Coros NOMAD – Instinct Destroyer – Everything you need to know

The all-new Coros NOMAD is a rugged outdoor enthusiast watch; some may say it’s in the style of a Casio G-Shock, others that it’s a visual rip-off of a Garmin Instinct. Either way, it promises full onboard maps to address the massive omission made by Garmin Instinct in that area, and it’s also cheaper.

Suppose you already know you want this sort of watch. NOMAD superficially appears to be a no-brainer, but look deeper and you see NOMAD lacks an LED flashlight, LACKS AMOLED, LACKS a SOLAR option, has that weird-looking digital crown, and several features are superficial, like onboard music. In contrast, Garmin supports deeper features such as music streaming services.

The official price tag is $349/£319, making it one of Coros’s mid-range watches, but don’t worry about compromising on features. You get almost all of Coros’ higher-end features and new ones that Coros introduced with this watch.

Coros Nomad

Adventure GPS Watch

$349

£319

+other retailers

Coros NOMAD: Design and Hardware

The rugged look pre-dates the technology by well over a decade, but it’s an aesthetic with a wide appeal. You might not like the thought of a thickish bezel; however, that’s part of the look, and it’s needed to protect the watch. Much of the watch is plastic-like in construction, so it’s definitely on the budget side, but a metal ring reinforces the bezel.

Coros states the screen is 3rd generation MIP, giving excellent brightness, contrast and readability even in bright sunlight. It’s Coros’s best screen to date, but some of you (me!) might prefer an even brighter, higher resolution AMOLED screen, especially to present the maps.

Next, we have the Apple Watch ULTRA ‘action’ button. This one surprised me, although, thinking about Coros’ rotating bezel, there is already a lot of apple inspiration. From one perspective, the action button is a super customer-friendly way to access shortcuts (Garmin also has customisable button shortcuts), from another perspective, it’s simply a reflection of previous watches not having enough buttons by design!

Under the hood is Coros’s fastest processor ever. Note to Garmin: This is how to power your watches correctly without letting your customers down.

NOMAD Beyond the Workout: Daily Usage and Smart Features

As a smart watch, Coros does OK but lacks payments (workaround), lacks an app store, and only offers decade-old MP3 music support. But it’s slowly catching up here, already supporting message/call alerts and GoPro/Insta360 control.

The watch is also decently customisable through various watch faces and widgets. I’m against all the aesthetics that come with that, but you may be ok with that.

Health tracking probably does as much as it needs to, covering sleep, HRV, recovery and a wellness check. Like most wearable companies in this area, the features have been somewhat overextended beyond what the science says, but all the competition does the same.

Comprehensive Sports Usage and Training Capabilities

Whilst lagging behind many of the subtle nuances and details offered by Garmin beyond the headlined features, Coros does more than enough to support the needs of just about every athlete.

There are over 40 sports modes, including various types of running (outdoor, indoor, trail, track), cycling (road, mountain, gravel, indoor), climbing, swimming (pool, open water), fishing, and multisport activities like Triathlon. Each profile offers a reasonable degree of customisation, allowing up to 8 data fields per page, various layouts, and configurable button and activity alert settings, all managed through the COROS smartphone app.

Coros Training Metrics (EvoLab) covers the most useful measures offered by Garmin, such as Training Load, Base Fitness, Training Status, Recovery Timer, Running Fitness, and Race Predictor. A few things are still being tweaked, and there have been hiccups in the past, but this entire capability will only ever keep improving.

One downside, becoming less important every year,  is support only for Bluetooth sensors, not ANT+. Counterbalanced against that essentially cycling-only need, you can broadcast your heart rate from the watch to gym equipment in the gym.

Finally, coros has introduced an innovative Adventure Journaling Tool. You can add geo-tagged voice notes from the new microphone, photos, and videos to completed activities, which are saved in the Coros app. All early reports are that the voice notes are transcribed well. The adventure journal can then be used for your training notes or integrated into a 3D flyover video of the activity for sharing.

Mapping and Navigation: Your Guide Outdoors

Both the headlines and details are good here. You get full colour, offline maps, 32Gb of storage, street names/labels, a POI (Point of Interest) database, and separation of roads/trails within the offline maps. Praise its “lightning speed” map rendering, described as “easily best in class”.

Nomad’s screen has a resolution of  260x260px, which is just about enough to do the maps justice and keep the street names readable. Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED has a far superior 390x390px screen which is more colourful, brighter and has more contrast, but, hey, no maps.

The included digital maps do not have routing intelligence. Thus, when you see street names, your planned route, or any other visual effect, each comes from various image layers laid over each other. The more expensive Garmin Fenix watches have maps with knowledge of all the nodes (junctions), so routes can be built or recalculated on the fly. Thus, with the Nomad, if you get lost, you have these options

• route back to get on course
• follow a compass heading
• Possibly load a different route if you’re lucky

You still get turn-by-turn alerts and off-course warnings, which are triggered based on your GPS position and known GPS positions on your route. One missing feature that would be useful is an Upcoming Hill feature showing the details of your route’s next ascent. Having richer information about what’s ahead when you are on the route is also handy. You can still see the route elevation profile, of course.

