While its limitations may disappoint some, the Peak is elegant in its simplicity. All the data captured by the Peak flows into the cloud via the smartphone app, which is available for both iOS and Android. Once synced, it’s possible to view all your activity data either on the app itself, or via a browser in Basis’ online portal. By default, the graphing functions detail heart rate, steps taken and calories burnt, but it’s also possible to toggle skin temperature and perspiration rate – although frankly, it’s difficult to see why anyone would need to know all this.
One of the Peak’s best features is the ability to set Habits in the app. These include goals such as getting up or going to sleep at consistent times, burning a preset number of calories per day, or even just getting up and
walking around now and again. You can tailor these goals to suit, and completing them successfully earns points that allow you to add extra Habits to the list.
The sleep tracking is impressively thorough. The Peak monitors when you drop off and wake up and analyses how much of your night is spent in REM, deep and light sleep states, as well as how many times you toss and turn, and interruptions such as popping downstairs to get a drink.
The Peak’s app balances these results to give you a sleep score in percentage form. While this may sound gimmicky, it works surprisingly well: over three weeks, the worst sleep ratings directly correlated with the arrival of a nasty cold, and high ratings correlated with the sensation of genuinely having slept very well indeed.
The only downside? Sitting very still at a desk, in the cinema or while watching TV may be enough to trigger the Peak into thinking you’re having a nap. Basis’ sleep algorithm clearly isn’t infallible.
■Verdict
It all makes for a very curious wearable. For true fitness fanatics, the Basis Peak is unlikely to hit the spot. The inability to export data to other apps or record GPS-tracked rides and runs – not to mention the lack of any speed, pace or distance information – make it incapable of replacing more fully featured devices, such as the Microsoft Band or Garmin Vivoactive.
Meanwhile, those wanting a do-it-all fitness wearable and smartwatch may be put off by the crude notification support. In truth, £170 seems a lot to pay for what you’re getting here, especially since much of the data captured doesn’t seem to serve much purpose.
Despite all this, there’s something intriguing about the Peak. At its best, it’s a fuss-free way of tracking your daily habits and changing them for the better, and the sleep tracking seems pretty accurate too. There’s no getting away from the sense that the Basis Peak is a hi-tech toy rather than an essential fitness wearable, but if your focus is more geeking out than bulking up, then it may hit the spot. SASHA MULLER
SPECIFICATIONS
1.2in monochrome touchscreen●optical
heart-rate monitor●3-axis accelerometer●
galvanic skin-response sensor●thermal
sensor●water resistant to 5ATM (IP68)●
Bluetooth 4 LE●iOS and Android compatible ●1yr RTB warranty●watch body only, 42 x 13
x 44mm (WDH)●48g (including strap)
ABOVEThis is no sleek smartwatch – the Basis Peak has a far more chunky design
Reviews
@ P C P R O F A C E B O O K . C O M / P C P R OSCORE
✪✪✪✪✪
T
he Slingbox M1 is not your everyday TV streamer. Instead of delivering catch-up content from online sources direct to your TV, the Slingbox allows you to take remote control of an existing cable or satellite box and stream its content to your laptop, tablet or smartphone.It sounds exciting at first. A thing you’d want to do, just because. But what are the practical benefits – if you’re not in a position to splash £129 just for the sake of it?
Well, there are a few applications. If you’re the type who hoards recordings of movies on your set-top box, for instance, the Slingbox M1 provides a way of accessing these recordings quickly and easily from any device, anywhere on the planet.
It’s also useful for live sports: if you want to watch the big match while you’re away, it should offer a better way of doing it than trawling the internet for a dodgy stream. And if you’re desperate to catch something on live TV before your Twitter stream gets clogged with spoilers, it’s good for that too.
Setting it up is simple enough: plug the M1 into the video and audio outputs of your set-top box, and connect the outputs on the Slingbox to the corresponding inputs on your TV. This allows the box to intercept the signal, encode it ready for streaming, and pipe it over the internet, or your local network, to your laptop, tablet or smartphone.
Video connections are made via composite or component cables (HDMI won’t work due to HDCP restrictions), the box connects to the internet via dual-band 802.11n Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and control over your box is provided via an IR blaster integrated
into the rear of the Slingbox. (The box also ships with an extender you can stick to the front of your set-top box if the integrated transmitter doesn’t work with your setup.)
Once you’ve set up an account on Sling’s website, you’re good to go. Sling provides apps for all the major mobile operating systems, including a Modern app for Windows. These apps even support Google Cast, so you can send content directly to a TV via a Chromecast. The simplest way to connect to your Slingbox, however, is to install either the Windows or OS X desktop application.
In general, the system works well. I hooked up the Slingbox M1 to an ageing Virgin Media HD box and found streaming from my house in north-east London to my parents’ place in Wimbledon Park was reasonably stable, and quality surprisingly high. I did experience the occasional bout of buffering, and sometimes the quality dropped, but by and large the stream was perfectly watchable.
The Slingbox M1 will stream at resolutions up to 1080p if you’re using component connections (with composite connections you’re limited to standard definition). Just bear in mind that the quality it delivers in real-world use will vary depending on the speed of the connection, in particular at the upload end. In the test above, my uplink speed was 3Mbits/sec, so it clearly doesn’t need a huge amount of bandwidth. However, it stands to reason that if your broadband connection isn’t reliable or speedy enough, the Slingbox M1 isn’t for you.
The remote-control aspect of the system is more hit and miss.
To change channels, or browse your recordings, Slingbox’s software provides a virtual, onscreen remote control, which mimics not only the layout, but the exact appearance of your set-top box’s remote control. This means it’s pretty easy to get to grips with; on my box, however, I found it terribly unresponsive. Clicking buttons to navigate around often involved a lag of between three and four seconds before that action was reflected onscreen. This makes browsing long lists of recordings or the programme guide a real pain,
and fast-forwarding through the ads feels a little like playing pin the tail on the donkey.
More irksome than this is Sling’s policy on pricing. The box itself isn’t cheap to start with. At £129, it’s more than four times the price of a Chromecast, and then you have to pay for the apps on top. They’re not cheap, either, at around £11 each. And while the Windows and OS X desktop software is free, it hosts irritating ads when the app’s not full-screen.
All of which is a shame, because the hardware does the job as well as can be expected. Remote control is a touch laggy, but given a fast enough internet connection, picture quality is perfectly acceptable. If you’re already paying for a comprehensive cable or satellite TV service, it’s a great way of making the most of that subscription, and it may be the only way for die-hard sports fans to get their fix when travelling.
If you’re tempted by the Slingbox M1, however, I’d advise you ask yourself one key question before you splash out: “How often would I use it?” The answer is unlikely to be enough to justify the £129 price tag. JONATHAN BRAY
SPECIFICATIONS
Up to 1080p resolution●component and
composite video out●IR●dual-band
802.11n Wi-Fi●10/100 Ethernet●1yr
RTB warranty●179 x 110 x 42mm (WDH)
ABOVESimply connect the Slingbox to your set-top box to enable streaming
Works pretty well considering what it’s being asked to do
Ads in desktop apps; mobile apps are expensive extras
SlingboxM1
Acleverpieceofkit,but
Sling hasbeenbypassed
by theworldofon-demand
andcatch-upTV
PRICE£108 (£129 inc VAT)from turbosat.com (pcpro.link/250sling)