Product Comparison: Fitbit Ionic vs Garmin Vivoactive 3

Advertiser Disclosure

This site is a free online resource that strives to offer helpful content and comparison features to its visitors. Please be advised that the operator of this site accepts advertising compensation from certain companies that appear on the site, and such compensation impacts the location and order in which the companies (and/or their products) are presented, and in some cases may also impact the scoring that is assigned to them. The scoring that appears on this site is determined by the site operator in its sole discretion, and should NOT be relied upon for accuracy purposes. In fact, Company/product listings on this page DO NOT imply endorsement by the site operator. Except as expressly set forth in our Terms of Use, all representations and warranties regarding the information presented on this page are disclaimed. The information which appears on this site is subject to change at any time. More info

Fitbit Ionic Charcoal/Smoke Gray, One Size (S & L Bands Included)

Check Price

Best Pick

Garmin Vivoactive 3 Black Stainless

Check Price

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

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

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

Display Type

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

Built-In Microphone

Vibration Alert

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

Wi-Fi Compatibility

Yes

NFC Technology

Yes

Power

Charging Interface

Magnetic Connector

Battery Life

120 hours

13 hours

Battery Life

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)

Certifications

Other Information

Manual

Download

Manufacturer

Link

MSRP

249.99 $