The COROS NOMAD isn't really for "nomads." A true backpacker spending weeks per year in the mountains needs a satellite watch (or handheld) for weather alerts, messaging, and SOSs. The NOMAD's real target audience? Trail runners or weekend hikers: people passionate about fitness and nature, but who'll never stray too far off the beaten path.

Most adventure-branded watches — the Garmin Fenix 8, Polar Grit X2, Suunto Vertical, or VERTIX 2S — target serious outdoorsfolk with premium feature sets and bulky designs. Only the Garmin Instinct series caters to the thrifty, moderate hiker niche, and the Instinct 3 strays into mid-range territory.

COROS's typical business strategy is to undercut Garmin's prices with similar features and designs, and the NOMAD plays into that reputation. But having used it sporadically over the past few months, I'm genuinely impressed by its value and performance, and it stands out more than the APEX 4 and PACE 4, COROS's other 2025 models.

COROS NOMAD: Price and specs

The COROS NOMAD was released in mid-August 2025 for $349 / €369 / £319 / CA$499 / AU$649. It's available in three finishes: Green, Brown, and Dark Grey.

It utilizes the Ambiq Apollo 510 processor, with a Cortex-M55 processor clocked at 250 MHz; for context, the Pixel Watch 4 uses the M55 for background tasks. A serious speed upgrade over past COROS watches, this processor ensures the NOMAD will have the capacity for new feature upgrades over the next few years.

The NOMAD sports the same sensors, GPS standard, maps, storage space, and training software as COROS's pricier models. Upgrading to an APEX 4 or VERTIX 2S mainly nets you titanium materials, sapphire glass, and longer battery life.

COROS NOMAD: What you'll love

The NOMAD's MIP display checks off the right boxes for hikers. COROS greatly improved the color and contrast ratio compared to older models, making it fully readable indoors while looking fantastic outdoors. It actually beats the pricier APEX 4 for visibility; the latter's sapphire glass layer adds a reflective tint that dims the contrast.

I'll admit to preferring AMOLED displays in general; anyone with poorer eyesight might benefit from an Instinct 3 AMOLED, which hits a similar three-week lifespan to the NOMAD. But MIP displays are always-on by default, while AOD wrecks the Instinct's battery life. And the latter looks much dimmer in direct sunlight, since it only hits 1,000 nits. For quick glances while running on rough trails, I'd trust the NOMAD more.

COROS lacks the Instinct's solar recharging option, but again, I don't think the target NOMAD demographic needs to surpass its impressive 34-hour dual-band GPS capacity — though it might be closer to 25–30 hours for real-world usage, based on my testing. Its thick design isn't suited to sleep tracking, so I always find ample time to recharge it in the rare moments that it runs low on power.

COROS watches will never win beauty contests, but the polymer-heavy look suits a hiking watch, especially as the raised bezel protects the display from scratches. I also love how the COROS logo is etched subtly into the case, whereas it looks tacky printed in white alongside other models' displays.

At 61g with the silicone band, it's a reasonable weight considering its size, and you can buy an extra nylon band if you want to slice off 12g. The strap is comfortable enough, though the end fastening pin takes some getting used to.

The fast Ambiq processor ensures that turning the crown, or swiping the touchscreen, quickly scrolls through your training widgets, health stats, and basic apps like Calendar and Weather. The UI is simple, but streamlined.

COROS added a third Action button for shortcuts like Laps or Voice Pins during activities. It's currently underutilized, but promising: I want the Action button to support multiple shortcuts (aka tap, double-tap, and hold) and to summon apps outside of workouts, such as the Compass, Map, or Stopwatch.

The real NOMAD showstopper is its offline map navigation paired with street/trail names and nearby POIs like bathrooms or campsites. Download your local region, and you can check which trail to take on impromptu hikes, with near-immediate map loading when you zoom in/out or swipe to pan.

Creating a route in the COROS app is simple, auto-following trails to specific waypoints, and it syncs to the NOMAD in seconds. With that, you have clear turn-by-turn navigation for your hike — with warnings if you go off trail.

Assuming you pay twice as much for a Garmin watch with maps, you'll get perks like NextFork warnings at trailheads, ClimbPro data on upcoming hills, or text lists of nearby or up-ahead POIs that you can navigate directly to. But the bloated experience overloads Garmin's processor, so it's laggy and frustrating to use outside of courses. COROS's map is simpler, but works well, and we can hope for map upgrades over time.

Maps aside, the COROS OS focuses on traditional cardio tracking. The EvoLab training suite supports 7-day training load with HR zone splits, Training Status, aerobic and anaerobic Training Effect, recovery estimates, VO2 Max, and other vital stats for serious athletes. Sleep stats like HRV will help COROS judge your recovery, though again, not everyone will be comfortable sleeping with the NOMAD.

Since August 2025, the NOMAD has added a flashlight display mode, music playback controls, voice training notes, move alerts, a "Resume Later" tool, running form analysis, and several other tools. I expect the NOMAD's software to continue to improve over time, catching up in areas where it falls short of other brands like Garmin.

COROS NOMAD: GPS accuracy

My NOMAD fitness test back in August showed how its dual-band GPS and HR accuracy compared against my Garmin Forerunner 970's dual-band GPS.

First, during a 12-mile run, I used the battery-saving All-Systems mode (without the L5 GPS frequency), matched against Garmin's SatIQ mode for accuracy. They only differed by 50m/ 0.03 miles, a tiny discrepancy for a long distance; the NOMAD (red line) frequently drifted off the road while Garmin's (blue) stayed steady, but it didn't impact the overall results too much.

I toggled dual-band GPS on for both watches on a short hike loop. In the more challenging conditions, both watches matched my expectations, staying in lockstep with the trail. My only qualm was that the NOMAD's path (orange) showed an odd glitch at hike's end, warping me to an earlier part of the hike (first slide). I haven't replicated the error on subsequent hikes, thankfully.

I used the NOMAD for two other activities, a 10K jog and a seven-mile hike, both using its dual-frequency mode. For the run, both it and the Forerunner 970 measured the same 6.21 miles and 159 spm cadence, and the NOMAD's GPS line largely stuck to (or close to) my real-world trail, only losing my path in tunnels or under some underpasses.

For the hike, the NOMAD likewise did well. It avoided any elevation discrepancies that you get with less accurate GPS watches and handled any signal issues under foliage or by steep hill faces.

COROS NOMAD: Heart rate accuracy

During the same activities above, I synced my Garmin HRM 200 as a control group against the COROS NOMAD. I never expect an optical, wrist-based sensor to match a chest strap perfectly, but the closer the average and smaller the graphical gaps, the better.

During the 12-mile run (first slide), the NOMAD stayed in parallel with the chest strap, even as my HR rose from low to high aerobic and anaerobic; it ended 1 bpm short on average, but I was quite happy with the result.

For the 4-mile hike (second slide), the gap between them was slightly more notable, particularly on sudden inclines or declines, with a few HR crests where the NOMAD didn't keep up. It ended 2 bpm short on average, so I knew I needed to double-check these results on another, longer hike.

For my next two tests, the NOMAD averaged 1 bpm under the Garmin chest strap for my 6-mile run (144 vs. 145), but produced the same 119-bpm average for my 7-mile hike. As the above graph shows, the NOMAD has several moments across two hours where it can't keep up with the chest strap for sudden rises, but it ultimately didn't affect the general results.

COROS NOMAD: Adventure Journal

COROS gave the NOMAD two signature features: Adventure Journal with Voice Pins for hikers and unique fishing tools. I can't speak to the latter, but the Adventure Journal is tailored to social media-savvy trail runners wanting to flaunt their nature exploits, but also to everyday hikers.

It's simple enough to use: During a hike, tap the NOMAD's Action button to either place a pin describing the spot — hazard, bathroom, trailfork, etc. — or record a voice pin as an on-the-go hiking diary entry. Once you end the activity, COROS will have every pin geotagged on your route, with your recordings transcribed into text.

If you take photos or videos, you can assign them to specific pins during or after the hike. Then, once your Journal is finished, you just tap the Share button, and you can export a data summary or 3D flyover to post online or share with others.

Some hikers won't care about the sharing aspect, but it is handy that pins remain saved on your map; when you build future routes, you can tap them to remember where you saw beautiful views, tick infestations, or anything in-between.

COROS NOMAD: What you won't like

Many COROS NOMAD flaws stem from its price: Serious hikers will want sapphire glass or built-in satellite connectivity, but those are tall asks for a $350 watch! Still, potential Garmin converts will miss the built-in flashlight, contactless payments, official MIL-STD-810H rating, and apps like Spotify and YouTube Music.

My complaints are more about software than hardware. COROS made this for hikers, but most of its training software remains tailored to road running more than trail running, hiking, or rucking. VO2 Max isn't tracked for trail runs, you can't add pack weight to adjust your estimates, and recovery estimates take cardiovascular tiredness into account more than muscle fatigue or altitude adjustment. Basically, the NOMAD could cater to hikers more than it does now.

Anyone used to an Apple or Wear OS watch will find COROS's UI painfully rudimentary. I don't mind a streamlined fitness experience, but I do find using the toolbox annoying, as well as the notification submenu. I'd prefer an option to swipe left and right through a few favorite apps, or more app button shortcuts if that isn't possible.

COROS NOMAD: Competition

The Garmin Instinct 3 is the COROS NOMAD's main rival, with kindred designs, the same core of training tools and workout plans, and similar battery capacity and GPS accuracy. Garmin's model comes in multiple sizes and includes an AMOLED option, passed the MIL-STD-810H standard test, includes an LED flashlight, and has certain software perks like daily suggested workouts and a rucking activity that you'll appreciate. But it only offers breadcrumb navigation, with no offline maps to make confusing trailheads easier to navigate, and it costs $400–500.

Most other competing adventure watches are too expensive to be called "competition." An Amazfit T-Rex 3 Pro gives you a rugged design with sapphire glass, up to 25 days of battery life despite the 3,000-nit AMOLED display, and includes a flashlight, maps, dual-band GPS, and other perks for $400.

COROS NOMAD: Should you buy it?

You should buy the COROS NOMAD if...

• You care more about maps, training recs, battery life, and accurate results than traditional smarts.
• You're willing to compromise for a lower price.
• You prefer an MIP display to AMOLED.

You shouldn't buy the COROS NOMAD if...

• You care greatly about smart and apps outside of hikes and workouts.
• You're not willing to give up a missing feature like sapphire glass, a built-in flashlight, or NFC.

The NOMAD is a great example of COROS's ability to offer great value at price tiers that other brands have left behind. If you're someone who wants to get more seriously into hiking, but doesn't want to commit a grand or more on a fancier watch, it's the starting point I'd recommend.

While a COROS APEX 4 or VERTIX 2S might be better suited to more serious hikers and runners, they have most of the same software compromises at higher price points. At the NOMAD's price point, it's more reasonable to accept some drawbacks.

FAQ

Does COROS sync with Strava/ Komoot/ my favorite app?

COROS syncs with a long list of niche fitness apps. You can download TrainingPeaks plans to your COROS calendar, sync your COROS workouts to popular apps like Strava and Nike Run Club, or connect it to Health Connect for Android or Apple Health on iOS. Plus, you can typically bulk import workouts from another brand like Garmin or Polar.

You can find the full list here, including Adidas Running, Decathlon, Komoot, Ride with GPS, Runna, Stryd, and the apps listed above.

Can the COROS NOMAD import my music playlists?

No, unfortunately. You can connect the NOMAD to your computer via your charging adapter, then add personal MP3 files and eject the watch. Music will be played in the order they were downloaded, though there's a shuffle option. Compared to other fitness watches with app partnerships, COROS's experience is limited.

Has COROS resolved its Bluetooth vulnerability?

Yes. In 2025, a report indicated that COROS watches could be hijacked to access your data, spy on notifications, or manipulate settings. The NOMAD and other COROS watches have received the necessary fixes as of August 2025.

How does the COROS NOMAD compare to the APEX 4?

The pricier APEX 4 46mm has a few upsides: Sapphire display glass, titanium bezel, a speaker to enable Bluetooth calling, and an extra two days or 7 dual-band GPS hours. There's also a lighter 42mm APEX 4 with a 1.2-inch display, with the same hardware upgrades but shorter battery life than the NOMAD by seven days or eight dual-band GPS hours. The software and sensors are otherwise identical.

I've been covering some great Garmin Black Friday deals, which make expensive Forerunner, Instinct, and Fenix watches for runners and hikers more accessible. But even discounted, you still have to pay upward of $449 (Forerunner 965) or $649 (Forerunner 970) for the best software features, especially offline maps for trail running or hiking.

That's why, even though the COROS PACE Pro at $299 ($50 off) isn't the biggest Black Friday deal, it's a great alternative because it started off "cheap" for the value it offers: 20 days of battery life, a 1.3-inch AMOLED display, dual-band GPS that worked quite accurately in my PACE Pro review, and offline hiking and street maps that were updated to include street names and places of interest earlier this year.

The bigger Black Friday deal that'll tempt more people is the Garmin Forerunner 265 at $299 ($150 off), but if you compare them directly, the PACE Pro offers an extra week of battery life and about double the dual-band GPS tracking (31 vs. 14 hours), and its brighter display (1,500 vs. 1,000 nits) displays maps clearly while Garmin only gives the 265 breadcrumb navigation. They both offer essentials like training load, recovery recommendations, and personalized running regimens.

For serious hikers or ruckers, the Instinct 3 Solar is $299 ($100 off), or $349 for the AMOLED version, a much more rugged watch than the PACE Pro with all the Garmin perks you'd expect. But without offline maps, the Instinct series relies on breadcrumb navigation, which just isn't that helpful when you come to a confusing trailhead; the lighter PACE Pro lets you check which trail you're on and makes it easier to improvise if you decide to take a different route.

COROS dropped the PACE Pro price after launching the PACE 4, which is a cheaper alternative...but only if you don't need maps. And the new COROS NOMAD is an intriguing hiking alternative with maps, if you prefer an MIP display, but it's not discounted for Black Friday.

While most people will buy the PACE Pro from Amazon, if you buy from COROS directly, you'll get 25% off a COROS Heart Rate Monitor, a comfortable armband with accurate data for people who don't trust smartwatches for HR data but don't want to wear a constricting chest strap. Just put both devices in your cart, and you'll see the $20 discount.

Again, this sneaky second deal isn't especially large, but that's only because the $79 COROS HRM is already affordable. And I genuinely recommend it, having worn it during my recent Garmin marathon, synced to my Garmin watch to give me faster results when my heart rate climbs or drops.

More Black Friday deals - quick links

• Best Buy: up to 60% off Chromebooks, Android phones, and more
• Amazon: early discounts on headphones, smart home tech
• Walmart: early price drops on ASUS laptops, locked phones
• Samsung: new Galaxy XR headset, trade-in opportunities
• Verizon: free phones with new line, trade-in
• T-Mobile: free Galaxy phones, $300 back w/ 5G Home Internet
• Mint Mobile: 50% off Pixel 10, BOGO Unlimited plans
• AT&T: get a free Z Flip 7 with trade-in, new line
  
  More Black Friday coverage
• The best Google Pixel deals of Black Friday
• The best Samsung deals of Black Friday
• The best Motorola deals of Black Friday

One of my favorite running watch brands, COROS, ignores Black Friday and other deal events; you'll never find its watches "on sale." This Friday, though, we're getting the closest equivalent: Both the COROS PACE 3 and PACE Pro have received permanent price adjustments down to $199 and $299, respectively. If you're looking for a budget or mid-range fitness watch, they're both more affordable and compelling than ever.

COROS launched the excellent PACE 4 running watch this week at $249, so it dropped the prices of the PACE 3 and Pro by 13% and 14%, respectively; now, you have three affordable options in a $100 range.

Even before their price drops, I ranked the PACE Pro as the best mid-range running watch and the PACE 3 as the best budget fitness watch across brands. The new PACE 4 complicates things a bit, but I'd still recommend the PACE Pro as the best option because of its larger display and support for landscape and city maps.

• See the full list of deals at Amazon

If that price isn't low enough to tempt you, the COROS PACE 3 at $199 is unquestionably the best "cheap" running watch out there unless you find one at a discount. It has the same dual-frequency GPS accuracy and HR sensors as a pricier COROS model, along with the same training software like training load and EvoLab.

These discounts aren't going anywhere, so there's no rush to decide which to get. I would lean toward the PACE Pro, because it has a faster processor that should make it compatible with future updates for years to come, but the PACE 3's price makes it hard to turn down.

The latest COROS PACE 4 hits the sweet spot between them: It's as lightweight and skinny as the PACE 3, but with an AMOLED display as bright as the Pro's. It matches the Pro's 31 hours of dual-frequency GPS tracking, crushing the PACE 3's 15 hours, and has nearly all the same sensors besides ECGs. It even has two exclusive new tools: Dual mics for documenting your feelings after every workout, and an Action Button for workout shortcuts.

I still prefer the PACE Pro for its offline maps with street/ trail names and points of interest for the extra $50. But if you don't need those, the PACE 4 (or 3) is the better bet for frugal runners looking to upgrade their training. I tested the PACE 4 this week, and was very impressed with its GPS and HR accuracy at such an affordable price.

If these models don't appeal to you, you may want to look at other affordable running watches. The Garmin Forerunner 165 has solid battery life, offers daily run and recovery suggestions, and performed well against the PACE 3 in my accuracy test, but it lacks key PACE features like training load, training status, or maps. The Amazfit Active 2 is even cheaper than the PACE 3 with a 2,000-nit AMOLED display, but it has much shorter battery life and less reliable GPS tracking.

Black Friday 2025 - quick links

• Best Buy: up to 60% off Chromebooks, Android phones, and more
• Amazon: early discounts on headphones, smart home tech
• Walmart: early price drops on ASUS laptops, locked phones
• Samsung: new Galaxy XR headset, trade-in opportunities
• Verizon: free phones with new line, trade-in
• T-Mobile: free Galaxy phones, $300 back w/ 5G Home Internet
• Mint Mobile: 50% off Pixel 10, BOGO Unlimited plans
• AT&T: get a free Z Flip 7 with trade-in, new line

What you need to know

• The COROS PACE 4 running watch launches November 10 in the U.S. ($249), U.K. (£229), France (€269), Spain, Germany, and China.
• It has 19-day battery life, dual-band GPS, personalized marathon training plans, and training load data.
• Key new features over the PACE 3 include a 1,500-nit AMOLED display, dual mics for training logs, reinforced lugs, and doubled dual-frequency GPS battery life.

COROS has released watches at a breakneck pace the past few months, starting with the COROS NOMAD in August and the COROS APEX 4 in October. Now, COROS is rounding out 2025 with the latest in its popular, affordable running series: the PACE 4.

Since the COROS PACE 3 launched in 2023, the running watch marketplace has shifted, prioritizing more expensive models with AMOLED displays. The 2024 PACE Pro played into that dynamic, while still costing much less than the competition. But when the NOMAD and APEX 4 stuck to MIP displays, I expected the PACE 4 to follow suit.

Instead, the PACE 4 uses AMOLED, matching the Pro with comfortably readable brightness while adding a 2.5D tapered edge that feels smooth for touchscreen swipes. And despite this switch, the PACE 4 is rated to last four days longer for normal use and 16 hours longer with dual-frequency GPS tracking active — undercutting one of the main arguments for using MIP.

The COROS PACE 4 ends up as a kind of PACE Pro Lite, with comparable battery life and the same fitness tools in a smaller, lighter frame — though without offline maps, the one main downgrade.

At $249, the COROS PACE 4 could make would-be Garmin Forerunner 165 buyers think twice. They both have 1.2-inch AMOLED displays and weigh about the same with polymer-heavy designs, but COROS gives you ECGs, training load, training status, and dual-frequency GPS, all features that Garmin locks to its pricier 265 and 570 watches.

As for current PACE 2 or 3 owners, you'll appreciate that the PACE 4 feels just as feathery-light as ever; I wore it on 12- and 8-mile runs, and its presence faded from my mind once I got into the zone. Plus, the price has only inflated by $50 across three generations and four years, and COROS's dependable post-launch support means the PACE 4 should receive feature updates for years.

For now, the PACE 4 is launching with some long-awaited tools: a display flashlight mode, menstrual cycle tracking, and music playback controls for your phone. The latter is a basic necessity for some runners that COROS has lacked for years, but it promises the feature will be ready either at launch or shortly after.

COROS also gave the PACE 4 the same dual-mic and Action button setup introduced by the NOMAD. Essentially, you'll be able to drop GPS-synced Voice Pins during an activity that describes what you're seeing, then see those pins and recordings in your post-workout summary; you'll also be prompted after you finish an activity to summarize your workout feelings to remember later.

I still need more time to put the PACE 4 through its paces, but I've worn it enough during my marathon training to feel confident recommending it to serious, frugal runners. You get nearly all the essentials you need for training, a display that's not a pain to read indoors, and accurate HR and GPS results.

COROS PACE 4 accuracy test

As I mentioned above, I wore the COROS PACE 4 during 12- and 8-mile runs, with my Garmin Forerunner 970 on my other wrist and my Garmin HRM 200 chest strap synced to it. They gave me dual-frequency GPS and HR control groups to compare the PACE 4 against.

My first 12-mile run ended with the PACE 4 matching my chest strap with a 171 bpm average and measuring 1 bpm higher for max HR (193 vs. 192). The graph below shows how the PACE 4 remained relatively close throughout, though, like most wrist-based optical sensors, it lags about 30–60 seconds behind the chest strap to register significant changes in effort.

For my easier eight-mile effort, the PACE 4 matched my chest strap for average and max HR. The shorter time frame makes it slightly easier to see the HR delay, and the PACE 4 had a couple of moments around the hour mark where it inexplicably dropped my HR about 5–10 bpm. But overall, these are good enough results for most runners, especially for the $249 price.

As for dual-frequency GPS tracking, the PACE 4 measured 24m and 60m less, respectively, than my Forerunner 970 after 8 and 12 miles. Again, that's close enough to satisfy any runner buying a $250 watch, especially compared to a $750 flagship. But let's look at the actual map to see if the PACE 4 earns that total or lucks into it.

Generally, the PACE 4 (orange) stays in parallel to the Forerunner 970 (blue), with more of a tendency to drift a meter or two off of my real path, either into the street or on the opposite side of the path. These tend to balance out on a normal winding path, however, and the PACE 4's dual-frequency pinpointing means it isn't badly affected by foliage.

In fact, COROS and Garmin measured their mile markers in near-unison for the first nine miles. The discrepancy came from Garmin's signal freaking out while I ran through an underpass tunnel, sending me flying in various directions. The PACE 4 gave me a signal-reacquired notification when I exited the tunnel and (correctly) estimated that I'd run in a straight line.