Perhaps the biggest bug-bear with coros routes is that sometimes it’s somewhat of an art to get your route onto the watch. Whereas your Garmin route will usually appear as if by magic on your wrist, with Coros, there are manual interventions…not too onerous once you get used to it.

Let’s end on a positive note. The panning and scrolling around the map is nearly flawless. It’s very smooth, which seems to be the case with other recent Chinese watches I’ve tested, e.g., the Amazfit T-Rex 3. Really excellent, and I compare this to the maps on my Garmin Fenix/Forerunner 970 and sometimes wait over 10 seconds for the maps to correctly render (yes, really 10 seconds, it’s dire).

Coros NOMAD: Unique Features: Voice Pins and Fishing Modes

One great customisation you can make to the watch is to set the action button to trigger a voice pin (note). You could describe how you’re feeling or something you’ve seen or encountered, and NOMAD transcribes your spoken words via the new mic and saves them alongside a GPS point taken by the watch (GPS is mandatory). You revisit these alter on the app.

Finally, we have a weather widget on a Coros watch face. I generally dislike Coros’ watchfaces, but this one is good.

NOMAD Battery Life: Endurance for the Long Haul

Ok, there’s no solar option to boost the battery life, but the MIP screen saves a chunk of battery juice compared to Garmin Instinct 3 AMOLED, whose screen laps it up. So we get a pretty impressive starting point of a claimed 34 hours with maximum GPS accuracy recording and 50 hours with slightly less quality but still per-second recording.

The key point is that these battery life claims also include always-on-display (AOD). Competing AMOLED technologies on other brands will invariably periodically blank the screen to preserve the battery or, failing that, will have much shorter battery life with AOD.

COROS NOMAD – Key Technical Specifications

• Dimensions & Weight: Detail its size (47.8 x 47.8 x 16.4mm) and weight (61g with silicone band, 49g with nylon band). Largish but wearable.
• Display: 1.3” Memory-in-Pixel (MIP) touchscreen AOD display (3rd Gen) with 260x260px resolution. Brightest to date with the most contrast (earlier Coros watches have duller screens)
• Materials: Primarily a polymer (plastic) main case with an aluminium alloy accent and bezel reinforcement. Hardened mineral glass for the screen is more scratch-resistant than previous mineral glass but not as good as Gorilla Glass or sapphire.
• Water Resistance: Rated for 5 ATM (50 meters), easily suitable for surface water activities.
• Processor & Storage: Features COROS’s latest, fastest and most powerful processor. It includes 32GB of internal storage for maps and music.
• Battery Life (Claimed): 22 days (regular daily use), 50 hours (All Systems GNSS mode), and 34 hours (Dual-Frequency, max accuracy GPS mode).
• Connectivity: Supports Bluetooth sensors (HR, power meters, speed/cadence, footpods, smart trainers) and WiFi for data upload and map downloads, but no ANT+ support. It can broadcast HR over Bluetooth.
• Colour Options: Available in black, green, and brown/dark grey.

Competitive Analysis: COROS NOMAD vs. Garmin Instinct 3

• Price Advantage: The COROS NOMAD ($349 USD) is $50-$150 cheaper than the newest Garmin Instinct 3 series ($399 to $499 USD). This is not a massive discount in itself, but including maps makes it so.
• Mapping: A major differentiator: The NOMAD offers full-blown offline colour maps with street names and POIs, a significant feature lacking in the Garmin Instinct 3 (breadcrumb navigation only).
• Display & Touchscreen: The NOMAD features a touchscreen MIP display, whereas neither Instinct 3 model has a touchscreen. Instinct 3 also offers AMOLED and MIP/SOLAR display options and different size options. The touchscreen is not a massive bonus, especially if you are wearing gloves, and in any case, the Coros watches have good and easy menu navigation.
• Unique Feature Comparison:
  • NOMAD advantages: Geo-tagged voice notes with automatic transcription, and a comprehensive suite of dedicated fishing modes.
  • Instinct 3 advantages: Built-in LED flashlight, solar options for extended battery life, and Garmin’s vast Connect IQ third-party app ecosystem. It also includes Garmin Pay for NFC contactless payments and streaming music support.
• Internal Storage: NOMAD has 32GB, while the Instinct 3 Solar has a minimal 120MB, which can cause issues with firmware updates and course storage. The Instinct 3 AMOLED has 3GB. This is not an especially important difference, as Instinct 3 has no maps and hence doesn’t need the storage.
• HR Sensor: Garmin Instinct 3 oddly uses a prior-generation Elevate V4 optical HR sensor.

Range Analysis: COROS NOMAD vs. COROS VERTIX 2S & APEX 2 Pro

The range generally makes sense. You pay a bit more for a slightly larger or better quality watch. It’s the price, new touchscreen and new processor that are the main talking points – all good ones for NOMAD.

