A first look at the Fitbit Ionic
6.10.2017
Translation: machine translated
Video: Stephanie Tresch
This was actually supposed to be a quick review of Fitbit's first smartwatch, the Ionic. But technology threw a spanner in the works for the digitec camera team and smartwatch tester Melanie Anna Lee.
The first delivery of the first smartwatch from Fitbit has arrived. In the package: an aluminium-coloured Fitbit Ionic for our smartwatch tester Melanie Anna Lee. We knew that if a device from the first batch landed on our desks, we'd do a review. Video producer Stephanie Tresch sets up her cameras and I talk Melanie through the dialogue. It's her first video, so it takes a little longer. The first scenes, the unboxing part, go quite well, but then the technology throws a spanner in the works.
We have to reschedule, because Melanie and her team want you to know that the Fitbit Ionic is here and we're on the case.
Crisis meeting in the studio.
After a few minutes of discussion and a few attempts at scheduling, we decide that the review won't happen today. But we can still use the footage. A few short reshoots and a few little filmic tricks from Stephanie's repertoire later, we know what story we can tell you. But first, the part that should be part of the review.
The fine wrist versus the big watch
The Fitbit Ionic comes with two straps, in sizes S and L. Other straps can be ordered separately. You can choose the colours and sizes you want, as the strap can be changed in just a few seconds thanks to a clasp that can be opened with your fingernails. Well, when Melanie does it, it only takes a few seconds. "I change the bands every now and then. Because I test the pedometer on my wrist and on my foot," she says. She needs two strap sizes for this. For her right arm, she uses size S.
"Does that look like shit with the jacket, jumper and watch?" she asks with a laugh. She borrowed the jacket from Stephanie, by the way, because a white jumper against a white studio wall looks a bit modest. No, we think, a little irritated. It's about the watch, not the jacket. Incidentally, Melanie claims to have realised that she has a very similar jacket at home.
Now that this has been established, she moves on to the first fitting. "It's quite big," says the German. She wiggles her wrist. Holds. The worry that the watch might be a little too chunky for a woman's wrist is gone for now. Time to switch the watch on.
The update from hell
As is usual with every tracker and smartwatch, the Ionic comes with a basic version of the operating system. This means that several hundred files have to be updated first. As trackers and apps no longer do version skipping - the ability to go directly from version 1.0 to 3.0 without going through 2.0 - each incremental update has to be installed individually.
"Hey, one thing at a time," says Melanie between two takes, "We don't have internet in the studio."
This is a conscious decision, because there is no phone reception in the studio either. It's the simplest way to prevent someone calling in the middle of a good take and ruining the recording. It turns out that this might be a bit daft in view of the update in front of the camera. We move the shoot to one of the most beautiful autumn storms of the current autumn. Sun, wind and clouds in constant alternation. "The weather isn't making it easy for me today," says Stephanie, who is filming with two cameras at the same time. Meanwhile, I'm directing the dialogue with Melanie, paying attention to slips of the tongue and "um", as well as intonation and lots of other things.
While she was a little tense at first, as this is her first video with us, Melanie has now settled in front of the camera. She laughs, she gesticulates, she makes the job easy for us. She also realises herself when she messes up a take and starts again from the beginning.
Outside in the autumn storm, it all goes very quickly. The watch connects to the smartphone, then to the internet and the update goes in. As we usually only discuss the script roughly for videos like this, we think about individual takes during the breaks in filming and while Melanie speaks into the camera.
"Why don't you go through the functions later," I say.
Stephanie reacts promptly, climbs onto the concrete block Melanie is sitting on with the camera and adjusts the camera to film over her shoulder on the display of her Huawei P10.
"It's not going to work today," says Melanie. No laughter, no grin, just a somewhat incredulous look.
"Why?" asks Stephanie, looking at the display of her camera. She has activated peaking on the display. With this function, the display shows what is in focus in the image. The Sony a7s II does this with red pixels that are superimposed over the sharp parts of the image. As a result, Stephanie can only see the interesting part of the image in a blur.
49 minutes.
This is what it says on Melanie's mobile phone screen. That's how long it should take for the updates to complete. No version skipping, no nothing.
We consult. What do we do? Melanie has to go back to the shop because - and she's quite sure of this - there are customers who are probably happy to have someone else looking after them.
"It's now 56 minutes," she says.
Good. No review then. A first look should be enough. Melanie takes off the borrowed jacket, straps the Ionic around her tattooed wrist, says goodbye and heads towards the shop. She will do a review, she promises. But it's one of her typical long-term projects. In a month or so, she wants to hand me her analysis in the form of Melanie's typical pile of paper, statistics scribbled with notes and arrows.
She turns round and calls out to me: "Ask in the article what the buyers think of the watch. I'm wondering!"
So what do you think? Do you like the Ionic? Let us know in the comments column.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
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