After months of rumors of its first smartwatch and being absent from the wearable market for quite some time, Fitbit today unveiled its Ionic smartwatch and fitness tracker.
Fitbit says that the personalised experience offered by its Ionic “health and fitness smartwatch” has never been “previously seen in other smartwatches.” Featuring a rectangular display with huge bezels, the Fitbit Ionic is now rated to be water-resistant for up to 50 meters. It also comes with “industry-leading” GPS performance thanks to its integrated antenna and unique design. The presence of a standalone GPS chip means that you can go out for a run without having to carry your smartphone with you for accurate tracking and positioning.
The PurePulse heart rate scanner has also been improved and offers greater accuracy than before during exercises. In addition to the usual sensors, Fitbit has also included a new SpO2 sensor on the Ionic that is used for estimating the blood oxygen levels. This will allow the wearable to measure new health metrics like sleep apnea.
The Ionic also features 2.5GB of onboard storage which can be used to store music for offline music playback. Then, Fitbit is also debuting Fitbit Pay which allows one to pay at retail stores using the Ionic itself. Thanks to its “extended smartphone notifications,” the Fitbit Ionic will also be able to mirror all your smartphone notifications.
Other features of the Fitbit Ionic include automatic Run Detect feature, Fitbit Coach, custom watch faces, automatic sleep tracking and more.
Lastly, despite packing so many features, Fitbit says the Ionic will offer 4+ days of battery life on a single charge. While using GPS or playing music though, the battery life will drop down to 10 hours. Fitbit will also be opening up the SDK of the Ionic to third-party developers in September.
The Fitbit Ionic is priced at $299 and is up for pre-orders starting from today. It will be available across retailers starting from October 2017. Fitbit is also teaming up with Adidas to launch a special version of the Ionic in 2018.
