Wahoo elemnt rival
Buy now £349.99, Wiggle.co.uk
- Sports tracked: Running, treadmill, cycling, lap swimming, open-water swimming, triathlon, strength training
- Weight: 53g
- Dimensions: 46.5mm x 46.5mm x 12.5mm and 31.26mm diameter screen
- Screen: Gorilla glass
- Display resolution: 240px x 240px
- Battery life: 2 weeks in smartwatch mode, 24 hours in GPS mode without music
- Bluetooth enabled: Yes
- GPS: Yes
- Strava compatible: Yes
- Smartphone notifications: Yes
- Rating: 6/10
Design and set up
Like the majority of triathlon watches at this price point, the elemnt rival has a plastic construction. Where it does stand out though is with the distinctive ceramic bezel around its screen. Not only does this give it a more premium look and feel that’s usually reserved for high-end (and much more expensive) triathlon watches such as the Garmin fenix series, but it also adds a sense of solidity – important when legs are kicking and arms are crashing everywhere at the start of a race. Inside the bezel sits a Gorilla glass screen, which has remained scratch-free during our intensive testing of the watch. We were sent the “kona white” version, which stood out more than we’d like when worn in everyday life, but there is also a “stealth grey” alternative if you want a more subtle-looking piece of kit.
There isn’t a touchscreen, and instead you use five buttons on the side of the watch to navigate your way around its workings. After 10 minutes of playing, we had mastered the various methods of scrolling through data screens and activity profiles. During an activity, the various data fields were fairly easy to see on the go, but could be made even clearer thanks to a zoom function that was triggered by pressing the two bottom buttons at the same time, magnifying the key metric that you want to be displayed.
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Setting up the elemnt rival was extremely straightforward. After downloading the partnering Wahoo elemnt smartphone app, you simply pair the watch using the QR code displayed on its screen and away you go. The app is where you can drill down into all of your activity data, but it also houses the watch’s settings – and this is where you can do everything from make further customisations, such as different watch faces and accent colours, to turning on notifications.
In terms of comfort, the elemnt rival did feel slightly chunkier on the wrist than the Garmin forerunner 945 we were testing side-by-side, even though its footprint is actually smaller. That said, during activities or general use, it remained comfortable throughout and didn’t leave our wrist aching.
Activity tracking and training plans
The Wahoo elemnt rival goes big on its activity-tracking capabilities. So much so that it has stripped away all of the extra features such as maps, music storage or NFC payments, leaving you with a watch made simply for sport.
In practise, it works like it should do. Running, cycling and swimming were all recorded accurately in a variety of environments (including lane and open-water swimming), and at no point did the elemnt rival veer wide of the mark when it came to tracking distance. The only snagging point we found was that the watch was sometimes slow to find a GPS signal, and one run wasn’t recorded properly as a result.
Its optical wrist-based heart rate sensor also offered live feedback for all activities (including swimming), providing detailed analysis of training intensity both while exercising but also when pouring over the data on the elemnt app, post-activity. The amount of digging you can do on the app is slightly limited when compared to the Garmin connect offering (with there being no information on your performance condition or training effect), but there’s more than enough to sink your teeth into. We also found that you had to open the app on your smartphone to sync an activity – the watch not seeming to automatically connect to our device after returning from exercising. That said, once it had paired, the activity soon appeared and was automatically uploaded to third-party apps such as Strava.
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When it came to the elemnt rival’s claimed touchless transition, the technology worked pretty well throughout testing. In triathlon mode, activities were ended and transition phases started fairly seamlessly. To get it perfect, it was possible to go back and edit the activity on the elemnt app before uploading to Strava. It was also possible to override the feature by simply clicking the middle left-hand button.
Finally, the elemnt rival also comes packed with a number of running, cycling and swimming training sessions. Lining one up is as simple as selecting a workout on the elemnt app, which is then sent directly to the watch for you to follow.
How does it fair with everyday wear?
If you’re buying a triathlon watch, there’s a good chance that you’re going to be wearing it when you’re not exercising too. This means that the watch should bring something to your day-to-day life, and not just be useful for the hour-or-so when it’s tracking a swim, cycle or run. It’s in this general smartwatch arena where the elemnt rival is rather limited when compared to some of its competitors.
First, what it can do. When paired with a smartphone, it will show notifications (from text, Whatsapp, emails and incoming calls) on the watch’s screen, enabling you to answer or ignore without having to reach for your phone. Also, in terms of general health tracking, it will record your resting heart rate throughout the day and show you how many steps you’ve done too. But that’s about it.
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Despite recording your resting heart rate and step count, there’s no way of drilling down into trends in the app, and it doesn’t have basic features such as seeing how many calories you’ve burned or how good your sleep was, let alone exras such as song storage or the ability to pay contactlessly. Although the elemnt rival sells itself first-and-foremost as a sport-focused watch, you don’t have to spend a lot more to get a triathlon watch that is great for everyday use too.
The verdict: Wahoo elemnt rival
Wahoo’s first triathlon watch is a great buy if you want an out-and-out sports watch without any of the bells and whistles often found on other smartwatches.
It has a premium look and feel for a watch of its price, and features such as the ability to zoom in on data screens mid-activity and touchless transition are real game changers. That said, if you want your triathlon watch to do more than perform in the multi-sport arena, then you might be better off looking elsewhere.