{"id":215796,"date":"2025-10-15T17:54:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:54:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/215796\/"},"modified":"2025-10-15T17:54:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T17:54:15","slug":"coros-apex-4-in-depth-review-a-hint-of-what-comes-next","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/215796\/","title":{"rendered":"COROS APEX 4 In-Depth Review: A Hint of What Comes Next?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760550846_197_hqdefault.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>COROS has introduced the COROS APEX 4, a watch designed to streamline the previous APEX 2 Pro &amp; Apex 2 Non-Pro versions into a single edition, while concurrently skipping the number 3. Because\u2026umm\u2026never mind that.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, the APEX 4 is a watch that takes the new <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dcrainmaker.com\/2025\/08\/coros-nomad-in-depth-review-comparison.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">features found on the NOMAD<\/a> introduced about two months ago (such as the microphone), and adds additional features like an actual speaker (versus a beeper previously), faster map rendering, and an underwater depth gauge that doesn\u2019t record depth anywhere. And, to the delight of MIP fans everywhere, it retains the MIP-based screen. Oh, and it got more buttons. Woot to buttons!<\/p>\n<p>In many ways, the APEX 4 is designed to somewhat complete COROS\u2019s watch portfolio. And I\u2019d argue, for the first time ever, the purpose in life for the APEX watch in the lineup actually makes sense. In the past, the APEX has always been the awkwardly and oddly priced unit without a clear reason for existence (competitively). Now, it finally has a purpose in life. Don\u2019t worry, I\u2019ll explain that too over the course of this review.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, as always, I\u2019ve been putting this watch through its paces \u2013 including on a 70KM single-day trek, to see how battery life holds up in real life, as well as navigation. After all, this watch is designed for long-battery life outdoor adventures. Does it compete?<\/p>\n<p>So let\u2019s get into it!<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s New:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165697\" title=\"DSC05343.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05343-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"719\" height=\"479\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Nearly three years since the last edition (APEX 2 series), there\u2019s a lot of newness. Of course, COROS is generally pretty good with firmware updates, and thus from a software standpoint, almost everything over the past few years has landed on the COROS APEX 2\/2 Pro already. So this list is more about new hardware changes, as well as new features announced today. Got it? Good.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Added Speaker (for voice calls &amp; audio alerts)<br \/>\u2013 Added new \u2018Action\u2019 button (customizable extra button)<br \/>\u2013 Added dual-microphone with voice pins\/notes feature<br \/>\u2013 Added ability to take phone calls<br \/>\u2013 Added new weather widget with saved locations<br \/>\u2013 Added street names to the offline maps<br \/>\u2013 Added POI database to offline maps<br \/>\u2013 Added separation of roads &amp; trails to offline maps<br \/>\u2013 Added \u2018Record a pin\u2019 geo-tagged voice notes feature<br \/>\u2013 Added depth gauge sensor (very limited though, see notes)<br \/>\u2013 Upgraded to newer 3rd gen COROS MIP screen (more contrast)<br \/>\u2013 Upgraded internal processor<br \/>\u2013 Increased map speed \u201c30x faster\u201d (more on that later)<br \/>\u2013 Increased route storage up to 100 routes<br \/>\u2013 Increased storage to 32GB for all models (previously the non-Pro APEX 2 was 8GB)<br \/>\u2013 Added\/renamed satellite modes to have an endurance mode (same battery times as previous GPS mode)<br \/>\u2013 Has WiFi, Bluetooth, and Bluetooth sensor support (no ANT+ sensor support)<br \/>\u2013 Water Resistance rating of 5ATM\/50 meters<br \/>\u2013 Does not have new fishing features from COROS NOMAD<br \/>\u2013 Retained MIP display<br \/>\u2013 Weight: 42mm is 56g with silicone and &amp; 45g with nylon band, 46mm is 64g with silicone band and 52g with nylon band<br \/>\u2013 Screen size is 1.3\u201d for the 46mm (260x260px) and 1.2\u201d for the 42mm (240x240px)<br \/>\u2013 Sapphire glass display with titanium bezel (remainder of case is plastic)<br \/>\u2013 Both models have multi-band\/dual-frequency GPS (previously only the APEX 2 Pro had it)<br \/>\u2013 Battery life a mixed bag, some of it a wash, some of it a bit higher (see chart below)<\/p>\n<p>As for what happened to the APEX 3? Well, in short, COROS says they didn\u2019t want a scenario where in the future a customer goes to the COROS website, sees a different model named XYZ 4, and then wonders why the XYZ 4 product has a higher number than the higher-end APEX 3. So, they named it the APEX 4. Decoded for simplicity: The only other COROS product that would sequentially be next for \u20184\u2019, is the COROS PACE 3. So, this sorta hints that a COROS PACE 4 is on the way. As for a Vertix? I guess they\u2019ll also have to skip 3 there, and go with Vertix 4. Or maybe just get ahead of the game and call it Vertix 6. Kinda rhymes.