Intel darling Basis has unveiled the Peak, a smart watch that offers more features than its predecessor and promises better battery life than its rivals.
The $199.99 Peak wears Gorilla Glass on its face and carries four types of sensors: an optical heart rate sensor, galvanic skin response senor, skin temperature senor and a three-axis accelerometer. The skin sensor records skin temperature and perspiration, while the re-engineered heart rate sensor tracks beating hearts with much more accuracy than the Peak's predecessor.
"Since our first product, Basis has continued to set a high standard of rich data and insights for both fitness and sleep," said Jef Holove, general manager of Basis. "Now with Peak, we've achieved an even higher level of performance and extended functionality, delivering an all-in-one device to help people live healthier day and night, at work or working out."
The Peak's notifications system elevates the wearable beyond the realm of fitness bands, as it alerts wearers of incoming calls and text messages from their Android or iOS smartphones. The notifications system isn't ready just yet, but Basis says it expects to release it sometime in the future.
The Peak boasts the ability to go four days before needing a charge, even when the fitness watch is running at full power around the clock.
The Peak is also a sleep tracker, as it uses it heart rate monitor and accelerometer to track the resting heart rates and nocturnal movements of wearers. Basis says Peak is the only sleep tracker that automatically detects individual sleep cycles.
Intel acquired Peak for somewhere between $100 million and $150 million back in March 2014, after falling in love with Basis' namesake fitness band.
"As we drive innovation in wearable technology, Intel is confident that the technology improvements in the next-generation Basis product help deliver on that promise," said Michael Bell, corporate vice president and general manager of Intel's New Devices Group. "With the introduction of Peak, Basis has expanded the boundaries of what a fitness and sleep tracker can do by delivering truly actionable information and data to its users that changes and improves their daily habits."
The acquisition offered indication of just how serious Intel is about getting into wearables, but the tech company is also working another angle to establish itself in the market. In early September, Intel announced that it wanted to make fashionable tech and revealed that it has partnered with Fossil.