• Price: The NOMAD ($349) is significantly more affordable than the Vertix 2S ($699) and the Apex 2 Pro ($449).
• Size and Weight:
  • NOMAD: 47.8 x 47.8 x 16.4mm; 61g (silicone), 49g (nylon).
  • APEX 2 Pro: 46.1 x 46.5 x 14mm; 66g (silicone), 53g (nylon).
  • VERTIX 2S: 50.3 x 50.3 x 16mm; 87g (silicone), 70g (nylon).
  • The NOMAD is lighter than the Apex 2 Pro and Vertix 2S, particularly with the nylon band.
• Display:
  • NOMAD: 1.3” (260x260px) 3rd Gen MIP touchscreen.
  • APEX 2 Pro: 1.3” (260x260px) MIP touchscreen.
  • VERTIX 2S: 1.4” (280x280px) MIP touchscreen.
  • While the NOMAD has a similar display size to the Apex 2 Pro, its 3rd Gen MIP offers better contrast and brightness. The Vertix 2S has a slightly larger display.
• Screen Material:
  • NOMAD: Hardened Mineral Glass.
  • APEX 2 Pro & VERTIX 2S: Sapphire Glass, offering superior scratch resistance.
• Bezel and Cover Material:
  • NOMAD: Fiber Reinforced Polymer + Aluminum Alloy.
  • APEX 2 Pro & VERTIX 2S: Grade 5 Titanium Alloy (with PVD Coating for Vertix 2S), offering more premium construction.
• Water Resistance:
  • NOMAD & APEX 2 Pro: 5 ATM.
  • VERTIX 2S: 10 ATM, making it suitable for more serious water activities.
• Internal Memory: All three models come with 32GB internal memory.
• GNSS Chipset: All three models use an All-Satellite Dual-Frequency GNSS chipset.
• Battery Life (Detailed Comparison):
  • Daily Use & Sleep Tracking: NOMAD (22 days), Apex 2 Pro (21 days), Vertix 2S (36 days).
  • All Systems On (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS): NOMAD (50 hours), Apex 2 Pro (41 hours), Vertix 2S (73 hours).
  • Dual Frequency (GPS, GLONASS, Galileo, Beidou, QZSS): NOMAD (34 hours), Apex 2 Pro (24 hours), Vertix 2S (43 hours).
  • While the Vertix 2S generally offers longer battery life, the NOMAD provides impressive duration for its price, even surpassing the Apex 2 Pro in some GPS modes.
• Music Storage: All three support playing offline music with Bluetooth headsets.

Marketing and Strategic Considerations

Coros has always done well at identifying niche markets to target, although, as DURA showed, it doesn’t always do it in a coherent technical manner. That aside, Coros has made many good moves with its watches being the first to introduce track mode, focusing on lightweight watches for ultra running, and giving more than a nod to climbers.

The new market here is fishing, which I don’t know much about, but it’s certainly a market that few others have tackled (ha ha). Garmin is the obvious exception and has an immense presence with fishing features and tools – they even have fish plotter hardware if you want to Google that!

Now comes NOMAD, which is focusing on an unusual market. It’s the same old adventurer/weekend warrior type market that has grown and coalesced in the last 5-10 years, but coros is where there is a distinct aesthetic preference. Perhaps Instinct has done so well here because the earlier competition was functionally weak (Casio). Now there is competition from Coros, and as we’ve said above, it fills the maps gap left by Garmin.

Coros NOMAD should be a marketing success. The key drawbacks that might let it down are some of the onscreen aesthetics and features that are more superficial than Garmin’s. I suspect most buyers won’t do that much research and discover that.

Coros Nomad

Adventure GPS Watch

$349

£319

+other retailers

Take Out Coros NOMAD 

Garmin Instinct Slayer | Instinct Destroyer | Instinct Killer – choose your favourtie description.

This is a good watch, targeted at the right people for the right price. It puts Coros back on a positive corporate trajectory and turns around the tech problems experienced by the woeful Dura and the too keenly priced Pace 3.

NOMAD has a decent set of map features, more than enough to embarrass the more expensive Garmin Instinct, which you’d perhaps only really go for if you wanted Solar, AMOLED or a maximal feature set. Along with Coros’ superb battery life and rich adventure and sports feature sets, every outdoor adventurer, hiker, or angler should consider NOMAD. However, NOMAD might not offer quite enough to tempt existing Garmin owners to move away. More realistically, this is a first-time GPS adventure watch for most people or a good choice for anyone burned by a super cheap alternative that seemed, and was, too good to be true.

With many of the new features we’ve seen on Nomad, Coros still values innovation. It’s definitely not perfect. But if history tells us one thing, Coros can be trusted to keep the new features coming for free for years. Something that can’t be said of Garmin, which limits new feature additions to about 2 years from the model’s initial launch.

It’s a sports/adventure watch with an aesthetic style that is not for me. Personal preferences aside, its benefits are so obvious that you’ll love one on your wrist when you’re fighting with sweat, rain or wind.

Coros Nomad

Adventure GPS Watch

$349

£319

+other retailers

Source and Resources

• Coros NOMAD – Product Page
• Coros NOMAD – Product Manual
• Fishing features in action – YouTube by Matt Legrand
• Alternative YouTube opinion dcrainmaker
• Buy Coros NOMAD – UK / EUR / USA
• Coros on Reddit (heavily moderated by the brand)