<\/p>\n<p>So, here\u2019s the pricing below. Previously, the APEX 2 Pro was $449 (46mm), and the APEX 2 (non-Pro) was $349 (42mm). Now they end up at $429 for the smaller APEX 4 at 42mm, and 479 for the larger APEX 4 at 46mm. So basically, both sizes in price went-up by $30 for the Pro, and by $80 for the non-Pro becoming what is effectively the small APEX 4 Pro.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165629\" title=\"Pricing.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Pricing.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"718\" height=\"381\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The unit is offered in two sizes, and two colors, per below. COROS says next month (November), they\u2019ll allow you to order with a mixed black\/white band (e.g. band white, case black), but not at launch.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165630\" title=\"COROSAPEX4Models.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/COROSAPEX4Models.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"718\" height=\"305\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The smaller APEX 4 (42mm) bands are 22mm and compatible with:<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 Pace 3, Pace Pro, APEX Pro, and Vertix 1<\/p>\n<p>The larger APEX4 (46mm) bands are 24mm and compatible with:<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 NOMAD<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to battery life, there were some changes. Some of it is essentially a wash from before, and some of it is the same. Here\u2019s the key changes:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165698\" title=\"BatteryModesComparison.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BatteryModesComparison.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"715\" height=\"145\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Basically, they replaced the standard GPS profile with the Endurance profile, but instead of being just GPS-Only, it\u2019s now a blend of All Systems, automatically switching between them. That\u2019s semi-similar to Garmin\u2019s SatIQ, except critically, COROS won\u2019t escalate to dual-frequency, whereas Garmin will. Said differently, don\u2019t use it in really tough GPS environments (e.g. NYC). Meanwhile, that same profile, but with all of the satellite systems enabled all the time (High), does get about a 20% boost over the previous iterations.<\/p>\n<p>The APEX 4 Basics:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165649\" title=\"DSC05294.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05294.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>In this section I\u2019m going to look at the basic features of the watch, including some of the widgets, activity tracking, sleep tracking, and so on. This will also include the voice calling pieces, though, those are better covered in the video where you can actually hear the audio quality.<\/p>\n<p>First up, you\u2019ve got the buttons and touchscreen. You\u2019ll notice one of the right-side buttons is now over on the left side, and officially named the \u2018Action\u2019 button. In theory you can customize this a bit more, and that\u2019s true in sport modes, but less true in the rest of the user interface (such as not being in a sport mode). There\u2019s still the Digital Crown, that both rotates, and acts as a button too.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165651\" title=\"DSC05297.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05297.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165650\" title=\"DSC05296.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05296.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>I didn\u2019t have any issues with the user interface here, and the buttons worked well when I didn\u2019t want to deal with the touchscreen (which\u2026is almost always). The Digital Crown, like most digital crows, can be a bit fiddly with gloves (or if your fingers are really cold). But they are handy when zooming quickly in\/out of maps.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, you can tweak the watch face from a slate of watch faces via the COROS App, or a handful on the watch built-in. Here\u2019s two of the alternative ones that are built-in, but again, there\u2019s a gazillion more on the app.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165652\" title=\"DSC05301.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05301.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165653\" title=\"DSC05302.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05302.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Down from there you\u2019ve got the widgets. These are lightly customizable, and cover a wide array of daily activity stats, training stats, things like weather and notifications, and more.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165654\" title=\"DSC05303.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05303.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>For example, here\u2019s a weather widget that you can expand out, and get more details about the upcoming\u2026sun. And lack of rain. Or wind. Don\u2019t worry, the next day I\u2019d find both\u2026for an hour.