The second run — another relatively easy suburban route — was more of the same, with the PACE 4 (blue line this time) always measuring me in the ballpark of where it should. It had a little more trouble with underpasses on this run but kept the signal reflection to a minimum, and it did better than Garmin at tracking my path on a narrow bridge.

I'll put the PACE 4 through stricter conditions when I have time, but COROS gave it the same quality of GPS tracking as the pricier NOMAD and APEX 4, and both of those watches did well in tougher conditions.

I also need more time to judge how well the PACE 4 battery life lives up to COROS's promises. COROS's estimate suggests it should only use about 3.3% battery per hour of dual-frequency tracking, but it's been closer to 5% so far in my experience; that may change outside of the preview software.

Ultimately, though, the hardware quality is darn impressive for a $250 watch, and better than what the PACE 3 offered two years ago. If you don't need maps, contactless payments, or a speaker for Bluetooth calling, the PACE 4 easily numbers among the best running watches available today.

The PACE 4 is currently available on coros.com in six countries, but it will come to retailers worldwide starting in December.

Testing out the COROS APEX 4 for the past couple of weeks has given me flashbacks to wearing the 2022 Garmin Forerunner 955, my favorite running watch before Garmin and its rivals began shifting away from MIP displays. Plenty of fitness watch fans detest this trend, like my 955-wearing brother-in-law. While I'll admit I prefer AMOLED displays, the APEX 4 is a great watch for the holdouts.

COROS's last watch, the NOMAD, challenges the Garmin Instinct 3 in a narrow category: affordable, rugged hiking watches with weeks of battery life. An MIP display felt like the right fit.

The APEX 4 targets trail runners and "mountain athletes" who also care about battery life and outdoor visibility. But its $429/479 price gives it stiffer competition from the Suunto Race 2, Garmin Forerunner 570, and Polar Vantage M3 — all AMOLED watches, and the first two with 2,000 nits for excellent readability in direct sunlight.

Initial thoughts

I reviewed the COROS APEX 2 and APEX 2 Pro in 2022 when I was still relatively new to wearables. The hardware impressed me, especially the epic battery life, but I could tell that the GPS and HR accuracy could be better, the health tracking and software had plenty of gaps, and the MIP displays were painfully dim.

Unsurprisingly, the APEX 4 is more reliably accurate (as you'll see below), the battery life still blows me away, and the MIP display has much better contrast, making it serviceable — though for whatever reason, the NOMAD's display is more readable indoors. I think the APEX 4's sapphire layer catches more obscuring light.

Most importantly, the APEX 4's new Ambiq Apollo 510 processor powers the speediest, smoothest maps I've seen outside of Apple and Wear OS watches, where most fitness watch rivals like Garmin are laggy. You now get street and trail names, and the crown makes it seamless to zoom in to a confusing trail turn or out to a wider view in a couple of seconds.

My only complaints are with the turn-by-turn navigation for downloaded courses. It mostly works without issue, but I noticed twice that when I came to a loop, the arrow suggested I go in the opposite direction that I chose when I made the course.

When I intentionally went off course, the APEX 4 caught it and warned me immediately. But the turn-by-turn directions don't update based on which direction you're facing, so when I missed my right turn and turned around, it still told me to turn right. I hope COROS can address both of my map nitpicks in the future.

With its new processor, the APEX 4 is primed for years of upgrades. Over three years, the APEX 2 added HRV and stress data, sleep quality, and running form analysis, Strava Live Segments, and safety alerts, among dozens of new features. While Garmin watch updates tend to dry up after 1–2 years, APEX 4 updates should last much longer.

I specifically expect its built-in depth gauge sensor to enable scuba diving at some point, and COROS told Chase the Summit that it may use the mic & speaker to enable offline voice commands in the future.

COROS APEX 4 GPS accuracy

Not all dual-band GPS watches are created equal. Having tested nearly every smartwatch brand's GPS accuracy, I've found that COROS's most recent watches come the closest to Garmin for dependability, with the APEX 4 following that pattern. Get ready for some boringly straight GPS lines, with only a couple of glitches to speak of.

I took three dual-frequency GPS watches — the Garmin Forerunner 970, Google Pixel Watch 4, and APEX 4 — out for a 19-mile run; while Google depends mainly on L1 and L5 GPS frequencies, Garmin and COROS also pull in other GNSS signals as needed.

By the end, Garmin measured 0.01 miles more and Google 0.01 miles less; you can read my Pixel Watch 4 fitness test if you want to see its results, but I've focused on the two main rivals here. By and large, all nineteen miles showed the two signals either overlapping or in close parallel with each other. They tended to ding simultaneously or within seconds at each mile marker.

I only have one complaint: The APEX 4's final map showed me warping from my current spot to a previous one, then back, as seen above. It didn't affect my distance results, but it did add about 50m to my final altitude totals. I noticed a similar glitch hiking with the NOMAD in August, adding 170m of extra ascent but no extra distance.

For a second 8-mile run, thankfully, we're right back to superbly, dully accurate GPS data from both the APEX 4 and Forerunner 970, their GPS lines overlapping or paralleling one another for almost the entire run. I've also noticed that the APEX 4 tends to do slightly better with tunnels and underpasses, staying straight while Garmin's line waves slightly.

During a 5-mile hike, neither watch was perfect, each having moments where they strayed slightly from the satellite trail path. Both ended with the same 5.44-mile distance, while my Suunto Race 2 measured 5.43 miles.

What's odd is that COROS measured about 100 feet of extra elevation gain (1,762 feet) compared to Garmin (1,660 feet) and Suunto (1,644 feet). I'm not sure what to make of two activities with excess ascent totals, so I'll keep testing it in my full APEX 4 review.

COROS APEX 4 HR accuracy

I've generally found COROS watches' HR accuracy to be reliable, but not perfect, especially for the highest anaerobic data. I don't mind because the COROS HRM is affordable and comfortable to improve your data, and most COROS watches are cheap, but you'd want the pricier APEX 4 to stand on its own merits.

This graph shows how the COROS APEX 4 and Garmin Forerunner 970 optical HR sensors compare. COROS and Garmin's HR averages ended 1 bpm apart, but you can see how the two watches react to my changes in effort equally fast and generally mirror one another; the only difference is that COROS's results were barely higher.

A more reliable accuracy test came during my 19-mile run, during which I wore a Garmin HRM 200 chest strap as a control group. The COROS APEX 4 ended with the same 161 bpm average and 178 bpm maximum rate.

You can certainly see points in the graph where the two diverge as I climbed into higher heart rates. The APEX 4 trails behind the chest strap to hit higher HRs, then stays high while the chest strap measures my effort level decreasing.

The photo above, with the Forerunner synced to my chest strap, shows how you might not immediately see how hard you're pushing with the APEX 4 at any given moment. So if you used the APEX 4 for an anaerobic track workout, I'd expect the HR average would fall a couple of bpm short. This is common for wrist-based optical sensors, but keep that in mind.

Wrist-based optical sensors can also struggle with sustained, lower HR levels, but the COROS APEX 4 matched the Garmin HRM 200 chest strap for HR average and maximum during my two-hour hike. It's closely aligned 90% of the time, with the APEX 4 doing very well at catching when my HR rose on tough hills. But there were a few moments where my effort dipped but the APEX 4 stayed 5–10 bpm above my HR.

Is the COROS APEX 4 the right watch for you?

COROS reps said during our APEX 4 briefing that they "will still have a split of AMOLED and MIP watches in the future," but that they "still find MIP to be a phenomenal solution." The only current COROS AMOLED is the excellent COROS PACE Pro, but I don't think there will be an APEX 4 Pro with AMOLED anytime soon.

Without wading into the MIP vs. AMOLED debate, the APEX 4 is the right fit for people who prioritize outdoor visibility and longer battery life. I'd argue the latest 2,000-nit Garmin watches are perfectly visible outdoors, but their battery life does suffer for the extra brightness, while the APEX 4 has that classic longevity, to the point that I still haven't charged it since I unboxed it.

The APEX 4 reminds me of premium fitness watches from three years ago, when there was less industry pressure to add "smarts" like you'd find on an Apple or Galaxy Watch. The UI revolves solely around fitness: What's next on your marathon training plan, how much training load, have you built up, and how does your HRV, stress, and sleep play into your recovery?

But I'm less tolerant of certain things in 2025 than I was in 2022, like how the basic COROS UI crams dozens of tools into an annoying, rotating Toolbox, or the overly-large "COROS" label next to the display that detracts from its premium look.

Picking or skipping the APEX 4 comes down to your priorities as an athlete. Switching to the Forerunner 570, for example, would net you a flashlight, daily run suggestions, better music apps, contactless payments, and (arguably) a better display, but would lose you sapphire glass, a more stylish steel bezel, offline maps, and 5–11 days of battery life.

The APEX 4 is what grumbling Garmin users say that they want: A return to the MIP days, where they focused on fitness essentials and battery life over expensive bells and whistles, with a reasonable price and no frustrating feature-locking of the best features like maps.

I'll have a full review coming soon with more feature testing, but it's undoubtedly one of the best running watches of 2025...if you don't prefer AMOLED.

What you need to know

• COROS will announce an "all-new APEX" mountain watch on October 15, possibly the APEX 3 or APEX 3 Pro.
• The teaser GIF shows subtle details like the button layout, charging port, and strap.
• The APEX 2 series launched in November 2022 with titanium bezels, sapphire glass, downloadable maps, weeks of battery life, and (on the Pro) dual-band GPS.
• COROS also recently launched a brand-new NOMAD watch targeted to hikers, campers, and adventurers.

COROS is teasing a new trail and mountain sports watch, due to arrive next month, and its teaser gives small hints of what to expect from a possible COROS APEX 3 or APEX 3 Pro.

The placeholder web page shows an animated teaser silhouette of the mystery APEX watch. Assuming it's not just a generic image, it suggests COROS will use a different button layout from the APEX 2 and APEX 2 Pro, with a top-right crown and a bottom-left button instead of three right buttons with a centered crown.

The recent COROS NOMAD has a similar button layout, with the bottom-left Action button used for shortcuts like Voice Pins or Maps; we'd guess the hypothetical APEX 3 will have its own custom shortcuts.

The teaser image also shows COROS's familiar three-prong charging port and a silicone strap, even though the APEX 2 series defaulted to a nylon strap.

COROS won't share any more information until October 15 at 9 a.m. EDT. But based on the old APEX specs and the last three years of COROS releases, we can speculate on what the brand has in store for this device.

What we expect from the COROS APEX 3 series

In the nearly three years since the APEX 2 series launched, COROS has sold two new PACE running watches — including its first AMOLED PACE Pro — a premium VERTIX 2S watch, and a brand-new NOMAD adventurers watch that encroaches a bit on the APEX series' territory.

As a given, we can expect the APEX 3 (Pro) to offer a titanium bezel, sapphire glass, dual-band GPS, offline maps with street names and POIs powered by COROS's fast new Ambiq Apollo 510 processor, an altimeter and gyroscope, and at least two weeks of battery life. We'd also expect a price in the $350–500 range.

One of the big questions will be whether COROS follows industry trends and switches the APEX series to AMOLED. If it keeps MIP, the new APEX would match the NOMAD's display with better visibility and contrast. But rival mid-range watches like the Garmin Forerunner 570 and Suunto Race 2 use bright AMOLED displays with better resolution, while still offering good longevity.

Another question is whether COROS will find a way to close the gap on Garmin watches when it comes to mainstream smarts like a mic & speaker for Bluetooth calling, contactless payments, music streaming apps, or a flashlight. But these all feel like longshots.

The biggest question, in my mind, will be how COROS differentiates the APEX series from the NOMAD and VERTIX series.

The NOMAD caters to hikers and fishermen, letting you save voice recordings or photos of trails or fish to an Adventure Journal" of each activity for you to look at or share later. And the VERTIX very specifically targets serious climbers. So, what "mountain sports" will the APEX 3 or APEX 3 Pro focus on?

Whatever COROS has in store with its all-new APEX watch, we're intrigued. While they're a bit outdated at this point, the APEX 2s were among the best running watches of their time, and they have a more premium look for those who don't like the plastic-heavy PACE and NOMAD designs.

COROS has launched a new outdoor fitness watch for hikers and campers with dual-band GPS, 22-day battery life, and offline maps. Having tested the COROS NOMAD out myself, I can happily say that it's an intriguing alternative to the popular Garmin Instinct 3, and better in several ways.

The NOMAD's key perk is its offline street and topographic maps, now improved with street/ trail names and points of interest in case you don't predownload a course.

Its Ambiq Apollo 510 processor makes map navigation blissfully smooth. Scroll in or out with the crown, or swipe on the touch display to look nearby, and it fills in the details in less than a second, where other fitness watches I've tested have painfully laggy maps.

Old-school fitness watch fans will appreciate that the COROS NOMAD uses a 1.3-inch MIP display. I'm much more of an AMOLED fan, but COROS's colorful, high-contrast take on MIP is respectably readable indoors, once you turn on the gesture backlight, and it's great outdoors.

But COROS also made the NOMAD feel more modern with its new voice pins. Using the dual noise-canceling mics, you can record your thoughts mid-activity and have each recording pinned to a specific GPS location. It turns your workout summary into a hike diary, with the option to add photos to specific pins and then text the summary to loved ones so they can listen and see for themselves.

I tested it out on a local hike, and was happy with the experience. My voice came through clearly if I held the watch near my face, or muffled but audible at my hip, with pretty good noise cancellation for wind and footsteps.

COROS auto-transcribes every voice pin, and if you describe something like a tick infestation or trailfork, COROS will label that pin with a hazard or nav symbol. You can also place pins without speaking, using the same action button shortcut menu.

Voice pins aside, you can now see 3D flyover summaries of your COROS activities in the app. And more generally, COROS updated its training load widget so it no longer resets every Monday; you now get a rolling 7-day view of your training load, which is much more useful.

COROS also includes a ton of fishing activity modes, with ways to log your catches and casts, pin "promising" fish spots, and other niche tools. I've never fished myself, but it's gratifying to see COROS try to target niche audiences.

In many ways, the NOMAD is a rugged COROS PACE Pro. Both share the same $349 price tag, 30+ hours of dual-band GPS tracking, training load data, recovery time recommendations, music storage, and speedy offline map navigation.

But while the PACE Pro has to compete against a crowded market of running watches, the NOMAD has only a few rugged adventurer rivals like the Instinct 3 and Amazfit T-Rex 3.

Why the COROS NOMAD excited me more than the Garmin Instinct 3

I gave the Garmin Instinct 3 a solid review score for its weeks of battery life, accurate data, and Garmin training tools. But I also complained that Garmin should have given a $450+ "adventurer's watch" offline maps and more exclusive outdoor tools, so that battery life wasn't its only trademark.

Whether you care about the NOMAD's voice pins and fishing tools or not, at least COROS made sure to differentiate it from its other lineups, and didn't price-lock maps like Garmin does. Plus, even if you buy the Fenix 8 for mapping, it has more sluggish performance, and navigating with buttons instead of a crown isn't that fun.

Of course, the Instinct 3 has plenty of upsides over the NOMAD: doubled water depth with a MIL-STD-810 rating, a built-in flashlight, daily suggested workouts, a rucking app, and contactless payments. Most importantly, Garmin offers AMOLED or solar recharging in multiple sizes, where the NOMAD only comes in one MIP variant.

So it's not to say that the COROS NOMAD is "better" than the Instinct 3. But it's $100–150 cheaper, it's a more dependable navigation aid in emergencies, it helps you preserve memories of your favorite outdoor moments, and its weeks of battery life will be enough for most without solar recharging.

Testing the COROS NOMAD's GPS and HR accuracy

I took the COROS NOMAD out for a long run and a hike while wearing the Garmin Forerunner 970 and the Garmin HRM 200 chest strap as control groups for GPS and HR, respectively.

For the first 12-mile run, I used the NOMAD's default All-Systems GNSS mode and SatIQ mode on the Forerunner 970. COROS and Garmin ended up differing by about 50m / 0.03 miles by the end, a pretty minor discrepancy. You can see in the maps above how the NOMAD (red) sometimes drifts off course into cars or houses, but otherwise stays on the street or trail with reliable accuracy.

For my hike, I used dual-band GPS on both watches. Again, the gap was 0.03 miles or 50m, with the NOMAD (orange) and Forerunner (red) mostly staying in lockstep on tricky, winding trails and barely struggling with tree foliage.

The only blip was how COROS randomly warped me at the end of the hike about a mile, adding a ton of excess elevation. I have no idea how it happened, and haven't replicated the glitch since, but at least it didn't seem to affect my distance data.

As for heart rate, the COROS NOMAD matched my chest strap's HR average and max for the hike, but fell 1 bpm and 2 bpm short for average and max during that hard 12-mile run, respectively. Most optical wrist-based sensors struggle with anaerobic heart rates, but COROS's gap is smaller than most brands; serious runners may insist on wearing a chest strap, but everyone else should be satisfied.

Overall, I think COROS NOMAD buyers should be quite happy with its accuracy. It launches today, August 18, on COROS's website, and should come to retailers like Amazon and REI later in the month.

What you need to know

• A report from SySS GmbH, a German IT brand, indicates that the COROS PACE 3 has "several significant vulnerabilities allowing an unauthenticated attacker within the Bluetooth range" to access your data.
• The PACE 3 and other COROS watches can be forced-paired to another phone using a legacy Bluetooth "Just works" connection.
• With access, the hijacker can see your data, reset or reconfigure your device, read your phone notifications, or even send you fake messages.
• COROS's CEO has acknowledged this is a "system-level issue" and that they intend to begin addressing them before the end of July.

COROS watches are a popular alternative to fitness brands like Garmin, with affordable pricing and long battery life. But an IT exposé from SySS GmbH has revealed a major security vulnerability, and COROS has been slow to acknowledge and address it.

According to the report, the COROS PACE 3 does not properly authenticate or encrypt the Bluetooth connection between your watch and phone, bypassing the "Secure Connections" tool introduced in Bluetooth 4.2 for a simpler connection.

A hijacker can exploit this vulnerability and force-pair to your watch if it becomes disconnected from your phone at any time, letting them perform these actions:

• "Hijacking the vicitim’s COROS account and accessing all data
• Eavesdropping sensitive data, e.g. notifications
• Manipulating the device configuration
• Factory resetting the device
• Crashing the device
• Interrupting a running activity and forcing the recorded data to be lost"

Your COROS account could show info like where you typically start your runs, as well as login details. But the notification access seems particularly frightening, as they can "eavesdrop" on every notification your connected phone receives. They can even "inject" fake notifications onto your watch using a Python script.

The attacker could also go to a race event and factory-reset every COROS watch in the area remotely, without the victims being able to determine who is doing it.

Interestingly, the SySS GmbH report notes that hijackers' access is easier with connected Android phones. iOS encrypts the Bluetooth connection at the system level, but with Android, the watch skips the "AuthReq" step and simply pairs, so the connection is "neither encrypted nor authenticated" by default.

All a hijacker needs to do is "wait for an Android phone with the COROS app installed to come into Bluetooth range." After that, "any ongoing BLE connection between an Android phone and the watch can be intercepted, sniffed, or tampered with, making attacks far more practical and harder to detect."

Update: A COROS rep shared the company's Bluetooth Security Vulnerability Statement, which clarifies that this hacking attempt will need to be within "30 feet" and that Android users should force-quit the COROS app when not in use, which "prevents notifications from being passed to the watch in rare attack scenarios." They also recommend you set up a new COROS device "in a non-public setting."

How COROS is addressing the security risk

According to DC Rainmaker, SySS GmbH reported these vulnerabilities to COROS starting on March 14, 2025. It continued to provide more information and ask COROS for a response; eventually, on April 15, COROS responded that their "fix for the vulnerability is planned for the end of the year (2025)."

Maker followed up with COROS in late June, and its CEO, Lewis Wu, clarified that while the report focused on the PACE 3, the "Bluetooth stack is largely shared across our watches, so these vulnerabilities apply broadly to most COROS devices." This includes the COROS DURA bike computer and all recent watch models like the PACE Pro.

Wu also addressed the seeming lack of urgency to these major issues:

According to Wu, COROS hopes to resolve four vulnerabilities related to "pairing of Bluetooth devices" before the end of July, and then the "ones tied to the encryption of communication to the device" before the end of August, updating each COROS device "one by one."

COROS' support page clarifies that the PACE 3 and Pro, APEX 2 and 2 Pro, VERTIX 2 and 2S, and DURA will receive the fix by end of July, while older devices (the PACE 2, APEX 1, and VERTIX 1" will receive it "shortly after."

This security vulnerability should give fans of Android watches or Apple Watches a new appreciation for their monthly security updates, resolving any issues promptly. For smaller fitness brands, they may not have the same resources or QC, nor the same scrutiny.

We're relieved that COROS is kicking this fix into high gear, while also wishing that it had shown more urgency initially in protecting its customers' data.

Smartwatch charging is a mess, with a different proprietary cable for every brand. Lose your watch cable on a trip, and you're waiting a week for an expensive replacement or hoping a knock-off Amazon cable works. However, the fitness watch brand COROS has found a unique solution to the dilemma of charging cable for watches.

When COROS launched its PACE Pro watch, it replaced its usual three-pin cable with a tiny USB-C dongle; you insert a USB-C cable into it, then plug the dongle's pins into your watch. This way, you don't need to keep a phone and watch charging cable on hand — just slide the dongle onto your phone cable every couple of weeks when the battery dies.

That "A2" dongle was PACE Pro-exclusive, but this new "USB-C to COROS A1 Charging Adapter" works with the recent PACE 3 and 2, APEX 2 and 2 Pro, and VERTIX 2S and 2. I also assume future COROS watches will match the A1 adapter, making it the universal option.

This is still a "proprietary" charging solution, so you're screwed if you lose this tiny adapter; from experience, it's very easy for people to assume it's trash and toss it. Thankfully, COROS bundled it with a key ring holder so you can latch it onto a backpack and never lose track of it.

I'd love to see other fitness watch brands emulate COROS's approach. Garmin, Polar, Amazfit, Suunto, Fitbit, and other fitness watch brands each have unique connectors, so they'd each need their own adapters. But I'd still prefer a tiny, distinct adapter so that I can keep another (more useful) USB-C cable plugged into my charging brick at all times.

I suspect that we'll eventually see more watches adopt the Qi2 wireless charging instead, which would arguably be an even better "universal" charging option. But COROS piggybacking on the USB-C standard is the next best thing.

Why smartwatch charging is such a mess

A couple of years back, I asked Jitesh Ubrani, IDC's research manager of worldwide device trackers, why smartwatch charging is such an unsolvable mess and whether the EU should step in for a universal standard, just as they forced Apple to drop Lightning for USB-C.

He explained that "wearables come in far too many shapes and sizes" for a universal standard to make sense.

