A posting on the website of Intel’s Basis fitness tracker is advising customers to stop wearing the watch while an overheating problem is getting fixed.
On June 13, Basis posted that a “small number” of users were experiencing overheating problems with the Peak and B1 trackers, to the extent that the device “in some cases caused discomfort, blistering or burns on [users’] wrist under the watch body.” They promised a software update which would fix the problem; until then, the site suggested that customers stop wearing their trackers.
An update two weeks later said the company is continuing to work on the problem while making sure that the watch remained “reliably useful.” No fix date was promised.
It’s unusual for a product that’s been on the market for so long to have suddenly developed a problem like this. Batteries in mobile devices can get warm; maybe it’s an end-of-life issue for batteries that have reached a limit on charging cycles.
If you don’t want to wait, Basis is offering full refunds, even if your Peak is out of warranty.