Coros PACE 2 Review New Model: Coros Pace 3 Review in detail Coros has returned to its roots with a lightweight, run-focussed GPS watch, let's put it through its paces in this detailed Coros Pace 2 Review. This time we have a little excitement to contend with as, at last, we have a potential 'Garmin Beater' on our wrists. As usual, here is the Review Summary for the Coros Pace 2 and links for those who want to buy one with a detailed review afterwards. [wp-review id="51986"] Background Coros has been on the sports watch scene for just over 2 years yet, in that short period, has established itself as a serious challenger brand to the likes of Garmin, Suunto, and Polar, as well as to the crossover smart/fitness brands like Amazfit and the watches that are 'tied' to same-branded smartphones, like Samsung. Coros watches (Vertix, Apex, Apex Pro, Pace 1) share the same basic firmware, although enabled features DO vary by model and some of the more expensive models have extra hardware abilities like SpO2 sensors. The Coros Vertix is very much the outdoors adventure model and the Coros Apex is aimed toward multisport. The Apex Pro has higher quality construction than the Apex, and the Coros Pace 1 & 2 are lightweight sports watches. All the current models now share a 'crown', as found on the Apple Watch. [gallery type="rectangular" size="medium" ids="52377,52378,52376"] What sets Coros apart from every competitor, apart from Garmin, is the awesome battery life and the amount of on-watch features - more than you will find on a Polar or Suunto. Just like Garmin, Coros may find FEATURES to be the key to success, although Coros also needs to improve its app. amzn_assoc_tracking_id = "the5krunner-20"; amzn_assoc_ad_mode = "manual"; amzn_assoc_ad_type = "smart"; amzn_assoc_marketplace = "amazon"; amzn_assoc_region = "US"; amzn_assoc_design = "enhanced_links"; amzn_assoc_asins = "B08GNV86NR"; amzn_assoc_placement = "adunit"; amzn_assoc_linkid = "158fbd7fcc68e8c3f2790af44c03c66d"; Coros Pace 2 Review - Target Audience If you want a SPORTS watch then the Pace 2 hits the mark. It probably won't go too well with your work suit as it is very much a lightweight sports watch with a plastic-type construction. It's well-made though and its medium-sized watch face (like the Garmin Forerunner 645) will suit most wrists. Whilst it is a 'proper' multisport watch, I see the prime audience as all-ability runners. Why so? A: The Coros Pace 2 has special running track modes, battery life that endurance runners will die for, STRYD support, structured training support and very many more traditional running features. Surely though, 'proper' runners also do strength training? Yep, and the Coros Pace 2 has special strength features like muscle heatmaps and automatic rep counting. The recommended price tag keeps it sensible: $199.99 / €199.99 / £179.99 Coros Pace 2 is a SERIOUS alternative to that Garmin you were thinking of buying and probably cheaper too. Hopefully, I've grabbed your attention by now and so here are some of the many highlights which make up this Coros Pace 2 Review. Coros Pace 2 Review - Unboxing, Design Overview & Specs The overall design ethos of the Coros Pace 2 reviewed here is 'competent yet unremarkable, that's said in a positive way in that Coros has designed a sensible watch for its intended purpose. As a medium-sized watch format, it will be suitable for almost all runners; the plastic-like construction makes it super-lightweight, the strap can be changed for an individual's aesthetic wishes and the CROWN+button interface does work well (ask Apple). [gallery type="rectangular" size="medium" ids="52372,52373,52371,52370"] The CROWN can either scroll across a sensible choice list of sports profiles or it can scroll through the 24x7 smart info we are all used to like heart rate, notifications, the watch face, calories and steps. You can press and hold the button for access to a shortcut menu where you can do more clever things like show a compass, broadcast HR, turn on UltraMax battery mode or night mode, and check the satellite positions. There are a few specific things with the menus that are in the wrong place like the AI Trainer and, overall, the watch menus look a little old-fashioned and use outdated icons. Nevertheless, The Coros Pace 2 CERTAINLY DOES THE JOB, which is why you will buy it, right? Hopefully, you're also going to be buying this watch to record your sports. Naturally, it does a GOOD job at that, as we shall soon see. Coros Pace 2 - General Sports Usage Sports profiles are created on the app and cover indoor and outdoor versions of the individual triathlon sports plus strength and gym/cardio workouts. That covers most of the bases. If you want mountain sports, Judo and cheerleading sports profiles then you've come to the wrong place. It's a RUNNING/TRI watch :-) For each sport profile, you can create up to 5 screens with up to 6 data metrics per screen. That's enough for me. There are a couple of prettier, coloured metrics but on the whole, they're just in the number format that most people want. The range of data metrics is also good enough, for example covering 3s power and NP for the cyclists, SWOLF for the swimmers and running dynamics & running power for the runners. The more intricate stuff like the 'last lap NP' or 'IF' is not there for the cyclists and neither are some of the more complex performance ratios that Garmin would offer to runners, though having said that it is possible to display aerobic TE and anaerobic TE. Before starting any given