Opinions on Basis Peak?

[Dominique]

What is your opinion on the recently announced Basis Peak? I had been briefly considering the Basis B1 from the same company in Spring 2013, but ended up getting the Fitbit One for activity tracking and the MIO Alpha for heart rate monitoring. The Basis Peak now looks very attractive, at least on paper: it's much sleaker than the B1, has longer battery life, can monitor your HR during exercise, while counting steps/calories, monitoring sleep (they even claim to track REM and deep sleep) etc. It does cost more than twice as much as a Fitbit, but doubles as a HRM (in fact, it costs the same as the MIO Alpha, which does nothing else than HRM). I'm not yet ready to ditch my beloved Fitbit One, but I'm seriously looking at the Basis Peak.

[tryfailtry]

I've been considering the Peak as well. It sounds like, if nothing else, an accurate measurement of your activity with its sensors. Plus, the interface looks good.

Was trying to decide between that and the Polar M400 (activity tracker with GPS functionality).

But I suppose today's teaser about the new Fitbit Charge will have me hold out a little longer to see what Fitbit has planned. If the Charge HR has heartrate sensing, it's unlikely to be as advanced as what Basis has put at the forefront of their development, but it may have some good features. 

[Dominique]

Thanks for pointing me to the forthcoming Fitbit Charge and Charge HR, I had a look at the Gizmodo story about them. I wouldn't have believed Fitbit would introduce a tracker with HR monitoring capabilities. The display of the Charge looked very tiny to me (compared to the Basis Peak, which looks more like a smart watch). I could see myself using both the Fitbit One and the Basis Peak side-by-side, rather than replacing the One with the Charge.

[RobynKTakami]

The Basis Peak is intriguing. I will probably pass on it in favor of the rumored FitBit Charge HR because the Basis uses electrodes which my skin is sensitive to, the electrodes are for measuring galvanic skin response and are part of the Basis system but they will cause terrible skin sores over time for me that heal very slowly.

[Dominique]

Where did you see the Basis Peak uses "electrodes"? My understanding is it will use LEDs, to "see" the blood flow under your skin by illuminating it. This is how the MIO Alpha works. I've been using one for more than a year, without any issue whatsoever. No chemistry, nor electricity is involved. I believe the Charge HR will be using the same technology, unless it ships with a conventional chest strap sensor and communicates with it via Bluetooth.

[geiger]

If you're willing to sacrifice a little battery life and the good looks of a Fitbit, this Basis Peak vs. Fitbit Surge vs. Fitbit Charge HR comparison shows that the Peak really does have a lot of features. Personally, I think the Surge is a lot more attractive, though.

[Dominique]

Thanks for the link! I also just watched video reviews of the Basis Peak and of the Fitbit Surge. The Surge looks a lot more attractive to me, and I'd rather stay within the Fitbit "ecosystem" anyway. I don't see large companies like Intel, Sony or even Apple being able to compete against niche players like Fitbit.

[LadyMousie]

I have a Basis which I bought after my fitbit one died. After using it for a couple of months I went back to Fitbit Flex and now have a charge. I really wanted to like the Basis but it is very big, which I think may have been changed slightly in the Peak. On the plus side - the sleep analysis is exellent - if Fitbit had the detail that was available for the Basis, I would be in heaven. The HR monitor was OK and the skin temp etc was interesting but not really useful to me. The HR did not work during exercise which I think the Peak does, so I got better use out of my Polar HR monitor and basically I would have looked stupid wearing the Polar and the Peak during exercise, so I missed tracking all the steps I made during exercise.  There is no real Basis community which I found I missed from fitbit and you certainly can't compete with friends etc.  there are some challenges that increase over time, but I lost interest quickly.

I have had a fitbit in some form or other since the Ultra days and much preferred it.