Used Charge 2 for more than a year and a half before upgrading to Fitbit Ionic. I was absolutely happy with Charge 2 and the capabilities it offered, especially the backup that it carried (as a fact of the matter, I never bothered to check the battery specs on charge 2). It lasted me almost a week sometimes more with what I did.

Which brings us to what my typical week looks like in Fitbit perspective.

1. I typically end up doing a little over 15K steps a day for 5-6 days a week. Little over 10Km run on 5 days, and over 15Km run on 1 weekend day, the other weekend day is optional. Depends on what motivation do my buddies throw at me, a nice hot chocolate typically does the job 🙂
2. An early morning alarm, 7 days a week. I absolutely love waking up to the gentle vibrations in my wrists. It’s heavens when compared with the rude wake-up alarm from the cell phone. A few occasional alarms on weekends when grabbing quick naps.
3. Occasional music during runs – not always, just a couple of times a week to keep myself going. I love the purity of early morning gentle breeze and chirping birds as I pace myself. Music is a distractor really!
4. GPS sometimes, when I am running a new route. That is the traceback on the app once the entire run is downloaded on the app from the tracker. Love to see that track covered, born of toil – everyone loves that!
5. Assistance in stretching post runs
6. Breathing Routines post runs, in flights, and during ‘hectic-breathless-backbreaking’ work days.
7. Finally, I love wristwatch to assist me with time, date, and day. (Weird but true, I keep trying to find out reasons and use cases to keep myself off the smart phone)

Charge 2 ticked all the boxes except for the big coloured screen, integrated GPS (never run with my phone, that’s a little too cumbersome and intrusive for me), and music.

Apple watch is a great option when you look at missing pieces but my preference for Android ecosystem also Apple Watch is really not a fitness tracker, its more of a smartwatch. I wanted a 100% rugged abuse resistant fitness tracker.

What’s awesome

• The looks – When Ionic was launched late 2017, I had done a piece on it suggesting that Fitbit could have done a better job of it. The piece was titled Fitbit Ionic – The watch we want, but the watch we don’t deserve!  I am in parts taking my words back just on the looks. While it’s miles behind Apple finesse, it looks amazing. The diamond cut, softened edges unibody created out of aerospace-grade aluminium is pretty solid to hold and a delight to look at. It’s every bit a runner’s, an athlete’s watch. Change the straps from the stock classic version to a leather unit and it very well stands out as a semi-formal sort of a smartwatch.

• The Straps – The straps are a much-improved version of the Charge 2 or Blaze from previous generations. and that’s not all the box comes with 2 pairs. One attached to the tracker, the other one kept as a spare piece. Works for me, for in past with Charge 2, I had a case of split straps. Though Fitbit replaced it under warranty, I had moments of heartburn, that peace of mind I guess is assured now.
• Unboxing Fitbit is itself a delightful and satiating experience like with rest of the version. The box gives you a feeling of holding up something special and the stuff is pretty neatly stacked in there. Here are some snaps for you.

• Integrated GPS – Much wanted feature for minimal runners. There is a huge cross-section of minimal runners and fitness enthusiasts who prefer moving extremely light, cell phones especially not only for distraction but also for the hassle of carrying one additional overhead. Connected GPS with Charge 2 was decent but I never used it for first – the hassle of connecting and second – the hassle of carrying the cell phone. Now that’s completely gone with Ionic, the integrated GPS honestly is not a must-have feature as most enthusiasts would end up using it just a couple of times per week. One never ends up discovering or running newer routes every day, most runners invariably know their beat like the back of the palm, plus the overhead that GPS ends up burdening the tracker battery with becomes counterproductive.

• Multi-clock faces – There are multiple clock faces, there is stuff in for the data lovers, the minimalists, the traditionalists, and everyone around. There are faces which come without a cost and there are some which come with some payouts.

• Decent Backup –  And I say decent because of the large and colourful clock face that it has to work with. The back lasts 5-6 days of operation without GPS and intensive music and with a daily run/exercise tracking of an hour. Battery specs aren’t disclosed officially but the unofficial circle has rumours of Ionic packing a 200 mah backup. Have observed the following power consumption pattern for the Ionic in 3 months intensive usage.

