Are you looking for a running watch/smartwatch? Unsure what running watch to buy? Like Fitbit products but don’t know which one suits your running purpose. In the post, we’ll give you a little help with our Fitbit Ionic long term review.
Disclaimer – I purchased this product with my own money and have not been paid by anyone to make this review. This is my honest, independent opinion.
Go shopping for a new sports watch, and you will soon recognise that there are a plethora of running watches available to buy these days.
How do we know which one to get?
Some have so many features and metrics that it almost seems impossible to understand them all.
Others have just basic features that are much easier to navigate.
Some are crazy expensive and others, whilst cheaper, have some major drawbacks in areas such as battery life and reliability.
In this review, I want to give you a long term user experience update of the Fitbit Ionic, which I owned and used for a couple of years.
It’s now possible to buy this watch at some pretty substantial discounts, so is it still worth buying?
Fitbit Ionic Design and First Impressions.
When the Fitbit Ionic was first released, the design was a little polarising.
Its square profile was quite different to the accepted standards of a round design or the rounded-off square look of the Apple Watch and others.
Some people lauded its distinctive design, some felt it was a little ‘masculine’ and of course, others disliked it.
The design is very functional, the square design allows maximum screen to body ratio.
It will be personal preference whether you like its design, but from an aesthetic point of view, it still looks quite smart today.
The watch itself is quite slim and the band is made from a very comfortable, flexible and durable elastomer material.
I never experienced any hint of a skin reaction with this material, and I wore the watch as my daily driver as well as a sports watch.
Fitbit have used strong and lightweight 6000 series aerospace-grade aluminium in the casing and buckles. Experience has shown that this material wears very well and is quite scratch resistant.
Corning Gorilla Glass 3 is used in the screen, and seems particularly tough. I dropped the watch many times and bumped into numerous things, but it never broke. Screen protectors are available and are always a good investment to prevent scratches.
There are three colour options for the casing, dark grey, silver and orange.
The bands come in a great variety of styles, including some great looking sport bands. Leather and original classic styles are also available.
You get a small and large band in the box with the watch, so you should be able to find a comfortable fit.
Swapping out the bands is quick and easy, allowing different styles for different occasions.
This watch is also water-resistant up to 50 metres.
I would say that the watch is great quality, made from top-class materials and as such will be reliable long term as well as still look great throughout its lifespan.
Who Is the Fitbit Ionic For?
Given that the watch has been around for a couple of years now, there are obviously many newer options out there. But here’s the thing, in combination with Fitbit’s fantastic app, this watch is still very capable and can be had at quite substantial discounts sometimes.
Viewed as a smartwatch, it doesn’t have all the features of an Apple Watch for example. And viewed as a sports watch, it doesn’t have all the features that the likes of Garmin has.
But, it IS a great combination of these things.
As a smartwatch, you’ll get notifications from your phone, there is an app store with quite a few app choices, there’s Fitbit Pay for tap-n-go payments and a huge selection of different watch faces to choose from. You can also store and play music on the watch using Bluetooth headsets.
It has all the smartwatch basics.
As a sports watch with built-in GPS, you can track your runs, bike rides and hikes etc. There is also swim tracking, heart rate monitoring and even a very comprehensive personal coaching option available.
The metrics viewable in the app after a workout are excellent and more than enough for most people.
There’s also sleep stage tracking, female health tracking and resting heart rate metrics.
If you don’t need all the smartwatch features of an Apple Watch or the myriad of sports features of sports watches such as Garmin and Polar, then this could be a very good option for you.
What can the Fitbit Ionic Do?
As a Daily Watch
The Fitbit Ionic is perfectly suitable for everyday use.
If all you want to do is track your steps and tell the time, there are other, more economical options from Fitbit and others available.
But if you want a big screen, the ability to install useful apps, customise your watch face, have a selection of stylish bands and of course, get notifications from your phone, the Ionic will serve you well.
As a Sports Watch
As a sports watch, the Fitbit Ionic really shines.
Unless you are an elite athlete, I don’t think you would find the Ionic lacking.
It has enough of the important and useful metrics you need to manage your workouts effectively.