If every watch had to use a Qi charging coil, for example, it would "stifle innovation" and "do more harm than good," particularly to smaller brands that design their watches to prioritize other perks like larger batteries.

Ubrani said that wireless charging would become "more ubiquitous in the coming years as costs come down and power consumption amongst smartwatches is reduced." But fitness watch brands stick with the status quo because slower charging isn't a big deal when your watch lasts 1–3 weeks.

So, until that distant future when wireless charging makes sense to fitness brands, COROS's adapter is the next best thing.

Should Qi2 become the universal smartwatch standard?

At the moment, Apple and Galaxy Watches use magnetized wireless charging cables, and leaked Pixel Watch 4 renders suggest that Google will ditch its current pin-charging system for wireless charging. However, they don't follow a particular standard, such as Qi2 wireless charging, so they're not interchangeable.

Switching between Android and iOS isn't particularly common, but it would be nice if all the mainline Android watches and Apple Watches used interchangeable Qi2 chargers.

Qi2 supports fast wireless charging and a strong magnetized fit, making it less likely that your watch fails to charge because you didn't seat it properly. Plus, if you switch brands, your old charging cable doesn't suddenly become useless e-waste. Instead, it could charge other Qi-compliant devices.

Because these watches all use similar processors and hardware, I doubt it would be particularly onerous for any one brand to use an industry-standard charging coil. And because they only last a couple of days per charge, prioritizing faster charging is more important for these watches, anyway.

As long as using Qi2 wouldn't prevent watches like the OnePlus Watch 3 from hitting faster charging speeds, I don't see any downside to a more consistent universal watch standard. But since most brands would prefer the flexibility of their own unique charging solutions, I doubt will see this happen anytime soon.

When a major race like the Boston Marathon ends, most people only focus on the finish times. But pro athletes only hit these insane 2-hours-and-change times by being painstakingly exact with splits, running form, and other stats you get from a fitness watch.

So when COROS sent me its Pro runners' Boston Marathon stats like per-mile heart rate, cadence, and effort pace, I knew I had a lot to learn from their approach!

You can't compare your flag football stats against Patrick Mahomes or pickup basketball results against Steph Curry. But all runners are on the same playing field, aiming for the same distance.

First, I picked through the runner summaries COROS sent for Yalemzerf Yehualaw (3rd place), Emma Bates (13th), Des Linden (17th), Charlie Sweeney (19th), and Reed Fischer (21st), all top-tier runners for one of the most famous races in the world.

All of COROS' Boston Marathon team wore either the $349 COROS PACE Pro (Linden) or $229 COROS PACE 3 (Bates, Yalemzerf, Sweeney). It's pretty cool knowing they use the same tools as everyday runners to analyze their own stats — and that you can directly compare your data against theirs to provide humbling context and insight.

COROS was also kind enough to send a spreadsheet of per-mile stats for Bates, Fischer, and Linden for their pace, cadence, average/ max heart rate, and the changes from one mile to the next — or lack thereof — is fascinating and enlightening.

Here's what I gleaned from looking through these pro runner stats!

Consistency is vital

From miles 2 through 16, Reed Fischer's pace never changed by more than 6 seconds. And from mile 5 onwards, his average heart rate stayed in the same 170–176 range — while his average and max HR were almost always within 1–2 bpm.

Des Linden's average cadence fell between 188–191 steps per minute for the entire race until the final 0.2-mile sprint to the finish. Even when her pace dipped and stride lost power, she kept the same speed of her form, and her per-mile pace was remarkably consistent even across elevation changes.

I don't have Yehualaw's per-mile stats, but it's very telling that the gap between her fastest and average kilometer is only 20 seconds. And Linden, a role model for running longevity at 43, only had a 5-second gap between her mile-1 and mile-26 times, and a 33-second gap between her fastest and slowest mile.

These stats are a great reminder that you don't want to let your fellow runners dictate your pace. Even when you're in the zone and feeling great, you must restrain yourself, stick within your capabilities, and keep your heart pumping to the beat of a metronome.

You're probably trying too hard

I don't know these athletes' actual max HRs or lactate thresholds, but the "220 minus age" estimate shows me that all these runners were probably running, on average, right at the border between Zone 4 and 5 for most of their run. That's certainly not easy, but they rarely approach their max effort.

In fact, their heart rate tends to dip in the final miles; they ease off their pace to stick to what their bodies are capable of.

COROS has an "Effort Pace" metric that combines grade-adjusted pace (GAP) with your ability level to judge how hard you're working to hit a pace and adjusting the speed accordingly. By and large, these runners' effort pace was almost always lower than their real pace; they didn't push harder than their usual abilities, even for the biggest race of the year.

Fischer's first four miles did show a higher effort pace than actual pace, which I'd guess stems from him trying to stick with the faster leaders for the first 5K. Once he fell behind, his pace became more efficient and within his means.

Our goal, then, should be to keep at a similarly consistent heart rate and foot speed for our races rather than trying to outperform our capabilities and burn out in the later miles. If you want to go faster, build up your speed and endurance until you can naturally maintain a faster cadence.

There's no shortcut for getting faster

I averaged about 25 spm fewer than Charley Sweeney (who is my height) in my recent half-marathon PR, or 14 spm fewer during a max-effort interval workout. That's not a surprise or anything; just like when I tried to match Olympic paces on my local track, I know my running capabilities are firmly amateur.

But it did tempt me to consider whether I should try to change my running form to aim for faster step speed...until I remembered the time I asked Garmin Forerunner product manager Joe Heikes how to improve my running form. He basically warned me not to.

Any self-correction to change your natural form will lead to "less economical running," Heikes said, and runners should instead use form data like cadence as a benchmark; the lighter, faster, and stronger you get, the less wasted movement and slow turnover you should see without any conscious changes.

If there is a way to improve your form, it's with strength training to make your muscles capable of the extra impact. COROS coaches suggest burpees, mountain climbers, and other bodyweight jumps for faster ground contact time and lower-body exercises like squats, deadlifts, and calf/heel raises for a stronger stride.

The main point being, if I want to emulate these athletes' foot speed, it's arguably just as much about strength as endurance. These stats were a bit of a wake-up call to stop neglecting my cross-training.

Emulating their approach (only slower)

Plenty of amateur runners will look at these stats and get discouraged, knowing they couldn't run one mile as fast as these athletes' slowest Boston Marathon mile.

I look at it differently. I know that I can't run that fast, obviously, but I can emulate their race tactics.

My per-mile efficiency or performance condition stats show the turning point when I have to start using more effort at a higher heart rate than I should; the goal is to push that point further back.

During a race, I need to practice consistent pace and heart rate habits. Rather than just sink into the zone and run at a pace that feels right until my legs give out, I can use my running watch data to stay at a pace I can manage, particularly in the early miles when it's easy to get carried away.

Last year, I wrote about how I was done with heart rate monitor chest straps, for both comfort and accuracy reasons. Cut to 2025, and I still don't find them especially comfortable to wear. But after testing the new Garmin HRM 200 against the Polar H10 and COROS HRM across multiple runs, I'm happy to admit that I was overly harsh on chest straps.

Garmin sent me the HRM 200 with my Instinct 3, which I've been testing for months. By contrast, I shoved Garmin's chest strap into a drawer and subconsciously suppressed its existence, ahem, forgot about it until this week.

The Garmin HRM 200, like any chest strap, cuts out the wrist-based optical middleman and directly reads your heart's electrical signals for better accuracy. It's water resistant, highly affordable at $79, and lasts about a year before you need to swap out the batteries.

Unsurprisingly, I found it uncomfortable. But it did outperform my Garmin Fenix 8's Elevate v5 optical sensor for accuracy, for the sticklers who need near-perfect data. It's not standalone like the Garmin HRM-Pro, but otherwise, chest strap fans should love it.

I decided to test the Garmin HRM 200 and Polar H10 against each other — and against my COROS HRM armband that I much prefer — and give chest straps another chance to impress me.

My simple beef with chest straps

Chest straps aren't kind to people with dadbods. The strap naturally digs into my skin at the fit necessary to keep a consistent, non-slip connection.

I've lost enough weight in the past year that this is less of an issue than before, but my real complaint is how a chest strap keeps me out of the "zone." It hugs my chest with every breath, reminding me that my performance is being monitored and judged at all times, and making me self-conscious if my breathing rate gets high.

But I acknowledge that my dislikes may not apply to you. I think I'm more hypersensitive to tight clothing — like ties or skinny jeans — than other people. Just because I don't like chest straps doesn't mean I can ignore them; it's my job to give them a fair shake.

My more fundamental Polar H10 issue was how it produced bizarrely erratic results across several runs in 2024, no matter how well I adjusted the fit or wet the contact sensors.

Eventually, I discovered that my Polar H10 only worked as intended when connected to a smartwatch. I was using the option to track workouts directly in the Polar Beat app, and for whatever reason, the wonky phone-strap Bluetooth connection would sub in deflated readings at odd moments that badly skewed the results.

Once I started syncing my Polar H10 to a watch, it became a reliable control group for my accuracy tests. But I remained a bit suspicious that chest straps were overhyped.

Now that I had two chest straps, I decided it was time to see just how consistent these devices are, and if the accuracy gap is worth the trade-offs.

My Garmin HRM 200 vs. Polar H10 vs. COROS HRM accuracy test

My only way to compare all three straps' data was to wear three smartwatches — Garmin Fenix 8, COROS PACE Pro, and Polar Vantage M3 — connected to each, with the Garmin HRM 200 and Polar H10 stacked atop one another on my chest and the COROS optical sensor on my arm.

Aside from being a goofy-looking setup, I could only hope this close chest strap proximity wouldn't interfere with the results.

My hour-long, high-aerobic run started off shaky, with COROS' data elevated by about 30 bpm, Garmin taking a minute to catch up, and Polar having one early, random dip. But everything stabilized quickly, and there were no other issues for the remaining 58 minutes.

The chart above shows how all three devices compare, while the chart below focuses on the two chest straps. All three straps measured a 168 bpm average.

Typically, wrist-based optical sensors fall 1–3 bpm short in my tests, with a noticeable delay when I change my pace or climb hills. The COROS HRM still shows a bit of that lag, but it's minimal enough that only the most fussy of runners would notice.

As for the two chest straps, they're in near-lockstep for the majority of the run, which impressed me!

The bigger accuracy test, as always, was the track workout. I foolishly ran it the next morning when I was still tired, so I struggled to hit my usual max-HR levels. But I still got almost three miles of sprints, hard running, jogging, and walking, challenging my heart rate monitors to follow the rapid changes.

This time, there were noticeable gaps between the three devices. Both COROS and Polar lagged slightly behind Garmin's HR peaks and valleys instead of the two chest straps leaving the armband behind.

That doesn't mean Garmin's HRM 200 is more accurate, necessarily. The Polar H10 may have been slightly disadvantaged, placed beneath the HRM 200 so it wasn't as close to my heart. And I don't know if Garmin's spikier graph than Polar's steady one means it was faster at catching tiny HR fluctuations or was just slightly more inconsistent.

(Note: Ignore the Polar H10's one awkward flat-line near the end; it's a known issue where Polar's data freezes on the last HR result when you pause a workout. I tried to avoid pausing, but like I said, I was exhausted.)

Ultimately, the Garmin HRM 200 and COROS HRM both showed a 174 bpm average and 188 bpm maximum, while the Polar H10 fell 1 bpm short at 173 and 187, respectively. I'm happy to chalk that up to awkward chest placement, and it's much better than how my H10 performed in the past.

If I contrast that with every track workout test I've done with fitness smartwatches, some wrist-based optical sensors are better than others, but even the best will fall a few beats per minute short of the mark. I understand why people rely on specialized HRM straps for the best data.

I'm sticking with my armband, but you don't have to

I'm always happy to change my opinion when confronted with new information. After a week of dual chest straps and wearing multiple watches at once, I can state what most people would consider obvious: chest straps' data is more consistent than I gave them credit for.

But I'm not budging on the other part of my argument. Yes, the COROS HRM optical readings aren't as immediately responsive and accurate as the Garmin HRM 200 or Polar H10. But the gap is so minimal, and an armband vanishes from my consciousness after five minutes while a chest strap takes up mental real estate the entire time.

Basically, unless you truly need the best-possible accuracy, I'd point you towards a COROS HRM or Polar Verity Sense to improve on your watch's unreliable readings — and I hope Garmin considers an arm-based sensor of its own.

If you're not as hypersensitive to tight devices as I am, the Garmin HRM 200 is an excellent deal for Garmin watch owners.

I was predisposed to like the COROS PACE Pro more than its older siblings for one simple reason: it's the brand's first AMOLED watch. As someone with steadily worsening eyesight, I've never liked using MIP displays except during sunny workouts where they shine, so to speak. Indoors, COROS watches weren't that fun to use.

The PACE Pro felt inevitable and overdue after rivals like Garmin, Suunto, and Polar adopted AMOLED en masse in 2023 and 2024. I loved the COROS PACE 3, calling it the best affordable watch of 2023, but only because MIP felt like a fair sacrifice for the price. The PACE Pro had a higher bar to clear, both for its $349 price tag and my expectations.

Since late October, I've taken the COROS PACE Pro on dozens of runs, hikes, and workouts, comparing it against other recent fitness watches like the Garmin Fenix 8 and Polar Vantage M3. I've come away impressed, or at least satisfied, with its accuracy and performance in key areas.

While it's taken me too long to get this review out, that's only a reflection of how jam-packed 2024 was with smartwatches to test, not its quality or importance. If you're on the hunt for a reliable running watch, I'd look seriously at the COROS PACE Pro.

COROS PACE Pro: Models and specs

The COROS PACE Pro launched on October 31, 2024, for $349 / CA$499 / €399 / £349 / A$599. It currently ships in three colors — Black, Gray, and Blue — and only has one 46mm case / 1.3-inch display size. It defaults to a silicone strap that matches the case color, but you can buy a nylon strap for $29 that reduces the weight by 12g if you prefer.

The first "Pro" of the PACE lineup, it arrived about a year after the PACE 3 with some key upgrades. The most noticeable is the display boost from a 1.2-inch non-touch MIP to a 1.3-inch AMOLED touchscreen with an extra 120 pixels per inch and improved brightness.

Plus, you get an extra five days or 16 dual-band GPS hours of battery life, despite the switch to a more vivid screen.

You also receive 2X and 3X faster CPU and RAM, respectively, along with 3X faster wi-fi downloads and 32GB storage instead of 4GB (for maps and music). COROS adds new features to every watch that's capable of it; since the PACE Pro has the fastest processor yet, it's capable of performance-heavy features like mapping and should get years of post-launch updates.

Note: COROS contacted me during my review that "a small number of watches from the first production have a minor defect risk when exposed to incredibly dry and cold conditions. These conditions caused some watches to overheat and be uncomfortable to wear. This issue was resolved before PACE Pro went on sale and there is no risk that consumer units will have this issue. Only early samples were impacted."

I myself never had this issue, but I finished my review with the Black PACE Pro after starting with the Gray PACE Pro, which is currently disabled. Neither model had any noticeable differences in terms of accuracy or performance.

COROS PACE Pro: What I love

Reviewing COROS watches can feel a bit repetitive because each model builds upon the other. The features I liked in the 2021 PACE 2, 2022 APEX 2, and 2023 VERTIX 2S mostly apply to the PACE Pro, even though the VERTIX costs twice as much.

Generally speaking, COROS watches are lightweight, long-lived, and simple to navigate through the core widgets using the crown (or "digital dial"). COROS doesn't lock features to pricier or newer models, so everything the PACE Pro tracks is already available on the other watches (unless their processors are too old to support them).

That's why testing the PACE Pro is extremely familiar. COROS' EvoLab training metrics have remained largely unchanged. You see after every run how hard you worked out, how much of your activity splits into different heart rate zones, how long to rest before your next run, and other core data that runners need to succeed. Aside from a couple of missing features I'd love added, it's fairly comprehensive and only improving over time.

With just a few crown twists, you'll find your daily activity stats, training load and training status, recovery estimates, sleep stats, barometer, and other data; a few other useful widgets like race predictions and intensity distributions in the submenus by pressing the dial.

The UI isn't great for anyone who cares about apps, messaging, or a virtual assistant, but it is perfectly specialized for athletes who don't use their watches much outside of sports and checking notifications.

The software can lag behind rival fitness brands for key features, but COROS has been on an update tear recently to catch up (even if COROS itself wouldn't frame it that way). And it makes the PACE Pro a more well-rounded device for athletes.

Just in 2024, we've seen COROS add daily stress tracking, wellness checks, sleep stages & quality, and nap detection. I think some equivalent to Garmin Body Battery or Fitbit Daily Readiness is the next logical step to this collective data, though COROS only has a Recovery widget for now. The PACE Pro is much better at knowing the state of your body rather than guessing based on your fitness level and workout intensity.

COROS also added niche fitness tools that made the PACE Pro and its siblings better specialized for serious athletes: real-time group tracking, gear tracking, safety alerts to emergency contacts, virtual pacing, cycling power modes, Strava Live Segments, and turn-by-turn alert arrows. The latter two make the PACE Pro more useable if you care about route navigation or tend to re-run the same routes and want to pace yourself in real-time.

What's most important to me is that the PACE Pro has downloadable maps that provide background info to your routes, while the $449 Garmin Forerunner 265 only has breadcrumb navigation — topo maps are restricted to the Forerunner 965.

COROS splits its map into grids, so it only takes a couple of minutes to download a particular region if, for instance, you're vacationing somewhere new or flying to a destination marathon. Creating a route in the COROS app is as simple as plopping down Start and End waypoints; power users can import GPX files or use partnered apps like Strava or Komoot to make routes, as well.

I rarely use map routes on any smartwatch, but I enjoy following them on the PACE Pro over any other brand for one simple reason: the crown. On my Fenix 8, I have to press the Up/Down buttons to zoom in and out, and it feels laggy and laborious; on my PACE Pro, it's as simple as scrolling the dial, and the speedy CPU makes the zoom-in or out feel effortless and quick. I jump from an eagle-eyed view to a close perspective in moments.

Maybe the map can pan and zoom so quickly because it lacks any street/trail names or points of interest, so there's no context for what's around you. COROS told DCR that "trail/road labels are coming in Q1 2025" — another example of COROS' speedy update cadence paying off — and for now, that's the only negative to an otherwise positive map feature.

The core PACE Pro experience is lightweight and reasonably thin, uses only a fraction of its battery after an hour-long dual-frequency GPS run, and has a quick-release strap switch so you can buy and swap in any third-party option you prefer — though COROS' silicone and nylon replacements are very affordable at $29 apiece.

I like the default silicone band because of its breathable design and its two-slot buckle that keeps the watch securely in place, while other bands have some bounce during hard runs unless they're fastened tightly.

With AOD mode on, the PACE Pro is rated to last six days, though I never make it that long with daily workouts. Without AOD, it's rated to last 20 days; again, I found that estimate is a bit generous, but it still easily makes it a couple of weeks with sleep/stress tracking and regular GPS activities, which is a standard that'll keep 99% of runners happy enough.

COROS PACE Pro: GPS & Heart rate accuracy test

Back in November, I did an in-depth COROS PACE Pro fitness test against the Garmin Fenix 8 for dual-band GPS accuracy and the Polar H10 for heart rate accuracy, including several long runs, a hike, and a track workout. Rather than repost 1,500 words and a dozen graphs here, I'll briefly quote my findings.

For location accuracy, "COROS' redesigned antenna and new GPS chipset paid off" with a "definite improvement in GPS accuracy" compared to past dual-band COROS watches that put it on par with Garmin's $1,100 flagship.

For heart rate accuracy, I didn't see a noticeable difference between the PACE Pro and PACE 3 despite getting a redesigned optical sensor. It's "generally reliable for heart rate" and better than your average running watch, but it did fall distinctly short during an anaerobic workout and was slightly too high on average over a long hike. I recommended "buying the COROS armband... if you need the best possible results," but found it good enough for most runners.

Since then, I've used the COROS PACE Pro for several more multi-watch runs, including a 20-mile race wearing four watches, to test more comprehensively how accurate it is. Here's what I found:

The two heart rate charts above show two more track workouts. The first is more of the same: the PACE Pro fell 2 bpm short of my chest strap's average because the watch couldn't keep up when my heart rate rose rapidly for 400m or 800m sets.

For my second workout, I did a sustained workout where I jogged in between hard 200m sets instead of pausing fully, and the results were much better. You can still see a distinct difference between the two, but the gap was smaller, and the rising and falling heart rates allowed the PACE Pro to balance out when it was too high or low. The HR average ended up being the same for both.

For a "normal" 13-mile run, the COROS PACE Pro did well enough, though there's always going to be a gap between a chest strap and an optical wrist-based monitor. Aside from a couple of heart rate spikes, the PACE Pro was generally a couple of beats behind the Polar H10, needing a little time to catch up.

It ultimately fell 1 bpm short of the H10's average. Still, an everyday runner will find the results more than good enough for accurate heart rate zones and training load.

I'm including a few more GPS screenshots with the COROS PACE Pro (orange) and Garmin Fenix 8 (blue) from that same 13-mile run, which ended with Garmin and COROS measuring 13.20 and 13.17 miles, respectively. As you'd expect from such similar results, the GPS maps are boringly similar, if imperfect. (Click the box icon to zoom in.)

Basically, Garmin and COROS tend to be parallel to or overlap one another in most places, but do occasionally drift a bit into the street. COROS' past dual-band watches didn't seem to do as well, but the PACE Pro seems fully reliable at this point and frequently beats Garmin's $1,100 watch.

You can count on the PACE Pro for reliable GPS results, and that's arguably more important than HR accuracy: Serious athletes can buy an external HRM if you need perfect results — such as the COROS HRM armband, which syncs automatically with the PACE Pro — but they can't buy a satellite signal booster (as far as I know).

COROS PACE Pro: What I don't like

I'd personally choose a PACE Pro over a COROS APEX 2 because of the faster processor, dual-band GPS, 4x storage, and switch to AMOLED. However, some will appreciate the APEX's titanium case and sapphire glass, while the PACE Pro has a decidedly "sporty" appearance, which some might call cheap-looking. There's a reason why it did poorly in my recent smartwatch beauty pageant.

Whichever COROS watch you buy, you're not getting NFC for contactless payments. Rival fitness brands like Polar and Suunto share this issue; unlike Garmin, which spent millions to acquire FitPay in 2019, most smaller watch brands like COROS don't have access to NFC technology, which is a deal-breaker for some runners who want to leave their cards at home.

On a similar note, COROS doesn't have any major music partnerships, so if you care about music storage, you have to connect your watch to your computer and drag MP3 files into a folder. There are no playlists, and songs are organized by upload order. That makes the feature useless for those who don't have hard copies of their music and annoying for anyone who'd prefer customizability instead of one library of songs.