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165657\" title=\"DSC05326.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05326.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165658\" title=\"DSC05327.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05327-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165659\" title=\"DSC05328.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05328-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>This is where you\u2019ll see stats like your sleep stats, including HRV status and more. In my testing, COROS had no issues nailing the times I went to sleep and woke up. As always, I don\u2019t do comparisons of sleep phases\/stages, because the comparative technology to do so simply isn\u2019t that accurate, only about 80% accurate. Thus, it\u2019s simply not good enough to make any meaningful comparison statements with.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165660\" title=\"DSC05319.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05319.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165661\" title=\"DSC05320.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05320.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Now, one thing that\u2019s kinda neat you might notice above, is that it shows my sleep at 6hrs and 58mins for the day, and then my actual sleep for the night at 5hrs 1min. How come? Well, because after getting the kids ready, then dropping off the kids at school, I decided to take a nap. 5 hours of sleep wasn\u2019t quite feeling like enough to tackle the day ahead. Thus you\u2019ll notice the two times (overnight + nap) added together equal my total sleep time. Meanwhile, you\u2019ll see my overnight HRV score is specified as within the \u2018Normal\u2019 range.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165662\" title=\"DSC05321.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05321.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165663\" title=\"DSC05323.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05323.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>You can dive into that, along with other stats like daily heart rate, etc\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165664\" title=\"DSC05325.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05325.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165665\" title=\"DSC05333.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05333.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>And of course, all of this is synced to the COROS app, where you can look at your stats longer term, or just in more details than the watch might show.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165666\" title=\"IMG_4238.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4238.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"511\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165667\" title=\"IMG_4239.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4239.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"511\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165668\" title=\"IMG_4240.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4240.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"511\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Now, one new feature is the added speaker. Previously, COROS watches have had a beeper, but a beeper can\u2019t vocally do anything. It just beeps (albeit, all sorts of beeps). Whereas a speaker allows it to have vocal sounds (such as when you start\/stop a sport, turns, etc\u2026). And most critically for this section, allows for voice calls.<\/p>\n<p>But, this does require a few things:<\/p>\n<p>A) Your cell phone must be within Bluetooth range, and must be paired to your watch<br \/>B) That the call is inbound, not outbound<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s because there\u2019s no dialer feature function on the COROS watch, nor any contacts book of sorts. That means you\u2019re effectively using your phone as a speaker\/microphone, just like a Bluetooth headset. Thus, this really only works for inbound calls. And, only when it actually works. Repeatedly it doesn\u2019t seem to trigger and simply won\u2019t show an inbound call is coming in. As if nothing has happened.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, when someone calls you, you\u2019ll see the option to answer that call on your watch, and you can accept the call from the watch. In doing so, you\u2019ll leverage the speaker\/mic there. The quality actually surpassed by expectations, and is one of the best speaker\/mic combos I\u2019ve heard to date on a sports-focused smartwatch, aside from Apple\/Google\/Samsung.<\/p>\n<p>That said, as I also learned today, it doesn\u2019t have any water ejection mechanism (like most of the others, including Garmin, do). As such, when you go swimming with it, the speaker is mostly useless for the next few hours afterwards, until it dries out.<\/p>\n<p>      Sports &amp; Navigation Usage:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165669\" title=\"IMG_4102.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4102.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Next up is sports usage, which is undoubtedly why you bought a COROS watch. In this case, things are pretty darn similar to the past, just with all the updates rolled into it from the past few years. Though, COROS has been pretty good there, so if you have an APEX 2\/2 Pro, then you\u2019ll find very few differences here.