Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

*****UPDATE MARCH 30/14****** update is at the bottom, has to do with Advanced Sleep Analysis ***************************** I love this watch aka band, i was procrastinating and wanted to buy something, i went deep into this watch very deep. Looking at what was available on the market i found quickly that, One: a lot of bands are lifestyle bands, not for the people that what more (aka athletes), and Two: they didn't have the sensors i wanted. With that said there are a lot of bands that are very good, Jawbone and Fitbit offer great bands, Nike + band to me is kinda gimmicky, it works and does what its supposed to, its not a placebo watch, i just don't like that it doesn't give you basic metrics, like they got their nike fuel but i can't compare that with real world metrics. Sucks even more considering they are a sports company and a lot of the athletes need something more than nike fuel. So to get to the band, i got it for about $150 with shipping (i got it used on ebay, just incase you're wondering). I didn't wanna spend $200 on it honestly. Aesthetics (8/10): The watch is designed nicely, but it doesn't really look say "cool". i do love the modular design of the wristband, i haven't had it break apart tho like others have. But you do wanna take it apart and clean it once in a while. I don't mind the way it looks, to me its kinda of a businessy look and i can dig that. Hardware (9/10): It has an array of sensors, but one of my biggest complaints is that the HR monitor isn't accurate when working out, which was why i kinda got the thing. Other than that its built like an apple product, everything is nicely crafted, but like an apple product the fragile part is the screen. I haven't had any issues with it, i take showers with the watch and it hasn't had any issues. One thing to note, i'm not sure if its the flick to turn on the backlight, but once in a while a droplet of water triggers one of the watches 4 buttons, i thought it was supposed to stop this from happening, maybe its because of a rotation or something. It says not to swim with it cause the water slowly creeps into the internals of the device, i haven't had issues with showering with it. The 4 buttons are sensitive but not too much in my experience, it does turn on if i am scratching my back say and my arm slips onto the watch (which is fine, i don't mind). Also there is a physical button on the right side of the watch, which can be used to enable/disable bluetooth and connect to a new device. I haven't had any issues with that button. The band is also very firm, its not too loose or too tight. The watch is very easy to read in sunlight and the backlight is perfectly set, not too bright but not too dark either. Software (9/10): If you are on an iOS device then this is a 10/10 but being an android user i give it 9/10 cause we don't get the same info as the Apple users do. I have an HTC One and the app works fine, nothing special though, i just use the website for tracking. It automatically updates when you plug it into a computer and prompts if there is an update for the B1. Software was easy to setup (coming from a used B1 also), its probably even easier if you get it brand new. The Website its very nicely designed, its has these things called Habit Spaces and you choose a habit you wanna get into doing everyday and it tracks that for you. The habit spaces i have currently are: wear it (wearing the band everyday), consistent bedtime, lets ride (riding a bike), get more sleep. I will talk about the habit spaces more but below. The website has 2 other tabs, insight and data. Insight just gives you an "insight" on whats going on with you today, your habits, sleep, hr, steps walked, etc. I don't use is it much. The next tab is the holy-grail of the entire watch, data, data contains 2 things, one is pattern, pattern just gives you a breakdown of how calories, HR, perspiration, skin temp, steps, etc. This gives you a breakdown of the last 13 days including today and the averages of whatever you have selected, it displays this in an hour-average. The second part of data, does what pattern does but basically with more info and minute by minute basis ;) rather than the hour, you can zoom in, select and deselect different measurements. Habits (7/10): so these bands are supposed to motivate you some what, and the Basis has for me. I'm an active person, very active at times but i did find that i wanted to meet expectations of the watch, say steps taken or time slept. There are a few Habit spaces and they can be unlocked by completing other habits but honestly its not very hard to earn points and i do wish they had more habits available. I give it a 7 out of 10 because i don't really care about habit spaces but i don't mind having them, they are the equivalent to say Nike fuel Battery (9.5/10): The watch last a good i would say 4+ days. I use it a lot to check the time, and when i do this the backlight is usually one, i check maybe 100+ times a day. Its always connected via bluetooth to my phone. It takes i would say about 2 hours to charge, it doesn't give you a percentage but just a bar for battery life. It also doesn't tell you how much time you have left until it dies, it does tell you when the battery is less than 20% and i usually continue to use it for maybe 4-6 hours and then charge