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Fitbit Ionic review: I’m looking at you thinking you could be so much more

By Alvin Soon - 11 Nov 2017
Launch SRP: S$458

It’s all about heart

 

The heart of it all

The Fitbit app left a strong impression on me, because making stats usable and engaging is a really difficult thing to do, and the app does it well. Unfortunately, I can’t fully recommend the Ionic as a fitness tracker because its heart tracker wasn’t giving me consistent results.

To be clear, I don’t have a proper heart rate monitor, so I can’t guarantee the veracity of these results. But I tested the Ionic against the Apple Watch Series 3, Garmin fenix 5, and the gym’s treadmill heart rate monitor, and they all provided similar heart rates, while the Ionic would often lag behind, by as much as 10 to 20 beats at times.

The Ionic’s erratic heart tracking happened when I was doing both high-intensity intervals, which ramps heart rates up and down in short bursts, as well as when walking and running on a treadmill, which increases heart rates at a constant pace.

Heart rate tends to be off, when compared to other heart rate trackers, which throws into question the accuracy of other stats that depend on heart rate.

When I wore the Ionic and fenix 5 together for a few days, I noticed that they would both report similar heart rates when I was sitting or resting. But once I started moving, the Ionic’s heart rate tracking would differ from the fenix 5’s again. It’s possible that the Watch, fenix 5, and treadmill were inaccurate together, while the Ionic is the only accurate one. But it’s quite unlikely, so I went to do some reading online to see what other users had to say.

I’m discovered that I’m not the only one who’s had problems with the Ionic’s heart rate accuracy during workouts, but to be fair, athlete and fitness tracker reviewer DC Rainmaker pegs the Ionic’s heart rate monitoring as accurate. Fitbit’s own forums seem to have mixed reviews, so there is likely something going on here with the smartwatch’s heart rate tracking.

If you’re a hardcore athlete, you know that inconsistent heart rate tracking will be a problem, because you won’t be able to accurately gauge if you’re hitting your target heart rate zone. Even if you’re not hardcore, inaccurate heart rate monitoring throws every other stat into question, like your resting heart rate and sleep monitoring.

 

A box of unrealized potential

The Fitbit Ionic feels like a box of unrealized potential. If only the heart-rate sensor was more consistent. If only you could interact more with notifications. If only there were more apps for Fitbit OS.

These flaws are enough to dissuade me from recommending the Ionic wholeheartedly. It’s a shame too, because Fitbit has the best fitness tracking app I’ve seen on iOS. I’m not a doctor, so I’m taking the app’s analysis and recommendations on faith, but the app manages to make activity tracking fun and understandable in a way that still evades Apple’s Health and Garmin’s Connect apps.

And at S$458, the Ionic is right about what you’d pay for a smartwatch, but Fitbit’s smartwatch is really more of a fitness tracker with a handful of smartwatch features thrown in. If a fitness tracker is what you’re looking for, then you might be better served with a slimmer, less expensive dedicated tracker. If you’re looking for a watch with more smarts, then you might want to look at the Apple Watch or Samsung Gear S3. As it is, the Fitbit Ionic straddles in the odd middle between the two categories, with performance that makes it hard to recommend.

 

This article was first published on November 7, 2017.

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6.5
  • Design 7
  • Features 6
  • User-Friendliness 6
  • Performance 6
  • Value 6
The Good
Comfortable fit
Bright and colorful screen
Long lasting battery life
Excellent Fitbit app
Works with iOS, Android and Windows phones
The Bad
Hard to change watch faces
Can’t interact with notifications
Can’t see calendar info
Inconsistent heart rate tracking
Sports band snapped off during vigorous workout
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