<\/p>\n<p>First up, you\u2019ll select your sport mode. There\u2019s boatloads of sport modes covering virtually every sport you\u2019d need, as with the past. You can customize the data pages and data fields here, on a per sport profile basis. This also includes other attributes too, like the Action Button in the lower left corner, in terms of what it\u2019ll do when you tap it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165670\" title=\"DSC05338.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05338.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>After selecting a sport profile, you can customize a few things, including structured workouts as well as load up a course for navigation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165671\" title=\"DSC05340.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05340.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165672\" title=\"DSC05341.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05341.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>The APEX 4 now supports up to 100 routes loaded. Though, annoyingly, it still requires you manually select each route you want to sync, versus just automatically syncing new favorited routes from Strava\/Komoot\/etc\u2026<\/p>\n<p>The next new feature the APEX 4 has is that speaker as mentioned earlier, but here, it\u2019ll give you various voice alerts in a sport mode. Though, kinda oddly, it\u2019s disabled by default. So you\u2019ll need to enable it, else\u2026well\u2026you\u2019ll sorta miss out on the main new feature.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165673\" title=\"DSC05343.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05343.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165674\" title=\"DSC05344.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05344.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165675\" title=\"DSC05345.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05345.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Once all that\u2019s done, off you go on your workout\/activity\/suffering.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165678\" title=\"IMG_4120.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4120.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"176\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165679\" title=\"IMG_4124.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4124.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"176\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165680\" title=\"IMG_4125.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4125.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"176\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>One of the marquee features that COROS advertised is \u201c30x faster map rendering\u201d. This, despite them adding in various street labels (albeit, at very zoomed\/low levels), POI\u2019s, and more. And to COROS\u2019s credit, it\u2019s definitely super fast. You can check it out in the video, crazy quick. Though, I think 30x faster is a wee bit of stretch.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165677\" title=\"IMG_4084.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4084-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"540\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>One of the things that becomes really apparent after you start using AMOLED watches, is just how bad MIP is on the map pages especially, in lower-light scenarios (e.g. sunrise\/sunset\/heavy overcast clouds\/forested areas\/etc\u2026). Even with the backlight kicks in, it\u2019s still not awesome on the map pages. For the main data pages, it\u2019s largely fine.<\/p>\n<p>In any case, before I forget, COROS has downloadable (free) maps of everywhere you\u2019d want to go. You can simply tap the section of the map you want from the app, and then it\u2019ll connect to WiFi and download it. Super quick and easy.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165689\" title=\"IMG_4289.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4289.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"772\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165690\" title=\"IMG_4290.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4290.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"772\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>When you do a lot of trail activity, the single biggest gap between COROS &amp; Garmin\/Suunto, is the lack of a ClimbPro like feature. COROS simply shows the total ascent\/descent remaining. Whereas Garmin &amp; Suunto will automatically divide up all the climbs\/ascents, and show you the distance to each summit, and total climbing left. Here\u2019s an example of the COROS and what it shows, versus the Suunto.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165681\" title=\"IMG_3140.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_3140.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"266\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165682\" title=\"IMG_3122 5.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_3122-5.