Having spent so much time testing Wear OS and Apple Watches in 2024, I do find the COROS UI fairly regressive. Having most of your apps, health sensors, and settings hidden behind a Back Button-long press, then having to scroll through your options one-by-one instead of swiping through an app drawer, is a pain.

Instead of being able to check notifications with a swipe from your home screen, you have to scroll through your widgets, select "Notifications," and then scroll through the lot. I've also found that emojis and photos don't seem to show up; COROS isn't taking full advantage of its AMOLED upgrade, in this case.

The watch face selection is adequate, if not as widespread as you get with most other smartwatches. Aesthetics aside, my main problem is with the lack of complications: you can't customize the data you see on the watch faces; only tap the back button on the home screen to swap between a few pre-chosen metrics like heart rate, sunrise/sunset, and elevation. If I want to see my current training load, recovery time, or other stats without having to scroll through menus, I should be able to! And I should be able to tap & hold those complications to jump to the relevant graph.

Beyond these main frustrations, I'd love to see an equivalent to Garmin's daily suggested workouts rather than having to depend fully on long-term plans in the Training Hub. Pointing out whether I need more easy/medium/hard activity and how much training load I need (without overtraining) seems like something COROS could do. The same goes for audio prompts that tell you your mile time or announce your next workout interval through the speaker or your earbuds without having to look at your screen.

COROS PACE Pro: Competition

The main COROS PACE Pro rivals are the $449 Garmin Forerunner 265, $399 Polar Vantage M3, and $349 Suunto Race S. They're all mid-range, multisport smartwatches with AMOLED displays, training load and recovery guidance, dual-band GPS, and at least a week of battery life per charge. Both Polar and Suunto have downloadable maps, too.

I'm accustomed to Garmin Forerunner watches, with access to Garmin Pay, Body Battery, daily suggested workouts, morning reports, audio prompts, ANT+ accessories, and a better selection of customizable watch faces. The PACE Pro has a significantly longer battery life than the Forerunner 265, plus ECG readings and downloadable maps instead of merely breadcrumb navigation. Both have 1.3-inch displays, but you can buy the 1.1-inch Forerunner 265S if you prefer a lighter experience. Whether you prefer a crown or Up/Down buttons for navigation during activities is subjective.

The Polar Vantage M3 will be my next review after the PACE Pro, but it had solid GPS accuracy and middling heart rate accuracy in my initial testing. I can't think of any obvious software advantages either COROS or Polar have over one another, but the PACE Pro has far superior battery life and display brightness, while the Vantage M3 has skin temperature readings, a display flashlight, and a wider array of useful performance and recovery tests.

Having only reviewed the Suunto Race, I can't say personally how well the Race S would compare, except that it's the only other option with a crown if that's a main COROS perk for you, plus a classier stainless steel bezel. Its battery life is only a week per charge, and it has no music storage capabilities, but it has unique Suunto Apps that you can download onto the watch that add unique smarts.

COROS PACE Pro: Should you buy it?

You should buy the COROS PACE Pro if...

• You're a COROS user who's been waiting for an AMOLED display.
• You're a serious runner looking for epic battery life and useful training guidance to hit PRs.
• You want a watch with reliable GPS and heart rate accuracy.

You shouldn't buy the COROS PACE Pro if...

• You care as much about style or ruggedness as training features.
• You need a specific, missing feature like contactless payments or Spotify playlists.
• You're not a fan of crowns for navigation.

I never like giving scores to my reviews because it simplifies a complicated conversation. I'm giving the PACE Pro a lower score than the PACE 3 — or the same score as the APEX 2 — even though I'd wear the Pro over either watch without a second thought.

Even if it's an unfair comparison, the PACE Pro costs more than a Galaxy Watch 7, and so I have to weigh its shortcomings in areas like smarts and design on a stricter scale. And as I've reviewed a wider array of watches, it's made it clearer in hindsight how past COROS watches fell short in key health and fitness areas until they closed the gap last year. I'm stricter than I was in the past when I wasn't experienced enough to see what was missing.

What matters most is that the COROS PACE Pro is an excellent running watch, without a doubt. It delivers accurate GPS & HR results, as well as useful insights into my training load and recovery, with similar findings to other reliable brands. And you're no longer stuck with a dull, low-res MIP display in between workouts.

While the PACE Pro has its shortcomings, I'm genuinely excited to see how feature updates throughout 2025 will fix some of them. Otherwise, I'm hoping we'll see an APEX 3 soon that delivers the same accuracy and display boost paired with a more stylish titanium design.

What you need to know

• COROS has added Strava Live Segments to the PACE 3/ Pro, APEX 2/ 2 Pro, VERTIX 2/ 2S, and DURA.
• 30 starred segments from your Strava Premium account will sync to your watch or bike computer.
• You can choose whether to race yourself, the fastest athlete, or people near your time.
• During a segment, your COROS watch shows your progress relative to your rival or goal time.

Strava Live Segments are a great way to spice up training runs by challenging you to beat past times or race people you've never met. COROS, one of our favorite running watch brands, is incorporating this feature into all its latest watches, catching up to rivals like Garmin and Polar.

COROS' Strava feature page runs through how to enable these Live Segments. You need a Strava Premium membership and any of the most recent PACE, APEX, and VERTIX watches (or the DURA bike computer). Your first 30 starred segments on Strava will automatically sync to the COROS app, sharing the list with your device.

Once enabled, your COROS watch will alert you and signal when you're getting close to a segment's starting point. When the segment starts, you'll see a graphic showing how your current GPS position compares to your target time, with data fields for the time ahead/behind your goal time and distance remaining to the end of the segment.

Plus, in case you're not sure of the segment's path, there'll be a second map view with an orange line to guide you.

As for what time you'll be racing against, it'll default to your "Carrot" time, aka the segment pace of the person directly above you on the segment leaderboard. But you can change it to be your "Wolf" — the person directly below you — your segment PR time, or the King/ Queen of the Mountain with the best leaderboard time.

Once you finish the segment, a pop-up notification will show your time and progress against your rival; you'll also have the option to see this data in the post-run summary.

Garmin first started supporting Strava Live Segments in 2015 with its Edge 520 bike computer, as well as many of its high-end Fenixes and Forerunners going back years — most recently the Fenix 8 and Forerunner 965. But it's always been reserved as a "premium" feature, while COROS is making it available on budget models like the PACE 3.

COROS has made a lot of progress catching up to rivals like Garmin on software features in recent months. Its September 2024 update added familiar features like gear tracking and nap detection, while other 2024 updates included daily stress, safety alerts, a wellness check, and a virtual pacer.

Equally important, COROS launched the PACE Pro, its first AMOLED running watch after years of MIP watches. Its rivals had begun to switch en masse to AMOLED over the last couple of years, making this switch long overdue. I suspect these Strava Live Segments will look especially good on the PACE Pro, and I'm excited to test it for myself.

The COROS PACE Pro's standout feature is its new AMOLED display, but it also added a new satellite chipset, redesigned GPS antenna, and an "improved watch body design for more accurate HR" than past COROS watches. I decided to put these GPS and HR enhancements to the test against a high-end Garmin watch and a Polar H10 chest strap.

The COROS PACE Pro has other upgrades over the PACE 3, such as a faster CPU, bigger buttons, better maps, and significantly longer battery life. However, the accuracy upgrades matter more to me: In my cheap fitness watch accuracy test, the PACE 3 lost to the Garmin Forerunner 165 significantly for GPS accuracy and slightly for HR accuracy.

I gave the budget PACE 3 a pass, but the PACE Pro competes directly against more mainline running watches like the Garmin Forerunner 265, Suunto Race, and Polar Vantage M3 — with AMOLED displays and other niche perks COROS lacks — so there is less room for error.

Thankfully, the COROS PACE Pro (mostly) lived up to the challenge, holding its own against the much more expensive Garmin Fenix 8.

COROS PACE Pro accuracy test summary

Since I'm reviewing the Garmin Fenix 8 and COROS PACE Pro simultaneously, I completed several long runs wearing both in low-signal areas, track runs at near-max heart rates in specific lanes, and tree-occluded hikes with plenty of elevation changes.

For GPS accuracy, Garmin watches with multi-band GPS have traditionally done excellently, winning my Coros vs. Garmin vs. Polar fitness test. The Garmin Fenix 8 is predictably accurate, but I haven't found it more accurate than the $450 Forerunner 265 or $350 Forerunner 255. So, the high-priced Fenix 8 is a fair GPS baseline for the $350 PACE Pro to match.

For HR accuracy, I typically use my COROS HRM as an optical baseline, but since it pairs automatically to COROS watches on the same account, I used my Polar H10 chest strap paired to my Fenix 8 to test the PACE Pro. I have fewer points of HR comparison than GPS because I paired the COROS HRM to the PACE Pro for a few runs to prepare for my Fenix 8 review.

I'll go more in-depth in both areas below, but if you're in a hurry, here are my main impressions: I see a definite improvement in GPS accuracy, bringing it functionally in range of Garmin so that no one will mind the gap. For HR accuracy, I don't see a significant difference, and I'd probably buy the COROS HRM if I needed the best possible HR precision.

COROS PACE Pro GPS accuracy

For standard runs on city streets, the COROS PACE Pro (mostly) did very well. In the gallery below, you'll see how the PACE Pro (blue) does better than the Fenix 8 (orange) at matching my path on sidewalks or bike lanes during a long 12-mile run — but has a few moments later on where COROS has me running through lawns while Garmin has my correct sidewalk position.

In one instance, you can see how both watches captured me running into a little park to take a photo of a cool John Muir statue before backtracking a bit. COROS has me wandering into the street on the way out, while Garmin has more trouble on the return trip. In other words, neither is perfect, but both do excellently at finding me in tree cover and never lose me for long.

During a second city run, COROS (now the orange line) loses more visibly to Garmin, consistently showing me slightly misaligned from my actual trail or sidewalk position. It didn't have any real impact on my tracked distance, however, with no wobbling location or lost signal like you typically see with poorer connections.

Hikes can be the most challenging for tracking: tree cover and nearby hills can block or redirect signals, and any wrong lines can mess with your elevation tracking. Thankfully, both watches did well during an 8.5-mile hike. In the gallery below, you can see how COROS (blue) and Garmin (orange) overlap one another in uncovered areas and stay parallel and on-path in occluded areas. Their overall altitude gain was only 4m apart, too.

Overall, it's clear that COROS' redesigned antenna and new GPS chipset paid off. COROS' GPS accuracy on past watches has been good but not the best. With these tests, COROS has done exceptionally well or has done well enough to stay in lockstep even when the results aren't quite perfect.

COROS PACE Pro HR accuracy

The latest COROS watches have five LEDs and four photodiodes, meant to capture a wide swath of your wrist for reliable HR data. In this case, COROS said the PACE Pro would have improved accuracy thanks to a redesigned body, but the results themselves look fairly comparable to past COROS watches.

I used my Polar H10 chest strap for comparison. Even though I've had issues with its accuracy in the past, I'm hoping it provided a reliable baseline.

The first chart above shows a straightforward 3-mile run. The COROS PACE Pro stays fairly close to the Polar H10 — which is connected to my Garmin Fenix 8, hence the label — but if you look closely, you can see how the COROS' optical monitor lags slightly behind Polar's electrocardiogram, not catching every minor change and showing slightly lower. That's normal for an optical vs. ECG comparison; so far, so standard.

For my long hike, there are long stretches where the COROS watch and Polar strap are in near lockstep with one another. Then you have moments where COROS measures a heart rate about 10–20 bpm above what the chest strap measures. I've had issues with my chest strap losing my signal in the past, dipping my HR to unlikely lows, so I'm uncertain if this is the fault of COROS or Polar here. The overall HR average was only one bpm off across a 2.5-hour activity, so I tentatively chalk this up as a solid entry for COROS.

The track workout is, predictably, where the problems arise. The COROS PACE Pro struggles to capture quick changes in heart rate, falling anywhere from 1 bpm to 8 bpm short at all times.

This is a pretty common weak point for most watches — a lack of responsiveness when running in a high-aerobic or anaerobic HR zone — but I hoped COROS would improve in this area. Instead, you get a 2 bpm gap in average for a relatively short activity.

That's why, as I said above, I'd probably recommend buying the COROS armband to pair with this if you need the best possible results. For everyday runners who aren't doing that many sprint activities or just need to know generally what heart rate zone you're in, the PACE Pro gets my stamp of approval for being generally reliable for heart rate.

And to be fair to COROS, other watches I've tested during track runs do significantly worse for anaerobic accuracy, even if it isn't the best I've seen.

The COROS PACE Pro deserves your attention

When it comes to picking a running watch, every brand has its strengths and weaknesses. The COROS PACE Pro won't change your mind if you already dislike COROS because the software is largely unchanged. It's a hardware upgrade meant to catch up to the pack in some areas and improve its lead in others.

The AMOLED facelift aligns with the industry-wide abandonment of MIP, making it long overdue. The accuracy boost is also an important one, targeting the kinds of runners (like me) that don't take a watch's workout results on blind faith; we notice when the results are wrong, and so COROS is taking GPS and HR accuracy seriously.

On the software front, COROS has the essentials: a target weekly training load based on your current fitness level, a monthly distribution of easy/medium/hard effort, a running fitness test to determine your lactate threshold, and downloadable training plans.

It still has weak spots, but COROS updates all of its watches with new features so long as the CPU can support them; since the PACE Pro has a new CPU and extra RAM, it should receive support for years to come. Though for now, the absence of music streaming apps or contactless payments may be deal-breakers for some runners.

While I still need another week or two to fully test the PACE Pro for its review, I'm feeling very enthusiastic about its upgrades. It's pricier than the PACE 3 but still on the cheap side compared to other running watches. Frugal "pros" should seriously consider it.

What you need to know

• The COROS PACE Pro is a new running watch for $349, the brand's first watch with an AMOLED display.
• It sports a 20-day battery life, offline maps, a new satellite chipset for dual-band GPS, a digital crown, and the full COROS training suite.
• Compared to the budget PACE 3, it has 2X processor speed, 8X storage, and 2x the dual-band battery life.

COROS has followed in the footsteps of running watch brands Garmin, Polar, and Suunto by releasing the COROS PACE Pro, a running watch with a 1,500-nit AMOLED touch display, after a long string of memory-in-pixel (MIP) watches.

COROS' trademark is affordable running watches with long battery life and MIP displays that are easily readable in direct sunlight. But as MIP displays slowly became less popular, COROS found a way to switch to the more readable AMOLED format while still offering nearly three weeks of battery life.

The COROS PACE Pro is an upgrade over the PACE 3, with a 2X faster CPU and tripled RAM, five extra days and 16 extra dual-band hours of battery life, 3X faster wi-fi downloads, and downloadable offline maps instead of breadcrumb navigation.

While the PACE 3 remains a great option for budget-minded runners, the PACE Pro arguably makes the APEX 2 a bit obsolete. Both the PACE Pro and APEX 2 cost $349, and the latter uses titanium instead of polymer and stronger sapphire glass. That aside, the PACE Pro has far better battery life, quadruple the storage, more accurate GPS, the same sensors, and the aforementioned AMOLED upgrade. COROS even says its maps zoom in three times faster than the APEX 2's.

I've only had a few days with the COROS PACE Pro thus far, not enough to properly judge its new satellite chipset or heart rate accuracy, but the switch to AMOLED is a welcome one for my eyes, and even with the silicone band it doesn't feel especially heavy.

Its battery life has impressed me thus far, and it comes with a new keychain charging dongle that lets you plug any USB-C cable into it to charge your watch. It's a unique solution to the problem of proprietary charging cables.

It's far too soon to say if this is one of the best running watches, but it has the exact same in-depth training software as other COROS watches, paired with excellent battery life and a full-color display that'll make the PACE Pro more appealing to some runners. Now that COROS has gone the AMOLED route, I'm excited to see how the PACE Pro compares to the $449 Garmin Forerunner 265, our current top pick.

The COROS PACE Pro costs $349 and is available from coros.com now; it should become available from retailers like Amazon and REI soon. If you're still more of an MIP display fan, you thankfully still have plenty of options from the COROS PACE, APEX, and VERTIX series!

What you need to know

• The COROS PACE 2, VERTIX 1, and APEX Pro will no longer receive firmware updates after September, though they'll still receive app updates.
• All COROS watches now receive Gear Tracking and Sleep Quality analysis through the app, while the newer watches get all-day sleep tracking, new pool swim and bike modes, plus other updates.
• The COROS DURA, originally due out in July, now has real-time elevation, back-to-start guidance, and a ton of other new features. It launches on September 26.
• All updates roll out to the public beta on September 23 and launch officially in October.

COROS' September update adds a few features to its watches and app that'll look familiar to Garmin fans, including gear tracking for your shoes and bikes, nap detection, and pool swim drills and intervals. Unfortunately, the update won't make it to every COROS watch.

Unlike other fitness brands that restrict the best software to pricier watches, COROS generally updates every watch it can. But the 2019 VERTIX and APEX Pro, plus the 2020 COROS PACE 2, have "reached their hardware's storage limit and will no longer receive future firmware updates."

Four years of active support for a $200 watch is nothing to sneeze at, and the PACE 2 will still receive app-based updates. But some runners will want to turn to the COROS PACE 3 instead, since it will keep receiving new features and offer dual-band GPS.

Meanwhile, the COROS DURA bike computer, announced in July but delayed due to "a small risk of mounting tab failures" and some reviewer complaints about missing software features, is arriving on September 26 with a host of new features that make it more competitive against other bike computers.

If you want to test these features now, you'll need public beta access. Click this link on either Android or iOS — you'll need Testflight on iPhones — and you'll get access. Otherwise, they'll roll out to all users sometime in October.

New COROS watch features

The new COROS gear tracking tool is simple: You input the name of your current pairs of running shoes, track spikes, or hiking boots and assign them to specific activities (Run, Indoor Run, Trail Run, Track Run, Hike, or Walk). Then, every time you finish an activity, COROS will add the mileage to the shoe's total, with a customizable "max distance" for when it's time to replace your shoes. You can also manually pick any pair of shoes before an activity.

You can even track mileage for your bike(s) for Road, Indoor, Gravel, Mountain, or E-Bike activities. For context, Garmin Connect also has Gear tracking, but it doesn't let you split them off to specific sports, only grouping by Running, Cycling, Hiking, Swimming, Walking, and Other. I prefer COROS' specificity, since I often wear different shoes for trail runs versus regular and track runs. My one complaint is that when I tested the beta for myself, it didn't retroactively assign miles from past activities, even when I say it was "First used" months ago. Moving forward, it should be very handy.

COROS improved sleep tracking with this update. In July 2024, it finally started tracking sleep stages like deep and REM; with the September update, it'll judge the quality of your sleep, warning you if you didn't get enough time spent in these stages to recover properly. Plus, it'll track sleep "24/7" to catch naps, though only rests of 3+ hours will get sleep-quality data.

Now that COROS tracks daily stress and sleep quality, I wonder if an equivalent to Garmin Body Battery or Fitbit Daily Readiness is coming next.

As for other COROS September updates, your watch will now support the following:

• Drill and Interval Modes for Pool Swim activities
• Gravel Bike and Mountain Bike (MTB) activities
• Mid-activity data fields for % FTP, % Max HR, % HRR, or % LTHR
• Integrations with new partners: Wikiloc, Ride with GPS, ROUVY, and Final Surge

COROS DURA update

You'll rarely see an "update" for a device that hasn't launched yet, but COROS clearly wanted to spruce up its first bike computer before it reached consumers' hands.

With the September update, the COROS DURA adds a Real-Time Elevation Profile mapping your hill progress thus far and a View Upcoming Climbs screen to see the remaining climb distance, elevation gain, and average grade for this climb, plus how many climbs you have left after that.

During a workout, you can check your heart rate, power, cadence, and time left on the Workout Progress view, and if you're riding on a designated course with multiple laps, the DURA will now auto-count laps every time you return to start. Then you can check the new Lap Summary view to compare your current lap time against past times.

Initial DURA testers complained that it didn't warn you quickly enough if you deviated off course, so COROS says its new Deviate Route Alert "has been improved" to be more accurate and immediate. It also added new Back to start options so you can choose whether to reverse back or take a "newly generated route," which is nice for variety.

Lastly, the COROS DURA now shows a Status Bar when you tap on the screen mid-workout for info on connected devices and battery status — though with 70 hours of dual-band tracking, battery life probably won't be a major concern. What matters more is battery life for connected devices, so COROS will let you set activity fields for battery life for power meters, lights, radars, HRMs, and so on.

You can read more about each feature on the COROS blog.

What you need to know

• The COROS DURA solar GPS bike computer is on sale June 17 for $249 and ships July 1.
• It has a 2.7-inch MIP touchscreen with digital dial and back/lap button, IP67 resistance, and dual-frequency GPS tracking.
• It lasts 120 hours in GPS mode or 70 hours in dual-frequency mode, and recharges 2 hours of GPS per 1 hour of direct sunlight.

COROS made its name as an affordable running watch alternative to Garmin. Now it's releasing its first-ever bike computer, the COROS DURA, with a very similar approach: high-end specs, budget price.

Like the popular Garmin Edge bike computers, the COROS DURA is a water-resistant, backlit LCD device mounted to your bike handlebar that can display offline GPX maps, turn-by-turn navigation, upcoming climbs, and checkpoints for mid-route guidance.

Its 2.7-inch, 480x240 MIP display can last an epic 70–120 hours depending on whether you use GPS only or multi-band GPS, and that's before the solar recharge. For comparison, the high-end Garmin Edge 1040 Solar only lasts 50 hours in dual-band mode with solar.

Meanwhile, bike computers closer to the DURA in price — like the Wahoo Bolt or Garmin Edge 530 — typically only last about 20 hours per charge.

Aside from GPS, the COROS DURA has an altimeter, compass, temp sensor, accelerometer, and gyroscope, and it connects via Bluetooth or ANT+; the latter helps it sync with e-bikes and smart trainers.

The COROS DURA tracks your training load and fitness level, though you'll want a COROS Heart Rate Monitor or watch like the PACE 3 to sync heart rate data. It also displays your workouts or training plans and has an FTP Test.

The COROS DURA uses a standard quarter-turn mount that comes in the box. It works in conditions between -20ºC/ -4ºF and 60ºC/ 140ºF. It comes with six main activity modes: road, indoor, gravel, MTB, E-bike, and E-MTB.

As the COROS DURA is its first bike computer, plenty of common features and integrations remain works in progress. COROS says it plans to add Strava Live Segments, "Ride with GPS" app compatibility, music playback controls, Zwift integration, and other software updates down the line. 

COROS says it designed the DURA with input from "some of the world's best off-road endurance cyclists" and that it's been tested in real-life endurance races like the Unbound 200. The name Dura means "a hard thing" in Spanish, which COROS says is meant to represent the bike computer supporting you during hard rides. 

