The Basis Peak hands-on
I was lucky enough to win a basis a peak recently. I have contemplated buying one of these for a while but the price was a reason for me to hesitate. I’m also a runner so the lack of GPS was another reason for me to second guess myself. Anyway you can imagine how pleased I was to actually get one! Especially since they are so hard to get at this time. I’ve used it now for a couple of weeks and in retrospect I think the Peak is well worth the money. If you are thinking of getting one like me, but you have some doubts please read on, I think you’ll like my findings with the Peak so far.
The first thing you notice when you pick the watch up is the weight, or better said the lack there off. The second thing you’ll notice is that the watch doesn’t have any buttons. Instead the watch is operated through a touch screen. The display itself is monochrome, so no colors but I never really missed it and the contrast makes it easy to read all the information no matter what the lighting conditions are. And yes there is a back light function for when it’s dark. The strap is made of a rubber material that takes some getting used too, but in a good way. It’s not made from stiff material but rather from a black flexible rubber like material and quite frankly I’m wondering how long it will last as it stretches easily. It does attract dust to some extend. Luckily you can get replacement straps or even opt to buy different one of the five colored straps from the Basis store.
Operating the peak is a breeze. Just swipe up and down at the right border to switch on/off the back light and tap or swipe left and right and up down to go through all the menus. There is one downside to this. The screen gets smudged by your fingers over time, so the occasional rub with your sleeve is needed to keep the peak looking it’s best.
The thing with wearables like this is that they fall or stand with the comfort of actually wearing them. I’ve owned a few devices and my favorite so far was the Nike fuelband, it was uncomplicated, looked cool and most importantly wearing it didn’t bother me too much. With the Basis Peak it’s kind of the same way. The watch is so light you really don’t notice wearing it. And as far as looks go it’s not a sports watch by design so it works well with casual and business outfits, and that’s a good thing. One downside I did find is that the square design of the watch allows it to get caught on some of my shirts. The Peak detects your activities through a sensor that is located on the bottom of the watch. The sensor is slightly raised, so it stands out a bit. I assume this is to ensure good contact with the skin. This takes a bit of getting used too. I needed to experiment a bit to find the fit snug enough to get good readings and yet no too tight so that the ‘raised’ sensor on the back doesn’t imprint my skin when I wear it for extend times. If you wear it to tight this will create a bit of an itch. Finding the right fit is a matter of adjusting the strap a couple of times. And Basis gives you a couple of good tips on how to do this. I found my ‘fit’ after a day or three.
One thing I miss on the Peak is dual timezone support, this is crucial from me since I travel regularly. This is a minor thing in comparison to the benefits I get from the Peak so I take it for granted. And hé maybe we’ll get the timezone feature in a feature software upgrade. When you think about it that’s a great thing with all these wearables. The functionality can only improve over time.
One thing I do like is the battery life of the peak. I forgot to bring my USB-cradle charger on our short family vacation but that was never a problem. The peak lasted for 5 days, and arriving home I still had battery capacity left. Charging is quick and basis recommends you charge it while you shower. It’s an easy way to ensure your peak is always charged. I charge it every 3rd day or so and it keeps the peak going so charging is never top of mind. And that’s nice, so many of these devices require you to charge frequently. This had me thinking, the lack of GPS is probably one of the reasons why the battery can last so long and also why the peak is so light. And that is good thing. Yes I would have preferred to have GPS build-in for tracking my runs, but battery life and weight are worth something too. Since I carry my phone with me on my runs for music anyway I’m not bothered by it. I track my runs using an app and I hope to see some of these apps integrate the cardio data from the peak through an API that Basis has said to deliver in the near future.
Now the the Peak itself is just half of the deal. The basis app and website are other half. Here you can see your results. And it’s quite insightful. You’ll get to see your heart rate, activities, calories burned, sleeping patterns and how you are performing vs. pre set goals or habits as basis calls them. There different ways of looking at the data, and what I really like is that you can even export your own data and start playing with the numbers yourself. The app opens on the dashboard screen and will tell you about your most recent activities, the activity feed will give you a stream of activities in sequence and the chart view will give you a very detailed view. The peak will detect if you are walking, running biking or sleeping and it’s quite accurate. Only once did I notice the peak registering me as walking while I was actually biking. If you are into fitness and you are into the numbers game you’ll probably spend some time here. Another view is the ‘habits’ view. Here you can see how you are performing vs pre defined goals. They include things like a goal for wearing the device, or a goal to move around and not just sit down all-day, or to go to bed in a timely and consistent fashion etc etc. You can’t define your own goals unfortunately. However one of the best things about the peak is the way it tracks and measure’s your sleep. For every sleep cycle the peak tracks it will tell you how much time you spent in deep, REM, and light sleep but also how many turns and how many times you where interrupted. But it doesn’t end there. I was surprised to see an email my inbox after a week with a summary of my sleep over the last week. And that’s just excellent. I’m prone to staying up late and sleep is not one of my favorite things, but now my peak gives me insight in how good or bad I’m doing. And unfortunately you can’t argue with the numbers so the peak keeps me honest about my sleep. Another nice touch are the notifications you get when you achieve a goal…sorry I meant to say habit. They are a nice pet on the back to let you know you are doing okay.
While we are on the topic of notifications the default settings on the peak will send you notifications on your watch for calls, calender events, emails and text messages. This is very useful when you are in a business meeting and subtly want to check your message or see who’s calling. You can dismiss the notification or reject calls. If really don’t want to be disturbed you can easily turn off the notifications with the do not disturb function on the peak.
Overall I’m loving the peak. For me it’s not about the day to day tracking and calorie counting. I’m in it mostly to track sleep, tell time and to check that I get my daily dosage of exercise. And the peak does that very nicely. It works great when I run, walk, bike or sleep, it’s light, and has great battery life. I also like that it’s doesn’t stand out as a fitness device and the notifications help me out through out the day. The peak is what I would call a well rounded device eventhough it comes in a square package. It does a bunch of things and it does them well. I expect to see some improvements and additions over time, but the package as is, is already pretty good. Personally I think the Basis is aimed at the people that work and play (exercise) a couple of times throughout the week. If you are a professional athlete you are probably looking for more functions that help your track you favorite exercise. For for the rest of us, which I suspect is a big majority the peak has most of the functions we need to get our things done.
I’m liking the peak, and I hope this review gave all the people thinking about buying one of these enough arguments to go check one out.
[UPDATE] A new firmware release has added stopwatch, and alarm functionality.
[UPDATE] AUG 2016 – Due to a safety issue’s Intel is requesting all basis peak owners to return their basis peak. Owners will recieve a refund. I regret to have to return my unit but safety comes first.
