TomTom Runner review

Keen cyclist or swimmer? You'll probably want to go for the TomTom Multi-Sport. The pumped-up model does everything the Runner does, but with its added swim and cycle features, it's built for the triathletes.

Design-wise, the multi-sport looks and feels almost identical to the Runner, and packs the same "one touch" button for navigation and touch sensitive screen for activating the backlight.

However, it does change up the (still interchangeable) strap a little, arriving with a new two-prong buckle. It feels just as easy on the wrist but looks a tad more secure.

You'll be putting down £179.99 ($199/around AU$218) for the Multi-Sport alone, but you can also bundle it with a Bluetooth Smart heart rate monitor and cadence sensor for a higher price if you so wish. Oddly, however, you'll have to pay out for the top bundle if you want the watch to come with a built-in altimeter.

Connecting the heart rate monitor proved to be a little difficult, but when the two were communicating the watch displayed the reading accurately, and in real time, on the watch's nice big screen.

But unfortunately we found that the Multi-Sport also suffered from slow GPS fixing of the Runner, even after a few days of using and syncing. Some of that will depend on where you're using it, however.

Without the use of the cadence sensor, the Multi-Sport's cycling feature isn't too dissimilar to the one for running as it tracks your location and speed via GPS.

One addition is that you can set your wheel size. Pair up the cadence sensor and you'll be able to track wheel and pedal evolutions per minute.

As for swimming, given that GPS isn't ideal for the pool, the Multi-Sport instead uses its accelerometer to track your workout. The Multi-Sport also lets you set the pool length between 15 and 50 metres before your swim.

Once it's going, it will track both the number of lengths and strokes that you do. Overall, the end-of-workout result was more accurate than not, although it did sometimes tell me that I'd swam further than I actually had. But without GPS, its not surprising that the accuracy takes a bit of a hit.

Overall, with its broad range of features, the Multi-Sport is a reasonable choice for triathlete. But if you don't like the idea of packing it out with the additional sensors, you'd be best sticking with the more casual TomTom Runner.