Android Central has a DURA review unit and intends to test out its reliability over the coming months. So far, we're simply excited by its affordability and longevity. Its price is well below the cheapest Garmin Edge and closely matches the Wahoo ELEMNT Bolt v2, while its solar-powered battery life is well above the competition. Time will tell if serious cyclists will gravitate towards it, but it certainly has the essentials for anyone considering buying a bike computer for the first time. 

You can pre-order the COROS DURA now before its July 1 ship date at COROS' site.

What you need to know

• The COROS VERTIX 2S is an adventurer's watch announced on April 25 and shipping on April 27 for $699. 
• Replacing the original VERTIX 2, it has a redesigned GPS antenna, revamped HR sensor, and a slightly lighter case, but slightly shorter battery life.
• Its epic battery life, MIP display, and bulky-but-rugged design make this device best suited for people spending days (or weeks) in nature at a time. 

The COROS VERTIX 2S has arrived nearly three years after the VERTIX 2, and not much has changed on the surface. It's another "Adventure Watch" for climbers, XC skiers, and mountaineers with epic battery life and dual-frequency tracking, with the same price, ruggedness, and MIP display. The differences between them are subtle, but potentially significant. 

While the 2021 VERTIX 2 had dual-band and multi-GNSS tracking, COROS says that the VERTIX 2S has a "redesigned" antenna built to "improve positioning accuracy in dense city/ mountain environments." They also claim to have developed an "optimized GPS algorithm" to combat issues with outdoor climbing maps on steep slopes with the original VERTIX 2. 

In addition, the COROS VERTIX 2S receives the same optical heart rate monitor as the COROS PACE 3, with five LEDs and four photodetectors. While it draws more battery life, it does better accuracy-wise — the PACE 3 did quite well in our recent HR and fitness test — and will handle stats like daily stress better.

Because of these improvements, the original VERTIX 2 beats the 2S battery in days (43 vs. 36 days with sleep tracking), GPS hours (127 vs. 118), and dual-frequency GPS hours (49 vs. 43). 

While that might seem like a downgrade, the VERTIX 2S still matches or beats many of the best MIP watches out there for longevity. The Fenix 7X Pro Solar, for example, lasts 37 days or 122 GPS hours, only equaling the VERTIX 2S if it has a steady source of sunlight.

The VERTIX 2 and 2S largely share the same specs, except that the 2S is 2g lighter with the nylon band, and comes in new colors. COROS will only sell the 2S from now on, deprecating the VERTIX 2.

Having only briefly tested the VERTIX 2S, I can't speak to its hardcore adventuring features yet. Keep an eye out here this Sunday for a GPS and heart rate accuracy test against some other smartwatch flagships. I can still give some early info and impressions, however.

The COROS VERTIX 2S comes in a recyclable container — it's made of recycled materials, but is also designed to be reused as storage — and ships with both nylon and silicone straps, with a Quick Fit connector. 

Given how heavy the VERTIX 2S is, you'll want to default to the nylon option, which makes it feel somewhat manageable, on par with my Apple Watch Ultra 2 despite being significantly thicker. That's probably thanks to the polymer materials, whereas most all-steel or titanium watches take more getting used to.

Shipping in Space (black), Moon (white), and Earth (blue), the VERTIX 2S is pre-installed with a watch face inspired by your chosen color. Our review unit, for example, has a spinning Earth viewed from the moon's surface, and it's a cute touch — though light on actual data.  

As with most COROS watches, your experience will depend on your perspective on digital crowns. I'm used to most "serious" fitness watches having up/down buttons, but COROS has the center dial for rotating and selecting, with the top button for the backlight and bottom button for backing out and settings.

The VERTIX 2S is a niche device, as the price suggests. For a couple hundred extra compared to, say, the Garmin Instinct 2X Solar, you get a full-sized display for offline mapping, waypoints with turn-by-turn navigation, and proper widgets during activities. Mountaineers will be able to check their altitude performance or real-time storm alerts, while climbers will appreciate features like fall detection or auto pitch-type detection.

That's all vitally useful for a certain class of athlete, but an everyday runner like me is better suited towards the PACE 3 or APEX 2 Pro. I can't necessarily put these VERTIX 2S features through their paces unless I drive hours to a ski slope or (die trying to) scale a sheer cliff face or boulder.

If you prefer MIP displays to AMOLED to get that insane battery life, then the VERTIX 2S will fall right in your wheelhouse. I'm not an MIP fan, personally, but this display is high-res enough to be comfortably readable, and it looks great outdoors. Indoors, I had to dive into the settings to activate the all-day gesture backlight, just so I could see what time it was without having to press a button.

Overall, if you already own the VERTIX 2 and like it, then I can't say for certain if you'll want to upgrade for another $699 / €699 / £599. Better heart rate accuracy and GPS maps make a real day-to-day difference, in theory; I'll report back soon once I know whether it's especially accurate in real-life testing. 

As someone who's run thousands of miles over the past few years with dozens of smartwatches, I'm here to help you pick the best running watch available, specific to your budget and needs.

As much as I love the Garmin Forerunner 970, not everyone can or should spend $750 on a running watch. So the "best" running watch is relative to value and features; for some runners, the much-cheaper Forerunner 165 will be "best" because it has all they need: Good battery life, reliable GPS, and an app to keep them accountable.

My top six picks below are all running-centric fitness watches I've reviewed or tested extensively, so you know I'm recommending them based on real-world experience, not marketing.

Whether you're a marathoner or beginner, and whether you care about "smarts" or only need fitness tools, my running watch guide will help you find the right option.

At a glance

Best running watch for beginners

If a couch-to-5ker, lapsed cross country runner, or cross-training athlete wanted to get more seriously into running, the Garmin Forerunner 165 is the first watch I'd point them to.

It gives you accurate workout data, daily run suggestions, post-run analysis, and recovery time recs, but doesn't overwhelm you with features. All you need to do with the Forerunner 165 is go out and run.

Structured runners can follow a Garmin Run Coach training plan, your calendar filled with weeks of personalized workouts designed to help you run a first 5K, hit a PR, or just improve your VO2 Max. If you prefer flexibility, the Forerunner 165 will suggest a workout every day, targeting different types (sprints, threshold, tempo, base, etc.) and setting the pace based on your fitness level.

The Forerunner 165 beat other cheap running watches for HR and GPS accuracy in my testing, and its battery life will easily withstand anything from a week of daily runs to an ultramarathon.

My old #1 running watch pick, the Forerunner 265, is objectively better. It gives you a lactate threshold, training load focus, training status, and improved dual-band GPS. But do runners need this enough to spend another $200? I think the Forerunner 165 will be enough for you, until you put in the miles to earn a more robust running watch.

Alternate pick: The new COROS PACE 4 has a brighter 1.2-inch AMOLED display, an extra week of battery life, dual-frequency GPS, training load data, and a similarly lightweight design, while costing the same. Aside from the lack of NFC payments or daily suggested workouts, there are very few downsides to the PACE 4 as a Garmin alternative.

Best running watch for pros

Now let's target dedicated runners who don't flake out on their marathon training and track more than just their pace and mileage. If you want the best possible hardware and software, then seriously consider the Garmin Forerunner 970, the best running watch I've had the privilege to test.

It delivered fantastic GPS, HR, and step count accuracy in my testing, plus all the training tools the 165 has. On top of that, its training load focus graph helps self-guided runners determine whether you're neglecting low-aerobic or anaerobic training as you boost your VO2 Max, while hill and endurance scores quantify how your fitness level translates into real-world running performance.

The most compelling feature, however, is running tolerance. Most Garmin watches only take cardiovascular exertion into account when judging how long you need to recover; only the 970 judges your muscular and biomechanical load, warning you if you're overtraining and calculating how harder runs have a disproportionate impact load on your body.

Rather than splurge on a Fenix 8, grab a Forerunner 970 that's much lighter, easier to read outdoors, and will help you avoid injury while taking your training to the next level.

Alternate pick: Before the 970, the Forerunner 965 was my favorite to recommend to serious runners, and it's still tempting with its 23-day battery life. If you can do without running tolerance, a flashlight, 5th-gen HR sensors, and Bluetooth calling, maybe grab the 965 when it's on sale instead.

Best mid-range running watch

As much as the Garmin Forerunner series earns its reputation, it keeps getting pricier (the Forerunner 165 aside). Don't limit your running search to them when mid-range running watches like the COROS PACE Pro undercut them with similar perks.

COROS typically sells MIP watches to prioritize battery life, but it finally gave in to industry trends and gave the PACE Pro a 1,500-nit AMOLED, without ditching its trademark weeks of battery life. It's lightweight for long runs, and some runners will prefer its rotating dial to Garmin's up/down buttons.

Using maps on the PACE Pro is so much more seamless; it's easy to scroll in and out, both because of the crown and because the PACE Pro has a newer processor powerful enough for maps to run smoothly. And you can count on fantastic dual-band GPS accuracy, its results typically staying in lockstep with my Forerunner 970. The HR results don't quite keep up with a chest strap, but it's always reliably within range.

Otherwise, you're getting the training essentials like training load and status, time in HR zones, recovery time, race predictions, and Strava Live Segments. COROS doesn't have every tool that Garmin offers, but it doesn't price-lock features like Garmin does, so any new features over the next couple of years will come to the PACE Pro, along with its more expensive APEX and VERTIX watches.

Alternate pick: Other mid-range running watches like the Garmin Forerunner 265 ($449), Polar Vantage M3 ($449), and Suunto Race 2 have comparable tools but cost notably more. You may prefer the APEX 4 ($429), which has significantly longer GPS battery life and a mic & speaker for Bluetooth calling, though you'll have to accept an MIP display instead of AMOLED.

Best true smartwatch for runners

Most of my suggestions are great for running, but mediocre at best for "smarts." A true smartwatch is more useful outside of runs, with AI assistants, more health insights, and full app libraries — including some third-party fitness apps like Nike Run Club or Strava.

My first recommendation of a smartwatch for runners is the Pixel Watch 4. You get dual-frequency GPS, a 3,000-nit display, and (with the LTE model) music streaming over cellular, plus satellite connectivity for emergencies. In my Pixel Watch 4 fitness test, it performed very well for GPS accuracy against the Forerunner 970, while its HR data is at least consistent, if not perfect.

Battery life is always a concern with a true smartwatch. Thankfully, my Pixel Watch 4 battery test proved that the 45mm model only uses about 10% battery per hour of GPS tracking, making it more than capable of tracking a marathon. Plus, it has blazingly fast charging; by the time you finish a post-run shower, you'll have regained your lost battery.

Google first started catering to runners with the Pixel Watch 3, adding AI-backed run coaching tools for Premium subscribers. Fitbit's training load equivalent, cardio load, calculates how hard your heart works both inside and outside of workouts — especially useful for cross-training. Now, Google has launched a Fitbit Personal Health Coach that lets you build an AI-generated workout plan for anything from 5Ks to marathons; I'm still testing it out, but it's quite intriguing.

The Pixel Watch 4 still has some limitations for runners: Its data during workouts is limited to a few stats, there's no option to download and follow GPX courses, and you can't sync a HR chest strap for better data. But it's a respectable, balanced option for runners, or athletes looking to incorporate running into other training.

Alternate pick: The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is the obvious choice for iPhone owners, with its 5G and satellite connectivity, 14 hours of dual-frequency GPS workout tracking, Workout Buddy guidance, and custom workouts for interval training.

Best running watch for battery life

The Garmin Instinct 3 isn't the longest-lasting running watch out there — especially the AMOLED model I'm recommending — but I'm once again trying to balance cost and value. My colleague Brady loves his Garmin Enduro 3, which lasts 36 days normally, three months with daily solar recharges, or 320 hours of solar-backed GPS tracking. But I can't fill this list with watches that cost as much as flagship phones.

At $500, the Instinct 3 AMOLED lasts 24 days or 40 GPS hours, more than enough battery life for the vast majority of runners to be happy. Or, if you're willing to trade away visibility for endurance, the Instinct 3 MIP Solar costs slightly less and has "unlimited" capacity if you spend your days outdoors or 40 days indoors.

Most importantly for this discussion, the Instinct 3 lineup has the same running essentials as a mid-tier Forerunner: daily suggested workouts that adjust to your training status or upcoming race, training load focus, and grade-adjusted pace. It's much lighter than it looks, and while it won't win any beauty pageants, it'll appeal to rugged watch fans and withstand any damage from the trail.

Alternate pick: The COROS VERTIX 2S lasts a whopping 46 days per charge and did respectably well in my accuracy testing against Garmin and Polar flagships. It's on the expensive side at $699, however, and it's more suited for true mountain climbers or extreme trail runners than your typical urban runner (like me).

Best cheap running watch

Now we're in the territory for people who think even the $250 Forerunner 165 is "too expensive." Amazfit is a collective Android Central favorite when it comes to budget watches, but its dedicated running watch, the Amazfit Cheetah Pro, has much more rigorous competition at $300. Instead, you could consider the Amazfit Active 2, a sub-$100 smartwatch with all the essentials.

This is my only "best running watch" pick that I've yet to review, so I can't give a fully confident recommendation yet. But I've taken it out for enough runs to know that I'm not getting duped. Despite being this cheap, the Amazfit Active 2 gives you built-in GPS, a bright display (with sapphire glass on the "premium" model), elevation tracking, personalized Zepp Coach training plans for specific race lengths, and super-basic maps.

Basically, this is the watch to look at if you're considering something cheap like the Fitbit Charge 6 but want a full-sized display and no mandatory subscription — something "good enough." It'll last at least five days with active use, and it'll tell you whether you're working out enough to improve. It also has a ridiculous number of sports modes if you're someone who likes to cross-train.

Alternate pick: The Fitbit Charge 6 doesn't qualify as a "watch" but it does give you adequate built-in GPS and excellent HR accuracy. Otherwise, try looking at other Amazfit watches like the uber-cheap Bip 6 (also with built-in GPS).

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How to choose the best running watch for you

Hopefully, my best running watch selections have successfully targeted most types of runners. But if you're still feeling uncertain on which to choose, follow my step-by-step running watch buying guide below!

1. Choose your running watch budget

Some smartwatch and fitness watch brands offer the same software across price ranges, only making you pay extra for better hardware. Others (most notably Garmin) price-lock software to the most expensive models.

Either way, you have to decide how much you're willing to spend. So I've broken down fitness watches and smartwatches into price tiers, so you can see the most popular options in your range.

2. Weight and design matter as much as features

Most dedicated running watches don't look that attractive. They give you extra buttons or crowns to avoid sweaty touchscreen controls, plus lightweight polymer materials instead of metal. It leaves them looking thick, sporty, and corny to non-runners.

True smartwatches, on the other hand, have heavy-but-powerful processors, extra sensors, and chunky batteries; companies leave band weight off of the spec sheet to trick you into thinking they're lighter than they are. But you may accept these trade-offs because they'll look more "normal" in professional contexts.

I find 57 grams or 2 ounces to be my cutoff point. Anything beyond that, and you're sacrificing comfort for better materials, power, or battery life. But you also may not want to go too light: As much as I love my Garmin Venu X1 for its 40g weight, I lean toward the 56g Forerunner 970 for its hours of extra GPS tracking.

3. What are the most important tools a running watch needs?

Many smartwatches don't offer a convenient way to connect with external HR monitors, gym equipment, cycling accessories, and so on. Make sure your chosen brand will work with your BLE or ANT+ tech before you buy a running watch.

Beyond that, consider that many cheap running watches don't have sensors or tools that you may find essential. So let's run through what you should look out for:

GPS: Built-in GPS is an obvious necessity, so you're not dependent on your phone GPS. But standard L1 GPS alone isn't that reliable in urban canyons, dense foliage, or mountain regions. Most watches offer multiple GNSS like GLONASS or Galileo, but they only use one at a time depending on where you live.

Dual-band GPS uses L1 and L5 frequencies to pinpoint your location and avoid signal errors, and it's the most accurate option available — though also the most battery-intensive. As a middle ground, look for watches that offer "all-systems GNSS," pinpointing with multiple satellite systems.

Health sensors: Any running watch will offer heart rate and sleep tracking. But if you care about recovery and energy estimates, you need one that judges stress levels or HRV. Skin temperature data is often useful to show warning signs about your body's health and sleeping conditions.

For heart health, ECG readings help you catch signs of arrhythmia, but you must choose to take those readings yourself. A few smartwatch brands and Fitbits have passive heart rate rhythm warnings; in particular, Google has Loss of Pulse emergency detection, while Samsung has Vascular Load data.

Blood oxygen is also a useful metric; I appreciate how Garmin lets you decide whether to measure SpO2 at night or all day, if you're trying to determine how well you're acclimating to higher elevations.

Fitness sensors: A running watch needs an accelerometer to judge your running power and form, but all other sensors are optional. If you want the best experience, make sure your chosen watch has an altimeter to judge elevation data, a gyroscope for more accurate wrist movement detection, and a compass to enable course navigation.

4. Which apps do you need?

Garmin is the "smartest" fitness watch brand. It offers contactless payments, music apps like Spotify or YouTube Music, Google Maps turn-by-turn navigation, Strava Live Segments, partnerships with brands like Komoot, and so on. But even this is fairly limited compared to what you'd get on an Apple, Galaxy, or Pixel Watch.

They let you directly use watch apps like Strava, Nike Run Club, MyFitnessPal, Strong, MapMyRun, and so on. They have the power to handle true smart assistants like Gemini or Siri, while brands like Garmin and Amazfit have much more limited assistants that tend to misunderstand your commands.

Only you can decide if you need these smarts more than you need extra battery life. Garmin is the best middle-ground option, but it's still a compromise.

5. How much battery life do you REALLY need?

My dad used to run 100 milers, and so he'd have needed a watch like the Enduro 3 that could last for over 24 hours of continuous GPS. For almost everyone else, a 5- or 6-hour marathon is probably the longest they'll ever run, and so extra battery life isn't as much a necessity as a wonderful perk.

Most of my fitness watch picks last at least one week, trending toward two weeks; the models that last longer aren't "running watches," per se, but adventurer's watches meant for long backpacking excursions. They tend to be more rugged and bulky, as well as more expensive, and they may use an MIP display in place of AMOLED.

I think the Forerunner 165's 11-day battery or 17-hour GNSS tracking is an excellent sweet spot for most runners, who can top off their watch every week or so while they're taking a post-workout shower. Everything else is gravy.

Before I began wearing fitness watches, I ran with Runtastic or Strava and my phone's GPS, which had no proper heart rate data. I knew of chest heart rate monitors, but the discomfort and inconvenience — not to mention the high prices — made them unappealing. I only wish I'd had something like the COROS Heart Rate Monitor during those years, instead.

Arm-based heart rate monitors fall between chest and wrist-based HRMs in accuracy but arguably win for comfort. It's something you strap on and forget about, especially convenient for gym-goers who don't want a wristwatch interfering with exercises and weights. And even if you wear a watch, a strap gives you the certainty of accurate data without worrying about a perfectly tight, flat-on-wrist fit. 

There are a few popular arm-based straps already, like the Polar Verity Sense or Wahoo TICKR Fit, but I've found the COROS HRM gives them a run for their money, albeit with some limitations. 

I started using the COROS Heart Rate Monitor off and on after its July launch, so I've had months to test it out. Its features are very specialized and arguably somewhat limited; I chose to wait on my review to see how it held up for accuracy, comfort, and battery across months of use. 

On every front, it more than lived up to my expectations and the test of time. What else needs to be said?

How the COROS Heart Rate Monitor works

To set up the COROS Heart Rate Monitor, you need the COROS app for iOS or Android. I already had it from my COROS PACE 3 review, among others, but you might resent having to install an app just to set up an accessory — most other heart rate monitor straps don't require this step. Non-COROS users needn't worry: once it's set up, you'll never have to open up the app again unless you want to.

The strap connects over Bluetooth, which activates the moment that the built-in wear detection activates. Simply slide it on your arm or hold your finger over the photodetectors, and your device should detect it. Take it off, and it goes dormant, so it won't accidentally connect to your watch as you leave your house to run. 

It pairs automatically with your COROS watch if you have one; otherwise, you'll simply need to put your smartwatch, phone, app, gym equipment, or cycling machine in Bluetooth pairing mode, assuming it supports accessories. 

For example, watch brands like Garmin, Apple, and Amazfit work seamlessly with straps, while Fitbit doesn't, and Wear OS watches need Google Fit for them to work. For your phone, a few apps like Strava or MyFitnessPal let you connect the strap directly. Most exercise equipment these days supports Bluetooth; you're only out of luck if you need to connect to an ANT+ device.

Once connected, the COROS Heart Rate Monitor will remember that device, up to three in total. Compared to the Verity Sense (two remembered devices) and TICKR FIT (only one), this is a really nice perk! Plus, in my experience, once you start an activity on a linked device, the COROS HRM never takes more than two seconds to sync.

The headliner feature of the COROS Heart Rate Monitor is its battery life. It lasts 38 hours per charge, with an 80-day standby mode. There's no button to activate it, merely the wear detection; as long you aren't wearing it, the COROS HRM will retain its juice for months at a time. 

Essentially, if you charge your COROS HRM and then throw it in a drawer for two months, you'll find it probably has about 10 hours left when you find it. Day by day, the drain is minimal. Its longevity is absurdly useful. 

You can check its battery life on the COROS app profile page or else check the LED indicator on the sensor's side when you put it on. It's typically green but switches to orange with 5% battery or less. If it goes orange right before a workout, don't worry: it takes two hours to charge fully, but you can add a few hours' worth of battery in minutes.

The only real design "flaw" the COROS HRM has is its 3ATM water resistance. While you might assume that means it can go 30 meters underwater, that really means that it's sweat, rain, and splashproof, but not meant to be submerged underwater. Unlike the Polar Verity Sense, you can't go swimming with this on. 

Comfort and accuracy

At 19g, the COROS Heart Rate Monitor weighs less than half as much as your typical fitness smartwatch, with a nylon strap that feels soft and smooth on your skin, along with spandex that gives it its stretchy quality. 

The only tricky part of wearing this strap is right at the start. You need to adjust its size so that it stays securely on your arm without any sliding, but not so tight that it's uncomfortable or cuts off circulation. Once you've set it to the right size, though, it stays there, full stop. 

You'll stretch it out so it settles on the right bicep height, and then you can slide the actual sensor around so it sits on the outer portion. But once you let go, it'll stay at the exact same fit as your last workout. I haven't noticed any give or fraying develop over the course of months. 

My experience with the COROS Heart Rate Monitor fit is that it's always "noticeable" at first; it needs to be because you want it securely fastened. But once I start running, my awareness of it fades quickly as I get into the zone, the same way you forget you're wearing a smartwatch — only more so because it's lighter and doesn't make your wrists feel lopsided. By the time I sink into a zone playlist over my new Shokz OpenFit earbuds, I no longer notice it.