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"266\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Here, the Suunto shows 3.21KM left on this climb, with me at 85m of 369m on this particular climb, an average gradient of 11%. Whereas COROS just painfully reminds me that I still have about 1,500m of climbing left today (Suunto also shows that too, but on a different page).<\/p>\n<p>The next feature the APEX 4 has, comes from the NOMAD, which is voice pins. Here you can create little voice memos\/notes, which are automatically geotagged for later reference.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165683\" title=\"DSC05373.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05373.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165684\" title=\"DSC05375.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05375.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165685\" title=\"DSC05378.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05378.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"157\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>You can then see these in the app afterwards (see the , including an automatic translation, which is pretty slick.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165686\" title=\"IMG_4286.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4286.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"511\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165687\" title=\"IMG_4287.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4287.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"511\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165688\" title=\"IMG_4288.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4288.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"511\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Admittedly, I keep forgetting this feature is here. Mostly because I\u2019m not really sure what to do with it. I\u2019m sure someone appreciates it, but it\u2019s just not something I\u2019d use very often.<\/p>\n<p>Moving along, once your workout is done, you\u2019ll see all the details in the workout summary, visible on both the watch and the COROS app.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, COROS also tracks various training load and recovery stats too. For example, it\u2019ll predict your upcoming race results\/potential, though, this does depend on giving it lots of data across a variety of intensities. Notably, interval workouts, and specifically in the case of COROS, flat terrain road workouts. In my case, I don\u2019t have a lot of those, as I\u2019ve been doing more trail running lately.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165691\" title=\"DSC05309.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05309.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165692\" title=\"DSC05307.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05307.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>They also have training load, though, annoyingly this still resets every Monday. Other companies do proper 7-day trailing load. And COROS recognizes this, and even has 7-day trailing load in their app, but that\u2019s not really where I want to look. So you can see here, that 656 training load value is merely my Monday\/Tuesday combined load (when I took this photo), versus the last 7-days load.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165693\" title=\"DSC05311.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05311.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165694\" title=\"DSC05312.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05312.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"355\" height=\"237\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>COROS talked about changing that, after the NOMAD was released. But sadly, it hasn\u2019t happened yet.<\/p>\n<p>The Depth Gauge:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165701\" title=\"SnorkelingCOROSAPEX4.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/SnorkelingCOROSAPEX4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Next up, COROS added a depth gauge to the COROS APEX 4. Though, there\u2019s whole bunch of caveats here at this time. IN talking to COROS, it became clear this was more a case of \u2018let\u2019s stick the hardware in now, and figure it out later\u2019. And to COROS\u2019s credit, aside from mentioning it in specs and such, they don\u2019t market it in any other way.<\/p>\n<p>So, bullet-point style, a whole slate of things to note:<\/p>\n<p>\u2013 At present, there is no specifications on how deep the depth gauge actually measures to (e.g. capped at 40m, 100m, etc\u2026)<br \/>\u2013 COROS has not sought any depth gauge certification for the depth gauge, the watch hardware as a whole, or the watch software. Typically this would be EN13319, and\/or ISO 22810:2010.<br \/>\u2013 There is no snorkeling, scuba, or free diving type modes\/activity profiles<br \/>\u2013 COROS is clear to NOT use this for any of those activity that requires accurate depth data<br \/>\u2013 The data may be recorded somewhere, but it doesn\u2019t show up in the app afterwards at present<\/p>\n<p>With all that said, in order to get the depth gauge to work, it\u2019ll only show data in the Openwater Swimming profile. And within that, only if you actually configure\/add the data fields for it (by default, they aren\u2019t shown). There\u2019s a few data fields you can add, including current depth, max depth, current water temp, and average water temp.