First look at Fitbit’s long-awaited $300 Fitbit Ionic smartwatch

Everyone knows that no matter how cool the tech is, no one will wear it if it doesn’t look fashionable. The overall aesthetic of the Ionic looks similar to Fitbit’s wearable trackers. I thought it felt a little big, especially if I wanted to wear it to bed for sleep tracking. The device comes in several colors and the body is made of aerospace-grade aluminium.

Fitbit CEO James Park told CNBC that his dream is to have an astronaut wear the device into space.

Park also touted the device’s “industry leading” four days of battery life under typical day-to-day use conditions. Even if you run every day, the Fitbit Ionic can keep up, he said. (The battery life is more like 10 hours if you’re using GPS and playing music.)

This is important, since one of the industry’s biggest problems is that many devices become bedside table decorations. For the smartwatch to be useful, it needs to have battery life long enough that folks aren’t constantly taking it off.

With the Ionic, Fitbit is giving its heart rate tracking technology an upgrade. Extra sensors embedded on the underside of the device allow the Ionic to estimate changes in oxygen in the blood over time.

The device’s more rounded contours apply more uniform pressure, allowing the sensors to get a better signal from the body. Over time, this will make the devices even more useful in preventative health care, said Fitbit’s vice president of research, Shelten Yuen.

The Ionic will automatically switch to multisport mode and can turn on GPS after two minutes of running. That means it’s capable of telling if you’re running or not, and can track your jog when you start to move. The multisport function can detect if you’re performing any number of activities, so you don’t have to tell the watch what you’re doing specifically. When you stop, the Ionic will pause or complete the workout.

The company has added a number of software features aimed at freeing users from their smartphones and wallets while out exercising. It still has a way to go before introducing a fully untethered device, but this is a start, Park told CNBC.

Although the Ionic is mainly an exercise tracker, it does have some other useful features.

For instance, you can store and listen to music while you exercise, and a partnership with Pandora will allow Pandora Premium and Plus subscribers to take Pandora stations offline to the device. The company also introduced a new Bluetooth wireless headset, the Fitbit Flyer, that can be purchased separately.

A near-field communications chip embedded in the device lets Ionic users make purchases at retailers equipped with NFC checkout points. Fitbit has partnerships with AmEx, MasterCard and Visa. Fitbit Pay incorporates technology from Coin, which the company acquired last year.

The Fitbit Ionic is compatible with Apple and Android phones — unlike the Apple Watch, which only works with the iPhone — and the company is opening up its platform to allow developers to build apps for the device.

Inside the Ionic app, users can customize notifications sent to their wrist, including text messages, calendar reminders and weather updates. With the Fitbit Coach and Fitstar apps, users can select video and audio workouts, for example “10 minute abs,” to be guided through an exercise session. They then rate their difficulty and future sessions are personalized based on that feedback.