Monday, November 30, 2015
Review: UPDATED: Basis Peak
Introduction, design and interface
A few months ago I jumped on the wearable bandwagon and picked up a Basis B1 Carbon Steel. It was the perfect choice for me because I wanted a smartwatch that did more than flash notifications at me. At the same time, I was on a health kick and I wanted to get an activity tracker. The original Basis was an obvious pick thanks to its litany of biosensors reading my burned calories, steps, plus much more with my heart rate and sleeping patterns.
Since introducing the original Basis B1, the company's been busy becoming a part of Intel and introducing its second wearable, the Basis Peak. The Peak is a vast improvement on its predecessor with a thinner metal body and a newly redesigned heart rate sensor. Plus Basis recently updated the watch to bring smartphone notifications to the fitness wearable (more on that in the 'Software Update: What's New?' section).
Of course all this functionality makes the Basis Peak an expensive device. Starting at $199 or £170 (about AU$233), the question now is whether this hybrid wearable's worth every penny.
Design
One of the most striking changes the Basis Peak brings is a considerably improved design. Gone are the thick and bulky plastic body and in its stead comes a new aluminum chassis. Thanks to the new metal case, the wearable feels sturdier and much more premium compared to the original. The watch is also just as water resistant up to 5ATM, letting you dive into depths as deep as 40 meters - or 131 feet.
The Peak also improves on the activity tracker's overall proportions, shrinking the Basis B1's embarrassing thickness to a noticeably sleeker device. At the same time, the Basis Peak gains a larger 1.25-inch screen, which is both easier to read and made with a scratch resistant sheet of Gorilla Glass 3. Turn the watch over and you'll find the Peak's revamped heart rate monitor which sticks out from the bottom of the watch with a small hump. It utilizes two much more brighter LEDs that are seriously bright enough to be used as a strobe for dance parties.
Overall the Peak looks much more like a traditional watch by moving away from the B1's old school digital watch aesthetic. This new design extends to band, which you can more easily pop-out and replace with any old 23mm wrist band. Not that you'll need to, as the wristbands (available in white with gray accents or black with a red underside) that come with the watch are made of comfortable, flexible and stretchy, soft silicone straps compared to the B1's hard plastic wristband.
Having worn the Basis B1 Carbon Steel Edition smartwatch for a few months now, the Peak is more comfortable and a great improvement aesthetically speaking.
Interface
Basis has also made big improvements to the software design behind the Peak smartwatch. You'll still have to setup an account with a few of your measurements, but updating the watch is now done through the Android and iOS app on your smartphone rather than plugging into a computer.
As for using the Peak itself, Basis has swapped out the capacitive touch pin buttons with a touchscreen. The new interface opens more options including a new list of menu options for turning on a do not disturb mode and restarting the watch. Basis has now integrated a stopwatch, accessed by simply swiping up on the main time screen.
The best part of the interface is the watch adaptively switches the main screen to an activity tracking mode that presents your calories burned and steps taken in big bold numbers. You can also scroll through any of your previous activities from the day - like a quick walk to the corner store or a 10,000 step jog. It might sound like a small improvement but this corrects one of my biggest gripes with the original Basis smartwatch, in which you could only access information on your workouts with the smartphone app or the website.
Basis says it plans to add more elements including smartphone notifications coming some time mid-December. It's a big feature to look forward to and will make the Peak much more than a brainy activity tracker. We'll definitely update this review when the new firmware hits.
Smart alerts
The alerts first - there's a lot of them. In keeping with the granular nature of the Basis Peak, once you've switched on alerts as a whole, you can pick from Basis alerts, Phone Calls, Email, Messages, Calendar and Instant Messaging. You can reject phone calls, which is pretty handy, but messages come up in weirdly formatted text (lots of added space), which forces you to your phone immediately (tested on a Samsung S6). It's clearly an effort to keep up with the Joneses, and it's not too bad an update, but we're always a little dubious about this semi-smartwatch approach. Having BT sync activated drains a new S6 battery by lunchtime, and the value of a few alerts in the morning vs a working phone in the afternoon isn't a tough decision. If you've already splashed out on a Basis, this is a great update, but it's not a strong incentive to buy.
Apps, tracking and battery life
Speaking of the app, it's also been given a fresh coat of paint in the form of a completely new Basis Peak app. Existing B1 users will have to migrate over to the new app, and though the app transfers all your old data, there's no going back once you've made the move.
As ever the main screen displays your daily totals of calories burned and steps taken, along with your average heart rate for the day. Tapping on any of your activities pops open a new smaller windowed view showing you a more detailed chart with a newly added line marking your heart rate. The new app also fully integrates your activity details chart for the first time, whereas with the only app you had to log into the Basis website to see the full line graph.
