The Basis Peak, coming in early November, wants to be your life-coaching, heart-rate-tracking, swim-friendly superwatch (hands-on)
Basis has announced a revamp of its previous fitness smartwatch, arriving in early November: and this time, it gets smartwatch-like notifications, too. We took an early peek at the Peak.
- Nearly 20 years writing about tech, and over a decade reviewing wearable tech, VR, and AR products and apps
The fitness smartwatch landscape is becoming a crowded field. Everyone's including fitness features into wearables, but few are really good, or even all that useful to nonrunners. And most have no idea what to do with heart-rate data. Basis, now an Intel company, has rebooted the concept of a fitness smartwatch with Basis Peak, coming in early November for $199.99 (US pricing; the Peak will be available in Canada and the UK by end of year, but international pricing isn't known yet). It's intended for both everyday people who want to live healthier, as well as serious workout warriors. It tracks heart rate continuously, with a boosted optical reader. It also tracks sleep. It works with Android and iOS. It promises very good battery life. And hey, guess what? It looks like it's a useful watch, too.
Much like the previous Basis B1, the Peak uses an optical LED-based heart-rate monitor, accelerometer and even thermal skin temperature and galvanic perspiration sensors to track daily activity: walking, running, even biking. The Peak measures sleep, too, using heart-rate and accelerometer data. It coaches you based on what daily goals you select via a Basis phone app. But, unlike the last Basis watch, which leaned on its app and even PC syncing to follow data, the Peak syncs via Bluetooth 4.0 and sends its coaching tips, part of a "Healthy Habits" system of achievement-based micro-challenges, right to the watch display.
The new Peak will continue to use a series of algorithms called "BodyIQ" for calculating fitness based on activity and sleep patterns, similar to what previous Basis watches used. The Peak also works with a completely redesigned Basis app for iOS and Android that aims to streamline the look and feel of its data and coaching. In a lot of ways, Basis and the Jawbone Up app feel like close competitors in the "wellness coaching" arena, and Basis looks to have made major catch-up strides here.
It may not look like a supersexy watch from a distance, but it feels good to hold and use: the Peak is made of brushed aluminum with a Gorilla Glass 3-covered LCD touch screen, easily readable in bright daylight like a Pebble or your everyday digital watch. I tried on both colors: black with a red and black strap, and brushed aluminum with a white strap. They feel better than they look, and the smoothly-scrolling touch display worked smoothly for quick swipes across modes. There aren't any physical buttons on the Peak, and I wasn't sweaty enough to see the touchscreen would work after a gym session.
The Peak is also water resistant to 5 ATM, a big bonus for those like myself who swim or like to shower with their watches. The soft silicone 23mm watch straps feel more comfortable than those on the older Basis watch, and they're replaceable with any equivalently sized watch strap you can find. Battery life is estimated for around four days, even though it's often continuously tracking heart rate. It charges using a magnetic cradle which snaps on the back a lot easier than older Basis charge dongles.
You can even get phone messages down the road on the Peak, just like a smartwatch: Basis promises that the Peak will receive incoming phone call notifications, emails and texts via a future update after the watch is released, and more app-based notifications in the future. Don't expect the Basis Peak to do the sorts of things harder-core smartwatches can do, but it might be plenty smart enough for most people.
The real question is, how does the Basis Peak work for its fitness coaching? The original Basis B1 had moments it worked well but often had quirky, unreliable heart-rate tracking, too. The new Peak looks to have more reliable, larger optical heart rate sensors with bigger LEDs, better Bluetooth and improved software. Can it be the ultimate wellness watch? And will the Basis Peak do things with its sensors that other health watches have been unable to achieve? Stay tuned for a review when we get one to try...but it certainly sounds promising. Outside of the Jawbone Up ecosystem, Basis focuses more on habit-forming through wearables than anyone else.