• The alarm – I am a regular user of the Fitbit vibration alarm. Used to be tricky with charge 2 because the alarm had to be set through the app and then be synced with the tracker, wasn’t the most reliable method really. In critical situations like catching an early morning flight, I would not trust the alarm on charge 2. That’s gone with Ionic, with alarm setting directly on the tracker. The need to sync with the app is gone now. And that makes it so trustworthy, all that one needs to do is train oneself to wake up to vibrations and not to the shrill sound of the watch.
• Music delivery – The sound quality just falls short of awesomeness. Pair the tracker with a great pair of Bluetooth running earbuds and you are on. I am not sure of the Fitbit earphones performance (I find them a little too pricey for someone like me, where music is an intermittent requirement. I typically use mid-range performance earphones. The current one in service is an earpiece from geekcases
• Tracker charging mechanism and time to charge – The charging mechanism is a straight inspiration out of the MacBook, and that’s a great improvisation I would say – learnings from cross sectors & industries are always meant to better the entire ecosystem. With boxy/Clippy charging pods from the blaze and charge 2 have given way to nicely done up magnetic lead which latches on the charging leads at the back of the up Ionic and sits there snugly. The charging is impressive as well, though the Ionic tech specs suggest that it might take up to 3 hours to get a 100% charge on the tracker, I typically end up getting it in less than an hour and a half. This also is a function of the adapter that one uses. I use the adapter from my Android phone which typically powers up a 3000 mah battery.
• The layout of the coach and exercise app – That’s absolutely awesome. Large neat screen and intuitive to use layout is pleasing to the eyes.The 5 – 10 minute stretch sessions on the tracker are very well placed. This layout just works, I am more than 100% pleased.

The not so good

• The guerrilla glass screen – catches scratches a little too soon, and that’s been my personal experience too. I have seen comments on Fitbit community where people have been ‘gutted’, ‘heartbroken’ – just for the sake of that damn scratch on the Ionic. But then people are passionate about their stuff and they want it in mint condition – ‘all the time’. There are some life hacks like using toothpaste to clean up surface scratches, but then the next generation of watches will need to work on this aspect for sure.

• Putting back the strap – one can never be sure if they have got it right. Post cleaning the tracker, once you try to put the strap back in, the click sound to suggest that the strap is now in place requires a real hard push, it’s an undue hard push. One might have their heart in mouth while doing it. Have seen a lot of people reporting cases of straps not fitting back in and they had to get themselves a replacement. Most cases are actually, people not forcing belts hard enough. Fitbit will need to be kind of proactive in educating users regarding it. Right now, the approach is more like – responding once the complaint is in, why would you want to do that when the niggle and the solution are both known. Get a cue from the car industry, be upfront, be proactive.

My Wishlist/Must haves/On priority basis

• The sequencing of the Exercising/Running and the Music app on the tracker: If one intends to run with music on, you will compulsorily need to fire up the music app first and then start the exercise app in that order. Once the exercise app is running, one cannot send it to the background and then get the music app going. You will need to kill the exercise app, start the music app and then get the exercise app back on. This ends up killing your stats for the first part of the run. As an end user, one would like to have complete flexibility in the order of usage of these apps.
• Low power intelligent mode: What good is a fitness tracker do if it ain’t good enough to track the steps or the run. The problem with Ionic is that it is not smart enough to switch to basic step or exercise tracking once it starts to run out of power. Say, for example, you start your run with 15% power with GPS on. That’s just sufficient to keep you going for less than an hour only, if your run extends beyond an hour then the tracker without any warning just SHUTS DOWN without any warning. The tracker must have an inbuilt smart low power mode where it shuts down all non-essential functions (GPS/Music) and keeps tracking steps/run only.
• Decent Music transfer app: Fitbit has an official tie-up with Deezer in US & Europe. In most places in Asia, one will need to have the basic Fitbit desktop app either for windows or for mac as the case may be. It’s a 3 step process. Step 1: Download music files on desktop/laptop Step 2: Create a playlist in the Fitbit music transfer app Step 3: Transfer files to the tracker. The transfer part is the most painful one – a playlist of 40 to 50 songs would sometimes take more than 3 -4 hours. This really tests one to the edge of patience, an unacceptable experience for the best tracks in town. That’s one time when you miss an Apple Watch. Good folks at Fitbit – listening?

• Fitbit Pay: Have used NFC enabled Samsung pay, loved the experience. As of date, Fitbit supports pay option for a select group of countries, unfortunately, India is not on that list. We need that option up here, have seen passionate Fitbit users clamouring on Fitbit community to get that option on their devices here. Not getting that option would really mean shortchanging the customers, suggest the good folks at Fitbit to not do that pls.

The final verdict

When Fitbit was launched, I had suggested that it’s gonna be a great buy in a year’s time when prices moderate around 18K to 20K INR. That’s where it is now.

For all its shortcomings as of now, there is nothing which comes close in terms of fitness tracking capability. It’s a reliable companion to manage not just activities but also healthy lifestyle (If one chooses to adopt the entire ecosystem – diet management, water intake, weight tracking, strength building with Strava).

Would recommend the device any day!