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165704\" title=\"IMG_4283 2.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4283-2-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"511\" border=\"0\"  \/> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165705\" title=\"IMG_4284.PNG\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/IMG_4284-1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"235\" height=\"511\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Once you do that, you can go off and swim. Or snorkel. Or whatever it is you do.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165699\" title=\"Snorkeling2COROSAPEX4.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Snorkeling2COROSAPEX4.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>When you do so, you\u2019ll see the current depth displayed. In my testing down to 5.5 meters (the max depth in the area I was in, my bay only has a max depth of about 7.5m, and some large boats were out playing in that area today), it matched both the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra 3. Both of those device have certified depth gauges in them, which confirms to various international standards on testing of said gauges.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165700\" title=\"COROS-APEX4UW.jpeg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/COROS-APEX4UW.jpeg\" alt=\"COROS APEX4UW.\" width=\"720\" height=\"405\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>However, an example of one of the COROS quirks is that while there was a Max Depth data field, that appeared to reset every time I came to the surface. While many dive\/snorkeling watches have a \u2018Dive Max Depth\u2019 data field that operates similar to a Lap field (each short dive you go down, it resets), this doesn\u2019t specify that difference. Certainly, it\u2019d be a handy field to have, but as of right now, doesn\u2019t appear to be labeled correctly.<\/p>\n<p>And of course, as noted earlier, none of the depth data is shown in the COROS app afterwards. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s saved somewhere, but\u2026just not a place I can see.<\/p>\n<p>In any event, I\u2019m guessing this is COROS dipping their toe into the water of snorkel\/freediving\/scuba diving. This allows them to low-risk test how well this hardware component handles long-term, before likely lighting up something like a full free diving\/scuba profile on a certified dive in a Vertix 3\/4 series device. And just to be clear, I\u2019d except depth gauge certification in any device that claims scuba or free-diving functionality. If it doesn\u2019t, I\u2019ll give it a VERY hard time here.<\/p>\n<p>Until then though, it\u2019s fun (and fine) to play around snorkeling with it.<\/p>\n<p>Accuracy (GPS &amp; Heart Rate):<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165695\" title=\"DSC05349.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05349.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"719\" height=\"479\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>In this section I\u2019ll look at accuracy of the heart rate sensor, GPS, and some elevation data too. Heck, even a bit of battery burn.<\/p>\n<p>First up, let\u2019s look at a relatively simple tempo run. Or tempo-ish. This is compared to the HRM-600 chest strap, the Polar Loop (on a bicep band), the Whoop 5 MG (bicep band), and the Google Pixel Watch 4 on the other wrist. I have no complaints here, obviously, it\u2019s perfect.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165631\" title=\"HR-TempoRun.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HR-TempoRun.png\" alt=\"HR TempoRun.\" width=\"719\" height=\"270\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>And likewise, this was super-easy from a GPS standpoint, and you can see the three GPS watches all aligned without issue:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165632\" title=\"GPS-TempoRun.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-TempoRun.png\" alt=\"GPS TempoRun.\" width=\"718\" height=\"358\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Ok, so let\u2019s look at another easier one, before increasing difficulty, this time an indoor trainer ride. Again, no issues here on the COROS APEX 4, which is to be expected. After all, indoor trainer rides are about the easiest thing for optical HR sensors, given there\u2019s virtually no vibrations\/movement\/etc\u2026<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165633\" title=\"HR-Indoortrainer.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HR-Indoortrainer.png\" alt=\"HR Indoortrainer.\" width=\"718\" height=\"275\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>So, let\u2019s kick it up a notch, and head back outside f<a href=\"https:\/\/analyze.dcrainmaker.com\/#\/public\/9535fc69-d2a3-4a30-4dcc-aa35fd74d295\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">or a 2hr trail run<\/a>. This has some sharp\/steep climbs. Looking at the heart rate here, things are mostly pretty good:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165634\" title=\"HR-TrailRunWide.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HR-TrailRunWide.png\" alt=\"HR TrailRunWide.\" width=\"717\" height=\"270\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>(The drop you see there on the chest strap is due to how Garmin toggles off sensor connectivity when it goes to send a satellite message on the new Fenix 8 Pro.)