Fitbit unveiled a new smartwatch on Monday, called the Fitbit Ionic.
As Fitbit’s answer to the Apple Watch, Ionic can handle fitness tracking, sleep tracking, contactless payments, music, and more.
The watch costs $300 and will be available everywhere starting this October.
While Fitbit refers to Ionic as its first smartwatch, the company has released two other smartwatches in the past – Blaze and Surge. But unlike those two smartwatches, where the industrial design was outsourced, both Ionic’s hardware and software were designed entirely in-house by the Fitbit team.
While we’re still testing the Ionic smartwatch (we have it in our offices and will publish a full review in a few weeks), here’s everything we can tell you so far.
Fitbit Ionic comes in three colors: Silver gray with a blue gray band, smoke gray with a charcoal band, and burnt orange with a slate blue band.
Fitbit is also launching two other sets of bands that easily snap onto the watch. The Ionic sport band comes in black, orange, and blue.
The leather band comes in brown and navy.
Here's the full product lineup with all the various bands.
While Fitbit refers to Ionic as its first smartwatch, the company has released two other smartwatches in the past — Blaze and Surge.
Compared to those smartwatches, Ionic has an improved heart rate sensor and an SpO2 sensor, which can determine blood oxygen levels.
Eventually, the Ionic smartwatch will be able to track things like sleep apnea.
Fitbit says Ionic's battery lasts more than four days on a single charge.
The watch is water resistant up to 50 meters, so it's OK to swim or shower with it on.
Ionic also has built-in GPS and an on-watch personal trainer. You can get customized workouts based on your data, and guided running and walking sessions.
The watch can hold more than 300 songs or can play Pandora stations offline, so you can leave your phone at home during workouts.
You can also receive all your phone notifications — like calls, texts, calendar alerts, and app notifications — on the watch.
The watch uses Fitbit Pay, Fitbit's own contactless payment system, which lets you add credit cards and use the watch to pay for items in stores without having to take out your wallet.
The watch will come preloaded with four outside apps — Starbucks, Pandora, Strava, and AccuWeather-powered weather — but Fitbit is also launching an open SDK for app developers in September, which means more apps could be coming soon.
Ionic has all the standard features of a regular Fitbit, so it can automatically track steps, calories, floors climbed, sleep, and cardio fitness levels.
Ionic will cost $299.95 and is available for presale. The watch will be available online, and will be at stores like Best Buy, Target, and Dick's Sporting Goods starting in October.
