5.0 out of 5 stars
My first GPS sports watch - a nice device :-)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 18, 2016
- Introduction -
As a technology freak my smartphone always is a companion while jogging, but not because I wanted to make calls during my workouts, more as a helper for recording some metrics like the distance, the time, the heartrate (by pulse belt) and of course to listen to music.
But especially in the summer, when I'm out with shorts running, the smartphone bothered me because oft the huge size in my pocket (Initially a compact Galaxy S2, now a Galaxy Note 3). Also mounting the phone on the upper arm with special bag was kind of goofy and uncomfortable.
Now I got the opportunity to test the new TomTom Runner 3 Sports Watch and want to tell you my experience here.
- Processing and delivery -
The GPS sports watch arrives in a small, nice box and it is very easy to take it out from this. The style of the watch is kept very sporty. The watch and the bracelet are made out of one piece, which contributes to that sportife look.
The processing of the watch is in my opinion well. It feels relative valent, even if it is made entirely of plastic. However, this plastic seems to be very stable. The bracelet can be closed quite quickly after a short practice.
Included next to the clock is a small manual and USB synchronization cable, which also serves to charge.
- First use -
Setting up the watch is quiet easy. Once you connect the charging cable to the clock and the USB port of a computer, the screen displays the URL www.tomtom.com/123. Browsing to this, you end up on the download page of "MySports Connect" software. The software is downloaded and installed quickly and detects the clock automatically. Now you have to register an account with the MySports service. This works well. Too bad, that I can not use my normal TomTom account for this, which I need for my GPS navigation devices from TomTom.
Once the watch is charged, it is ready to use. The software now asks some basic personal information, like age, weight, etc., and is then synchronized with the watch.
- Operation and functions -
The GPS sports watch is operated by four-way navigation keys below the display. In addition you can activate the display backlight through laying down your hand on the display for a moment. The display is very sharp and easy to read because it is black and white. They keys are good but the block in the middle of the keys is useless and is making a little noise when the built in vibration is active.
Navigating through the menues with these buttons (up, down, left, right) is first a little confusing, but after a few times it works very quickly! On the start page, the clock is always shown (including the date). Pressing the left button obtains a quick overview of the number of steps done today, the distance traveled and the calories consumption. Either for the current day or the current week.
By pressing the up-key from the home screen, starts the music playback. Therefore one must connect the first time a bluetooth headset, which is automatically found when the headset is in pairing mode. The music playback is relatively rudimentary, you can only skip back, forward or pause. Unfortunately there is no way to see all the songs in a list and start playing a specific song. But I think this is due to the fact that the display is small (its only a watch, not a smartphone). The music is transfered with the USB cable like to a USB drive. That takes relatively long (for me about 10 seconds per song) but since you dont do this quite often, that’s okay.
From the Home screen, pressing the down key, you get into the many options. Here you can pair your smartphone to synchronize the training results wirelessly via Bluetooth with the MySports app. That works relatively well, only now and then the smartphone does not find the watch. It helps to turn Bluetooth off and on or to press a button on the watch as it seems that the watch goes into standby after a period of time.
The most interesting is of course the actual function of the sportswatch: recording your training sessions. Pressing the right key from the start screen, you can now start a workout.
Till now, I have used two programs: jogging and swimming.
For the jogging program I have previously planned a route via Google Earth. After converting the file tot he GPX format, it can be uploaded on the MySports website (trough the windows programm) to the clock. If you now start the training, the route is shown on the display (you can even zoom in). After the training a summary of the results like the elapsed time, the pulse, the distance, etc. is shown.
While swimming you can adjust the length of the swimming track and after the workout, serveral information are shown like the distance, the speed, burnt calories and so on.
I find it very nice that you can enter different goals at every sports program such as a specific distance or time.
With my watch all this worked fine and I can see the progress on the MySports website or app. The GPS reception is always good and the music playback also works nicely. Now and then there are some blips but that seems to be the result of my Bluetooth headset, because that happens sometimes with the smartphone too.
The evaluation of the various metrics such as step count, calories burned, etc. directly on the clock is a nice feature, unfortunately it is not possible to setup when a new week starts. It always resets on Sunday. Here TomTom should make improvements.
- Battery life -
I am using the TomTom Runner 3 now since four days. I’ve already been jogging and swimming. The battery is still half full. The heart rate monitor is switched on during the whole period. I think the battery life is very good and TomTom doesn’t promis too much.
- Conclusion -
Tomtom Runner 3 watch does its job very well. In my opinion it is really just a sports watch. A real smartwatch should not be expected here, but that is okay as it is not even sold as one.
The numerous sports programs make sense thanks to the individual adjustment possibilities and thanks to the integrated MP3 player you don’t have to carry around a smartphone. In my opinion, the watch is worth a purchase for people, who do a lot of sports and want to track their workouts.
There are only few disadvantages: It is a little bit annoying, that the weekly statistics are beeing reset on Sunday at 0.00 am and that you can not use an existing TomTom account which you already need for their navigation devices.
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