Unless you have Arnold Schwarzenegger arms, the COROS HRM strap should fit fairly easily. That said, I'm not sure how it'll handle exercises with actual bicep curling since I don't have much bicep muscle to speak of. That could make the strap feel tight for certain gym situations. You'd get the same issue with a chest strap or wristwatch, just with different exercises, so it's merely something to keep in mind. 

As for the COROS Heart Rate Monitor's accuracy, I'll crib from my own Garmin Venu 3 review, where I compared the smartwatch's revamped Elevate v5 sensor against the COROS sensor connected to the Forerunner 965. 

Essentially, the smartwatch did very well at following the strap, but you can see how the Venu 3 graph (light red) lags slightly behind the COROS HRM (purple), not always registering every rapid-fire change and tending to show more straight, averaged-out lines while COROS' strap captured changes more quickly without delay. 

Overall, the watch was only one bpm off from the strap, on average, across a 60-minute run. I guarantee that won't apply to a lot of other watches, especially budget models with fewer LEDs. For high-end smartwatches, though, the upside is more limited unless you're a pro athlete who needs true precision data. 

Otherwise, the COROS Heart Rate Monitor gives you data that's more accurate than $400+ watches designed for fitness and at an $80 price point. That's nothing to sneeze at. I've only shown one example above, but all of my other COROS-based heart rate graphs have held up to scrutiny with no odd drop-offs or delays.

Should you buy the COROS Heart Rate Monitor?

The COROS Heart Rate Monitor is very good at one specific thing: heart rate tracking during workouts. Compared to a smartwatch that measures SpO2, temperature, AFib, HRV, GPS, and overall sleep data, it's a limited use case, one that matches the reasonable price. 

If you buy the Polar Verity Sense instead, you can get a strap with full water resistance, connectivity with ANT+ equipment, and the ability to track and store workouts themselves (though this depends on the Polar app to track them). So if you're a competitive swimmer, have equipment that doesn't connect with Bluetooth Smart tech, or like to work out without a phone or watch on hand, the Verity Sense might be a better purchase.

None of that applies to me, though, and I doubt it'll apply to many people looking to buy this. They're niche concerns, and COROS got the core stuff right. I like that the 38-hour COROS HRM beats the competition for longevity — Polar and Wahoo only hit 30 — and that it relies on a standby mode instead of an on-off button that you'll very likely forget to press once you're back home and just want to shower and relax. 

I don't consider myself a serious enough runner to subject myself to wearing a chest strap on a regular basis, at least outside of reviews. But with the COROS Heart Rate Monitor, it feels like I'm taking my running metrics more seriously while also enjoying the convenience of a light, sweat-resistant strap that almost never dies on you and takes ten seconds to put on and adjust.

Even if this HRM doesn't match the "Perfection" label etched onto the band, it's about as close as I could want. I can't tell you whether you "need" a heart rate monitor strap or not, but as a semi-serious runner, I want it on my arm to augment my smartwatch. 

The COROS PACE 2 was the first running watch I reviewed for Android Central, and it blew me away with how many quality features it could offer for just $200. Since then, I've tried all manner of fitness watches that cost two or three times that, getting used to a certain "premium" quality. It made me curious if returning to the COROS PACE 3 would feel deficient, somehow.

I needn't have worried. The COROS PACE 3 delivered nearly anything I could possibly have hoped for in a $230 running watch. It steals plenty of hardware upgrades from COROS APEX watches that cost twice as much, and it has full access to the COROS EvoLab software that judges your training load and effect based on past efforts. 

COROS sent me the PACE 3 only a week before its embargo deadline, so I've spent that time rushing to check as many features and workout types as possible. I haven't gotten to everything yet, but I did perform several accuracy tests to get a pretty clear picture of how reliable it is for accurate running metrics.

Looking at the best running watches, you'll see plenty of options that offer visual or software upgrades. Only problem is, they cost twice as much. The COROS PACE 3 proves that if you can accept a plastic watch with a memory-in-pixel display (MIP), you don't need to spend that much on a fitness watch.

COROS PACE 3 price and availability

COROS announced the PACE 3 on August 29 and will begin shipping it the week of September 5. Specifically, it'll sell the white and black versions with either nylon or silicone straps. In October, it'll release the red PACE 3 Track Edition, if you want to wait for something a bit flashier.

It's available for purchase in the United States ($229), Canada ($329), Europe (€249), Great Britain (£219), Australia ($399), China, and Japan. COROS will first sell the PACE 3 on its website, but it should come to Amazon and specialty fitness retailers like REI down the line. 

Specs and updates

Like the PACE 2, the PACE 3 is a lightweight, 1.2-inch LCD watch with a digital dial, standard health sensors, and the core COROS software suite. It's 0.6mm thinner and 1g heavier than the last model.

If you compare the COROS PACE 3 vs. PACE 2, you'll note some key upgrades. First, the PACE 3 now has a touchscreen where it didn't before, though this is best for casual use. You'll rely on the crown during workouts, first and foremost.

The PACE series now supports SpO2 monitoring, though you'll need to take a manual measurement; there's no option for continuous or during-sleep readings. I'm not certain if it has the same "Altitude Mode" as the APEX series, which takes more regular readings if the altitude is measured above 8250ft. 

My favorite upgrade is that the PACE 3 jumps from GPS-only to All-Systems GNSS and Dual Frequency GPS. Before now, you had to pay $450 for the APEX 2 Pro to get this level of accuracy. Of course, that watch has a much larger battery for dual-frequency mode.

You also get 5GHz Wi-fi connectivity for the first time, which corresponds with much faster update downloads and fitness result uploads to the app than the PACE 2's Bluetooth connection. 

In addition, you can upload up to 4GB of music MP3 files to the watch; you'll need your own hard copies, there's no app compatibility, and no playlists either. 

COROS only increased the battery capacity from 220mAh to 238mAh, but claims it managed to add an extra 8 hours of GPS-only tracking compared to the PACE 2 (38 hours in total).

Lastly, in terms of software, the COROS PACE 3 adds a few new sports modes — Trail Running, Hiking, Skiing, Snowboard, XC Ski — but the PACE 2 will receive these in a firmware update later this year. COROS also promises that its turn-by-turn navigation beta will end up on the PACE 3 when it officially launches.

The only downgrade between the PACE 2 and PACE 3 is that anyone with ANT+ accessories won't be able to use them with the latter watch. COROS ditched the standard for its newest APEX watches, too, so maybe there isn't much demand for it. 

COROS PACE 3: What you'll love

Focusing on the obvious pros first, the 1.2-inch COROS PACE 3 measures a mere 30g, or 38g with the silicone strap, and 13mm thick. It's closer to the weight of a fitness tracker than a true smartwatch, making it just as comfortable as the PACE 2.

Most petite running watches weigh somewhere between 37–50g, and you'll find watches that weigh two or three times as much — like the 89g Amazfit T-Rex Ultra I just reviewed. Even though that watch is better than the PACE 3 in several key specs, I'd pick the PACE 3 in a heartbeat for comfort and price alone.

Also like the PACE 2, your experience with the PACE 3 will depend on how you feel about petite crowns, or "digital dials" as COROS calls them. I find it fairly comfortable to use, with a nice tactile vibration through the watch every time you turn it enough to move down to the next widget. You may prefer a more protuberant crown like the Pixel Watch or Apple Watch Ultra have, but I appreciate that the PACE 3 dial is too compact to jut into my wrist during exercises like push-ups.

I burned through my COROS PACE 3's battery fairly quickly because I only used dual frequency mode, which is rated to use up about 7% of the battery per hour (or 15 hours per charge). Thankfully, that number has lived up to scrutiny; an hour of high-accuracy tracking only uses up about 6–8% capacity in my experience so far. 

So you know the COROS PACE 3 can easily last across an all-day ultramarathon, especially if you switch to All-Systems or GPS only, where other cheap running watches would've long since died or offered no extra satellites to begin with. 

I do wish COROS offered an equivalent to Garmin's SatIQ mode and could switch between accuracy levels on a dime, but I can't be greedy at this price point. As you'll see below, I'm satisfied with the PACE 3's accuracy, and the watch always acquires a signal in a few seconds. Hell, the COROS APEX 2 doesn't even have dual-frequency tracking, and it costs $170 more!

The main perk with any COROS watch is EvoLab, which judges my base fitness, training load, training effect, recovery time, running performance, 4-week intensity distribution, race predictions, and other metrics before and after runs. Anyone familiar with Garmin's Training Readiness metrics will find very similar tools here.

Because I haven't used a COROS watch in some time, I imported my last couple months of Garmin workout data into the COROS app. EvoLab took that information and spat out very similar numbers for core metrics like VO2 Max and predicted race times, if slightly lower. If I had time, I could follow COROS' dedicated "Running Fitness" test that has you run increasingly fast across 30 minutes to judge your max abilities.

COROS' training load data was also very close to my Garmin's; for example, after a 4-mile run, COROS judged a 235 training load to Garmin's 224. That discrepancy makes sense, given that COROS judges me to be a little more out-of-shape, so the same effort got a few more points. Unsurprisingly, my post-run recovery recs for both watches fell within a few hours of each other, too. 

If you care about anything besides fitness data, you're out of luck with the COROS PACE 3. It caters entirely to runners and triathletes. But in that area, it does about as well as I could hope, not holding any features back to try and upsell you to an APEX watch.

I also appreciate all of the aforementioned PACE 2-to-3 upgrades like high-speed Wi-Fi downloads, the SpO2 tracking to see if you're acclimated to high elevations, and the touchscreen. I'll admit that the 1.2-inch screen is a little small for touch controls, so you have to swipe pretty deliberately to see an effect. But I still like having the option so my hand doesn't get cramped when holding the petite digital dial all the time.

COROS PACE 3 accuracy test

I compared the affordable COROS PACE 3 against the best running watch I've tested if price is no object — the Garmin Forerunner 965 — in GPS accuracy, heart rate, and simple step count. 

The easiest way to check location accuracy is to take your watches to the local track, which I did for a couple of runs. For the first run, I stayed in the first lane across several laps and got this result (blue is Garmin, orange is COROS):

Both were way off in entirely different ways while staying entirely consistent for each lap, which made me suspicious.

I went back to look at my past Garmin runs and realized that it has built an incorrect local track map across all of them, despite telling me accurately when I've hit 400 meters on the watch. COROS, meanwhile, got one lap correct and then showed me drifting into a further lane and kept me there for subsequent runs.

I realized that my better bet for accuracy tests was to stick to a traditional Run activity with no algorithm messing with the results. With this next map, I ran my first four laps in lanes four, three, two, and one to see if it could accurately measure the change:

In this case, you can see that the Forerunner 965 is more accurate, generally showing me in the inner lanes where the COROS PACE 3 drifts outward into lanes I never entered. Oddly, on the other side of the track, the PACE 3 does get more consistent in staying in the inner lanes, possibly due to a better satellite signal. In general, it's much better than what you'll get with a GPS-only watch. 

In this third map of my standard neighborhood run (you'll need to zoom in), you can see that the PACE 3 stays side-by-side with the Forerunner 965 a lot better than some other running watches I've tested. It does drift slightly into inaccessible areas on occasion, but gets the distance mostly right, buzzing my wrist at the mile markers within a second of the Forerunner when other watches were 10 seconds off per mile.

Considering I had some GPS tracking issues when testing the APEX series, and given its low price tag, I'm generally thrilled with the PACE 3 GPS accuracy even if it loses slightly to a watch that costs more than twice as much.

The PACE 3's heart rate data is inconclusive so far. Not because it's bad, but simply because COROS' review guide encouraged me to compare its heart rate data against the COROS Heart Rate Monitor it sent me...only the HRM superseded whatever heart rate data the watch would have given, so I only have the strap's results for a couple of runs. Whoops! I'll have more to say in a couple of weeks.

The one strap-less run I performed (my first track run), the two watches were mostly in lockstep at first — you can ignore that weird stretch in the middle, it was caused by inconsistent pausing — but for the last few laps, the PACE 3 either lagged behind the Forerunner 965 or failed entirely to register the increased heart rate as I pushed to my max pace. I'm not sure yet if the watch came loose or if it was an issue with the PACE 3 LEDs themselves. 

Hopefully, I can find out more about anaerobic accuracy in the next couple of weeks; generally speaking, for low- or high-aerobic activities, it seemed to be as accurate as you would hope for. 

I found that the Garmin and COROS altimeters were calibrated slightly differently (precisely 6m different for each run) but that both registered minor hills with the exact same change in elevation. I need to take both watches to an actual hilly trail to see how they compare, but I'm tentatively pleased.

As to the final point (steps), the COROS PACE 3 was within 10 steps of the Garmin Forerunner 965 after 10,000 steps across running, sprinting, and walking. COROS' APEX 2 Pro placed third in my step-walking test behind the Garmin Forerunner 265. While I haven't explicitly tested the 965's accuracy, I assume it's at least as good as its cheaper sibling, which makes the PACE 3's similar step count quite encouraging. 

COROS PACE 3: What you won't like

Most "quick release" smartwatch straps come in two pieces; you slide a small switch to remove each side, then slot your new bands into the holes on either side. Simple! But after the PACE 2 allowed for this, COROS made the inscrutable decision to add a metal pin to one end with no release slot to the PACE 3, so you need a special tool — or some really strong fingers and a paper clip — to remove it just to take off the nylon strap.

Because of that, I wasn't able to remove the nylon strap and test the silicone strap COROS sent as a backup option, prior to the embargo deadline. The nylon strap itself is decently comfortable, helps make the PACE 3 insanely light, and gives you a good fit for heart rate readings. But it has the usual issue of collecting and holding onto your sweat during runs and can feel a bit scratchy until you get used to it. 

Worse, it's a bit tight to fit my hand inside. I always have to slide the strap open to the very edge, which always gets caught for a second on the velcro. Once my hand's inside, it's very loose and tends to fall and hang off of my wrist until I tighten it, potentially bonking into a table or desk below. 

All of this takes no more than a few seconds after you nail the routine, but it's still a bit annoying to go through every time. 

The official silicone strap feels a bit generic and has more holes than it does silicone in most places. I'm not sure if I'd recommend it over the nylon; I just wish it was easier to swap so anyone with their own 22mm bands could add them instead.

Overall, I'm probably making a mountain out of a molehill, but the watch band situation soured me on the watch until the overall experience won me back. I bet I won't be the only one annoyed by it as soon as they unbox it.

While I love the feathery simplicity of the PACE 3 design, you may not like its matte plastic appearance. This watch isn't a looker by any means. It's not fair to expect gorgeous aesthetics in a $230 watch, but you could choose something like the Amazfit GTR Mini that's even cheaper while looking more stylish. I personally care more about what's beneath the surface, but just keep that in mind.

It lacks some key tools like NFC for tap-to-pay or background AFib detection that some other fitness watches offer. You also may want to look at a brand (like Amazfit) that prioritizes a vibrant screen while still offering solid battery life, like the $300 Cheetah Pro. Generally speaking, most running watches in this price range stick to MIP displays, so this mainly matters if you're willing to spend much more than $230. 

Truly, aside from the problems I had with the watch band, I'm mostly pointing out gaps in the specs table rather than anything that bothered me while using it. I only mind the dim MIP display because I've gotten used to an AMOLED; plenty of runners will happily switch from one MIP display to the next because ignorance is bliss.

My only other real complaint is that the COROS operating system is very much one where you scroll through a ton of widgets, click on one, and see a vague graph with not that much follow-up information. I think COROS wants and expects you to spend more time in the COROS mobile app, so you won't find a lot of detailed training load data on the watch itself — something you do get on rivals like the Forerunner 255. 

Competition

COROS really undercut the $400 APEX 2 with its own PACE 3 watch, offering a lot of the same perks and display quality while offering dual-frequency GPS (whereas the APEX 2 sticks to All-Systems. Still, the PACE 3 misses out on its titanium material and sapphire glass, electrocardiogram, and double the music storage. The PACE's 4GB is pretty stingy for fitting an epic running playlist.

Ignoring the $200 Forerunner 55 — which is long overdue for a new model — the closest Garmin equivalent is the excellent Forerunner 255, which costs $120 more. Or make that $170 more to get the Music version with 8GB of storage and Wi-Fi downloads.  

The Forerunner 255 only lasts 14 days to the PACE 3's 18 days with sleep tracking, but their results are pretty comparable for GPS (30 vs. 38 hours), All-Systems (both 25 hours), and Dual Frequency (16 vs. 15 hours). Garmin offers two size options and gives you a Morning Report with your workout recommendations and recovery time; but it unfortunately still hasn't added Training Readiness to the 255 — whereas COROS doesn't reserve any software tools for its more expensive watches like Garmin does. 

One intriguing alternative is the $300 Amazfit Cheetah Pro. For just $70 more, you get a watch with a 1.4-inch AMOLED display with 1,000-nit brightness, titanium bezel, dual-frequency tracking, music storage, and the Zepp Coach AI in a 43g package (5g more than the PACE 3 with silicone). Aside from the fact that I still prefer COROS' basic UI and EvoLab recommendations to Zepp Coach, the Cheetah Pro is a really tough rival to the PACE 3 in terms of specs alone.

COROS PACE 3: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if...

• You want a cheap running watch without too many compromises.
• You need reliable health and GPS accuracy, along with recovery data.
• A light design matters more than anything else.

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You need a more readable AMOLED display. 
• You dislike crowns. 
• You want a status symbol outside of runs. 

When I reviewed the PACE 2, I called it "a fitness smartwatch with simple controls, near-endless battery life, and a compact design that won't swallow or burden your wrist," along with "an excellent purchase for runners, swimmers, and cyclists." 

All of that still applies to the COROS PACE 3, which keeps the same design principles — except for the watch band switch that I'm still bitter about — and added some key upgrades to make it feel more modern than ever. If I could have picked and chosen PACE 3 upgrades myself, I can't think of what else I'd want except an AMOLED display. And that would make it a far more expensive device.

So if you're in the market for an affordable running watch that won't hurt your wrist, I wholeheartedly recommend the PACE 3 based on my time with it. And I'm excited to keep testing it in the coming weeks to make sure that I haven't missed any underlying issues. I'll update this review if anything concerning pops up.

What you need to know

• The latest COROS update enables turn-by-turn navigation for Routes, but you must sign up for the limited beta to receive it.
• This update also adds custom watch faces, a stats summary page, trail running workouts, exporting running notes to Strava, and other perks.
• COROS' update rolls out to the VERTIX 2 and APEX 2 / 2 Pro on the 21st, then the PACE 2, VERTIX, and APEX Pro on the 28th.

Most running watches let you download or follow offline maps, but it's up to you to keep an eye on the route yourself. An upcoming COROS update changes that, adding turn-by-turn navigation to most of its recent watches. But you'll need to act fast to get access.

Starting out as beta software, COROS' turn-by-turn navigation will only be available to about 500 users to limit the workload for the support and product teams. The testing period starts in October and will last 3–6 months before getting pushed to global users, so if you're interested and don't want to wait until winter or spring 2024  to receive it, we suggest applying at this link ASAP.

It's available across Android and iOS, so long as you own the COROS APEX 2, APEX 2 Pro, APEX Pro, PACE 2, or VERTIX 2 / 1. Once enabled, it'll work by default once you start any workout that supports Routes, such as Trail Runs.

COROS also announced a laundry list of more immediate features rolling out on Monday, including custom watch faces for the first time. You'll be able to create one using your own photos or a preset collection of images, all within the COROS app. Unlike another popular fitness brand (*cough* Garmin *cough*), you won't need a separate app to manage watch faces. 

Another much-needed update is a new Statistics Summary page, which lets you "choose a date range, filter by activity type, and quickly view your Threshold Heart Rate Zone Distribution to ensure your training was where you intended it." 

In other words, you'll be able to properly judge how much of your training load is spent in different heart rate zones, encouraging you to target neglected areas to improve your VO2 Max. 

While you wait for turn-by-turn navigation, COROS added an option to save favorite locations — so you can easily start or finish a newly created route at a usual spot like your local park or home — and then share a route with someone else over text messages or social media. Plus, you can now merge the start and end points of a custom route if you're running in a loop. 

If you export your COROS data to Strava, you can now automatically send workout data to each activity's notes field that the app doesn't have equivalent categories for, such as training load and adjusted pace. 

Other new feature updates and fixes include the following: 

• Trail running workouts
• Option to export an image with your workout data superimposed to share on social media
• Improved Wi-Fi speeds
• COROS watches will now say "Navigation Failure" when you start a route but aren't physically near it, rather than maintaining a "GPS searching" mode and wasting battery
• You can now record activities that are up to 1,200 hours long (!), up from 200 hours. 

The COROS August update rolls out to the VERTIX 2, APEX 2, and APEX 2 Pro on Monday, August 21. Next week, the update will come to the PACE 2, VERTIX, and APEX Pro on the 28th. 

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What you need to know

• COROS announced a new Bluetooth heart rate monitor strap for more accurate health data for athletes. 
• The strap attaches to your arm with an adjustable buckle, making it easier to attach than a chest strap.
• The COROS Heart Rate Monitor weighs 19g, has 3ATM water resistance, and can last 38 hours for tracking or 80 days in standby mode. 
• It costs $79 / €79 and is available on July 27 in the United States or mid-September in Canada and Europe. 

When it comes to heart rate monitor straps, most athletes choose chest straps for the best possible accuracy. In exchange, you have to struggle with finding the right size and fit, plus the lack of comfort. For a middle ground, some athletes choose arm HRM straps like the Polar Verity Sense. The COROS Heart Rate Monitor falls into the latter category.

Announced on Thursday, COROS' HRM will connect with watches like the COROS APEX 2, but also third-party running watches, smartphones, and cycling computers. It connects over Bluetooth alone, whereas other straps also offer ANT+, but you can connect to three devices simultaneously.

Where the COROS Heart Rate Monitor stands out is its battery life: it has a 53-hour estimate, longer than the Verity Sense (45 hours) and Wahoo Kickr Fit (30 hours). COROS says that it used a "newer Bluetooth chip which does not provide ANT+ support but has far better computing power and lower power consumption," which explains the gap.

The COROS Heart Rate Monitor has built-in wear detection, meaning once you've set it up and connected it to a device via the QR code, you can simply put it on and start your workout, and your data will broadcast to your connected devices. It uses "5 LED lights with four photodetectors for maximum accuracy," according to COROS. 

COROS gives the strap 3ATM water resistance, meaning it can handle light rain and sweat but cannot be submerged in water. That's something to keep in mind, depending upon what conditions you typically train in. Otherwise, it's capable of working in -4 to122° F (-20–50 degrees C) conditions. 

