In 2018, Coros launched the Pace GPS sports watch and set the bar for long battery life and features at $300. Ever since, the company has offered a range of watch options with competitive pricing for most of its offerings and an expanding training ecosystem that arguably is the best available.
Today, Coros announced its new Pace Pro GPS sports watch. I’ve been wearing it for about a week while running, rowing, walking, sleeping, and working. The Pace Pro is the first watch from Coros with a vibrant, colorful 1,500-nit AMOLED that many people have come to expect (since Apple, Google, and Samsung offer similar displays). The 1.3-inch display has a resolution of 416 x 416 pixels — it looks fantastic.
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The 46mm diameter watch weighs just 49 grams with the included silicone band, and there are nylon band options that match each watch body color. While I did not test out the nylon option, it reduces the overall weight to just 37 grams. The plastic hardware on the silicone band feels thin and inexpensive, so it is not my favorite band option.
When Coros first reached out about testing the Pace Pro, I was curious how it stacked up to the Pace 3 that I tested in 2023. The Pace 3 had a lower price of just $229 and remains one of the best running watch options available for most people. The extra $120 gets you a larger display, a faster processor, expanded internal storage capacity (32GB vs. 4GB), vastly more battery life, and offline global mapping.
Since I’ve only been wearing the watch for about a week, I cannot fully judge the battery life yet. Coros claims up to 38 hours of GPS tracking with 20 days of typical smartwatch usage.
Like all AMOLED watches, turning on the always-on display significantly reduces the battery life, with a reported six days when this mode is enabled. The 345mAh battery is significantly bigger than the Pace 3’s 236mAh battery.
Also: Coros Apex 2 Pro review: Cheaper sports watches are getting good
Coros also made an interesting design change: there’s a small dongle that snaps on to the new charging port and then connects to a USB-C cable. A keychain holder is included to help keep you from losing the small dongle.
I like the idea here, since past Coros cables tended to fall out of the charging port on a regular basis. Still, I’m not sure a small dongle will get lost less frequently than a full cable.