On-board GPS is a must in this scenario, running with your phone is inconvenient at best, and really annoying at worst. The GPS in the Ionic seems to connect quickly, is accurate, and very rarely drops out.
Fitbit Ionic User Experience.
For daily use, you can customise this watch with a wide variety of band choices and watch faces.
Many of the available watch faces give the following information at a glance.
- Current heart rate
- Resting heart rate
- Total steps taken
- Calories burnt
- Stair levels climbed
- Battery level
- Day, date and time
- Weather
Navigation is via three buttons and touchscreen.
The menus are easy enough to work through, and all your data is synced via the Fitbit app on your phone.
You will earn badges and trophies for achieving your daily goals and lifetime accomplishments.
The watch is easy to set up out of the box via the app.
Another very important consideration when deciding on which watch to buy is battery life.
Depending on how much you use the GPS, this watch can last for days at a time on one full charge. Five days is not uncommon, which is far superior to a lot of other popular brands. I also didn’t notice any distinguishable battery degradation during the time I used this device.
Fitbit Ionic Pro’s and Con’s.
Pro’s
- Solid design using quality materials with subjectively good looks.
- Comfortable to wear with the ability to swap out bands quickly and easily.
- Has built-in GPS, optical heart rate sensor, altimeter, and a vibration motor for notifications.
- Water-resistant to 50M.
- Supportive smartphone app.
- Measures numerous metrics to allow proper multi-sport performance measurement, including swimming.
- Renowned sleep tracking, Fitbit has always been a leader in this space.
- Anecdotally excellent support and service from Fitbit by my observation of comments on Twitter of customer experiences.
Con’s
- Touchscreen can be a little hit-and-miss, also a bit laggy at times.
- The app store is not as robust in terms of choice compared to the likes of the Apple Watch app store.
- Drops tracking completely mid-workout occasionally for some unknown reason, although this is rare.
- The raise-to-wake function of the watch to view the screen is not always successful, can take a couple of tries.
- Syncing with the Fitbit app on your phone happens via Bluetooth, and occasionally there are issues getting it to sync.
- Sometimes app notifications don’t come through to the watch.
How to Maintain the Fitbit Ionic.
Due to the robust construction of the watch and the quality materials used, maintenance is a fairly straightforward affair.
I would say the most important maintenance requirement for long term reliability of the device is cleaning after each workout.
You absolutely should wipe the watch down after a workout with a damp cloth to clean away sweat and dirt, especially the back of the watch where the sensors are.
I have run with the Ionic in the most appallingly hot and humid conditions where the watch has literally been soaked in sweat. But by wiping down after the run, it has suffered no ill effects.
Don’t shower with the watch on, it may be water-resistant, but don’t tempt fate.
Update the software when prompted by the app. It’s always a good idea to keep your device updated with the latest software which can negate any security issues, fix bugs or add new features.
Should You Buy the Fitbit Ionic?
Looking at the Fitbit website, you will notice that the Ionic is their most expensive device.
Given that it includes an array of sensors, including the aforementioned onboard GPS, this is not surprising.
But, it has been out for quite some time now, having been released late in 2017. The listed price on the Fitbit website hasn’t reduced much since it’s initial release.
However, there are some very good deals to be had on this watch from other vendors, and shopping around will get you a bargain at times.
If you can get the Ionic at a good price, I would say it’s still definitely worth buying and should give you years of good service.
It’s definitely not the latest and greatest smartwatch out there, and there has been speculation of a new model from Fitbit for quite some time now.
Given that Fitbit will be acquired by Google, subject to approval from the authorities, it is very unclear what direction the company will go in and what products will be released in the future.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this Fitbit Ionic long term review. There will be more smartwatch reviews to come. Check out our review of the Polar Grit X.
Do you own a Fitbit device? What’s been your experience? Let us know in the comments below.
Happy running,
Steve
IMPORTANT UPDATE:
As of 2nd March 2022, Fitbit has announced a voluntary recall of Fitbit Ionic Smartwatches. In a limited number of instances, the battery in the Ionic smartwatch can overheat, potentially creating a burn risk. Fitbit have decided to recall all Ionic smartwatches and over a refund to Ionic customers.
Here is the website for more information and to apply for your refund https://help.fitbit.com/default/region.htm