Athletes in the United States or China can buy the COROS Heart Rate Monitor now; it'll be available on Amazon and COROS' website. In other territories, you'll need to wait until mid-September. 

COROS sent Android Central a review unit of its HRM, so we plan to review it soon and see how it compares to the best heart rate monitor straps on the market. 

What you need to know

• Starting March 16, COROS users can email the fitness brand's three-coach team for running advice for free.
• "COROS Coaches" lets you ask for guidance on training intensity, recovery, or plan recommendations based on your Training Hub data.
• You can email coach@coros.com to receive advice within 1–3 business days, but you must have a COROS account to receive a response. 

COROS is a niche but highly respected fitness watch brand that makes several of our favorite running watches. Along with some of the longest-lasting watches on the market, COROS distinguishes itself with its free training software: EvoLab gauges your current training readiness and recovery times, while the Training Hub has free workout programs aimed at specific race lengths and times, as well as shared data with running clubs. 

Now, COROS is offering a new Coaches program that lets you email their team for training advice at no cost, so long as you have a COROS Training Hub account. Some recommended questions include "if I was sick last week, what should I do this week?" or "What intensity should I train at given my goals?"

While COROS emphasized that its three coaches won't create a customized training plan or individual workout for you — no doubt that would be too much work — your response will be based on whatever COROS workout data you've logged, and they can point you to a pre-made training plan or official workout that's best for you.

The coaches include one who trained "25+ national champions in the sports of Track, XC, Triathlon, and Cycling," a 2:29 marathoner, and an "exercise physiologist with a Strength & Conditioning coaching background." So whether your question is focused on training, pace, or recovery, you should get a pro-quality answer. 

"Our goal at COROS is to educate athletes and build a global training mindset," said Derek Dalzell, COROS' Senior Manager of Consumer Education. "There is simply no better service for our users than providing 1-on-1 coaching advice based on their own data."

Personal coaching is the missing link for running watches

This news made me want to start wearing my COROS APEX 2 again and start generating data for these coaches to analyze. While I can't be certain how in-depth the COROS coaches' responses would be, I would trust their advice more than the typical algorithm-generated training recs that a running watch typically gives you. 

It's not something that brands typically offer, and they typically charge an arm and a leg when they do. Fitbit used to offer a Fitbit Coach upgrade to Fitbit Premium for $45/month, before eventually cutting off the service, and we don't know of any other alternatives that pair specifically with a fitness brand.

Fitbit and Garmin provide workout recommendations generated from your data, and Garmin also has its own AI "Coach" and training plans to follow that will help you become a better runner. But you can only take the algorithm at face value, and it can't always account for unexpected roadblocks like injuries, pushing you to work harder than you should. 

While a few newer Garmin watches can account for upcoming races when generating workout suggestions, those with older watches have to figure that out for themselves. And generally speaking, these recommendations only focus on your current fitness level rather than being aspirational. 

That applies to COROS' algorithm too, of course. But the option of sporadically "checking in" with a running coach for advice during key moments of your training or recovery is just a really neat perk for runners who don't have good coaching or running clubs available nearby. 

That's why I hope other brands take note! With Fitbit cutting so many services right now, finding a way to make basic real-life coaching available for Premium users again would be a great perk to keep its customers happy. And Garmin already offers Garmin Coach plans based on real-life coaches' advice; adding a consultation option would make its hardcore user base very happy.

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COROS does an excellent job of cramming a ton of useful features into its affordable running watches, undercutting the prices of other brands. The "problem" with this is that, when the COROS PACE 2 and APEX 2 give you a ton of perks at the $200 and $400 tiers, the company may have run out of "premium" perks to add to the COROS APEX 2 Pro.

I gave the COROS APEX 2 a very positive review, praising it for its detailed metrics, durable design, long-lasting battery, and perks like All-Systems GNSS tracking while noting that its bulky design may not work for everyone. Well, if you spend a bit more, the APEX 2 Pro is the beefier older sibling with even longer battery life and more accurate GPS data — but surprisingly, doesn't have many other differences to justify the Pro label.

That APEX 2 review will give you a lot of useful context to compare against this Pro review since the two running watches share 90% of their features and specifications. This COROS APEX 2 Pro review will cover some of the same ground while focusing on those few upgrades to help you decide whether or not you need them. 

Long story short, I'd recommend the COROS APEX 2 over the APEX 2 Pro, but the Pro will appeal to a certain class of multisport adventurers and athletes. 

COROS APEX 2 Pro: Price and availability

The COROS APEX 2 Pro launched on November 3, 2022, and costs $499 / $699 CAD / £499 / €579 / $859 AUD. It is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, China, and Japan.

As of publication, the APEX 2 Pro is only available on the COROS website, but will eventually come to Amazon and other worldwide retailers. It comes in Grey, Black, or Green, and you can pay $29 extra to get a silicone band in addition to the bundled nylon band.

COROS APEX 2 Pro: What you'll like

I'll be upfront about how, exactly, the COROS APEX 2 Pro beats the APEX 2, and save the downsides for the following section. First and foremost is that the Pro lasts 30 days in standard smartwatch mode, while the APEX 2 only hits 17 days (which is still top-tier for fitness smartwatches, to be fair). Outside of a non-touch, auto-recharging watch like the Garmin Instinct 2 Solar, you'll have trouble finding anything better.

It won't actually last that long with regular GPS tracking, but it barely loses battery while idling or receiving notifications. And with actual GNSS tracking, it can last 75 hours in GPS mode; with other watches, you'd need to be in max battery mode that checks location every minute to last that long, rather than every second. 

While the APEX 2 has All-Systems GNSS tracking — which means it can use GPS, QZSS, Beidou, GLONASS, and GALILEO simultaneously and average out the results for more accurate location data during workouts — the APEX 2 Pro adds dual-frequency tracking on top of that. With joint L1 and L5 satellite frequencies, your watch receives signals from two angles in case one is blocked by your landscape (aka a mountain peak, building, or cliff face).

In practice, the APEX 2 has had some issues with tracking in All-Systems Mode, which I hope will be resolved with OTA updates but can't promise. The benefit of the APEX 2 Pro is that it gives a more accurate reading for regular runs with dual-frequency, with fewer moments of my workout line straying off the path into streets and rivers. 

In All-Systems mode, the APEX 2 Pro lasts 45 hours, the same amount of time as the APEX 2 in GPS-only mode, and well over most rival watches like the Forerunner 955 Solar (34 hours with solar recharge). And with dual-frequency and all systems active, it lasts 26 hours — still longer than most fitness smartwatches with only one GPS satellite tracking you, let alone five or six.

Both watches let you download GPX maps before you take a hike somewhere remote, but the APEX 2 "map" app is just a blank void without preparation. APEX 2 Pro buyers get the perk of pre-downloaded global landscape maps thanks to the extra storage space, showing your surroundings without an online connection — even if a GPX map will give you more exact paths. Add in checkpoints and back-to-start, and the Pro is a good choice for both casual hikers and serious mountaineers. 

Otherwise, the jump from 8GB to 32GB of storage will let you store thousands more songs on the APEX 2 Pro. You'll need to own physical MP3 files until COROS starts supporting specific music apps — something COROS says it hopes to deliver by 2023 — as well as workout earbuds to sync to your watch. 

You'll only be able to shuffle through the whole massive library, rather than use playlists. But I still appreciate having the option to leave my phone behind, and you can fit more music than most Android watches that have to share that storage space with apps.

Aside from how heavy and thick the watch is, the COROS APEX 2 Pro has all the design choices you want in a premium outdoor watch. Compared to the plastic finish most running brands use, the titanium finish for the case and bezel looks great, and the bezel has a scratch-resistant PVD coating. The 1.3-inch MIP display hits a good sweet spot for displaying enough data without being overly large, with the industry-standard pixels per inch, and it's protected by Sapphire Glass from any scratches or falls as you run, bike, or climb. 

Heavier than average, the APEX 2 Pro has the benefit of a default nylon strap to lessen its weight by 13g. You can always use any other 22mm quick-release strap, but the nylon is at least comfortably soft and very easy to adjust to get the right fit, even if it'll sop up water and sweat when silicone would repel it. 

I can't judge the one other perk of the APEX 2 Pro — a Multi-Pitch Climbing Activity mode — because I don't have the strength for serious climbing...and I'm afraid of heights. But for the Alex Honnold types out there, this is the one significant reason to upgrade, assuming the watch's size doesn't get in the way.

I don't want to be too repetitive with what I already covered in my APEX 2 review, so I'll simply say that there's a reason that a lot of marathoners have partnered with COROS (beyond whatever brand deals COROS made with Eliud Kipchoge and the rest), and briefly summarize all the perks you get with any APEX 2 watch.

Aside from some missing sensors you'd get on a Fitbit Sense 2 or Galaxy Watch 5 Pro, the APEX 2 Pro has all the essentials: heart rate and blood pressure monitoring, ECG spot checks for irregular heartbeats, an altimeter for better measuring effort at certain elevations, a compass for the aforementioned maps, both an accelerometer and gyroscope that'll combine for more accurate tracking in sports modes like swimming, and a wear detection sensor. 

In my weeks with the watch, the heart rate results were largely very accurate and consistent across long races or in terms of continuous tracking throughout the day. Blood oxygen results were also more accurate, which I suspect is because the nylon strap gives you a tighter seal between the sensors and your wrist than a typical silicone strap. 

COROS EvoLab does an excellent job of taking your health and fitness data and giving an easy-to-understand summary of your current fitness level, training load, fatigue, and likely race pace for a 5K, 10K, half marathon, or marathon, among other information to help inform your training plan. It'll then tell you what your current "effort pace" is relative to your actual pace during a run, based on whether or not a 9-minute mile is especially difficult or easy for you. 

COROS doesn't give you daily suggested workouts like Garmin, but it does have a ton of coach-made training plans that will guide you to hit a particular pace or race distance over the course of weeks. I'm currently using a COROS marathon training plan to try and increase my weekly mileage, and the scheduled workouts will guide you to stay within a specific threshold for heart rate, pace, or other specs like running power so you don't burn out or slack off.

COROS APEX 2 Pro: What you won't like

Revisiting an earlier point, the APEX 2 Pro is one of the thickest watches I've worn. Coros' website says the Pro is 14mm, while the specs chart its rep gave me says 15.8mm instead. For what it's worth, it's about as thick as my GW5 Pro, which measures about 15mm, so that's a good point of reference. 

If you wear a silicone strap instead of the default nylon one, the APEX 2 Pro weighs 66g or 2.33oz. With the nylon strap, I'd say 53g is slightly above the borderline of what I'd want to wear for a long race; the 42g APEX 2 is just more comfortable, even if it, too, is thicker than the average watch. 

The real point here is that you have to decide if the huge gains in battery life and the perk of dual-frequency GPS justify the size and cost difference. You can wear the Pro for much longer, but you won't enjoy wearing it that long because of the weight. 

The APEX 2 can last 30 to 45 hours depending on whether you want All-Systems GNSS or not. That's long enough for several days of hiking or a 100-miler on a single charge. I'm not sure if anyone needs the numbers that the APEX 2 Pro offers. And while dual-frequency does work better, the difference for casual use isn't significant enough because your distance-to-effort ratio is still accurate, even if your tracking map isn't. It's only for true pros that traverse extreme environments where GNSS signals get bounced around. 

Otherwise, you're paying $100 more for 24GB of extra space for music and maps and a 0.1-inch-larger display. If you're already spending hundreds on a running watch, you can upsell yourself to the Pro. But I think the APEX 2 already delivers a solid experience, and the Pro just doesn't have enough exclusives to make itself attractive. 

Beyond that, the APEX 2 Pro has the same downsides as the APEX 2. In terms of software, it lacks third-party apps and hides many of its features in a hard-to-navigate submenu. Text messages and notifications don't display emojis and sometimes have poor spacing and formatting. And the touchscreen seems too slow to respond to swipes, so I just rely on the digital dial instead. 

As for hardware, it doesn't take advantage of its massive battery to offer continuous blood oxygen monitoring or heart rate variance (HRV) data. And it's missing some tools like NFC and hydration/ breathing/ menstrual tracking that you'd get on a competing watch.

The Competition

The main pound-for-pound competitor to the COROS APEX 2 Pro is the Garmin Forerunner 955. A 52g, 14.4mm watch with 1.3-inch touchscreen, 32GB of music and map storage, all-systems GNSS and dual-frequency GPS, all the same sensors, and similar tracked metrics, the $500 Forerunner 955 is equally worth considering. A few perks like NFC, daily suggested workouts, continuous HRV and SpO2 data, and a real-time stamina widget called Pacepro make the Garmin model a tempting rival.

If you want a running watch that gives you a more complete software experience, and don't mind the APEX 2 Pro's heavy and thick design, you could go with the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro. It lasts just three days per charge, but gives you a complete Wear OS experience with a full suite of apps, built-in speaker and mic for calls and speaking to Google Assistant, Samsung Health, and GPX maps with trackback. 

COROS' other running watches are serious competition, too: the COROS PACE 2 and APEX 2. I've already broken down how the APEX 2 compares, but if you want to save even more money, the PACE 2 is an extremely lightweight and long-lasting watch that does miss out on features like SpO2 data, a touchscreen, all-systems GNSS, and so on. It's great if you want the basics, in other words. 

COROS APEX 2 Pro: Should you buy?

You should buy the APEX 2 Pro if...

• You need a ridiculously long battery life, ultra-accurate tracking, or both.
• You need more space for GPX maps and MP3 music files.
• You're a multi-pitch climber.

You shouldn't buy the APEX 2 Pro if...

• You don't want an overly heavy and thick watch. 
• You want more smarts or an AMOLED display at this price.
• You don't need the Pro's few upgraded perks.

I'm not going to say you shouldn't buy the COROS APEX 2 Pro. Instead, I'll simply say that only a specific type of adventuring athlete should buy it. I appreciate that COROS didn't reserve a ton of useful features for its "Pro" watch to the detriment of the APEX 2. But that watch is what most people need. 

Unlike other "Pro" watches, the COROS APEX 2 Pro is actually designed for the professionals that'll benefit from its perks. Either that or for more casual runners who want a battery massive enough that built-in music streaming won't immediately burn through the battery.

Since I reviewed the COROS PACE 2 last fall, I've tested fitness watches and trackers from Garmin, Polar, Fitbit, Amazfit, and Samsung, giving me a much clearer picture of how well different brands cater to athletes' needs. So I was very excited to test out the COROS APEX 2 with a clearer picture about how the running enthusiast brand holds up against the competition. 

A mid-range, multi-sport outdoors watch, the COROS APEX 2 has the thick, hardcore look of many running watches in this price range, except with some perks like a touchscreen, titanium finish, offline maps, music storage, and all-satellite GNSS tracking that you'd normally expect to spend hundreds more to get.

Falling in the same price range as the Garmin Forerunner 255 and Polar Pacer Pro, the COROS APEX 2 is a watch that any dedicated runner should seriously consider, as it more than holds its own against them. From its marathoner training plans to hardcore metrics, COROS has the tools you need to guide you to a faster PR. And aside from a few quirks that might put off some buyers, the APEX 2 is a great delivery vehicle for those perks.

COROS APEX 2: Price and availability

The COROS APEX 2 opened up to pre-orders starting on November 3, with availability in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Australia, China, and Japan. COROS has told us that the APEX 2 will first only be available from coros.com for 1-2 weeks before coming to Amazon and other retail sites.

The COROS APEX 2 price will be $399 / £419 / €479 / $579 CAD / $649 AUD. Upgrading to the APEX 2 Pro, which we'll also have a review for shortly, will cost you about $100 extra depending on your region. 

In addition, COROS will sell alternate nylon and silicone watch bands for $29. You can buy either material in black, gray, or green; nylon also comes in coral, or you can choose silicone in navy or khaki. 

COROS APEX 2: Design and hardware

The COROS Apex 2 exhibits how much a watch band can change your fitness smartwatch experience. With a 43mm titanium case that's a whopping 14.6mm thick, it's noticeably thicker than most running watches, nearly as thick as the unwieldy Galaxy Watch 5 Pro and slightly thicker than the Garmin Forerunner 955. 

But it weighs much less than both. A typical Android smartwatch obviously weighs more because of the CPU and RAM, but I'd bet the 10g difference between the 42g APEX 2 and 52g Forerunner 955 mostly comes down to the strap. You notice the APEX 2 on your wrist, but not as much as you might expect.

Unlike a silicone strap with set points that you must carefully adjust to your wrist every time, the nylon strap lets you pull until it's tight and just like that, you have a near-perfect fit, which especially helps for accurate sensor readings. 

Nylon absorbs water while silicone repels it, but I haven't had a serious issue with it during runs; any sweat simply cools off my wrist and then burns off in the sun. If you live in a rainy area or do lots of sweaty cross-training, though, you may want to buy a silicone strap and accept the extra weight. 

As for the watch itself, COROS used premium titanium for the bezel and case, along with PVD coating on the bezel that's supposed to be twice as scratch-resistant as its standard titanium. 

The display has Sapphire Glass for scratch-resistance, which apparently helped when I dropped the APEX 2 on a rock while taking photos of it. No scratches or cracks yet! Plus, you get the industry-standard 5ATM water resistance.

Unlike most watches in this price range, the APEX 2 has a touchscreen. Unfortunately, I don't see much reason to use it much. During workouts, the digital dial is easier to use than my sweaty fingertips. Outside of workouts, I find that the display doesn't always register my swipes, and I often find it annoying to swipe one by one through menu options when turning the dial is easier and more accurate. But hey, at least the option is there for fans of touch over tactile.

On that topic, I'd describe the APEX 2 digital dial as conveniently functional. I much prefer it to the up/down buttons found on many fitness watches because of the accuracy and simplicity of scrolling without having to press down on buttons while running. Unlike the protuberant Pixel Watch crown, the APEX 2 dial is more compact, so you must turn it a bit more deliberately; but that's mainly an issue when scrolling through a ton of menus, when the touchscreen may be more natural.

COROS added the standard sensor suite you'd want on a fitness smartwatch, including an electrocardiogram (ECG) for testing heart rate variance, blood oxygen (SpO2) testing that gives you hourly scores for altitude adjustment above 8,250 feet, and both an accelerometer and gyroscope for accurately measuring your arm movement during specific sports modes like swimming or jump roping. Plenty of watches don't include the gyroscope and hope you won't notice the reduced accuracy, but you'll appreciate it for multi-sport tracking. 

In terms of what it can't measure, the COROS APEX 2 thermometer only measures its surroundings, not skin temperature like the Fitbit Sense 2. And you can only spot-check HRV or specifically check SpO2 with Altitude mode; there's no passive irregular heart rate testing like you get with other brands, nor blood oxygen checks for standard sleep tracking or continuous tracking. 

The latter seems like a waste, since the APEX 2 has the battery life to support continuous SpO2 data. I asked COROS if that's something it would ever add in the future, but didn't receive a response.

If you ignore the window-dressing sensors, all that will matter to most users is the optical heart rate monitor (HRM) accuracy. And on that topic, I've run into the issue of how little time I've had with the watch. In my few runs with it so far, it seems to be mostly very consistent, with only one moment late in a half marathon when my BPM inexplicably dropped 40 beats for a minute before climbing back up. 

During that race, it matched fairly closely to the Garmin Forerunner 955 I wore on my other wrist across 2+ hours, consistently about 1-2 bpm lower in its reading both in average and spot-checking specific time markers; but I can't say which is the more accurate without further testing. I'll have more to say on this in a week or two.

We'll discuss battery life and GPS tracking below, so to round out the hardware discussion, the COROS APEX 2 does have 8GB of internal storage for music — 6.58GB once you subtract other stored data, according to my computer — that you must add by connecting the watch to your computer and dragging .mp3 files directly into the hard drive. 

Then, you just connect your favorite wireless earbuds or speaker via Bluetooth and shuffle through one giant playlist of local files. COROS says it's working to bring streaming services in 2023, but I'd say count on needing your own music for the short term, and just pick a good playlist of a thousand or fast-tempo songs (give or take a few hundred depending on your music library's quality).

COROS APEX 2: Software and UI

The COROS software backing the APEX 2 might be its greatest strength; but I'll admit that the COROS watch's user interface (UI) is arguably one of its weaknesses.

First, the positives. From 2021 onwards, COROS launched EvoLab as a free tool to measure and quantify your performance and fitness level, then rolled out a Training Hub that makes your workout history easier to search and lets you compare results against other runners or receive remote coaching. Most recently, it launched Effort Pace, a time-per-minute score that "accurately reflects your true effort." COROS says Effort Pace is more understandable and motivating to runners than the traditional "running power" stat, which I've personally always found too inscrutable to be useful.

Once you finish a running workout, COROS will inform you of your (effort) pace, time spent in aerobic, anaerobic, or threshold effort based on your heart rate zones, average cadence and stride length, running power, elevation gain, training effect, and mile lap times. All the data you need is laid out in painstaking detail.

More generally, COROS takes your sleep data and workout history to give you a Fatigue score, VO2 Max score, a race predictor for your 5K, 10K, half, and full marathon distances, and 7-day training load. 

To hit your goals, you can download COROS training plans that appear in the app calendar, with specific workouts and intervals that you can select to start when you open the workout menu. The APEX 2 will beep at you if you don't stay within the parameters of the workout, such as running power, heart rate, % threshold pace, or cadence. I'm currently using a marathon training plan to up my mileage, which I appreciate because Garmin Coach only goes up to Half Marathon guidance.

Comparing the APEX 2 to the Garmin Forerunner 955 I'm also currently reviewing, both are decently responsive to changes in pace during a guided run, but the Garmin buzzes your wrist when you're above or below pace, while the COROS beeps at you. As someone who finds strict guidance more distracting than helpful, I personally prefer the latter because it's easier to note the beep while looking ahead, while the vibrating Garmin compels me to check my wrist every time. Others will prefer the Forerunner for the opposite reason, however.

Long story short, the COROS APEX 2 has all the data and coaching I could want coming from my Garmin watch back to COROS, though it'll need a few more runs to properly capture my maximum capacity since it's only captured my data on long, slow runs. It also has the capacity to guide you on hikes with downloadable GPX maps and global landscape maps — though the APEX 2 Pro has the latter downloaded by default, and has much more storage room for local map data.

As for why I find the COROS APEX 2 user experience a bit frustrating, it's because the only easily accessible information on the watch is your Daily Data. It's an admittedly long list of 15 stats like burned calories, training plan, sleep time, and notifications that you can scroll through and select to see more in-depth information. If you want easy access to this info, you're in luck.

But to access your Toolbox — a collection of over 20 built-in COROS apps — you have to hold down the back button and then slowly turn the dial to navigate through them one by one. Settings, changing the watch face, testing your HRV or blood oxygen, maps, alarms, music, compass, and other useful tools take a ton of taps and scrolling to find and access. 