<\/p>\n<p>I see one brief section where you see the two wrist-based optical HR sensors struggle, whereas the chest strap and Whoop (bicep band) hold together a bit better, but that\u2019s pretty much it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165635\" title=\"HR-TrailRunIssueMinor.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HR-TrailRunIssueMinor.png\" alt=\"HR TrailRunIssueMinor.\" width=\"719\" height=\"212\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Anyways, looking at the GPS side of things, again, at a high level it looks good:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165636\" title=\"GPS-TrailRun1Wide.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-TrailRun1Wide.png\" alt=\"GPS TrailRun1Wide.\" width=\"719\" height=\"412\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>And at first, when you look at the track at a medium level, it looks good as well:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165637\" title=\"GPS-TrailRun1.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-TrailRun1.png\" alt=\"GPS TrailRun1.\" width=\"719\" height=\"347\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>But as I zoomed in, I noticed that the APEX 4 is overly smoothing some of this trail run. These are very real\/legit little switch backs on this trail, that are being kinda wiped out here.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165639\" title=\"HR-TrailRun2.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HR-TrailRun2.png\" alt=\"HR TrailRun2.\" width=\"720\" height=\"348\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>We see it again in other areas, where the APEX 4 appears to be overly smoothing some of this.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165638\" title=\"GPS-TrailRun2.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-TrailRun2.png\" alt=\"GPS TrailRun2.\" width=\"719\" height=\"339\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>As a result, we see the APEX 4 being a bit shorter than the others on these sorts of activities. COROS probably lucked out on this particular example, because the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra 3 made a few GPS errors that skewed their numbers too.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165640\" title=\"GPS-TRailRun-Distance.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-TRailRun-Distance.png\" alt=\"GPS TRailRun Distance.\" width=\"719\" height=\"226\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>So I then went and looked at my 70KM hike that I did, which included tons of mountain time.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165641\" title=\"GPS-HikeWide.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-HikeWide.png\" alt=\"GPS HikeWide.\" width=\"720\" height=\"379\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>And\u2026ummm\u2026yikes. It\u2019s just playing \u2018connect the dots\u2019 in the mountains.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165642\" title=\"GPS-Hike1.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-Hike1.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"358\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Here, another section (in this section, the Fenix 8 Pro track is briefly missing, as it took a 2KM vacation to send a satellite message, a bug supposedly fixed in a firmware update about 10 days ago). But, as you can see with the COROS, it\u2019s like a bad smart recording from days of past.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165643\" title=\"GPS-Hike2.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-Hike2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"718\" height=\"357\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s fascinating about this though is that the final distance on the COROS is near identical to the others. My guess here is that they\u2019re using the stride-based distance in some capacity here. But given the COROS was set to \u2018Max\u2019, I don\u2019t understand why the GPS looks so bad here.<\/p>\n<p>Like, this is really bad. You can <a href=\"https:\/\/analyze.dcrainmaker.com\/#\/public\/1cb7927a-9607-4bb7-4338-67389bb6d468\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">skim through the full data set here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165645\" title=\"GPS-Hike3.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-Hike3.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"719\" height=\"361\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>On the bright side, elevation accuracy was good:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165644\" title=\"GPS-hikeelevation.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-hikeelevation.png\" alt=\"GPS hikeelevation.\" width=\"718\" height=\"220\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Next, two more quick sets. Next is an outdoor road-ride I did. Here, looking at the heart rate first. Yikes, this is hot-mess territory, mainly after the crash, when my HR was substantially lower. This doesn\u2019t surprise me though, outdoor cycling continues to be very challenging for optical HR sensors, though most do better these days.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165646\" title=\"HR-RoadRide.