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Created page with "{{DISPLAYTITLE:TomTom Cardio Runner Review}} File:TomTomCardioRunner.jpg|none|thumb|200px|The TomTom cardio runner, showing the green LEDs that provide optical heart rate mo..."
{{DISPLAYTITLE:TomTom Cardio Runner Review}}
[[File:TomTomCardioRunner.jpg|none|thumb|200px|The TomTom cardio runner, showing the green LEDs that provide optical heart rate monitoring.]]
The key feature of the {{TomTom Cardio Runner}} is its optical measurement of heart rate, rather than requiring a separate chest strap. Other than that, the TomTom is a fairly mediocre device, and you're paying a premium over some of the better options listed here. I think that the TomTom is only worth considering if you really want the optical heart rate monitoring, otherwise look elsewhere.
===TomTom Cardio Runner Pros===
* The optical heart rate monitoring works reasonably well. This technique has been around for decades, but it's only recently that the technology has been viable for use during exercise. The TomTom uses two green LEDs and a detector to determine Heart Rate based on the blood filling of the capillaries under the skin.
** When the watch has a good lock on your heart rate it's fairly accurate, and normally within a few beats/minute of a chest strap based monitor. Most of this variation seems to be due to the smoothing that's applied to the reading rather than overall accuracy.
** I had a number of problems with the TomTom not locking onto my heart rate for minutes at a time. It would either show a ridiculously high or low value, so it was pretty obvious. Occasionally it would not find my heart rate at all and just show three dashes. See images below for details.
** I found the problems were worse when my skin was cold. I've not tried it in winter, but at 50f/10c the TomTom struggled, probably because the capillaries it was looking for had constricted due to the cold.
** Because the TomTom has to be next to the skin to monitor the blood flow under the skin, it would be problematic in winter when you need to wear extra layers of clothing. You can't put the TomTom over a base layer, so it would have to be covered by your outer layers, hiding the display.
** To get a good view of your capillaries, the TomTom needs to be positioned slightly further up your wrist and to be quite tightly closed. I didn't find this uncomfortable, but it was tighter than I'd normally have a watch. However, you get a better reading with the watch tighter than is comfortable.
** Using optical heart rate measurement is generally not accurate enough for measuring [[Heart Rate Variability]].
* The TomTom will cache the locations of the GPS satellites for a few days, which worked reasonably well.
* With GPS turned off, the TomTom battery will last some time, making it possible to monitor heart rate for extended periods, such as during sleep.
* There is great support for automatically uploading to a variety of tracking web sites, including MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, TrainingPeaks, as well as exporting to KML, GPX, CSV, FIT or TCX files.
* The TomTom can pair with a smart phone, allowing for posting of workouts or updating the satellite pre-cache via the phone.
* I rather like the TomTom's four buttons arranged as a square for input, which works rather like a joystick for navigating menus. The right side of the screen is touch sensitive for turning on the backlight or recording a lap, but it's triggered by sweat.
===TomTom Cardio Runner Cons===
* The core functionality of the TomTom seems rather crude when compared with other devices in this price range.
* You can chose two metrics to display at the top of the screen, but these are shown in a tiny font that is hard to read in poor light.
* The main display will scroll through a number of metrics, but there is little configuration of what to display. (The histogram of heart rate display is rather cool.)
* The [[GPS Accuracy]] is mediocre. It could be a lot worse, as Garmin has shown, but it could also be a lot better.
* I've found no way of displaying cadence on the TomTom, which I think is a major shortfall. (There is support for a bike cadence sensor in the multisport version of this watch, but that doesn't help runners.)
{| class="wikitable"
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomDisplay.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|This is the display layout, with two rather tiny items at the top and one rather large item in the middle. You can only configure the top row, with the main display cycling through various options.]]
|[[File:TomTomInput.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|The four buttons that surround the GPS receiver act like a joystick or joypad.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTom Shape.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|The TomTom is rather a strange shape, curving around the wrist.]]
|[[File:TomTom HRG.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|The display of the Heart Rate graph, common in newer devices.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTom Histo.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|This is the first time I've seen a histogram of Heart Rate, which is rather nice.]]
|[[File:TomTomLED.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|The LEDs that detect heart rate optically. The lines you can see on the picture are not visible to the eye.]]
|}
===TomTom Cardio Runner Heart Rate Graphs===
These graphs show the TomTom Cardio Runner against the record of a traditional chest strap. The top of the graph shows the two recordings superimposed, with the TomTom in red and the chest strap in blue. The lower line on the chart is the difference between the two readings.
{| class="wikitable"
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomHRM 3.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|An example run where the TomTom is showing good accuracy.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomHRM 1.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Here you can see several major discrepancies in the TomTom heart rate reading.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomHRM 2.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|This run has more problems than is typical, with the TomTom repeatedly giving a bad reading.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomHRM HIIT.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|This is an example where the TomTom is fitted tightly and gives a good reading of a [[High Intensity Interval Training]] session. The TomTom is in red and you can see that it's reading lags a little behind the chest strap. This is an extreme test, but you can see the TomTom can be out by 10 BPM, but only for a short time.]]
|}
=Comparison Table=
{{:Best Running Watch-table}}
[[File:TomTomCardioRunner.jpg|none|thumb|200px|The TomTom cardio runner, showing the green LEDs that provide optical heart rate monitoring.]]