Maybe the disabled touchscreen will make scrolling through the long list of apps easier. But ideally, you could use the touchscreen to scroll left and right from the home screen to access some of these tools, which would make them far more accessible.

As it is, your best bet is to customize the Toolbox to remove the more obscure apps so you can quickly scroll through your favorites. And you can add a long-press shortcut to the light button to access a few tools, which I bet most people will use for Music or Do Not Disturb. No other buttons have shortcuts, nor are there any double-press shortcuts.

Coros lets you see (or disable) notifications for Calls, Texts, and Email from your default iOS/Android apps, as well as from a few key apps like Instagram, Twitter, and popular international apps like Weibo and Line. You can then disable "Other" notifications from any other app if you want to cut down on unnecessary buzzing, but that means you can't specifically include one unsupported app without bringing in the rest.

I've noticed text notifications have odd spacing around apostrophes and can't support emojis. You also can't respond to texts on your watch with default responses, as you can with Garmin watches connected to Android phones.

In the end, does the rather paltry UI matter? It'll vary from person to person. I personally am someone that doesn't typically wear any fitness watch much outside of workouts, so all I care about are the excellent fitness features. And other fitness-focused UIs like Garmin's and Polar's can be pretty bare-bones, too. But if you want an all-day watch with more useful and easily accessible smarts, you may want a lifestyle watch with fitness tools, instead. 

COROS APEX 2: Battery Life and GPS accuracy

As with my early heart rate testing, this section is somewhat preliminary until I've had more time to test the COROS APEX 2, both in terms of its longevity and its accuracy during workouts. So far, the results for both have been promising but not necessarily perfect. 

The APEX 2 added All Systems GNSS mode, meaning it pings GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, and QZSS simultaneously; other "all systems" modes we've tested only use two satellite systems at once, in actuality, making the COROS system promising. You don't get dual-frequency GPS without upgrading to the APEX 2 Pro, however.

Thus far, All Systems hasn't quite lived up to my expectations. On the plus side, I haven't seen a single instance of tracking data clearly being lost, as lines always flow smoothly without jagged edges and mostly follow my path. But I do notice that when you zoom in on my workout maps, I frequently appear to the left of my actual position, putting me off the trail, in the middle of the road, or in nearby rivers or trees.

Again, I asked COROS if this is an issue they're aware of, and they didn't respond yet. They did tell DC Rainmaker that buying the $100 COROS Pod 2 accessory will help smooth out GPS results, but he didn't find that it did so significantly. You'll likely want to just upgrade to the APEX 2 Pro for dual-frequency tracking instead, if this is a concern.

If you ignore the mapped data and focus solely on distance and pace, my results almost exactly matched my Garmin Forerunner 955 using All-Systems + Dual Frequency. So for realistic workout results in terms of fitness alone, COROS gives you what you need, more or less.

For battery life, COROS promises the APEX 2 will last 17 days with standard usage, up to 45 hours in GPS-only mode, or 28 hours in All-Systems mode. These numbers are absurdly good, especially for a watch with a touchscreen. 

Looking at the best running watches, most only last around 20-35 hours in GPS mode, and even the solar-powered Garmin Instinct 2 has a 48-hour GPS lifespan. The closest APEX 2 equivalent in my mind, the pricier and heavier Garmin Forerunner 955, lasts 42 hours or 31 in All-Systems mode. 

By and large, the APEX 2 battery life seems to fall slightly short of its battery estimates, burning through about 7% in two hours of All-Systems Mode. Most watches I test tend to fall short of company estimates by a few hours, but if you're concerned, the 45-hour GPS-only battery life crushes nearly every competing running watch on the market today. The only way you'll have to worry about the battery is if you frequently use music storage, which historically cuts a watch's lifespan by about half.

COROS APEX 2 vs. APEX 2 Pro vs. APEX 1 series

The COROS APEX 2 and APEX 2 Pro offer a significant step up over the previous generation of APEX watches. If you own the APEX or APEX Pro, you'll have plenty of tempting reasons to upgrade, bolded below. 

Both newer APEX 2 watches add touchscreen support and more pixels per inch for the displays. Both generations used sapphire glass and a Grade 5 Titanium bezel, but the APEX 2 added PVD coating to the bezel for a supposed "2X scratch resistance," plus improves from aluminum to titanium for the cover material. The last generation used silicone bands, while this generation switched to nylon, likely to counterbalance the heavier weight. 

The COROS APEX came in 42mm and 46mm case sizes, while the APEX 2 only ships with a 43mm case size and measures about 2.5mm thicker than its predecessors, while also weighing about the same despite the switch to the nylon band. Part of that weight difference could be the battery life increase: the APEX 2 will last 45 hours with regular GPS usage while the Apex 1 only lasted 25-35 hours depending on size.

Along with a revamped optical heart rate sensor with wear detection, the APEX 2 adds hourly blood oxygen tracking for altitude adjustments — something only the APEX Pro had — and an electrocardiogram for HRV measurement. Plus, COROS claims the redesigned GPS antenna is 50% more accurate. 

Other improvements include a dedicated second backlight button, music storage for MP3 files, offline map navigation, a Night Mode, and the ability to work down to -22ºF, a 36º improvement. But the original APEX did have a better 10ATM water resistance and support for ANT+ accessories, which you lose here. 

As for comparing the COROS APEX 2 vs. APEX 2 Pro, there aren't that many differences, though the few Pro upgrades will matter to, well, "pro" athletes.

The APEX 2 uses All Systems GNSS mode to ping several satellite systems at once, which COROS says suits areas like "cities near tall buildings, neighborhoods with significant tree canopies, or mountainous/hilly terrain." 

Upgrade to the APEX 2 Pro, and you'll get Dual frequency + All systems, which pings both L1 and L5 satellite frequencies at all times. This mode is recommended for particularly rugged environments like cliff faces or mountain peaks where a large structure could block one satellite signal angle but not the second. And on that note, only the APEX 2 Pro has a Multi-Pitch Climbing Activity mode.

The APEX 2 Pro lasts 30 days with standard use or 75/45/25 hours with GPS, all systems, and dual frequency, respectively. The APEX 2 lasts 17 days, 45 hours, or 28 hours for smartwatch, GPS, and all systems, making it excellent against competing brands but not as much of a marathoner as the Pro. 

Although both watches have music storage, the APEX 2 Pro has quadruple the storage at 32GB vs. 8GB. 

With a 1.2-inch display and the same ppi as the 1.3-inch Pro, the APEX 2 weighs 11g/0.4oz less and measures 1.2mm thinner than the Pro. If you can do without the Pro's perks, the APEX 2 is going to be more comfortable and will last more than long enough for most users to charge it every 1-2 weeks. 

The Competition

The two most comparable running or multi-sport watches in the same price range as the COROS APEX 2 are the Garmin Forerunner 255 and Polar Pacer Pro, both of which I've reviewed and enjoyed using in the past.

Garmin and COROS offer very comparable data packages, tracking your sleep recharge, training load, VO2 Max, and so on for free. The Forerunner 255 costs $50-$100 more depending on whether you pay for comparable music storage. It comes in 1.1- and 1.3-inch variants, so the 1.2-inch APEX 2 falls in the middle but gives you less versatility. With a standard polymer case and Gorilla Glass 3, the 255 isn't quite as sleek or scratch-proof, nor does it have a touchscreen. But it does have dual-frequency GPS, NFC for tap-to-pay, ANT+ support, dynamic suggested workouts, stress tracking, women's health tracking, and other unique perks.

The Polar Pacer Pro has the same size display but measures 3.6mm thinner and 1g lighter despite using a silicone band. The Pacer Pro has MIL-STD-810G fall protection and a 35-hour GPS battery life, though its idle time only lasts a week. It has an altimeter for hill workout tracking, but only tracks one GPS metric at a time and doesn't have an SpO2 monitor or gyroscope. It'll give you detailed running metrics like power and cadence, plus recommended workouts and a Running Performance Test to measure your current VO2 Max accurately. 

COROS APEX 2: Should you buy it?

You should buy this if...

• You're training for long races and need guidance, either through self-guided workout plans or collaborative coaching.
• You never want to run out of battery life during a long run or hike.
• You want popular Garmin or Polar perks at a lower-than-average price.

You shouldn't buy this if...

• You want a watch that constantly monitors your health in the background.
• You need a specific missing feature like tap-to-pay or menstrual tracking.
• You're not a fan of bulky watches or want something petite for sleep tracking.

Until I have a bit more time to test the COROS APEX 2's heart rate monitoring, GPS accuracy, battery life, mapping, and touchscreen navigation, I can't definitively say how it matches up against other running watches. But my time with the watch has definitely been positive thus far, and COROS EvoLab alone is a tempting enough perk.

It's a vast improvement over the original COROS APEX in smarts, even if I had some frustrations with the UI. And so far, I'd certainly recommend the APEX 2 over the 2 Pro even if it means losing dual-frequency GPS and a couple dozen hours of GPS battery. The Pro watch has to compete in price against equally premium fitness smartwatches, while the COROS APEX 2 blows away its rivals in the same price zone.

Although Garmin is the most well-known hardcore runners brand, Coros is a respected alternative known for providing similar metrics and recommendations at a more affordable rate. The Garmin Forerunner 955 and Coros Apex Pro are both premium multisport watches targeting the most serious athletes, with the latter predictably costing less. So should you save money or spend top dollar to help hit your PR? We'll break down every difference in specs and software to help you decide.

Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar vs. Coros Apex Pro: Specs breakdown

Both of these premium fitness smartwatches look and perform pretty similarly at first glance. The Forerunner 955 touchscreen display is 0.1-inches larger, but both have the same type of MIP display and the same pixels per inch. They're both compatible with 22mm bands. And both have the exact same sensors for tracking movement and health data.

But they have some significant differences once you take a closer look at the size, materials, and features under the hood.

The Coros Apex Pro is a millimeter thinner, which doesn't sound like much but does make it less likely to stick out from your wrist and more likely to feel comfortable for sleep tracking. It has a more stylish, lightweight titanium bezel to go with the aluminum cover, making it look the part of a premium watch, while the Forerunner 955's plastic look belies the price.

Even though titanium is lighter than plastic, the Coros Apex Pro weighs 6g more than the Forerunner 955 if you choose the silicone band. You can get a lighter fit with the nylon band, but I found it to be itchy and water-absorbant when I tested it on the Coros Pace 2, so you may want to choose the heavier, more comfortable option to match the 955.

Part of the weight disparity may come from how much more rugged the Apex Pro is: It has 10ATM water resistance versus the Forerunner 955's standard 5ATM, in addition to sapphire glass that's more likely to withstand scratches. The Forerunner 955 has its own protection with Gorilla Glass DX. Sapphire is more scratch-resistant, but Gorilla Glass is arguably more shock-resistant and reduces reflective sunlight more, making it easier to read.

The other major physical difference between the two devices is Coros' signature digital dial, which gives you a consistent way to scroll through menus or unlock the watch without having to rely on a touchscreen. While the digital dial has a 3-in-1 button, Garmin uses three separate buttons to fulfill that function, two for scrolling up and down.

Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar vs. Coros Apex Pro: Battery life and GNSS tracking

If you want a definitive battery life "winner" between the Garmin Forerunner 955 and Coros Apex Pro, you're going to be disappointed. Each device has clear strengths over the other, and your results will vary based on whether or not you buy the Solar-powered 955. But they're both among the most long-lasting touchscreen watches on the market today, and you shouldn't be disappointed by either.

If you simply wear both watches without taking them out for GPS-tracked runs, the Coros Apex Pro will last twice as long as the Garmin Forerunner 955. Taking continuous GPS into account, both watches are actually very comparable, with only the 955 Solar panel giving it a respectable lead. 

For multi-day, max battery hiking excursions, in particular, Garmin's solar panel will extend the watch's life well past the point that Coros' would die. It's well suited for those who spend plenty of time outdoors in frequent sunlight every day. But, of course, the 955 Solar is $200 more expensive than the Apex Pro, so you have to decide if these gains are worth that.

Where the Apex Pro definitively falls short is in tracking accuracy. Unlike the Coros Vertix 2, the Apex Pro only has single-frequency GNSS enabled, while the Forerunner 955 can track using two GNSS systems simultaneously and across both L1 and L5 satellite frequencies simultaneously. These tools significantly reduce the 955 battery capacity but justify it with much more accurate GPS mapping, as the dual tracking signatures help pinpoint your location and reduce false data. We tested the feature in the Forerunner 255 and were highly impressed with the result.

GPS alone might be enough for you, especially since it makes your watch last much longer. But suppose you're adventuring in areas with tons of signal-blocking foliage or in remote mountain ranges where satellites struggle to reach. In that case, you may appreciate the better coverage that the Forerunner 955 offers.

Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar vs. Coros Apex Pro: Key software features

One trait that Garmin and Coros watches share is their near-endless supply of software widgets and tools that require days of diving into menus and settings to take full advantage of them. As such, it would take too long to compare and contrast every single feature. Suffice it to say that in addition to being two of the best brands for running watches, they also have plenty of other sports modes for other types of athletes.

Without getting too lost in the details, let's compare the main features that both watches either share or exclusively support:

Training recommendations: Both Garmin and Coros have free workout plans devised by running experts that will prepare you for upcoming races, as well as workouts you can follow that challenge you to hit certain paces, heart rates, and/or distances. Where Garmin steps ahead is in its AI-generated daily suggested workouts based on your fitness level and past workouts; you'll see the recommendation in the daily Morning Report widget. Coros relies on manual training plans, which is a better fit for more meticulous runners or those who train in groups instead of by themselves.

Training data during and after workouts: During a run, the Forerunner 955 can give you data on your real-time stamina, your pace relative to whatever goal you set, and your performance condition. Coros can give you data on heart rate, running power, and the training load of your current workout against past workouts in real time — but does lack some of Garmin's exhaustive detail.

After a run, however, both watches give pretty similar data: the aerobic and anaerobic training effect of the workout, your fatigue level after a run or after your sleep (aka Body Battery score), your current predicted race paces, how your run performance compared to past training, and how long to wait to recover from a tough or easy training session.

Navigation: Both watches support offline, downloadable, full-color maps with turn-by-turn navigation, checkpoints, and trackback. Garmin Climbpro gives you real-time data on upcoming elevation gains or dips, so you're forewarned when you're coming up on a tough section of the race.

HRM and SpO2: Both watches support 24/7 heart rate monitoring and blood oxygen monitoring. Coros specifically provides "hourly acclimatization evaluations" for when you're training or racing in higher altitudes, something useful if you think you're dealing with elevation sickness. 

As for heart rate tracking, Garmin added heart rate variability (HRV) support to the 955, which it uses to detect stress and determine how much energy you're using up or regaining at night. The Apex Pro doesn't support HRV tracking, however.

Music storage: Only Garmin allows you to store music and play them on wireless earbuds without your phone nearby. The Forerunner 955 has capacity for 2,000 songs, which you can pull from Spotify, Deezer, or Amazon Music playlists, or from your own music files using the Garmin Express desktop app.

NFC: Garmin Pay allows you to store your debit or credit card and tap your Forerunner 955 at participating physical stores to pay for something. It's especially handy if you prefer to leave your wallet at home during workouts. Unfortunately for Coros Apex Pro buyers, it doesn't support NFC.

Garmin Forerunner 955 Solar vs. Coros Apex Pro: Which should you buy?

The Coros Apex Pro gives you access to the brand's signature data and workouts, bundled into a premium design with durable materials and a useful digital dial. It's better suited for self-guided runners that don't need recommended workouts, who'd rather design their own from Coros' range of coach-created training sessions.

The Garmin Forerunner 955 relies on the company's data expertise to guide you more directly towards your fitness goals, though it also has manual workout calendars you can follow if you so choose. It's pricier and uglier than the Apex Pro but more than makes up for it with exclusive tools like multi-band GPS, HRV tracking, real-time stamina, and so on.

Both are strong options for runners that want a premium experience, at slightly different price points. Your budget, your need for Garmin-exclusive tools like music storage and NFC, and your temperament as an athlete will determine which is the better fit.

On the hunt for a running watch that'll help you improve your PRs or just jump-start your cardio training? The new Garmin Forerunner 255 is one of the best well-rounded fitness devices of the year for features and battery life, but its price is on the higher side. The Coros Pace 2 is perhaps our favorite affordable running watch, but there are some compromises that go with the lower price. We're ready to break down which watch is a better fit for your fitness routine.

Garmin Forerunner 255 vs. Coros Pace 2: Weight, look, and feel

In my Coros Pace 2 review, I praised the watch for its one-ounce weight, putting it on par with fitness trackers in that it barely weighs down your wrist. Of course, to hit that weight you must buy the nylon strap, which tends to get a bit itchy and sweat-soaked; you may want to add an extra 0.2 ounces for the silicone strap instead.

Garmin watches, on the other hand, tend to be slightly heavier and bulkier. The Forerunner 255 comes in two sizes, with one — the Forerunner 255S — designed for smaller wrists. But even that model, which has a smaller display than the Coros Pace 2, is 0.7 mm thicker and 4 grams heavier than the silicone Pace 2. Use nylon and compare to the full-size 255, and the Pace 2 is a full 20 grams lighter, a significant difference.

Both running watches use an LCD display, though only the Forerunner 255 uses Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) LCD for battery life improvements. But as we'll discuss below, this doesn't end up hurting the Pace 2 in its battery capacity. 

In terms of actual visibility, they offer the same experience: reasonable brightness and color that's fully visible in direct sunlight, with enough display space to make the text easy to read unless you're near-sighted. Though the Pace 2 and 255S will squeeze their text more thanks to the smaller screen space, and only the Forerunner models have a dedicated backlight button.

Fully reliant on fiber-reinforced polymer, these watches won't win any style awards with their plastic look, but it will at least make your watch more durable during falls, and less likely to accentuate scratches. 

On that note, both watches have 5 ATM water resistance for swimming but don't have any military-grade fall protection like the Garmin Instinct 2. While the newer Forerunner 255 has Gorilla Glass 3, Coros only says the Pace 2 has "Corning Glass" without specifying a model; it likely won't give you the same protection. 

As for UI navigation on these watches, Coros keeps things straightforward with a rotating dial and a single back button, while Garmin Forerunner 255 (like most Garmin watches) uses five buttons: select, back, scroll up/down, and backlight, while holding them down offers alternate uses. The Pace 2 primarily has you scrolling through options, then tapping the dial to select it; as I said in my review, "menuing is a breeze" with it.

Garmin Forerunner 255 vs. Coros Pace 2: Specs, sensors, and battery

Both the Forerunner 255 and Coros Pace 2 have the same pixels-per-inch (283) with the 255S barely falling behind (280). They're visually quite similar, with no touch capabilities between them, and the MIP battery boost doesn't necessarily give Garmin a huge edge.

With 20 days of standard battery life and 30 GPS-tracked hours, Coros beats the Forerunner 255 by six days and matches its own 30-hour estimate — despite its smaller case size. For comparison, the Forerunner 255S downgrades to 12 days and 26 GPS hours thanks to its size deficiency. Evidently, Coros made its watch slightly more efficient, as well as lighter.

Both watches largely offer the same sensors and connectivity options for third-party accessories through Bluetooth and ANT+. Where Garmin has a step up is in its Pulse Ox sensor, which gives the Forerunner 255 an edge for measuring altitude acclimation and how well you're breathing and recharging at night.

The Forerunner 255's Elevate v4 heart rate monitor also has the capacity to measure heart rate variability, another tool for measuring your body's stress and sleep effectiveness. Basically, if you want to wear your watch 24/7, a tool like Garmin Body Battery gives the Forerunner 255 an edge.

While you're working out, both Coros and Garmin offer the same tracking satellites, but Garmin once again has the edge here thanks to All-Systems GNSS, and Multi-Band GPS. All-Systems turns on GPS, GALILEO, and GLONASS tracking all at once, and compares results to give you the most accurate location data possible. Multi-Band GPS uses the newer L5 satellite frequencies and traditional L1 satellites simultaneously, so you're less likely to lose your location even for a second.

We found Coros Pace 2 tracking reasonably accurate in our testing, but Garmin gives serious athletes a next-gen option. Of course, turning All-Systems and/or Multi-Band on cuts your battery life in half, so you may or may not want to use them.

In terms of "smart" features you'd find on a typical smartwatch, Garmin Forerunner 255 offers a couple, but not many. Specifically, you get NFC tap-to-pay and music storage for 500 songs from Spotify, Amazon Music, or Deezer. If you use another streaming service, you're out of luck; and it costs an extra $50 to add storage, which brings the Forerunner 255 Music price to double that of the Pace 2.

Otherwise, neither watch has a touchscreen, a mic, or speaker for calls or voice assistants, on-display exercises, and so on. They'll show notifications from your phone, but lack the tools you'll find on an Android smartwatch or an Apple Watch. Most runners will be fine with that in exchange for the reliable battery life, but it's worth noting regardless.

Garmin Forerunner 255 vs. Coros Pace 2: App and features

Both the Garmin Connect and Coros apps offer free running metrics and health data for both iOS and Android — a major perk compared to other brands like Fitbit and Amazon that charge a monthly fee for data.

Diving into the app differences between these two would take its own separate article, so I'll focus instead on the highlights of what each offers, either on the watch itself or in the app.

Starting with Garmin, the Forerunner series goes nuts with features, tracking your performance condition, training effect, and recommended daily workouts and recovery time post-run. The aforementioned sensors measure your stress and sleep overnight, then you receive a Morning Report that summarizes your health data and how you should work out that day. Plus, there's a Race Widget that tells you how many days until it starts and how to train for it specifically.

As for Coros, it has a Training Hub where you can analyze your performance and directly compare it against virtual teammates, an excellent option for running club members. Coros EvoLab calculates your Base Fitness, Training Load/ Effect, Fatigue score (very similar to Body Battery), running performance, and a race predictor, among other features. You can also download workouts and schedules and check them on your watch. 

Garmin Forerunner 255 vs. Coros Pace 2: Which should you buy?

If you already use Coros or Garmin hardware, sticking to the same ecosystem saves you the month or so it takes for either brand to build up a reliable profile of your fitness level. But if you're unattached or willing to switch, choosing between these two is surprisingly tricky. 

We're big fans of the Coros Pace 2, mainly because you get all the core running data you could want in an affordable, featherweight package. Compared to the Garmin Forerunner 255 with its newer hardware, you'll miss out on tools like SpO2 and HRV that give its rival a more holistic look at your health. And it can't match the multi-satellite accuracy of Garmin's new GPS tech. But are these perks worth an extra $150-$200 and a heavier design? Only you can decide that. 

Whichever you choose, both the Forerunner 255 and Pace 2 number among our favorite running watches. But of these, the Pace 2 definitely has the best value per dollar spent for thrifty runners; the question becomes whether you can spare the extra cost for the Forerunner 255.