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/HR-RoadRide.png\" alt=\"HR RoadRide.\" width=\"717\" height=\"212\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>And then from a GPS standpoint it was spotless on the sharp descents.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165647\" title=\"GPS-RoadRide.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-RoadRide.png\" alt=\"GPS RoadRide.\" width=\"720\" height=\"376\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Which got me thinking: Why on earth was the GPS so bad on some trail runs and hikes, but fine on other road runs and road rides? And then I realized: All the workouts with navigation (route following) enabled, it was hot-mess territory. If that wasn\u2019t enabled, it was fine. There\u2019s clearly some sort of issue with the processing power when a route is loaded, causing significant GPS accuracy issues.<\/p>\n<p>And lastly on accuracy, looking at an openwater swim from earlier today \u2013 it wasn\u2019t bad, but also wasn\u2019t great, as it\u2019s undercutting a bit, as you can see below:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165706\" title=\"GPS-Swim.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GPS-Swim.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"719\" height=\"352\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, looking at heart rate accuracy first, with the exception of outdoor road riding \u2013 this was very good. On the GPS side, per above, it\u2019s great as long as I\u2019m not doing some sort of navigation, in which case, the GPS accuracy seems to degrade substantially. Hopefully they can fix that soon.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, looking at battery burn, here\u2019s how things looked on that 14hr hike with navigation enabled. In this case, I was mostly on non-map data pages for all units, save for turns, where I\u2019d look at the map on all units at once. You can see here the COROS APEX 4 (MIP) &amp; Suunto Vertical 2 (AMOLED) were near identical at about 2% an hour the entire time. All watches were configured for dual-frequency\/multi-band GPS.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165648\" title=\"BatteryBurn.png\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/BatteryBurn.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"718\" height=\"378\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>In the case of the Fenix 8 Pro MicroLED, the big shift there in battery life is when I changed the LTE setting from \u201cAlways On\u201d to using the cellular on my phone instead. That massively changed the battery life here.<\/p>\n<p>But as for the COROS, that means it actually did better than the battery claims (which are ~40hrs in this mode), coming in instead at ~50hrs of battery life. And that claim doesn\u2019t even include navigation, so this is a solid job.<\/p>\n<p>Wrap-Up:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-165696\" title=\"DSC05371.jpg\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/DSC05371.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"480\" border=\"0\"  \/><\/p>\n<p>When the original COROS APEX 2 &amp; 2 Pro came out, they were priced in a weird spot. Back then, at $499 for the APEX 2 Pro, it was a mere $50 less than the Garmin Forerunner 955 \u2013 an absolute powerhouse of features, functionality, accuracy, and the entire Garmin platform behind it. Simply put, the APEX 2 Pro got slaughtered by it. So much so that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dcrainmaker.com\/2023\/04\/massive-spring-navigation.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">COROS eventually lowered prices on it<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But now, the tables have turned. Garmin\u2019s ever-increasing prices over 2025, combined with not putting maps on sub-$500 watches, means that COROS (and Suunto\/Polar) are in a much better spot in the sub-$500 realm than ever before. With both the COROS NOMAD at$349and the APEX 4 at $449 having full mapping, dual-frequency GPS, and now the speaker and microphone on the APEX 4. Sure, it doesn\u2019t have other features from the Garmin ecosystem like Connect IQ apps, and some of the polish of that platform at large. But it does have free offline maps, and for a lot of people, that\u2019s a big deal.<\/p>\n<p>And more than that, it starts to fill in the gaps in the COROS lineup. That lineup starts with the COROS Pace 3 at $229, then the Pace Pro and NOMAD at $349, followed by APEX 4 at $429\/$479, and then finally Vertix 2S at $699. Obviously, the Vertix is looking pretty long in the tooth at this point, especially given the Vertix 2S was barely a minor spec bump. Point is, they have not just a clear increasing of price vs features, but different options at different price points. The trick will be to maintain that pricing as they go forward with a Vertix 3\/4, in order to undercut Garmin\u2019s increasing prices. Just like before, when COROS tries to compete head to head with higher-end watches, it doesn\u2019t end well. Instead, COROS is most deadly when they undercut on pricing and deliver strongly on features (e.g. Pace 3).<\/p>\n<p>In any case, I\u2019m sure plenty more to come. With that, thanks for reading!<\/p>\n<p>FOUND THIS POST USEFUL? SUPPORT THE SITE!<\/p>\n<p>Hopefully, you found this post useful. 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