Fitbit Versa vs Ionic

CountryGal83

Anyone have either of these? Pros? Cons? Looking into getting one but not sure which is best.
Thanks in advance!

Silent_Soliloquy

What do you want to do?

For my purposes the garmin was well worth the extra money.

CountryGal83

I want a smart watch, one that can track steps, heart rate, calories burned, play music, have GPS, steps walked sync to apps/social media.

kali31337

I have the Versa and I love it. It doesn't work with Sirius XM so I don't use it to listen to music and I don't believe it has GPS but I don't need that really. It does the rest of those things though

shadow2soul

I have the Ionic and the smart watch features only work sometimes. I actually just had a week where it wouldn’t sync right and had to factory reset it 3x to get it to sync again and the first reset it actually got stuck with a red x on the screen (which I had to figure out how to get rid of on my own b/c Fitbit CS wasn’t responding to my ticket unless it looked like it was working on their end...5 days of no data and they kept trying to tell me it was syncing 😑). For 11 months my watch didn’t track distance right. Finally in January there was a firmware update that fixed that. There are also a lot of complaints of them dying a few months after the warranty is up.

If you want a smart watch with fitness tracking, I’d suggest a different brand. Don’t get me wrong I’ve used Fitbit since 2013 and loved it, but the Ionic has been nothing but trouble and their CS hasn’t been any help.

I actually bought an Apple Watch Series 4 in December, because I was tired of all the issues. The only thing I miss is the community and challenges.

OldAssDude

Garmin

Duck_Puddle

I have both. I have an iPhone X (which I mention only because some of the smartwatch features only work on android and like the poster above-I have spotty success with the smartwatch features that are supposed to work with iPhone).

I habe yet to have notifications work continuously for an entire day. Call and text notifications seem to be even less reliable than app notifications. I spend a lot of time turning Bluetooth off and and and rebooting my phone/device to get it to sync. Text replies and things are android specific so I can’t remark on those.

Aside from smartwatch features - ionic has built in GPS. Versa uses connected GPS (through your phone) so you need to have your phone with you and it’s reliant on the watch remaining connected to the phone for the duration of the run (see previous paragraph on how that’s going).

Other things work fine-step counting, heart beasts per minute, all the other stuff is fine. And the battery life on both is quite good-the Versa really excels in battery life compared to other similarly featured devices from other brands.

I have not put music on either the Versa or the ionic-I’ve read in the Fitbit forums that it’s an exceedingly complicated and time consuming process. Since I have my phone with my anyway (so I can call for a ride if I trip over a curb or air and get hurt-I wish this weren’t actually 100% serious), I just listen to music through my phone.

I use Fitbit because I have a health insurance incentive program that only syncs with Fitbit and it’s a fair amount of $. And the calorie burn estimate is reasonable for me. And I enjoy the challenges. And my brother has a Fitbit and it’s important that I beat him. And all of that stuff works just fine. Plus I have an extensive history in Fitbit and it’s easy to access and export that info.

If you’re committed to the Fitbit brand, the Versa and Ionic are identical in function except the ionic has built in GPS (which is as accurate as any other GPS device I use). The Ionic is also quite a bit larger and IMO less stylistically diverse (it’s not going to pair well with a nice dress).

If you’re not committed to Fitbit, I would look into Garmin. There are a few models that now include music storage (and various smart watch capabilities). They are a bit more money, but my Garmin is just far less hassle.

firef1y72

Personally I'd say neither. I did have the ionic and it has known issue that still hasn't been sorted after over a year.
The issue is that it randomly resets (often losing the run), it often does this on the first lap alert (1km/mile), which can be worked around by turning lap alerts off (not ideal, I like lap alerts), but it also does it randomly much later in to a run, did it to me at 19km in to a half marathon (and lost the recording) and again halfway round a full marathon.

Personally I'd recommend a garmin vivoactive 3, far more reliable, the gps is more accurate, it doesn't randomly reset and workouts are far more customisable

CountryGal83

Thank you everyone for your input! I greatly appreciate it. I am now looking into a Garmin. Seems to be a better choice.

Silent_Soliloquy

CountryGal83 wrote: »

Thank you everyone for your input! I greatly appreciate it. I am now looking into a Garmin. Seems to be a better choice.

I absolutely love mine. I got a new 735xt on Ebay for 200 bucks. Worth looking...

Phirrgus

I may switch to a Garmin. I have a Versa and all I can really say is that IF everything worked as advertised, I wouldn't need anything else, but constant ongoing bluetooth and app issues are really annoying - been through all the trouble shooting too, no go. Fitbit's forums are loaded with similar issues.

CountryGal83

I'm thinking the Garmin Vivoactive 3. I've been comparing a lot of Garmin's and I think this is the one I am going to give a try. Now debating about going out and buying it right now or waiting until next week and ordering it online. lol Decisions decisions decisions haha

capaul42

I just got my Vivo3 and am loving it. The data I get on my runs is far more extensive than Fitbit.