exercise you have the option to add alerts for speed, HR, power, cadence, nutrition and distance as well as set auto-pause. Other sports profiles give you special options so, for example, with running & cycling you can add quick, simple repeat intervals and with pool swimming, you can set a custom pool length. Overall the Coros Pace 2 ticks a LOT of boxes, more than enough boxes for me, but not all the boxes. In Use Operating the Coros Pace 2 during your exercise is easy enough. There's just the lap button to play with! OK, you can also press and hold it to view battery status and the compass, plus other minor settings like night mode and UltraMax battery mode. The earlier Coros watches that used the crown were prone to accidentally pausing but this has now been solved and it is impossible to inadvertently stop and discard a workout. Coros Pace 2 - Special Sports Usage Here are a few highlights of some of the sports modes. Pool Swimming & Open Water Swimming With the ability to set a custom pool length and display SWOLF and stroke metrics, what's not to like? You will find similar functionalities available for the open water swim profile and, if you visit the accuracy section, later on, you will be pleasantly surprised at the accuracy of the open water swim track. [gallery type="rectangular" size="medium" ids="52375,52359,52368"] Track Running This is cool Coros also has a special 'track run' sports profile and at the start of your workout you specify what lane you are in and the Coros Pace 2 uses GPS to understand when you have completed your lap (which is only 400m on the inside lane...Pace 2 knows the distances of each lane) and it will also keep your altitude unchanged. Even better, whilst running on the running track, Coros pretties up your GPS track so that when you review your workout, you should normally find that your laps are 'snapped' onto the track rather than wandering between all 8 lanes or into the stands. Triathlon The Coros Pace 2 works surprisingly well in triathlon considering it has a crown+button interface; a press of the crown takes you into and out of transition mode. For the triathlon sports profile, you can customise all of the individual 3 sports - for example, to properly handle a pool-based triathlon or duathlon - Suunto and Polar still can't do both of those. It's not possible to add a manual lap in one of the individual triathlon sports, that's an omission but no big deal. That is made up for at the end when the watch displays stats for both the whole triathlon and for each individual leg and, whilst you may only complete a few triathlons a year, that's actually a nice feature for many of the multisport training workouts (bricks) you may well undertake. For a 'pro' triathlon watch, I'd still have to recommend the Garmin Forerunner 945 but for less than half the price, the Coros Pace 2 is VERY tempting. Strength Workouts, Complex Structured Workouts & Training Plans If you are following the exercises in a strength workout then the Coros Pace 2 can count the number of reps. The Coros app then uses that information to show a Body Heatmap which, over time, shows your focus on strength workouts over key muscle groups. https://the5krunner.com/2020/05/20/coros-strength-training-workout-builder/ That link also covers the addition of COMPLEX structured workouts. However, it's sometimes easier instead to define simple reps on-the-fly and you can do that too. Like this image shows [caption id="attachment_52363" align="aligncenter" width="300"] Simple Intervals are shown here[/caption] Finally, your workouts can form part of a calendarised plan which you, or a coach, can share with others and that can be as simple as granting access via a QR code. [gallery type="rectangular" size="medium" ids="52877,52878,52874,52876,52875"] Running Power Like Polar, the Coros Pace 2 now produces running power just from the watch without an accessory. If you have last year's Coros pod there is still support for the power metrics produced from that. Excitingly, the Pace 2 ALSO NOW SUPPORTS running power from STRYD. Indeed Coros claim that they are the first company to offer "COMPLETE AND NATIVE" STRYD support. How cool is that? A: Very. This support is entirely native to Coros in all the latest versions of its watches. There is FULL support which means that a wide range of power-related functionality works as if power were another metric like PACE. This includes sensor calibration, many metrics and alerts within complex structured workouts. All the details are here including the links to 3rd party platforms. https://the5krunner.com/2020/08/25/stryd-massive-update-from-coros/ UltraMax Battery Mode The UltraMax battery mode is enabled by pressing and holding the BACK button once the run workout has started and saves battery by using GPS for 30% of the time and a motion sensor to fill in the gaps the rest of the time. Generally, the Pace 2 has a long enough battery life in 'normal' mode for you to never need this function unless you either forget to charge the Pace or are going for an exceptionally long run over several days. Here's some more data linked to in an old post if this feature is important to you. Physiological Metrics Like some Garmin watches, Coros has aerobic training effect (AeTE), anaerobic training effect (AnTE), VO2max and recovery time information. AeTE, AnTE and STAMINA are available as metrics during the workout and, along with recovery time, are also shown in the workout summary on the watch and on the app. The app also shows your lactate