Fitbit Ionic
The best Fitbit smartwatch yet, with GPS, swimming apps and a new OS, but Apple won’t be running scared
SCORE ✪✪✪✪✪ PRICE £250 (£300 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/279fit
The Fitbit Ionic has drawn criticism for its looks, but much of that was based on PR shots: in its metal flesh, I grew to like the square face and minimalist design. It’s comfortable and light, with a curved body that hugs your wrist.
During exercise, I simply forgot it was there, but it helps that the bright touchscreen is protected by scratchproof Gorilla Glass: you needn’t worry about bumps during workouts. Brightness is also high enough to see all the on-screen details, even in direct sunlight, and this dims automatically when you’re indoors. Useful at night when you want to check the time.
Or, for that matter, if you want to check messages, because the Ionic features Fitbit’s new OS – complete with apps and all the usual smartwatch notifications. Third-party developers can produce apps for the Ionic too, with a thousand supposedly signed up to the cause.
You can add music to the watch and listen via Bluetooth headphones, but don’t expect to sync your whole collection because there’s only room for around 300 tracks. Notifications handling is basic, too: you can’t respond, just read and swipe away. Although “swipe” makes it sound slicker than it is, with animations stuttering across the screen. Fitbit also needs to sort out the reliability of connection between watch and phone. I, along with early buyers, found this dropped frequently and sometimes struggled to synchronise.
Where the Ionic excels, though, is fitness tracking. It counts steps and floors climbed, continuously tracks your heart rate and analyses your sleep; just like the Fitbit Blaze before it. But the Blaze lacked built-in GPS and waterproofing, and thus a dedicated swimming mode, while all these features are included here.
In fact, Fitbit claims the Ionic can more accurately track your laps of the pool or performance in open water than its competitors. During my testing of both these swimming exercises, the Ionic performed perfectly underwater, displaying tracking data clearly as I swam.
But unlike the Apple Watch Series 2 or 3, or Garmin’s high-end models, there’s no dedicated function to track open-water swimming, while neither the GPS nor the heart-rate monitor work in swimming mode.
It works brilliantly in the pool, though, accurately sensing when you’ve completed a length and updating the display with this information each time you stop to take the next length. This is thanks to the device’s new Run Detect feature, which means the Ionic is clever enough to know when you’re taking a break and automatically stops and starts tracking a run, swim or bike ride by sensing your movement.
The Run Detect feature doesn’t come into play if you don’t want it to. Choose a standard “workout” exercise
“You can add music to the Ionic and listen via Bluetooth headphones, but note there’s only room for around 300 tracks
from the list before beginning circuit training, for example, and it will track your heart rate continuously until you tell it to stop.
Speaking of which, I’m a big fan of the heart-rate sensor, which displays the corresponding measurements on the screen clearly, whether you’re exercising or not. And, thanks to new customisation options, you can also design your own watch faces so you see only the information that’s most relevant to you.
Firing up the Running app is easy. Simply select Running from the Exercise app by swiping left from the home screen, tap Go and start running. The built-in GPS can take a while to connect, but my biggest bugbear is that previously completed workouts can’t be viewed on the smartwatch. While you’ll receive a roundup of your exercise stats right after your exercise, this disappears once you’ve pressed Done, and you’ll have to sync the watch with the app and view them on your phone to see them again.
The Ionic’s final big feature is Fitbit Pay, which already has healthy support from companies such as AMEX and Visa. It worked quickly and efficiently, whether I was paying for journeys on London’s Tube network, or tapping to pay for a swim session at the London Olympic swimming pool.
So to the final question: how long does it last? On day one, after unplugging it at 7am, the Ionic was still going strong with capacity at 64% after four back-to-back gym workouts. Three days later, after minimal use, and the battery was reading 31%. Do nothing, it seems, and you can expect well over a week’s life; an avid gym-goer should get a solid three days of wear.
The Ionic is Fitbit’s strongest smartwatch yet, despite a few annoyances: the company should have squashed the bugs and smoothed the stuttering software before it allowed the Ionic to go on sale. While I’m sure these are teething problems, I’m less certain it will tempt potential customers away from the latest Apple Watch Series 3 ( see p72). At £300, the Ionic is expensive and lacks the slickness of its key rival – but make no mistake, there’s much for fitness fans to love.
SPECIFICATIONS 1.42in, 348 x 250 touchscreen 2.5GB storage 802.11n Wi-Fi Bluetooth 4 GPS NFC Fitbit OS 39 x 25.7 x 12.2mm (WDH) 30g 1yr RTB warranty