I wouldn’t care that it only lasts a year. Just to throw it in there, the WiFi on the watch never worked for me and according to the forums, it never really worked for a lot of people.

I received my Fitbit Ionic after pre-ordering it from the Fitbit website, and I love it! There was a small issue with syncing, but the Fitbit team sorted this issue and the watch is working without any issues. I've had this for a few days now, and I have a couple first impressions: Good: ---Battery life - it's amazing! Coming from a Samsung Gear S2, which needed to be charged every night, the Fitbit Ionic only loses about 10% battery each day (when GPS is not being used). Mine lasts way longer than the projected 4 day life even with working out in a gym twice a week. ---Features - the Ionic has amazing features that puts it way ahead of other Fitbit devices, most notably the waterproofing and built-in GPS. I haven't swam in it yet, but I'm sure it would work fantastic based on my experiences with it. ---Size - I have somewhat smaller wrists, and I was afraid this would be too big. It is about the same size as my old Gear S2, and it is smaller than the Blaze. It is a bit thicker than what I was used to, but I sleep in this and don't even notice it. ---Build - The watch and the band feel very well-built. My only gripe is that the band just has a plastic clasp and it is somewhat bulky. I would have liked a smaller clasp made of metal or something else. I haven't received my sport band yet, so I don't know how that compares. ---Notifications - I'm used to having notifications on my watch and being able to reply right from there. While I can't reply on the Ionic, notifications show up perfectly and I love how I can pick and choose which apps show up. Bad: ---Nothing yet!! - Besides the syncing issue early on, I have no issues with my Ionic, and I'm usually pretty picky about what is on my wrist. I really like this watch and would definitely recommend it to anyone thinking about either upgrading or switching to a Fitibit device!

To be explicit the Ionic is not a "smart watch" and frankly I didn't expect it to be. It is firstly an activity tracker with an embedded GPS for running/biking. Love that feature. The GPS signal takes about 5-15 seconds to find a signal. 2) The Ionic has a few "smart watch capabilities and this is where the expectations really disappoint; the watch does not do well the few things it is capable of doing. Notifications: you can select which apps on your phone will send the watch notifications; good. However, the few default apps cannot be turned off (such as text messages) Not good. When you edit changes to no longer receive notifications from one app (i.e. outlook) the watch will not stop sending notification; at first outlook notifications stopped then a few days later it starts again...Extremely poor. Calls / texts. The watch vibrates on your wrist with incoming calls. I really like this feature as I may not hear/feel my phone...Good.Often the watch will not vibrate with incoming calls even though the watch is less than a yard away from it. The incoming call notification fails intermittently (works about 75% of the time) Lastly and again about notifications. The watch allows you to see the history of notifications by scrolling up on the screen...good. However, there is no easy way to clear the notification history. Meaning, I have to scroll through dozens and if not over a 100 notifications before I get to the last notification where I can "clear history". There has to be a more intuitive way to clear the history without scrolling the entire history, especially if I haven't cleared the history in days. I love the new wrist strap! Well done here, no complaints. The strap has the traditional buckle plus a snap-in mechanism to stay locked onto your wrist. The activity tracking is the best. It counts every step and reduces false positive step counts versus other devices I've owned. i.e. the clap test. While wearing the activity tracker clap yours hands vigorously, did the watch count those claps as steps? The ionic doesn't and other tests I've done prove that is more reliable to give me my true step counts. I love that it is waterproof, I shower with it without any problems. Overall, for anyone looking for a smart watch...don't buy this, if you want a really good activity tracker with some minor smart watch capabilities this is a good choice.