Is the Coros Pace Pro more than just a pretty face?
Coros has finally joined the likes of Garmin, Polar and Suunto, adding top screen tech to its line-up. The Coros Pace Pro is the first Coros watch to pack a bright, smartwatch-style AMOLED display, though its more than just a shiny new display. There’s also new heart rate and GPS sensors, longer battery life and better navigation tools with offline TOPO maps.
Unsurprisingly, all that extra muscle comes at a cost. If the Coros Pace 3 is Coros’ more affordable running watch, at £349 the Coros Pace Pro lands firmly in the midrange, up against the likes of the Garmin Forerunner 265 (£389), the Suunto Race S (£324) and Polar Vantage M3 (£349).
But does it replace the Coros Pace 3 as the best value Coros running watch? And how does it stack up against the the best running watches from Garmin, Suunto and Polar? I’ve been testing it for six weeks to find out.
Coros Pace Pro
How I test
In testing, I trained, raced and slept with the Coros Pace Pro over six weeks, putting it up against the higher-end Garmin Fenix 8 and Garmin Enduro 3, along with other midrange watches like the Suunto Race S Titanium and and the Polar Vantage M3.
I also benchmarked the heart rate accuracy against the Polar H10 and Garmin HRM Pro+ chest straps, dug into the GPS tracks in detail and tracked the battery life closely.
Coros Pace Pro vs Pace 3: What’s the difference?
From a running, activity and health tracking perspective, the features on the Coros Pace 3 and the Coros Pace Pro are identical. You’re getting the same training, racing and recovery firepower, just not the offline mapping — that's only on the Pace Pro.
The biggest difference is the Pace Pro’s bigger, brighter and sharper, smartwatch-style AMOLED touchscreen. The 1.3-inch screen also offers marginally more real estate than the 1.2-inch, lower resolution Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) display on the Coros Pace 3.
Behind that screen, there’s new hardware, with an updated heart rate sensor, ECG sensor, new GPS chipset and antenna, and a faster processor for snappier taps and swipes around your data. A new battery also offers better staying power in the highest accuracy GPS modes.
On that, the Coros Pace Pro offers 31 hours in Dual Frequency, versus 15 hours on the Pace 3. In All Systems mode, that rises to 38 hours versus 25 hours on the Pace 3. General smartwatch usage is also boosted from 15 to 20 days.
The Coros Pace Pro's navigation smarts are better, too, with offline TOPO maps that really come to life on the brighter screen.
There’s not much difference in terms of design. Both watches have the same cheaper-looking fibre-reinforced polymer bezel and casing. It’s all a bit plastic.
On the flipside, the lighter materials save weight. And while the Pace Pro weighs in 10g heavier than the Pace 3 (with the silicon band), both watches are light and among the best for wearing 24-7.
When it comes to smartwatch smarts, you get streaming support for Spotify and co. The Pace Pro offers more storage for your offline music and maps, rising from 4GB on the Coros Pace 3 to 32GB.
On price, the screen, navigation and battery upgrades come at a premium. The Coros Pace Pro costs £349 $349, while the Coros Pace 3 costs £219/$229.
Coros Pace Pro: Design
Before we get into the nitty gritty in terms of performance, a quick word on design. Aside from the lovely, bright, 1,500 nit, AMOLED screen, the Pace Pro follows the somewhat cheaper feel of the Pace 3 with a plasticky case and bezel.
It comes in just one 46mm size and ships with a 22m silicone band (I really want the choice of silicone or nylon) but if you invest in an additional nylon band the weight drops to just 37g. That’s one of the lightest and most comfortable watches to wear.
However, with cheaper materials, the Pace Pro isn’t as finessed as the Suunto Race, the Garmin Forerunner 265 or the Polar Vantage M3. If we’re being kind, we’d say the design is simpler, but you’re definitely swapping some looks for a lighter, cheaper build. That said, the faster processor makes it snappy and responsive to use and the combination of crown, buttons and touchscreen gives you plenty of control.
The charging adaptor is an interesting addition. Coros has changed the size of the charging port so that none of your old Coros cables fit the new watch. They also included a small charging adapter that hooks onto any USB-C cable. In theory, that’s good because you can carry the adapter with you and use it anywhere you can find a USB-C cable. In practice, as with all fiddly little adaptors, it looks very losable. And once it’s gone, you’re paying £20 for a new one.
Coros Pace Pro: Features
When it comes to tracking capabilities, Coros’ EvoLab suite of running insights and training tools is increasingly comprehensive. It now closely rivals Garmin in the breadth of what it tracks, even if the presentation isn’t quite as clear.
You get all the usual training and fitness suspects including training effect, training status, training load, recovery, fatigue, virtual pacer, race time predictor, VO2 max estimates, threshold zones, training plans, and interval training. Everything you need to train, race and recover is catered for with an improving partner app that lets you dig deeper into the details.
