The smartwatch part needs a bit more work

Iconic wearable company Fitbit has officially entered the smartwatch game with their top-of-the-line Ionic. But unlike other manufacturers that extensively used Google’s Android Wear platform to flesh out their devices, Fibit decided to do their own thing, stuffing the Ionic with tons of features that’s been a staple of their other wearables while adding a few other, forgettable tricks. Despite this the Ionic is still a solid choice for people serious about tracking every minutiae of their fitness regimen to help them achieve their goals.

A design that’s not going to please everyone

While Fitbit makes solid wearables, their offerings aren’t exactly what you’d call fashionable. You’re not going to be ashamed to wear them, but they’re not as pretty or as good looking as the efforts of Apple, for example.

It’s a divisive looking smartwatch for sure, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that the Ionic is well built with quality materials. The Ionic’s body is made mostly with aluminum, resulting in a device that’s so light you immediately forget it’s sitting on your wrist.

The straps are rubber and are fully adjustable, and Fitbit includes two bands with every purchase so it’ll fit on thin and thicc wrists alike without any issues.

Just like other offerings of Fitbit, the Ionic is water resistant, and is capable of tracking all of your H20-related activities without any problems.

The design may be divisive, but its form certainly follows function. Because of the slightly curved, geometric design of the smartwatch, you don’t need to have it up tight against your wrist for it to take accurate readings of your heart rate. Speaking of, the Ionic has a SpO2 blood oxygen sensor in addition to the regular heart rate sensor which should result in better and more accurate results when it comes to tracking your fitness goals.

The display is a 1.42-inch, 348 x 250 panel which is sufficiently bright enough to be used even under the intense glare of the sun.

The best fitness tracker you can get

Considering the Ionic’s pedigree, it’s not surprising that the device offers the best in terms of stat tracking. The Ionic effortlessly tracks your sleep patterns, and is more accurate thanks to the better fit of the watch on your wrist.

There’s a built-in GPS module in the Ionic for better mapping and tracking, as well as automatic tracking for when you decide to just go for a run.

Fitbit takes advantage of the Ionic’s bigger display by introducing Fitbit Coach, which gives you access to easy to do exercises that you can follow via the animations on the watch.

While the feature is appreciated, we found that the app doesn’t give you enough time to transition from one exercise to the other, giving you a scant few seconds to move on from the previous one. It shouldn’t be a problem for relatively fit people, but if you’re as out of shape as us, you’ll be struggling to follow along as you try to recover from all the wheezing you did on the previous set.

Pretty mediocre as a smartwatch

Fitbit’s acquisition of Pebble was a good indicator of what the company wanted to accomplish with their next device. The Ionic isn’t simply a glorified fitness watch, and is intended to take advantage of a bigger app ecosystem moving forward.

Unfortunately, the apps available for the Ionic is very sparse, even a few months after its launch. Fitbit’s own payment gateway isn’t live in the Philippines as of yet (we’ve yet to see any vendors using it) so that part of the ecosystem is out of the picture. Pre-installed apps still give you a good taste of what Fitbit’s trying to accomplish, but anyone looking for Android Wear or Apple Watch-like integration with their wearable will be sorely disappointed. At least the Ionic works on both platforms.

Battery life is good for a smartwatch

Battery life is one of the biggest issues with any connected device, but the Ionic seems to have longer legs than most. 5 days without a charge isn’t uncommon, but 4 days was about the average we had to plug in the watch into the wall.

Verdict: Buy it as a fitness tracker, forget it as a smartwatch

If you’re looking for a really good fitness tracker with ancillary smartwatch features, then you should consider the Ionic. It’s one of the most advanced trackers you can buy locally, but that’s about it. Until there’s more useful apps on the marketplace, the smartwatch side of the Ionic is more of a curiosity than a killer feature.

The Fitbit Ionic is priced at Php 15,690