As the world's most popular producer of activity trackers, Fitbit has been flirting with the idea of a genuine smart watch for a while now.

 

The closest we've seen so far has been the Surge, boasting a standalone GPS and the Blaze, an eye-catching wristwatch with a colour screen to display a wide selection of notifications.

 

While they were great devices, both of these stopped short of a full-featured smart watch.

 

Now Fitbit has moved a step closer to bridging the tracker/smart watch divide...

 

 

 

The Fitbit Ionic, apart from anything else, is the most watch-looking thing Fitbit has ever come up with. For some reason, though I've never understood it, Fitbit has never made any real attempt to disguise any of its wearables as an ordinary, every-day watch.

 

That's fine, if you're a technophile like me and you don't care who knows what a colossal nerd you are. It could also be argued Fitbit, being the most widely sold brand of activity tracker, has attained a certain coolness factor, especially within the gym-going community - the "Fitbit look" if you will.

 

However, there are plenty of people who want a watch that looks like a watch, no matter how many other nifty tricks it can perform.

 

The Ionic is most definitely a nifty trickster, and while you still couldn't claim it resembles any kind of classical time-piece, it certainly leans towards the futuristic end of watchy fashion. What I'm trying to say is, most people would probably be happy to wear this thing out at night without feeling like too much of a geek.

 

In fact, the slightly curved face, seamlessly molded into the elegant stainless steel body is really quite beautiful. Definitely more streamlined than the octagonal corners of its predecessor, the Blaze. The strap is also easily swapped out if you prefer a different colour to match your outfit.

 

Although Fitbit has evolved the software for the Ionic from the OS used in previous Pebble devices (Fitbit bought up Pebble late last year) at first the user experience seems quite familiar to previous Fitbits like the Alta HR, Charge 2 and most of all, the aforementioned Blaze.

 

However, it's the promise of features to come that makes the Ionic such an exciting breakthrough.

 

There are new apps like Weather and Strava(fitness tracking) installed and the new operating system has been opened up for developers to come up with more content for the Ionic and future devices. It's yet to be seen how effectively those developers will rise to the challenge but at least the opportunity is now there.

 

There are a few minor teething problems around exactly how smart the Ionic really is. For example, while I reliably received all my chosen notifications with the attention-grabbing vibration of my choice, I kept getting my emails twice. After an intensive Google session and a solid perusal of the Fitbit forums, it appears this is a common problem among users who've paired their Ionics with Samsung Galaxy phones. I'm sure it's something that'll be worked out in an update somewhere along the line. Slightly annoying though.

 

And unfortunately, while you can choose to receive notifications from practically any app installed on your paired phone, you still can't use the Ionic to answer back. Nor can you take calls or reply to texts. These functions are pretty much commonplace on other genuine smart watches so in some ways, the Ionic is still an imposter.

 

Except, it can do things a lot of those other watches won't.

 

The Ionic sports NFC functionality, so touchless payments (payWave) are now a reality, although at this point ASB customers are the only New Zealanders who can utilise this service. Here's hoping other banks will be on board soon.

 

Obviously the range of activity tracking is still excellent and accurate. In fact, for the first time I really trusted the automatic tracking functions. Instead of telling the Ionic I was going for a run or doing an Attack class, I just let it figure it out for itself - which it always did without fail.

 

The Ionic is the first smart watch I've been able to wear swimming (it can track your swims too). While other devices on the market have limited water resistance, the Ionic claims to withstand a 50m dive which makes it a hell of a lot more than just shower-proof. I was also relieved to find the touch screen impressively responsive when wet.

 

That's the kind of feature which tempts you to wear it constantly, so I have been. Running, working, going out, gardening, the gym - what's surprised me is the quality and durability of the construction. I've had the Ionic on my wrist for a couple of weeks straight and I can't find a scratch on it. It's not just pretty, it's tough too.

 

Sleep tracking is becoming more and more of a focus for Fitbit all the time. Here again, the Ionic is a big improvement over the bulkier Blaze and Surge devices because it's just so much more comfortable to wear. What's more, with a simple right-swipe you can access the Screen Wake and Notification toggles so you're not disturbed by a blazing display or unexpected vibration in the middle of the night. What's more, there's a new kind of sensor built into the Ionic that measures blood oxygen levels. Some time in the near future, these guys are hoping to detect sleep apnea, possibly saving lives in the process. Crazy.

 

So the Ionic is a watch with a lot of potential, some of it already accessible, some not so much. Let me show you another new feature...

 

 

Meet the Fitbit Flyer. (I don't know why it's Flyer and not Flyers. I mean, most of us have two ears, right? Anyway...) 

 

The Flyer is Fitbit's own bluetooth listening solution, enabling you to make full use of the Ionic's standalone GPS by leaving your phone at home when you go for a run. The Ionic has over 2GB of on-board storage which is plenty for your favourite playlist. I tried pairing the Ionic with a few other sets of bluetooth earbuds but I'd recommend the official Flyer for a couple of reasons; I don't know why, but the non-Fitbit buds seemed to drain the Ionic battery more and secondly, the Flyer is probably the most customisable earphone arrangement I've ever encountered.

 

We've all experienced the inconvenience of buds that either don't fit, fall out or are just too uncomfortable to wear for prolonged periods. Sometimes you're expected to pay hundreds for something you're not even sure will make it to the end of the driveway without bobbling out of your earhole.

 

The Fitbit flyer offers 3 sizes of eartips along with a choice of wings or fins, large or small. It may take a bit of experimentation, but all these options virtually guarantee a snug, comfortable fit - even if one ear is weirder than the other. I always thought I was a medium eartip, large wing guy. Turns out, I'm more of a small eartip, fin man. And I don't care who knows it.

 

Oh, and the sound quality is incredible by the way. Bass response almost the best I've experienced in an earbud. Boom.

 

One problem... getting your sounds onto the Ionic. I really wish they'd kept it simple. Why can't you just plug the watch into your computer and drag the sound files into it? Nope. Instead you'll need the desktop app (not the browser dashboard) and you'll have to connect the Ionic to the same network your computer is on. Already too complicated? We're not even halfway there. Then, in the app, not on the watch, you either create a playlist or drag one in, to transfer to the watch.

 

Not finished yet.

 

Then...

 

You need to open the music app on the Ionic itself, select the transfer function and hope the computer starts talking to the watch. Which it probably won't until you've restarted either the watch, the app or the computer.

 

Works really well once the music has synced though. Nothing like the freedom of running without a phone. It's a bit like streaking.

 

In all seriousness, Fitbit needs to sort this process out, it really is too hard - especially when using the media controller on the Ionic to play music on your phone seems to work better than ever. Why would you bother with all that other palaver?

 

At least we finally have a user-friendly charging cable. Oh, obviously it's different to every other Fitbit charging cable that's ever been produced because they ALWAYS ARE... but this one's magnetic so it pretty much attaches itself. Massive improvement on the take-the-whole-watch-apart-to-charge-it design of the Blaze which was pretty bamboozling.

 

As always, you'll get excellent battery life from the Ionic - several days. The tricky thing is, with it being so comfortable, so stylish, so durable and so water resistant, it's hard to know when you're supposed to take it off to charge, especially if you're tracking your sleep as well.

 

Talk about your first world problems.

 

 

Click here for more information and pricing on the Fitbit Ionic