The key feature of the {{TomTom Cardio Runner}} is its optical measurement of heart rate, rather than requiring a separate chest strap. Other than that, the TomTom is a fairly mediocre device, and you're paying a premium over some of the better options listed here. I think that the TomTom is only worth considering if you really want the optical heart rate monitoring, otherwise look elsewhere.
===TomTom Cardio Runner Pros===
* The optical heart rate monitoring works reasonably well. This technique has been around for decades, but it's only recently that the technology has been viable for use during exercise. The TomTom uses two green LEDs and a detector to determine Heart Rate based on the blood filling of the capillaries under the skin.
** When the watch has a good lock on your heart rate it's fairly accurate, and normally within a few beats/minute of a chest strap based monitor. Most of this variation seems to be due to the smoothing that's applied to the reading rather than overall accuracy.
** I had a number of problems with the TomTom not locking onto my heart rate for minutes at a time. It would either show a ridiculously high or low value, so it was pretty obvious. Occasionally it would not find my heart rate at all and just show three dashes. See images below for details.
** I found the problems were worse when my skin was cold. I've not tried it in winter, but at 50f/10c the TomTom struggled, probably because the capillaries it was looking for had constricted due to the cold.
** Because the TomTom has to be next to the skin to monitor the blood flow under the skin, it would be problematic in winter when you need to wear extra layers of clothing. You can't put the TomTom over a base layer, so it would have to be covered by your outer layers, hiding the display.
** To get a good view of your capillaries, the TomTom needs to be positioned slightly further up your wrist and to be quite tightly closed. I didn't find this uncomfortable, but it was tighter than I'd normally have a watch. However, you get a better reading with the watch tighter than is comfortable.
** Using optical heart rate measurement is generally not accurate enough for measuring [[Heart Rate Variability]].
* The TomTom will cache the locations of the GPS satellites for a few days, which worked reasonably well.
* With GPS turned off, the TomTom battery will last some time, making it possible to monitor heart rate for extended periods, such as during sleep.
* There is great support for automatically uploading to a variety of tracking web sites, including MapMyFitness, RunKeeper, TrainingPeaks, as well as exporting to KML, GPX, CSV, FIT or TCX files.
* The TomTom can pair with a smart phone, allowing for posting of workouts or updating the satellite pre-cache via the phone.
* I rather like the TomTom's four buttons arranged as a square for input, which works rather like a joystick for navigating menus. The right side of the screen is touch sensitive for turning on the backlight or recording a lap, but it's triggered by sweat.
===TomTom Cardio Runner Cons===
* The core functionality of the TomTom seems rather crude when compared with other devices in this price range.
* You can chose two metrics to display at the top of the screen, but these are shown in a tiny font that is hard to read in poor light.
* The main display will scroll through a number of metrics, but there is little configuration of what to display. (The histogram of heart rate display is rather cool.)
* The [[GPS Accuracy]] is mediocre. It could be a lot worse, as Garmin has shown, but it could also be a lot better.
* I've found no way of displaying cadence on the TomTom, which I think is a major shortfall. (There is support for a bike cadence sensor in the multisport version of this watch, but that doesn't help runners.)
{| class="wikitable"
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomDisplay.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|This is the display layout, with two rather tiny items at the top and one rather large item in the middle. You can only configure the top row, with the main display cycling through various options.]]
|[[File:TomTomInput.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|The four buttons that surround the GPS receiver act like a joystick or joypad.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTom Shape.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|The TomTom is rather a strange shape, curving around the wrist.]]
|[[File:TomTom HRG.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|The display of the Heart Rate graph, common in newer devices.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTom Histo.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|This is the first time I've seen a histogram of Heart Rate, which is rather nice.]]
|[[File:TomTomLED.JPG|none|thumb|x300px|The LEDs that detect heart rate optically. The lines you can see on the picture are not visible to the eye.]]
|}
===TomTom Cardio Runner Heart Rate Graphs===
These graphs show the TomTom Cardio Runner against the record of a traditional chest strap. The top of the graph shows the two recordings superimposed, with the TomTom in red and the chest strap in blue. The lower line on the chart is the difference between the two readings.
{| class="wikitable"
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomHRM 3.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|An example run where the TomTom is showing good accuracy.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomHRM 1.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|Here you can see several major discrepancies in the TomTom heart rate reading.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomHRM 2.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|This run has more problems than is typical, with the TomTom repeatedly giving a bad reading.]]
|- valign="top"
|[[File:TomTomHRM HIIT.jpg|none|thumb|x300px|This is an example where the TomTom is fitted tightly and gives a good reading of a [[High Intensity Interval Training]] session. The TomTom is in red and you can see that it's reading lags a little behind the chest strap. This is an extreme test, but you can see the TomTom can be out by 10 BPM, but only for a short time.]]
|}
=Comparison Table=
{{:Best Running Watch-table}}