threshold, VO2max fitness level, and threshold pace. Whilst these metrics are NOT produced by Firstbeat algorithms, they do now seem broadly in line with the comparable metrics from Firstbeat. If the underlying HR data is correct then physiological metrics like these are useful. For example, you can use them as a cumulative target as you work out and/or you can use them to score the effectiveness of your workout after you have finished. Real-Time Stamina COROS’s take on stamina seems to be that is the amount of juice left in your tank as you work out which will be derived from the amount of time you spend at certain intensities above threshold, so maybe it's similar to W' bal for cyclists and if it hits zero per cent you are done for. With the help of the accuracy of a chest strap, this could be VERY useful. Training Effect Following on from the last paragraph of the previous section, TE can be displayed more prominently in the centre of the screen and some words give the TE number a degree of context. So you’d be looking at getting “productive (3.6)” or higher to improve. The Coros App The app is the weak point of the Coros offering, even so, it's still quite good and here are some highlights Workout history on watch and app, with decent and straightforward reporting and graphing functionality in the app. GOOD: Create & Share training plans and complex structured workouts, including plans based on power Training load, Lactate threshold, threshold pace, NP, rHR, VO2max, threshold pace, fitness index, aerobic TE, anaerobic TE and stamina level on the app Nightly sleep and sleep stages chart Strava & Training Peaks upload via the app (plans exist to also link to MapMyRide, MapMyRun). I use the copy FIT to dropbox on iOS and you can email FIT/TCX/GPS too. TCX/FIT data export via email. [gallery type="rectangular" size="medium" ids="52405,52404,52403"] Coros Pace 2 Review - Accuracy In the round, the Coros Pace 2's accuracy was directly comparable with that of my Garmin Forerunner 945. In a simple phrase "fairly good". Note: Supporter Only Content https://the5krunner.com/2020/08/25/coros-pace-2-accuracy/ Coros Pace 2 - ABC and Smart Features Here are some of the interesting 'other' features that are on the watch and noteworthy in some way. Battery – stated as 30 hours of workout time with GPS+GLONASS enabled (that’s good). But in UltraMax mode, it’s 60 hours. This makes the PACE 2 a serious contender for ultra runners. Compass and GPS location [gallery type="rectangular" size="medium" ids="52360,52361,52367,52362,52356"] Air pressure, elevation, temperature profiles over time Barometric altimeter with 3D-GPS elevation calibration and manual elevation calibration. Heart rate profile over time plus heart rate zone dial Main sport profile screen has a heart rate monitor icon which changes to show if chest strap or oHR is in use – neat! Calorie counter HR/Power Zones Part customisable vibration and tone alerts. Decent vibrate and volume. Metronome – ideal for training that higher cadence element of your technique. Phone and app notifications (with do not disturb time range) Night mode - keeps the light on at a sensible level whilst working out at night. Turns off when you finish (good to use in the day time too) Is that enough? ? Coros Pace 2 - The Competition, vs Polar Pacer Pro, Garmin, Apple and more Also, consider these Garmin Forerunner 255 - this is the best running watch but it is fiendishly complex and more expensive than the Coros Polar Pace Pro - Polar's ecosystem is better, watch-based features are similar but the price is higher Apple Watch - even the cheapest Apple Watch SE is more expensive that the Coros and has nowhere near as many sport-related features. However, you may well find numerous apps to fill the gaps that Apple creates. Of course, you can wear the Apple Watch 24x7 and get all its smart benefits but its battery life requires you to charge it every day. [caption id="attachment_38977" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Use discount code THE5KRUNNER at coros to get a free $30 accessory[/caption] Summary The Coros PACE 2 reviewed here is the real deal for runners and it will find its way as a winner into one or more categories of my Best Running Watch recommendations for 2022 and beyond. Like Garmin, Coros needs to give their app some love ... and a few interface changes. And, also like Garmin, Coros needs to tweak the watch interface for subtle UX improvements. There are always niche features that either Garmin or Coros could STILL add. However, Coros is in the rather unique position of having some quite significant feature sets that Garmin completely lacks. Buy Coros Pace 2 Price, Availability, Free Bands and 10% Discounts For those of you looking to buy the Pace 2, the prices are EXTREMELY competitive at $199.99 ($179.99 at Power Meter City when stock arrives) / €199.99 / £179.99 Deals: 10% off in the USA with code THE5KRUNNER10 at Power Meter City Free $30 accessory band when ordering direct from Coros - add the strap to the cart and then add the code THE5KRUNNER at the end of checkout..it's complicated but that's the only way you help this blog and the only way you get the free strap! Coros has a $100 trade-in program for your previous Coros watch, you might be able to combine that with the free strap offer. [gallery type="rectangular" size="medium" columns="2" ids="53024,53046"] [caption id="attachment_38977" align="aligncenter" width="2048"] Use discount code THE5KRUNNER at coros to get a free $30 accessory[/caption]
