Fitbit: One Hand Giveth, Another Taketh Away…

My first fitness band was a Microsoft Band 2. The functions were well thought out, and it tracked my workouts at the gym very well indeed. Unfortunately, whilst the design was good, the build quality was appalling – so much so that I got through three examples before Microsoft pulled the plug on the product entirely.

So I looked around for an alternative and selected the Fitbit Ionic. While it didn’t track my workouts as closely as the Band 2, it was acceptable, and other functions (watch, timer, notifications) matched what I had with the Band.

The Ionic also had the capability to store music and play this back through Bluetooth headphones. This I found very useful – I now listen to Podcasts during my sessions at the gym. Getting the Podcasts onto the Ionic is a very slow and clunky process involving a badly-designed Fitbit Windows app and WiFi, but, OK, it more or less works.

My Ionic is now getting on for three years old, and despite a small crack in the screen in a corner, it is still working satisfactorily. However, sooner or later the inevitable will happen, and I will need to look for a replacement.

I see that Fitbit have just introduced two new models positioned as potential replacements of the Ionic – the Versa 3 and the Sense. Up until now, the Versa product line has closely matched the features of the Ionic, including music storage, while the Sense is a brand new introduction focusing more on health than fitness functions.

Both the Versa 3 and the Sense list “Music Experience” in their features, but the wording rang alarm bells in my head:

Store and play music and podcasts with Deezer, plus control Spotify from your wrist—then, use them to stay motivated with curated playlists specifically made for your favourite workouts.

Although Deezer is available as an app on my Ionic, I don’t, and won’t, subscribe to either the Deezer or Spotify streaming services. With local music storage on my Ionic, I don’t need them.

I checked the product manuals for the Versa 3 and the Sense, and yes, there was no reference to either of these products having the capability of storing local music. If you want to listen to music, you must be a subscriber to either Deezer or Spotify. That’s a deal-breaker for me. Unless this feature is restored to the Versa 3 or added to the Sense, neither are of interest to me. Judging from the Fitbit community forums, I’m not the only one.