it. It hasn't died on me once. It sends the notification to my phone and thats how i know the battery is low. They say to charge it when you are uploading your data, first it takes only like about 10 seconds or less to upload data, and second i have it uploading every 3 hours via bluetooth to my phone and then to the basis website. So unless you want to charge it everyday, i don't recommend it. The charger itself isn't that bad, it fits on and you can wear the watch while you charge it, limitation being that you need to be near a computer for a long time (which isn't uncommon in today's age). Body IQ (8.5/10): this is a new feature that was added to the B1 a couple of weeks ago, it tracks whether your running,walking or biking. I would say it has a 95% accuracy when doing this. Walking and running are fine, biking is different, it does track me usually fine when i am biking but a couple of times it notice a bit too late or didn't notice at all. Great feature though, it gives you the appropriate amount of calories burned during that exercise. Support (8/10): I have had no issues with the device but i have had a lot of questions. I emailed the Basis Team and they responded fairly quickly, @my_basis (basis' twitter account) replies fairly quickly when you tweet at them and the most important part about that is that they reply, most companies do not, they even reply to criticism. The website's forums are some what helpful but a device of this caliber doesn't really need much support...cause there ain't much wrong with it Improvements for B2: I would love an all in one exercise band/watch, this is close but not that. It is much better than the competition i would say and i would give it a worth of $150. I really want a more accurate HR sensor and an O2 (oxygen) sensor built in. The battery life is fine but a full 7 days would be even nicer. I would love for the measurements to be more accurate, when you sign up they take your body weight and sex and then i assume based off of HR and maybe skin temperature they use a formula (Which you can find online) to measure the amount of calories burned. I was actually surprised that it measures all calories and not just ones burned by physical activity. These measurements could probably be made better by say a better HR sensor and a o2 sensor. I know this might be a little insane but maybe adding a sensor that calculates something to do with your blood stream, say sugar levels, blood pressure, glucose, testosterone. But we might be a couple years away from that. Also even better for the consumer, make an add-on that does that, and make it very small, still would be like a wrist band but it would be small and could send the B1 more data. Next model should include Bluetooth low energy which would help save even more power, and also PLEASE BASIS release or finish the API, we developers need it and maybe open up the basis like pebble has done with their smart watch. I'm not sure how much the blinking colon between the time (used as a second indicator) effects the battery but if we can double battery life, just keep it solid. Same goes with the battery percentage, i assume they have the bar because its saves more battery than putting a number that would change a lot. Maybe allow the smartphone app to be able to know what percent it is at. Also a bigger screen, but keep at least a couple of buttons, i love the simple layout of the device. SHOULD YOU BUY IT: If you are looking for a great all in one watch/exercise band, this is great. Great price i would say at $150, ok at $199. Better than the competition in some ways, even though this is an exercise watch, i give it 2 thumbs up for 2 things, one its a watch, i don't really wear watches but this has helped me and saved me soo much time, and two it gives me a rough estimate of how many calories my body has burned, as a weight lifter, i need to know this, since if i am trying to bulk i need a surplus of calories, if i am trying to stay lean (need just enough or little more) or cut (i need to create a deficit). I would an am probably gonna sell this but either cause the B2 is getting released or cause a new exercise band that has a clock and is better is being brought to the market. I hate taking my phone out to look at the time, and thats the only thing keeping me from selling it, is that its a watch. I would actually argue that you should buy this over any $100-150 watch, because this is so much more than a normal watch too. I honestly don't see why you wouldn't buy this over say a fitbit force, tracking accuracy is very similar for the watches, the basis does more, but the force is smaller and does cost less though. If money is an issue, either save up or buy that, if you hate to wear watches, again a fitness band is for you. Other Devices to look out for: Obviously the market is slowly becoming more saturated by smart/fitness watches, a lot of these are being kickstarted. I have seen a couple of cool new exercise bands. The ARIO is probably the coolest, check it out if you haven't, its just a band (not a watch) but it pretty much tracks everything you could think of, based off of what is moving through your bloodstream, it can tell you what type of food you ate, the amount of protein, fat and carbohydrates in the food, and a whole lot more. I think its too good to be true, that's why i haven't jumped on it but