Once home,you can review all the details in the TomTom Sports App or export the data to your favourite apps like Strava or Runkeeper, which you’ll probably want to, because the TomTom app isn’t quite up to those standards just yet.

When you return within range of your phone, you can sync up your activities to the TomTom MySports iOS or Android app, or PC or Mac software. After fully charging the Spark 3 on a Monday night, I wore it for an entire week, using it for three 40- to 50-minute GPS activities. I streamed music from the watch during two of these workouts. By Saturday, the watch beeped at me that it was low on juice. Bottom LineAs well as just not getting lost, the TomTom Spark 3 lets you save routes you've run and follow them at a later date, or more interestingly, you can upload GPX files and follow someone else’s favorite 10km route. The main reason you'd consider upgrading from the Spark to the Spark 3 is the new route exploration feature. This basically means you can now go out on a big run and the route will be mapped out on the watch screen, helping you navigate your way home a little easier. You can now add routes to the watch as well, which is handy if you want to run an approximate distance or just freshen up your running routes. It's a feature that usually crops up on more expensive sports watches, so it's definitely a positive to see it appear on the Spark 3.

It's not 100% perfect. You will see the odd outage, perhaps twice in a two hour run, but this is absolutely a problem with chest straps as well. What you get with Spark 3 is a responsive and relatively lag-free experience that means you can effectively and reliably manipulate your heart rate to the right zone during your training – and that's what it's there for. But it's not just a meaningless update. TomTom has added route exploration for the first time, building in a compass sensor to make it easier to find your way home or discover a new running trail. If you’re upgrading from the original TomTom Spark the menu system is exactly the same, but anyone used to a traditional smartwatch-style menu system should probably get practicing before pulling on the trainers.The ability to stream music from your watch without your phone continues to be a feature that gets overlooked by the likes of Garmin and Polar (although that has been remedied with the new Polar M600 Android Wear running watch). The Apple Watch Series 2 and Android Wear watches let you do it, but nobody has really nailed the concept on a GPS running watch yet. The strap design tweak along with a few more colours to choose from still makes this every bit a sports watch, but it certainly feels a lot more svelte than what you can get from Garmin or Polar. It doesn't try to masquerade as something more stylish, and that's fine with us. For now. It's light, comfortable, still has a really intuitive user interface and is very easy to use. The square watch face is slightly rounded at the edges, and the whole unit is controlled by a rectangular four-way button that protrudes through the strap from underneath the screen. The whole watch face pops out of the strap for charging, but don’t imagine that means you can get a more fashionable strap for it. There are a number of third-party straps available, but I wouldn’t call any of them stylish. They still need to house its heft, after all. The screen is quite dark, but it uses power-saving reflective LCD tech, so it’s always on. Alongside the Spark 3 TomTom has released the Runner 3, which is exactly the same device except that it’s sold in running shops has different-coloured straps available. Whatever you call it, the Spark/Runner 3 is just about the best friend a runner could have. We put it up against a Polar H7 heart rate monitor chest strap for several runs and the sample below of the data compared to the H7 paired with Runkeeper shows it's still a reliable monitor. Mixing things up with some high intensity training yields similarly good results. The Spark 3, like the original Spark, houses one of the best optical heart rate monitors we've tested.

If you’re upgrading from a running app, or this is your first fitness watch, you might find the number of options a bit daunting. Then there are the many different modes you can use to guide your run. You can plan interval sessions, or set the Spark 3 to buzz every time you stop running at a certain pace or exit a given heart rate zone. It’s a headline grabbing list of features for any sports watch, but has TomTom done enough to tempt both first-timers and fully fledged fitness freaks away from brands like Garmin and Polar? Design The 2km discrepancy with Apple's GPS-less model is just unacceptable if you’re serious about training (or even just want to know how far you've gone), so praise the running gods for the Apple Watch 3 if you're desperate to be part of the Cupertino brand with your wrists. Menu 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.TomTom says you should be able to get a good five hours of GPS, HR and music on the go. Alternatively, using GPS, the watch should last for around 11 hours on a charge.

That said, on looking at the data when synced afterwards, it appeared to have recorded accurately. In fact, since most people are likely to train in zones, rather than looking at tiny heart rate detail variations, this shouldn’t be an issue; zone movements appeared to keep up. 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 if it looks and feels the same, why should you upgrade? Well, TomTom is hoping that you’re the kind of runner who likes exploring. 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. 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.

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Then there’s pairing Bluetooth headphones. There’s no volume control on the Spark 3 itself, so you’re reliant on adjusting volume using your headphones. Only problem is, some headphones, more often than not the new wave of ‘truly wireless’ headphones, don’t always have integrated volume controls and thereby rely on you adjusting the volume from your source device. That feature is cool, but if you’re after more structured training programmes, Garmin or Polar watches offer more than the TomTom Spark 3. TomTom has put some much-needed work into their app over the past year and it has undoubtedly been improved, giving a decent breakdown of your activities, with splits, a map and an adjustable graph that can show heart rate, elevation and pace.