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Coros launches Topo Maps, Landscape Base Maps & Galileo GNSS

Coros Vertix 2 , Vertix 1 and Suunto 9 Peak
Coros Vertix 2 , Vertix 1 and Suunto 9 Peak

Coros – Maps & More for Vertix 1 and Apex Pro

Must Read: Coros Vertix 2 Detailed Review

When Coros announced the new Vertix 2 a few weeks ago they surprised us all by confirming that the new offline Maps capability introduced to the Vertix 2 would also be rolled out to older watches, namely the Vertix 1 and Apex Pro.

We shall name no names but other companies would have used a significant new feature like maps to persuade owners of the older watches to upgrade rather than roll out the new feature to the older watches. Thus what Coros has done here is to instil confidence that they do the right thing for the long term viability of their products.

In addition to maps, we also see increased GNSS accuracy of PACE 2, APEX 42mm/46mm/Pro and VERTIX 1 with the introduction of support for the European GALILEO constellation of satellites. alongside Glonass, QZSS, GPS and Beidou.

Timescales

The first 1000 users who want to try this in beta will be able to do so on Thursday, November 11th, with 22nd November cited as a target date for a general release.

Constraints

Once the maps are fully live there will be a software interface to let you download the maps to the watch. There is currently a 4Gb space limit on the Apex and Vertix so you will need to selectively download just the maps you need with the new software. I had to do it manually!

Galileo Satellite Functionality

Choose the Galileo satellite option from “Back Button → Satellite Systems → GPS, Glonass, Galileo, QZSS” and you might see slightly improved GPS tracks. When Garmin first implemented Glonass/Galileo it initially made positioning worse but, over time, Glonass and Galileo (certainly the former) might now edge it in the accuracy stakes over GPS-only. The same might be true for Coros and I have not had a chance to test this.

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11 thoughts on “Coros launches Topo Maps, Landscape Base Maps & Galileo GNSS”

  1. Too bad they make ‘normal’ watches…… (I suppose there’s no pile of sportdisciplines, wide sensorconnection possibilities, stride measuring etc. under the hood)

    1. Hi Raul,

      Is it ironic that you don’t know these watches at all? they are real sports watches which are reals alternatives to Suunto, Polar or Garmin. My Coros Aex Pro replaced my Spartan. Aside from the Suunto’s screen which is fabulous (the best of all watches), the Apex Pro is very much above and also reliable.

    2. Sorry Raul but you really don’t know what you are talking about. Get your knowledge first next time. Coros watches are heavily performance focused sports watches. With wide support for sport activities and sensors. They even have NATIVE support for stryd which I don’t think any other brand has for now. Addition to mapping puts them just right below Garmin in this chain. Polar and Suunto are already defeated.

      1. yes, coros have high-quality hardware and highly featured watches. It’s their app platform which trails others in several respects. The Vertix 2 move to BLE only (removing ANT+ sensors) is also worrying, then again it’s predominantly a climbing watch

  3. Hm, two COROS watches followed by Suunto? Should we expect news in that department? I thought Suunto’s quarterly update happened in September and was a nothing-burger? And the new codename OW-202 or whatever isn’t due until early next year?

      1. Haha, today we know that it really was the first image of a Fenix 7 – at least half of it – and you should know it too. And in my opinion it said a lot about the extended solar panel.

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