Habits (a fancy name for activity goals) have also returned. You can set different benchmarks like wearing the watch for 24 or more hours straight to prompting yourself for an evening jog. It's the same gamification of work outs Basis created for its original wearable, with the exception of a few new Habits.
Users looking for a real challenge also won't find it here either, with many of the early goals focussing on wearing the watch and sleeping regularly. The watch and app when synced both nag you with alerts to enforce your engagement, but otherwise are mute. Obviously the gamification here is designed to be light touch, but it does ring a little hollow.
Activity Tracking
Here's where I expected a lot of improvement from Basis but found the Peak falling short. The new activity tracker is just as intelligent at knowing when you start going on a long walk or a bike ride and run. Plus the watch is better at judging my skin temperature and perspiration levels without creating erratic line graphs. Surprisingly, where it falls apart is keeping note of my heart rate.
Looking at my charts recorded with the Basis B1, I can reliably get graphs with an unbroken line of beats-per-minute unless I set off on an impromptu sprint. The Peak on the other hand would often lose my pulse on a gentle walk and even when I was just sitting in a chair. Basis touted its heart rate sensor as a big improvement, yet the results show that the new technology is actually worse off.
Inaccurate heart rate tracking is the biggest glaring issue of the Basis Peak. It's an especially troubling weakness as more smartwatches and activity bands come out with their own optical monitors including the Samsung Gear Fit, Microsoft Band and Fitbit Charge HR.
Sleep Tracking
Basis also continues to lead the charge with its sleep tracking technology. With other activity trackers like the Samsung Gear Fit, you have to physically tell the wearable when you're going to sleep. Meanwhile, the Basis can sense when you fall asleep and note the times you go into REM and deep sleep.
Battery life
Packing those blindingly bright LEDs skims a little off the top of the Basis Peak's battery life. Going from a full charge with nearly constant activity tracking and intermittent smartphone syncing, the Peak lasted roughly four and half days. Comparatively, the Basis Carbon Steel Edition Smartwatch lasted for 4 days and 19 hours of battery life.
Interestingly, the watch gave me a 20% battery life warning on the third day. The wearable continued running and gave me a 10% battery warning a day and half later before demanding to be plugged in a few hours afterwards. The good news? Charging the Peak is a little bit less painful since Basis dumped the clamp-on charger in exchange for a simple magnetic cradle.
The battery life isn't anything to really write home about, but it is a smidgen better than the three day battery life we saw from the Samsung Gear Fit. Still, it does not hold a candle to other long lasting wearables like the 10-day battery life of the Fitbit Force (the same supposed battery life of the new Fitbit Charge).
Software Update: What's changed?
We've taken another look at the Basis Peak after several software updates, one of which has added smartwatch style alerts to the smartband's activity-tracking smarts.
Smart Notifications
The alerts first - there's a lot of them. In keeping with the granular nature of the Basis Peak, once you've switched on alerts as a whole, you can pick from Basis alerts, Phone Calls, Email, Messages, Calendar and Instant Messaging. You can reject phone calls, which is pretty handy, but messages come up in weirdly formatted text (lots of added space), which forces you to your phone immediately (tested on a Samsung S6).
It's clearly an effort to keep up with the Joneses, and it's not too bad an update, but we're always a little dubious about this semi-smartwatch approach. Having BT sync activated drains a new S6 battery by lunchtime, and the value of a few alerts in the morning vs a working phone in the afternoon isn't a tough decision. If you've already splashed out on a Basis, this is a great update, but it's not a strong incentive to buy.
Heart Rate Tracking
The previous reviewer found the Basis Peak HR tracking to be variable, and in spite of several attempts to prove him wrong we failed to get consistent readings too. Tested against a Suunto chest strap the Basis was regularly pretty close, sometimes on the beat, and sometimes 10 BPM off. For a smartband/watch that's not bad, but a way off being able to use it for useful training. There's no indication of being able to set or track HR zones either, so that's all down to mental arithmetic on the move. The design of the Basis doesn't do it any favours when running either, it's got enough mass to rattle around the wrist annoyingly, and can't be tightened up too much otherwise the HR sensor goes seriously off-piste.
To be fair to the Basis Peak, it's marketing of the HR function is all focussed on tracking your everyday HR highs and lows to give you a holistic picture, and specifically mentions that the device isn't 'optimised for high-intensity interval workouts'. It does give 24/7 HR tracking, which is more than can be said for many.
