So after my first Basis 1 watch did not survive a shower on the first day; my replacement came quickly with a return authorization.
I have now had this second watch for about a month and so far, so good. In fact the day after I received it, I was out fishing and after bringing the boat in, reached into my livewell which was full of water to remove the drain pipe; a few short turns later I realized that my watch was still on my wrist. Uh oh….. I quickly removed my arm and dried off the watch. The buttons did not work, so I did a reset and voilà, all good, and no water intrusion! Over the next few days the Basis 1 continued to work fine and while I no longer shower with it, the water intrusion issue they discussed appears corrected. Thank you Basis.
A few days later, Basis had a major Firmware update. The update was great as it now differentiated between walking, running and bike riding. I tested the bike riding one afternoon and it did a very good job of recognizing when I began riding and when I stopped.
Here are a few issues of note:
- One weekend I participated in a Florida Trail Association work hike. On these hikes I enjoy taking one of the large DR Mowers and spending the day walking along behind it.
- After about 6 total hours of mowing, walking over 6.5 miles, I noted that the Basis watch on the left arm reported about 13,000 steps fewer than the Fitbit Flex on the right arm, which showed 20,000. Later in the day when reviewing the reports online, the Basis tracked a short period of this time as bike riding, but had large periods with no steps or other activity. I’m sure its difficult to track with a mower, but the Fitbit Flex has consistently done a very good job when I do the lawn at the house or on this volunteer day.
The Basis 1 appears to have difficulty tracking when you are holding something like a shopping cart or even when I was holding a pizza box with one arm and the box rested against my body. These are situations where the Fitbit Flex is better.
- The band for the Basis 1 has come off once, so I now check that it is firmly attached to the watch.
- The band is rather cheap and is a bit of a pain to put on or take off. It would be nice if they had a leather band or some other nicer material. They do sell a nicer looking band but I believe the strap material is the same rubber.
- The Basis 1 has had a few issues accurately tracking steps on a Precor elliptical as well.
The heart rate monitor is a very cool feature and I now have a better sense of my resting heart rate, my exertion during exercise, etc. And the calories do fluctuate based upon your exertion.
During a workout with a trainer, when I was doing some rapid plyometric training and jumping onto a bench, there were significant stretches with no heart rate tracking. I originally thought it might have been due to how tight the watch was on my arm, but after doing the same exercises a few days later with the watch strapped very tight, the problem persisted, although not as bad. Here is a screen shot of that time, note the gaps in the heart rate graph and the heart rate it reported below was also well under what my heart rate was. when the strap was tighter, the heart rate results appeared better.
I have used a few of the “Habit” cards and with my competitive nature, they have pushed me to complete the activities consistently. For example I added the “Evening Lap” and set it at 2,000 steps. This causes the website to tracks my steps after 5 pm. I now go out on an evening walk to make sure I reach the 2,000 goal and it also helps me get to 12,000 steps per day, my current overall step goal.
Now that I have not had an issue with water intrusion, I really like the Basis 1 Watch. It does not track steps as well as the Fitbit Flex, nor does it allow for tracking meals or other activities, its interface is not as good as the Fitbit Flex, and it has no social networking, but the extra data is very useful for me and I will continue using it.
Here are a few screen shots to give you a feel for the data available; all were from the same day.
