Fitbit Smartwatch Ionic: Specs and Everything Else You Need to Know

Fitbit, the company that brought us some of the best fitness tracking devices has finally unveiled Ionic–the first Fitbit smartwatch!

It has been years since Pebble introduced to the world the first ever smartwatch. Since then, giant tech companies such as Apple and Samsung took turns in dominating the smartwatch scene. Apple is all set to release its 3rd generation of Apple watches while Samsung is busy promoting its Samsung Gear watches.

In spite of all the smartwatch hype, Fitbit remained under the radar and never really joined the competition. Since it was launched in 2007, Fitbit focused all its resources and efforts on developing different fitness trackers.

For years, its product line saw massive improvements which made Fitbit a renowned manufacturer of fitness wearable gadgets today.

That was the case until yesterday when Fitbit unveiled the Ionic smartwatch and showed the world it’s now ready to conquer the smartwatch arena!

Specifications and Details of the new Fitbit Smartwatch

In 2015, Fitbit released Blaze, an angular wristband with a full color screen that people mistook for a smartwatch. To set the records straight, Blaze is not a smartwatch and as quoted from James Park, Fitbit’s founder, and CEO:

“We didn’t say it was a smartwatch, but a lot of people perceived that it was.”

The company’s latest product, Ionic, is what experts claimed to be the first Fitbit smartwatch. Here’s what you need to know about the product.

The latest Fitbit smartwatch will be sold for $299.95 USD and will hit the market in October. Just like all other smartwatches available today, it has everything people expects from a smartwatch. Ionic’s basic features include music playing, mobile payment support, and displaying notifications.

The Ionic smartwatch also comes with the standard fitness features found on other Fitbit products like GPS sensor, a multi-day battery rated at more than four days battery life with average use, a heart rate sensor, a Near Field Communication (NFC) chip for wireless payments, Pandora and Bluetooth headphone support, and water resistance.

Contrary to other smartwatches today, the Fitbit smartwatch was created with fitness tracker in mind first and traditional smartwatch second. In a statement to Wired, Park said:

“What we’d been seeing in the marketplace were devices where the technology was really looking for a problem to solve. Consumers were just confused and unclear about what the purpose of a smartwatch was when it first launched.”

The Ionic smartwatch looks like a hybrid of the Apple watch with its small rectangular display that sits inside a square watch face. Its body is made from nano-molded aluminum which slants downward from the face in an octagonal shape. According to Jonah Becker, head of design at Fitbit, the design was called ‘geo-organic.’

“There’s a lot of stuff that’s kind of looking backwards in terms of trying to make a smartwatch feel like the same watch your dad had 30 years ago. It felt like it was playing it very safe,” Becker said.

In terms of software, the latest Fitbit smartwatch comes equipped with fully-fledged features. The Ionic has a personal trainer and coaching software that can create personalized workouts depending on the user’s activities. It also has a guided breathing function and a SmartTrack intelligence that monitors the user’s activity to adjust the tracking accordingly.

Also, since the Ionic smartwatch is water resistant, it has a swim tracking software that covers laps, stroke styles, and burned calories. It’s notification also works with text messages, phone calls, and calendar appointments.

While Fitbit still thinks of the Ionic as more of a fitness gadget rather than a smartwatch, its features are undoubtedly competitive and will give other smartwatch makers a run for their money.

How could the Fitbit smartwatch Ionic compete with other popular smartwatches in the market today? Let us know in the comment section below!