Bryton Cardio 30 – A Full Review

I will start this review saying I really really wanted the Bryton Cardio 30 to be a great product. On paper it seemed perfect – a small size, waterproof, gps enabled but I have been sadly let down.

Out of the box it seemed nice presented in a neat case with instructions and lead enclosed.

Physical:

It is smaller and lighter than I thought it would be – the tiny face displaying 3 lines of data. The strap is comfortable which is a major point for me. The waterproof rating is very good and the construction seems robust.

In Action:

This is were I start to well up – it is hopeless as a training HRM. It may pair easily enough with ANT+ coded items and it may acquire a satellite reading in an OK time but it sucks when you want to read any info from it in a run. The display is useless – it always shows distance in the top line of the display and it will show Heart Rate / Time / Calories / Distance(rpt) but what any running watch needs to show is at least HR and Disatnce AND Time …. preferably at the same time.

The second bad point is that although it can be set to autolap at every 1km say it does nothing else … there is no lap time shown / there is no summary to read and no way to gauge how fast your last split was unless you deduct the last km from current and try work out the split …. and when you are pressing on in a training run this is the last thing you can do.

So this leaves it as a GPS tracker with which you can analyse your run when you finish …. but the disaster here is that the GPS is wildly inaccurate. I used it on the MTB marathon in Wales and it was way different from the Garmin Edge 305 I had on the bike (this is a steal these days at £170 ish)

Blue=Bryton Green=Garmin

This was bad enough but did a run on my regular river route and the Bryton came up very short again … you can see the type of track it records … this is an open park with near zero tree cover and NO tall building nearby ….

My Suunto T6 with GPS and the Garmin Edge (as well as sites like WALKJOGRUN) gave the same reading only ever differentiating by about 50m over a 12km run – but the Bryton is bad – it is out by 800m on this run which is an 83.9% accuracy according to a comparison on Sportypal…. so distance wise it was 800m out on this run and 2km out over a 52km ride. Very Very VERY poor

So thankfully Wiggle operates a good return policy and I will be buying something else that is ANT+ compliant (prob a Garmin of some sort)

BOTTOM LINE – Avoid the Bryton Cardio like the plague ….. it is faulty with bad software, bad GPS and terrible interface.

I have since bought myself a polar RCX5 which is just fantastic …. review HERE

Bryton Cardio 30 review (the first few days)

The watch HRM is still new to me but initial thoughts are this. (Update used at Ruthin in MTB race with mixed result see bottom of this page HERE part  …..Was using the Bryton Cardio 30 on the bike as well as the Garmin Edge 305 (which is great and now around £175) and there was quite a large difference in readings. There was a small section in woodland but not enough for this difference…..)

Now done a Full Review where I advise against spending money on this watch.

Good Points

• The watch is small – much smaller than you think – quite a bit smaller than the Garmin 405 which I guess is a direct competitor, and more importantly comfortable on the wrist which the Garmin wasn’t.
• Bryton Bridge seems reliable and the ability to export .gpx files is great for those using other online diaries like endomondo (although giving the protocol to Endomondo would be useful too in case people wanted to import direct)
• Waterproof rated to 30m so I wont hesitate to use this kite surfing.
• Ability to pair with any ANT+ protocol device like HRM straps and power meters / cadence sensor etc

Middle Points

• So far I would say i am still not convinced – initial operation is a bit fiddly – the user interface is more complicated than most GPS units I have used.
• Initial satellite lock is longer than the Garmin 405 and the Suunto GPS pod.
• The displays on the watch are also not as clear or as user friendly useful as some I have seen.
• The USB connector lead is short – for me connecting to the back on an iMac I would say an inch or two too short but others may find it fine. Unusual connection – don’t lose the lead as it isn’t a regular USB. This uniqueness may have something to do with the waterproof features.

Not so good Points

• The display always has distance at the top of screen then main display is set as either km/h, rpm (stride), min/km, HR or calories. I would have liked to see an average pace as GPS reading are so flaky that it isn’t a reliable indicator.
• Display is small and doesn’t have the versatility you would need as runner or biker in monitoring your stats/status.
• A moan would be the lack of auto-lap summary – I have set unit to put in lap marker every 1km but it needs to flash you the last km time to be really useful as a running HRM. The Suunto T6C would flash up a lap time for a few seconds e.g. 4:11 along with ave HR for that lap so then you would know whether to kick in a bit or stay at pace.

Summary:

Still positive but yet to take it for a proper run – will do that one morning this week before work or Saturday morning and hopefully I can report back with an extended update.

Bryton Cardio 30 Review (via Andrew Birkett’s Blog)

Thinking of getting one to combine my cycling and hrm training – and to replace the Suunto T6C ……

This GPS sports watch is the smallest on the market and that’s the first advantage of this unit, many people find other large bulky units irritating for running so. I played around with the Cardio 30, took it for a run or two before using it in a race. It was very easy to learn how to use the unit, with a very simple and uncomplicated interface. What is probably the best thing about the Bryton Cardio 30 is it provides you with all the essentials … Read More

via Andrew Birkett’s Blog