TomTom Spark 3 Multi Sport GPS Fitness Watch - Large Strap, Black

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You’ll also earn new Fitness Points based on your Fitness Age. The more intense your workouts, the more Fitness Points you’ll accrue. It’s designed to make you want to run more than just walk, as an example. Finally, there will be Personalised Workouts, covering running and cycling, available to follow from your wrist. The updates are expected to roll out in September and look to be welcome improvements. The bigger problem, though, is that the app and the Spark 3 don’t always reliably communicate, with the two often taking a while to connect over Bluetooth, or failing altogether on first attempt, which can make it a pain to sync your data. Battery life

TomTom Spark 3 review: TomTom’s last running watch is still

The watch isn’t touch-screen, so you interact with it using a four-direction button under the face. Each direction pushes you into a different feature — Up turns on bluetooth and controls music, Left shows you your day’s fitness readings (such as number of steps), Down goes to settings and Right starts your workout. If you don't entirely trust the heart rate data that's being dished out by the on-board heart rate monitor, you do have the option to connect a range of Bluetooth Smart heart rate sensor chest straps including the Polar H7 and Mio Alpha wearable. It is an amazing watch..However, i am experiencing that the music breaks up only when i am running. Do i perhaps have a faulty product or is there perhaps something i can do on my end? The Spark 3 beats Garmin, Polar and Suunto for offering the ability to stream music from your watch. You just need to get yourself a pair of headphones to get up and running. It should play nice with most Bluetooth headphones, but if you're in doubt, TomTom has a list of supported devices here that work depending on which wrist you wear the watch on.

All supported activities, including cycling, gym workouts, indoor and outdoor runs, and swimming, have their own menus where you can customize goals and settings. For example, you can adjust your bike's wheel size or the size of a swimming pool. You can also use the watch as a stopwatch, set up and view heart rate zones to stay in, and race against previous times. Unfortunately, you still have to start a new session and then press the up button to view your stats on the watch. Aside from setup, you need the PC software for when you want to upload playlists to the Spark 3, so you can stream music directly from the watch to a pair of Bluetooth headphones. You can't just drag and drop the files, though; you need to pinpoint and upload them using the app. Mac users have to use iTunes as a middleman to add music through the Connect app. It's a slow process, and I wish you could just upload files through the mobile app.

TomTom Spark 3 Cardio + Music Review | PCMag

Once you’ve got your music on your watch though, the included headphones work great. In fact, they’re some of the best running headphones I’ve used. So with my favourite truly wireless buds, the only option is to have the volume at maximum, ruling them out. In fairness, it’s not a problem if you use the bundled headphones that come with the TomTom Spark 3 Cardio + Music bundle, but it’s worth keeping in mind if you already have your own favourite running headphones. This year, it’s being offered in small and large strap sizes to accommodate a range of wrist sizes. My wrists are on the slim side, so I opted for the smaller version and it was a good fit. The strap clips on in two places, making it secure and tight around the wrist. It definitely does not budge. It’s a running watch that I’ve found has largely stood the test of time. Its feature set for the money still makes it great value, with reliable GPS, heart rate monitor and extensive battery life. While its design is probably beginning to look more dated than ever, the four-way controls do work a treat when you’re out running and simultaneously trying to interact with the watch whilst dodging pedestrians. I can see why TomTom has been so averse to giving it a proper design overhaul.TomTom also announced a number of software improvements recently, which should be rolling out this month. These include a new Fitness Age score, which is based on your VO2 Max. It’s great to see VO2 Max estimations finally come to TomTom devices, as it’s historically been a rather strange absence considering all the component pieces required were present. This will compare you against other people in your demographic and is designed as an extra measurement metric and layer of motivation.

TomTom Spark 3 Review | Trusted Reviews

Alan has been writing about science, tech, games and politics for a decade, with a period in game production in the middle. If you have a bit of foresight, you can also upload trails to the device, and then follow them on your watch; a small arrow shows your location relative to the path. ConfigurationsThat’s generally what I found in most runs. The Spark recorded shorter distances but I felt was more accurate and reliable based on knowing my pace quite well. I found the average heart rate readings and heart rate zone training to be consistent with the H7 heart rate monitor chest strap, which I’ve found to be the most accurate monitor I’ve used. Like the previous generation, there’s also the identically featured TomTom Runner 3 range, which has a slightly different strap design but is available in the same variations and provides the same level of functionality. Still, I’m more inclined to trust the heart-rate readings from the TomTom, which showed a high of 174bpm and an average of 153bpm. The Fitbit, monitoring the same period, came up with a rather dubious-sounding high of 146bpm, and an average: 135bpm. As for other features… well, here things gets a bit confusing. The Spark 3 comes in four different flavours; they all have the same looks, the same 144×168 display and the same 300mAh battery, but the variants come with a selection of additional features, depending on how much you’re prepared to spend. TomTom Spark 3 review: Price and competition