that is something really cool that i would definitely buy if it works (even though its not a watch). The second which seems to be legit is the Angel band, it does everything the basis does, and more, but it's also not a watch (like the AIRO). It is also completely developer friendly, built for developers one could say. I am probably going to buy that if its any good, that would obviously be more of a hacker friendly device, the basis is more consumer oriented. I don't see any of the big companies in fitness watches really innovating, they just add one thing on at a time and just milk the money train, but i hope they do eventually implement an all in one watch/exercise band into one device. Hopefully me review was helpful, please leave questions if you have any, cheers :) ***** Oh and i almost forget, i have some hair on my arm but i was told that doesn't effect the sensors, and i haven't noticed any issues. ***** ************Advanced Sleep Analysis ********** So the sleep analysis was released in early January and you may ask why i didn't update my review earlier, well i was very busy with school and i need to test it out. First this bumps the score of the B1 up 1/2 a point. So this kinda is a major bonus on top of the band being a watch. Like i said its nice that it has the Body IQ tech and calorie counting, i think sleep analysis is right on level with those 2. I still like that its a watch first. So on to the review of the new tech that is implemented. So Advanced Sleep Analysis uses the new Body IQ tech that was put in last year. It measures REM Sleep, Deep Sleep, Light Sleep, Toss-and-Turn, Interruptions and Duration. First i did have a few minor hiccups (very minor considering i have used it for about 3 months), it would sometimes not recognize that i have woken up and i am in the bathroom brushing my teeth, but its only minor (adds like 5 minutes to light sleep). Also i had the same delay issue with going to sleep, maybe 3 times (again very minor). But there have been a couple of times where for some reason it doesn't think i am sleeping like 3 hours into the sleep and i am pretty sure i was sleeping. it would think i fell asleep like 10-30 minutes after i thought i fell asleep, again this might be my fault, cause who actually knows when they fall asleep. So if you do happen to wake up when you are sleeping, the B1 still tracks the next segment of sleep, on the website (not yet implemented on the apps) it allows you to combine say 3 segments of sleep during the same night, so like you went to sleep, woke up and drank some milk, then went to sleep and woke up to go to school but then fell asleep again (3 segments of sleep), it would allow you to combine all of those into one large sleep segment, not that its hard to actually count the hours for each type of sleep (deep,rem,light). One thing it doesn't do is say you had a nap (which it can track, since a nap is just shorten sleep) at around 5pm, and then fell asleep around 11 pm, it won't always let have a "View Sleep Nearby" button (it is what combines all the segments of sleep). It's not a big problem, but for people that haven't taken grade 4 math, it might be an issue. Benefits of the sleep analysis are obviously that it can track your different sleep cycles, like REM, Deep and light. You could even show this to your doctor and help them out if you have like sleep apnea or some sleeping condition. It's not medical grade but it gives a rough estimate. I started taking a supplement called ZMA, all it contains is zinc, magnesium and Vitamin B6, but apparently helps you sleep better and improves deep sleep. So i tried it and with Basis B1, i could see if it made a difference and it did, my deep sleep was around 20%-25% range and so was my REM. I am pretty sure that the B1 uses your heart rate to detect when you are in different cycles of sleep, and a nice thing to try out is say you are sleeping but you are interrupted (which the sleep analysis tracks), you could go to the activity panel on the website and see what was going on at that time, like what was your heart rate, perspiration, or even see if you were SLEEP WALKING ;) Overall this makes the B1 a much better product and i highly recommend buying this now, i haven't seen any other watches that can do all the B1 can. Again i am not sponsored by Basis and i am always looking for new tech to invest in. The B1 went from being just a watch with a couple cool features to a watch that is pretty much like a smart watch, its horizon has expanded a lot. I do give props to the Basis team for developing something that they might have not thought of during the development phase of the product, but using what they had to develop new features, i like when the product is milked until no milk remains A tip i sent the basis team was that since the watch knows when you are in Deep, REM, and Light sleep, that maybe implement an alarm feature, so that the watch would wake you up when you are in Light Sleep. Like wake me up during 7-7:30 am and i go from REM sleep to light sleep at around 7:12 am, the alarm could go off like a few minutes after it recognizes it. I am also waiting for the API to be released, i would use it to develop an alarm app that uses the sleep analysis tech. I don't know what is next for Basis but they have been bought by Intel, so hopefully they release an API and great products.