The TomTom Cardio is a neat, new runner’s watch. The features of running watches these days have pretty much become standardised across many brands, with various features either being adopted or not by new technologies. there is little ‘new’ stuff out there.
HOWEVER more recently wrist based heart rate measuring has come onto the scene. The TomTom CARDIO is one of these. All you need is the watch. It has built-in GPS and optical HRM (heart rate monitoring).
It supports some Bluetooth sensors and outputs via Bluetooth as well. It does not support ANT+ sensors.
It can be used as a day-to-day watch and has per-second recording.
The HR is accurate up to medium-intensity levels of training (160ish bpm). Above that the readings are suspect on some people…but not on others.
The GPS distance accuracy is very good – to within 1% of other watches. And who knows which is correct!!
So you can train by HR or by PACE…pretty much what you need really. You create laps by tapping it – sorted.
It has a PC app and an Android app is to follow later in Sept 2014. Apparently you can export data out in other format but I never tested that.
It’s probably not as feature-full as the Polar M400 nor does it have the M400’s level of smartphone notifications or activity tracking. But it has one thing that Polar’s M400 does not…optical HR.
Why would you buy it?
It’s got pretty much most things most runners will need straight out of the box and all on your wrist. No nasty chest strap…so great for women (men too!). It looks fine and at just over £160 (Jun 2015) it is sensibly priced for GPS+Optical HR.
I like it.
Price Comparison
| Watches Comparison July 7th 2015 | Amazon | UK | Amazon2 | USA |
| Adidas MiCoach Smart Run | £209.99 | Link | $188.00 | Link |
| BRYTON 60H / S430 | £174.90 | Link | $199.00 | Link |
| Epson SF-810 | £201.08 | Link | $506.06 | Link |
| Epson SF-710 | £151.14 | Link | $297.91 | Link |
| Epson SF-510 | £140.63 | Link | $269.10 | Link |
| Epson SF-310 | £109.99 | Link | $208.11 | Link |
| Fitbit Charge HR | £105.00 | Link | $149.95 | Link |
| Garmin Edge 1000 | £390.84 | Link | $599.99 | Link |
| Garmin Edge 520 | TBC | TBC | ||
| Garmin Edge 510 | £249.36 | Link | $304.95 | Link |
| Garmin Edge 810 | £223.33 | Link | $394.95 | Link |
| Garmin Edge 25 | £139.99 | Link | $169.99 | Link |
| Garmin Edge 20 | £109.99 | Link | $129.99 | Link |
| Garmin Epix | £344.45 | Link | $549.99 | Link |
| Garmin Fenix3 (Sapphire) | £385.00 | Link | $589.95 | Link |
| Garmin Forerunner 220 | £158.09 | Link | $236.99 | Link |
| Garmin Forerunner 620 | £248.24 | Link | $388.28 | Link |
| Garmin Forerunner 630 | TBC | |||
| Garmin 910 XT | £232.49 | Link | $318.11 | Link |
| Garmin 920 XT | £302.65 | Link | $483.00 | Link |
| Garmin VivoActive | £199.10 | Link | $244.95 | Link |
| Mio Alpha 2 | £117.71 | Link | $199.00 | Link |
| Nike+ SportWatch | £179.99 | Link | $149.89 | Link |
| Polar M400 | £119.95 | Link | $229.95 | Link |
| Polar V800 | £266.95 | Link | $308.49 | Link |
| Suunto Ambit 3 PEAK | £277.51 | Link | $381.10 | Link |
| Suunto Ambit 3 Sport | £194.95 | Link | $319.95 | Link |
| Suunto Ambit 2R | £151.64 | Link | $167.16 | Link |
| TomTom MultiSport | £148.58 | Link | $148.44 | Link |
| TomTom MultiSport Cardio | £179.99 | Link | $246.99 | Link |
| TomTom Runner | £89.99 | Link | $99.99 | Link |
| TomTom Runner Cardio | £161.99 | Link | $199.99 | Link |
Unboxing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7v3wwv5-fc
TomTom’s take on training by HR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lcoAuuBBfg
Treadmill Running (non cardio version otherwise same)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JiQKZkOR0I
Using Graphical Training Partner (non cardio version otherwise same)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gh4IWH4RWlw
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