Health smarts include ECG – so you can take timed and intentional Heart Rate Variability readouts using the ECG sensor. Plus, there’s continuous HRV, activity, stress, and sleep tracking.
The navigation tools include offline TOPO maps — the same as you find on the pricier Coros Apex 2 Pro and the Vertix 2. They’re well delivered and the bright screen really brings them to life. However, you don’t get real-time routable maps like you do on the top end Garmin watches.
Coros Pace Pro: GPS & heart rate accuracy
The Coros Pace Pro offers accuracy-boosting dual frequency GPS with a new GPS chipset and antenna that aims to boost the accuracy beyond the Coros Pace 3.
I tested the accuracy across power and GPS accuracy modes. The dual frequency GPS performed well against the pricier Garmin Fenix 8 for total distances and stuck me to tracks with good reliability. It wasn’t 100% perfect but it was as reliable as the other watches on test. In summary: you’re getting good reliable GPS here.
When it comes to the optical heart rate performance, my experience in testing was somewhat mixed. For example, on a short interval run, the Pace Pro optical matched the chest strap on the steady warm-up mile and hit the averages for the whole run on par. However, it really struggled to log the shifts in intensity on the efforts with some big overreaches and spikes, at times reading 20bpm higher than the Garmin HRM Pro+. It was better on steady runs and progression runs.
If I'm being fair, though, this is all pretty standard for an optical heart rate sensor. In my experience, you’re never going to match the gold standard of a chest strap.
Coros Pace Pro: Battery life
I knew Coros wouldn’t want to introduce an AMOLED screen unless it could guarantee the sanctity of its USP – long battery life. On paper, the Coros Pace Pro does exactly that. It offers 20 days daily use, with up to 38 hours in All Systems GPS mode. That drops to 31 hours when you use the highest accuracy dual frequency mode. For context, the Garmin Forerunner 265 lasts 14 hours in Dual Frequency mode and 13 days in smartwatch mode.
In testing, the Coros Pace Pro's battery life was impressive for an AMOLED watch, particularly with the Always On screen set to off. A one-hour run in max accuracy mode burned just 2%, while the average overnight battery burn was just 2%. Overall, from a single charge, I got 17 days of general usage with 7.5 hrs GPS training and an hour of indoor heart-rate cardio. For battery life performance, that outlasts the main mid-range rivals.
Coros Pace Pro: Smartwatch features
Garmin leads the way when it comes to smarter running watches and the Coros Pace Pro has some gaps. It’s not as customisable, with no contactless payments and no support for streaming music from Spotify.
There’s offline music storage and phone-free playback, though, which puts it ahead of the Polar Vantage M3 and Suunto Race which only offer music controls. But you’ll need to own music files to make the most of that.
On the plus side, if you regularly film with a GOPro or Insta360 camera, the action camera controls are handy.
RW Verdict
At RW, we're big fans of the Coros Pace 3 – it's easily one of the best bang-for-buck running watches you can buy. So the big question is, does the Coros Pace Pro do enough to justify the price premium? And does it still represent good value for money up against its AMOLED running watch rivals?
In short: Coros has produced a really good watch here that’ll definitely go toe-to-toe with rivals at this price. It offers loads of features and tracking firepower for the price and there’s more than enough to cover most runner’s needs. It does lack some of the smarts and finesse you’ll get with from the Garmin Forerunner 265, but if you’re in the market for an AMOLED watch with excellent staying power and boosted navigation tools, the Pace Pro represents good value.
The GPS is solid and the heart rate tracking is standard for optical heart rate. However, Coros has done well to deliver an AMOLED watch while keeping its nose in front of similarly priced rivals like the Suunto Race and the Polar Vantage M3 on battery life.
The design is more basic looking than the Polar Vantage M3, Suunto Race and the Garmin Forerunner 265. You’re definitely sacrificing some looks for a lighter build.
Ultimately, this is the best Coros watch to buy if you’re looking for a capable sports watch with a great screen, the longest lasting AMOLED battery life and better navigation. If you already own a Pace 3 and you’re not bothered about the AMOLED screen or the maps, then I don’t think it’s worth upgrading. If you’re on an old Coros Apex, though, it might be.
Up against the Pace 3, the Pace Pro is the more accomplished watch. But if you’re a newcomer and screen and maps aren’t priorities, save yourself some pounds and go for the Coros Pace 3.
Alternatives watches to consider
The Suunto Race S (£325) also offers a long battery life with a punchy AMOLED screen, dual frequency GPS and good navigation tools at a cheaper price.
If you want a more premium titanium finish, the Suunto Race S Titanum (£395) is another good alternative. Even the bigger 1.4-inch screen Suunto Race (£389) is worth a look.
Then there’s the Polar Vantage M3 (£349) – a newcomer with an AMOLED screen, dual frequency GPS and a competitive 30 hour GPS battery life that extends in low power modes.
Suunto Race S
Suunto Race
Polar Vantage M3
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