Sensory Overload
The biggest issue with the Peak isn't it's sensors though, they're actually pretty awesome in terms of what they can track (sweat?), the problem is that it's too smart for its own good to be a proper running watch. Because it intelligently tracks what you're doing automatically it's impossible to keep it on point. Stop your run for a traffic light or - god forbid - to chat to a passing friend and suddenly your session is ended and you're dropped into 'stroll' mode. get going again and boom - a new session is begun.
While this is strictly, mournfully scientifically accurate, it makes using the data impossible, as each run (especially in central London) splinters into tens of tiny 8 minute shards, defying any attempt to draw conclusions from them. The same happens in the sleep tracking arena - an elevated HR drops you into 'run' mode, leading to a ghost 3am run being logged that we'd bet millions we didn't actually do. On the sleep note, the Basis is very much wandering into the 'really bloody inconvenient' territory of sleep tracking due to size alone. It's not overly comfortable to sleep wearing a full-size watch, and although you'd probably get used to it, the usefulness of the data is arguable.
We cheekily tested the sensors by breaking into an unscheduled ergo session at one point, which has gone on record as a vaguely bike ride.
Essentially the Basis Peak is one of the most powerful lifestyle/fitness/health tracker we've ever seen (alongside the Microsoft Band), but as a sport-specific training aid it's just not focused enough. It'll track your lifestyle as a whole brilliantly, but in such granular detail it defied our data crunching abilities to get any sense out of it. The detail itself is slightly annoying in it's mindless, decontextualised intensity, daring you to remember what you were doing when reading x was logged.
It's hard to love the styling or be excited by the adequate but slightly retro alerts, easy to be annoyed by the deluge of data, and difficult to justify the price (£199) given the fierce competition.
Compatibility and verdict
Sorry Windows Phone 8.1 users, you'll need a Fitbit activity tracker if you're looking for support for your Lumia device (or those small few with an HTC One M8 for Windows). However all iPhones running back to the iPhone 4S are supported, as is the fifth generation iPod Touch.
Meanwhile, there's also a short list of supported Android devices including the Samsung Galaxy S5 , Samsung Galaxy S4, Nexus 5, Samsung Note III and HTC One M8. Otherwise, you could try your luck running the app on an Android handset running KitKat 4.4.2 with a screen between three and six inches. For my own testing I had no trouble pairing the wearable to my own HTC One M8 as well as the unofficially supported Nvidia Shield Tablet.
I ran into a litany of issues with my iPhone 6 due to an update for the app released in mid-November. The buggy patch wiped my personal profile information, stopped the watch from counting my burned calories and tracking my sleep data, plus caused general havoc with the syncing process. Luckily, Basis posted a fix that involved signing out and logging back into my account and filling back in my personal data. The big take away from all this? The Basis Peak is clearly still a work in progress.
We liked
Design-wise, both physically and on the software side, the Basis Peak is a big improvement compared to the Basis B1 Carbon Steel Edition. The older activity tracker was honestly chunky, clunky and just downright chintzy like a toy. The Peak, meanwhile, is a matured wearable with a sexy and sleek design.
Almost everything about the Peak is an evolutionary step forward between the improved touchscreen interface and renovated app; between the more refined watch and app, it seems like this was the wearable Basis always wanted to make - almost.
We disliked
After wearing the Basis B1 Carbon Steel Edition for months I had high hopes for the Peak. However, these wishes were ultimately dashed by its lackluster and seemingly downgraded heart rate tracking abilities.
Old tech is old and one of the biggest problem with the Basis Peak is that it just feels outdated. It inherits much of the same stat tracking technology from the B1 smartwatch with very little innovation. The Peak will record your beats per minute but once again not give you any context for understanding what it means. Skin temperatures and perspiration look less erratic plotted onto a line graph, but similarly there's still no way to understand it.
At the same time, Basis has not pushed the envelope with its Habits system to add more features. The original Basis B1 was an innovator bringing in more biosensors than any wearable before it, a title it won't hold for long with the Microsoft Band bringing 10 sensors. The Peak on the other hand represents a much smaller step as a revision to Basis original design.
Final verdict
I really wanted to love the Basis Peak. I wouldn't call it a complete failure. Instead I'll reiterate the Peak is still clearly a work in progress as evidenced by my buggy experience with the updated app on IOS and smartphone notifications still on the horizon. With that in mind, the Basis Peak is something you should wait to get.
That said, there are also a lot of other wearables to consider including the Fitbit's newly updated line of devices. At the same time, the Microsoft Band is another forthcoming activity tracker, which comes packed with more sensors and more features like sending emails and texts. There are plenty of innovators in this space, so right now your best bet would be to wait and watch who comes out on top in our future reviews.
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