Product Comparison: Fitbit Ionic vs Garmin Vivoactive 3
General Specifications
About the Product
Get a watch that gives you more with Fitbit Ionic—a motivating timepiece packed with fitness guidance, health insights, music storage, apps & more.
From playing to paying, vívoactive 3 is the smartwatch for your active life. Make contactless payments with ease, right from your watch, and with more than 15 preloaded sports apps — you can choose how you like to get fit. Built-in GPS lets you record the distance, pace, location and more for your outdoor activities.
Brand
Fitbit
Garmin
Model
Ionic
Vivoactive 3
Origin
China
China
Key Specs
Operating System
fitbitOS
Garmin wear
Display Size
1.42 in.
1.2 in.
Internal Memory
2.5 GB
Band Material
Elastomer
Silicone
GPS Enabled
Yes
Yes
What customers say about "Key Specs"
Fitbit Ionic Charcoal/Smoke Gray, One Size (S & L Bands Included)
- Apps that are available are actually pretty good! Doesn't include everything though.
- They're really good at building fitness tracking hardware, and developing an incredibly solid app interface. Expanding to building a full operating system and managing an app store just seems like a bad move.
- The current (rollout) features are very good, and I only expect them to get better as the system matures.
- The band is quite stiff though but perhaps I have to break it in.
- I also like that Fitbit included two different sizes of watch bands instead of wasting everybody's time measuring their wrists.
Garmin Vivoactive 3 Black Stainless
- Fits any quick release 20mm band and has plenty of downloadable faces so customization is huge.
- The watch looks wonderful - I wear it to the office and I like that the diameter is smaller than other garmin watches. I previously used a Fitbit but now having used the garmin I won’t go back.
- It also uses a Proprietary software instead of a OS. Battery life is real kickass. I have seen battery usage of 15-20% per day with bluetooth turn on/off as needed instead of having it turned on all the time.
- It uses a Proprietary software instead of a OS. Battery life is real kickass. I have seen battery usage of 15-20% per day with bluetooth turn on/off as needed instead of having it turned on all the time.
- The pictures in the description are very misleading. the screen resolution is significantly lesser quality than that of other smart watches.
Size & Weight
Height
1.55 in.
1.7 in.
Width
1.52 in.
1.7 in.
Depth
0.49 in.
0.46 in.
Weight
1.76 oz.
1.5 oz.
Display
Display Type
Color LCD
Transflective Memory-In-Pixel
Screen Resolution
348 x 250
240 x 240
What customers say about "Display"
Fitbit Ionic Charcoal/Smoke Gray, One Size (S & L Bands Included)
- The display is easy to read while running and you can customize the displayed stats.
- The screen display is bright and sensitive, and the watch itself was extremely intuitive to setup.
- I switched from my old Fitbit Surge to the new Ionic and I absolutely love it! I find the display so much easier to read.
- Screen saver timeout is not currently adjustable and only stays on for 2-3 seconds.
- Only "run" activities are displayed in the Strava app on the Ionic. I do other activities too, it would be nice if they were displayed as well.
Garmin Vivoactive 3 Black Stainless
- Display is good and the backlight is plenty bright. I have it 40% brightness and it's fine there.
- Display is easy to read when under good lighting conditions due to reflective screen.
- Display is good and the backlight is plenty bright. I have it 40% brightness and it's fine there.
- Really the only thing that bugged me is that the display is not as sharp as Fitbit's. The back light washes out most colors and leaves a blue/indigo hue.
- The screen is truly clear in the daylight or a well lit room, but like an actual watch its hard to read anything without the back light in a darker setting.
Features
Color
Charcoal/Smoke Gray
Black Stainless
Design
Classic
Sport
Processor Speed
0.12 GHz
Protection Class
IP67
5ATM
Customizable Watch Faces
Yes
Yes
Built-In Microphone
No
No
Vibration Alert
Yes
Yes
Sensors
3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, Optical heart rate monitor, Altimeter, Ambient light sensor
Gyroscope, Accelerometer, Compass, Thermometer
What customers say about "Features"
Fitbit Ionic Charcoal/Smoke Gray, One Size (S & L Bands Included)
- Automatic sleep tracking - and, it can shut off notifications once sleep is detected.
- Sleep tracking is pretty good! Definitely better than an app you can get on Apple/Android watch.
- The features are easy to use and access, A few trial and error and you will get how it works. Often use functions are just a few tabs away. You will familiar with it almost instantly.
- Slow performance from time to time.
- Can't connect to WiFi, any WiFi, Home, work, with or without password. Any firmware update needs to be done over Bluetooth and it takes 30 minutes to 1 hour. It is ridiculous.
Garmin Vivoactive 3 Black Stainless
- Fairly accurate heart rate monitor, and activity and workout tracking.
- Ability to connect to external heart rate sensor is a huge plus in my opinion.
- Advanced dynamics on workout data are very informative.
- Gets notifications from your phone and can do some simple responses from the watch.
- Side scrolling can be overly-sensitive.
- The gesture-operated back light algorithm is frustratingly slow. I turned it off and tap the watch when I need the time in dark rooms.
Connectivity
Bluetooth Version
4.0
4.0
Wi-Fi Compatibility
Yes
No
NFC Technology
Yes
No
Power
Charging Interface
Magnetic Connector
Magnetic Connector
Battery Life
120 hours
13 hours
What customers say about "Power"
Fitbit Ionic Charcoal/Smoke Gray, One Size (S & L Bands Included)
- Great battery life (4 days), very fast battery charging, reasonably accurate GPS, monitors your sleep, you can easily swap out third party watch bands, and recognizes when you go up stairs.
- Long battery life - I made it from Tuesday to Saturday before it needed a charge.
- Excellent battery life. Without GPS tracking, I left everything enabled and still charge every 6 days. All notifications are active.
- In terms of battery life, it seems on par with my Blaze. Today is day 4 of owning the Ionic and it is still on the initial charge it came with (with notifications off).
- I have a nice, convenient metal surface where I can stick the charger for easy retrieval.
Garmin Vivoactive 3 Black Stainless
- Good-great battery life when only in smartwatch mode.
- Had it on for a couple days and battery is still going strong without charging out of the box (70% when I opened it up).
- Battery life is good, not as good as the original Vivoactive.
- The battery life is advertised as being 7 days.
- GPS battery life is definitely not 13 hours (as advertised). I get about 8-10 hours of GPS use for runs/bike.
Warranty / Certifications
Manufacturer Warranty
1 year(s)
1 year(s)
Certifications
CE
CE
Other Information
Manufacturer
MSRP
249.99 $
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