The Gear Sport isn't an uncomfortable watch by any means, but you almost immediately forget that you're
wearing the Ionic as soon as you strap it on.
This is entirely subjective on my part, but I did actually notice myself wanted to hit the gym more often than not when
wearing the Ionic.
We do not recommend
wearing Ionic in a hot tub or sauna.
Being able to wear Bluetooth headphones at the gym,
wearing the Ionic and leaving your phone in the locker is liberating.
«
Wearing the Ionic seems like a statement that you're into fitness, that you like gadgets, or maybe that you just love Fitbit,» he writes.
Wearing the Ionic seems like a statement that you're into fitness, that you like gadgets, or maybe that you just love Fitbit.
That gives customers peace of mind and allows them to
wear the Ionic all night for sleep tracking, a challenging task for more power - constrained wearables, Park notes.
There's no way I would've
worn the Ionic out on the town, and most of the time, I feel like my Apple Watch detracts from a nice dress, too.
Not exact matches
«But unlike the Apple Watch or some of the new luxury brand Android
Wear watches, the
Ionic seems like less of a fit in a business meeting or at a fancy dinner party.»
But unlike the Apple (aapl) watch or some of the new luxury brand Android
Wear watches, the
Ionic seems like less of a fit in a business meeting or at a fancy dinner party.
After charging the
Ionic once and
wearing it for a couple of days, I've still got almost half the battery left.
For example, new red and infrared light sensors on the bottom of the watch will let
Ionic calculate relative blood oxygen levels of people
wearing it, eventually opening the door tracking their sleep apnea, a dangerous condition that affects some 22 million Americans.
I've been
wearing Fitbit's new smartwatch, the
Ionic, non-stop for about four days now.
The
Ionic is most useful to Fitbit enthusiasts who want to
wear a watch, not those looking for an Apple Watch alternative.
Seriously, we know the
Ionic is meant to be a fitness device, but it's also one you're meant to
wear 24/7, not just at the gym.
Although the Fitbit
Ionic handles basic notifications reasonably well, it is distinctly lacking in apps compared to Android
Wear or Apple Watch.
Both devices are big and square (though the 38 mm Apple Watch I
wore is smaller than the 42.5 mm
Ionic) and both provide a wide variety of straps.
The
Ionic is also very comfortable to
wear.
If you were to buy a smartwatch right now, would you purchase a Fitbit
Ionic over an Android
Wear device?
The platform is still a long way from rivaling Android
Wear or watchOS in terms of official app support, though you have more than a dozen new titles available now or coming soon to the Fitbit
Ionic.
It's been a month since I started
wearing the Fitbit
Ionic (see my full review) and thus I've been able to fully test out all of the functionality and capability of this latest GPS sport watch.
That being said, the Fitbit
Ionic runs off the bespoke Fitbit OS so it doesn't offer the full fat smartwatch features of watchOS or Android
Wear.
The display on the
Ionic is a full - color screen that's rectangular, unlike the more square Apple Watch or most Android
Wear watches, but it is reminiscent of the Blaze's screen.
That price, and the fact that the Gear S3 runs Tizen rather than Android
Wear (and has far fewer apps as a result), could hold it back, especially since tempting new Android
Wear 2.0 - toting rivals like the LG Watch Sport, Fitbit
Ionic and the Huawei Watch 2 have now launched.
The Fitbit
Ionic is a comfortable fit on your wrist, and compared to a lot of modern smartwatches is particularly light — so much so that you'll instantly notice how lightweight this feels on your wrist, which makes it a more pleasant to
wear while working out than, say, the LG Watch Sport.
Fitbit has priced the
Ionic at around the same level as the most premium Android
Wear and Tizen choices, as well as just below the Apple Watch 3, all of which offer a nicer design and better features.
The
Ionic has 5ATM water resistance (50m) and is easy to
wear in the water and the sheer number of spacing holes on the strap mean it stays put even on smaller wrists.
Firbit Versa (left) and Fitbit
Ionic (right) The Versa still looks very much like a smartwatch but one I'm not embarrassed to
wear outside of the gym.
