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In Depth Product Reviews
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Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
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My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
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The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
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I’ve been looking at stuff like this — I passed on the UP system because the Fitbit Flex is coming out soon with wireless sync and myfitnesspal integration. Do you know if the basis can do those two things?
No wireless sync (probably the biggest downside I’m seeing thus far). It’s the USB dock you see in the photo for sync. On the bright side, it only takes literally about 8-10 seconds.
No integration with anybody right now. They note they’re working on an API, but unclear on where it stands (I’ll have more details on that by the review I’m sure).
I am also considering investing in a Fitbit Flex.
Looking forward to your review of the Basis! My first impression is that it looks rather masculine and bulky.
Yeah, I’m not a big fan of the Fitbit Flex. I’m a bit fan of the other Fitbits (in particular, the Zip, which I wear every day and have been since October). But the Flex lacks the display, and without the display you’ll slowly forget about it. One of the reasons the Nike+ Fuelband is so successful, it’s both on your wrist as a constant reminder, but also a quick tap shows you how far to your goal.
The Basis has the same goal-concept on your wrist with the display (sorta like a progress bar).
… Just glancing at your pics.
I’d be interested to know if the basis support metric system. Thanks!
Yes, you can switch to Metric using the site and it pushes down to the watch.
This seems very interesting.
My first question is how it will hold up when running/biking/swimming with it?
The next question is how dorky I would look wearing this AND a 310XT…
They say they ‘don’t guarantee it for swimming’. It’s a bit unclear what that means. I’ll get clarification if they mean it’ll kill it, or it just won’t get good data.
No problems tonight cycling with it (75 minutes worth). Will run tomorrow, though I do know from past discussions that their focus is more on the other 22-23 hours of the day, rather than the performance/athletic side (which is where something like the Mio Alpha focuses).
And yes, dorky-factor would be high… :)
Really like it all ready but totally sold out :(
I’m really looking forward to this review
Sounds like a body bug?
Pretty similiar. Though, BodyBugg doesn’t do heart rate (this does), and I don’t believe they measure sleep either. But yes, fairly similar.
BodyBugg’s market is focused mostly on weight loss, whereas this is focused more on overall healthy living (keeping active, getting the right amount of sleep, blah, blah blah).
I actually have a BodyBugg, but the software drove me crazy (clunky), so haven’t worn it sense last spring.
I’m assuming it doesn’t as that is what this suggests:
link to support.mybasis.com
but does it have the functionality of the Suunto memory belt which records every heart beat? (i.e. records r-r data for the whole day)
It’d honestly be useless for that. In my testing thus far, it only got about three data points on my 1hr 15m run, and just a handful more on my 2hr ride.
It’s really good at getting HR data in casual activities, but as they’ve hinted at, it’s not good at all for anything remotely athletic.
My wife just received hers and really likes it for the most part. Due (we think) to her smaller wrists (and Basis’s current lack of a smaller strap) it doesn’t pick up her heart rate during exercise activities. Kinda sucks that it doesn’t, but they warned us about this in the literature. Also, she says the strap is painful to wear during sleep so she usually takes it off at bedtime. We hope that when Basis comes out with a smaller band that this will fix some of those issues. That said, she loves wearing it during the day to keep track of her “normal activity” heart rate and it seems to do a pretty good job of tracking her steps.
One more thing, after you sync it, the chart does only show you a few data points, but there has to be more data somewhere. Along with the data points, the chart shows you values for min heart rate and max heart rate. On my wife’s chart, the min HR was lower than the lowest HR shown on any of the data points. Hopefully, Basis plans on making this “extra” data available to consumers in the near future.
My wife stopped wearing hers because the pain she was experiencing was getting worse. She gave it to me to try, and i haven’t had any of the discomfort issues that she was having. the fact that my wrists are quite a bit larger than hers probably has something to do with it.
As for my opinion of the device, I really like the non-exercise HR tracking capability and I’m interested in learning more about what the temp and perspiration data means. As for the step counting, I compared Basis’ step data following a 3 hour hike with a simple belt-mounted pedometer, and they were out of sync by 20%. I don’t wear it during exercise and I take it off whenever it might get really wet (shower, washing dishes, etc.). I have a Zeo bedside that i use for sleep tracking so i really don’t follow much of the Basis’ sleep data either.
All in all, I like the HR, skin temp, and perspiration tracking capabilities, but $200 seems a bit much for those 3 things IMHO. Further, as others have mentioned, I’m not thrilled that I have to rely on Basis’s website being there to get my data (in the event they go under). I would also definitely appreciate them moving forward a little faster on their smart phone integration. At the rate they’re moving, I can’t see them lasting very long. Maybe they’re hoping for a merger with a larger company.
I tried the Omron HR500u but returned it as unreliable. I’m liking my Mio Alpha but so far have not gotten to to connect to another device. This seems to combine the Alpha and the fitbit (my other device). I’m impatiently patiently waiting for your review so i can decide what, if anything, to do next. Thanks!
Can you give us an update on the timing of your full-up review?
Thanks!
I’ve got three near-term reviews all nearing completion:
Basis
Viiiiva
Neptune
+ other non-announced items
But I don’t have a finite schedule. 1-2 of those above will hit next week, and the rest the following week.
Just as an FYI/Update, I’ve posted the full in-depth review for the Basis watch, it’s located here: link to dcrainmaker.com
As such, I’ll go ahead and close out comments on this and ask folks to direct comments over there.