The
Ionic feels just as good to
wear, but its design pales in comparison when placed next to the Versa.
It actually takes heart rate measurements constantly throughout the day, similar to the latest Fitbits, and does so with accuracy; I
wore a Fitbit
Ionic on another wrist for a day and found the metrics to be close enough to satisfy me.
This Fitbit
Ionic stainless steel bracelet strap lends you an elevated look whenever you
wear it in any occasion.
After
wearing the Fitbit
Ionic since mid-January, I've regularly gotten 4 - 5 days of use on a single charge.
Wareable also claims this watch is smaller than the
Ionic, which means people with smaller wrists (like many women) could actually
wear it without looking like the biggest asshole on the planet.
Dubbed the
Ionic, this new smartwatch keeps Fitbit's fitness tracking business at the forefront while offering all of the functionality we've come to expect from other smartwatches, making it a pretty tempting device for those who
wear a smartwatch on a daily basis.
Android
Wear is on more wrists than ever, but the software isn't the best; the Apple Watch is basically useless if you don't carry an iPhone; and old stalwarts like Pebble have been swallowed up by bigger fish to produce... well, whatever the Fitbit
Ionic is.
However, using the
Ionic's interface is much smoother and cleaner than any previous Fitbit model, which immediately stood out during our first few minutes
wearing it.
It'll be interesting to see how it does, considering it will have to go against the likes of Apple Watch and Fitbit
Ionic as well as several Android
Wear devices.
That feature isn't available yet, but I tracked multiple runs
wearing both an
Ionic and an Apple Watch Series 2, and the heart rate data on the two devices matched up perfectly.
The frame houses the GPS antenna, which Fitbit says makes for a stronger connection, but I wish the
Ionic had taken some cues from the newer, round, stylishly oversized Android
Wear 2.0 smartwatches.
It's light years better than all the swiping you have do on the Fitbit
Ionic or Android
Wear Devices, or that stupid tiny crown you get on the Apple Watch.
The Fitbit
Ionic is one of the newer smartwatches to release in 2017, and while it doesn't run on Android
Wear it does have access to apps, it supports mobile payments, and it has loads of fitness features like tracking steps, calories burned, distance, heart rate, and it can monitor your sleep.
No, I'm not talking about some new Android
Wear watch but the Fitbit
Ionic, Fitbit's first smartwatch and an honest - to - goodness hit.
Speaking of swimming, the
Ionic is rated water - resistant at 50 meters, and Fitbit says it's extremely lightweight and comfortable to
wear.
Nowhere near as stylish or versatile as many of its Android
Wear - powered rivals, the Fitbit
Ionic could boldly go for the Apple Watch's jugular with some life - changing functionality the Series 3 may or may not bring to the table next week.
The Fitbit
Ionic will have access to Fitbit's app store, and while we're expecting it to be a lot less packed than what's offered on both Android
Wear and Tizen OS for Samsung's Gear smartwatches, Fitbit says that it's already partnered with the likes of Strava, Starbucks, and Pandora.
The company was able to get its hands on a wearable operating system and thus flesh out its upcoming
Ionic smartwatch in order to better compete with the Apple Watch and Android
Wear watches.
There are a lot of good ideas brought to the table the
Ionic, and unless Google does something soon to resurrect Android
Wear out of the mess it's currently in, we could be looking at one of the better smartwatch options for this holiday season.
That means you can't use Android Pay for contactless payments, while lots of alternatives such as the Fitbit
Ionic, Apple Watch and most Android
Wear watches will allow you make contactless payments.
Whether it will be enough of a smartwatch for those in the market for an Apple Watch or Android
Wear device to opt for the
Ionic instead remains to be seen for now, but Fitbit seems to have delivered a good bridging device between fitness tracker and smartwatch so we can't wait to take it for a test run.
The
Ionic won't do everything the Apple Watch or Android
Wear devices do, such as map directions and allowing you to make and take calls from your wrist, but the notification and payment side of things is on the
Ionic and there is potential for expansion as the Fitbit OS that the
Ionic runs on - more on that in a minute - has an open SDK that will be available from mid-September, allowing anyone to create an app to work with it.