The Coros Apex 4 might be one of the last of a dying breed, because nearly all of the best sports watches coming out these days have AMOLED displays. The Apex 4 sticks to a memory-in-pixel screen and offers impressive battery life as a result.
In general, it’s a more traditional sports watch than its rivals, with a design that focuses on durability and practicality over smartwatch-style looks and features, and this has its pros and cons.
While the Apex 4 is a great option for adventurous pursuits thanks to its accurate tracking, long battery life, and features like offline maps, the screen is quite dull in some situations, and other brands are showing that more attractive AMOLED watches can offer great battery life too, like the Suunto Vertical 2 or Garmin Fenix 8 Pro.
Coros Apex 4 review: price and availability
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The Coros Apex 4 launched on 15 October 2025 and comes in two sizes — 42mm and 46mm — and two colors – black and white. The smaller 42mm watch is the successor to the Coros Apex 2 and costs $429 / £389. The 46mm watch succeeds the Coros Apex 2 Pro and costs $479 / £429.
Why is it called the Apex 4 and not the Apex 3, given that it succeeds the Coros Apex 2? Apparently, it’s to bring it into line with the Coros Pace series, which is currently on the Coros Pace 3, but the Pace 4 will now line up with the Apex 4. I’m still a bit confused by the reasoning myself, but it’s the Apex 4 and that’s fine.
The Coros Pace 3 and Coros Pace Pro are cheaper than the Apex 4 and are aimed at road runners, with lighter, plastic designs. The Coros Vertix 2S sits above the Apex 4 in the range, offering an even more durable design and longer battery life, while the Coros Nomad is a cheaper adventure watch option.
(Image credit: Future)Swipe to scroll horizontallyCoros Apex 4 SpecsRow 0 – Cell 0
Coros Apex 4 42mm
Coros Apex 4 46mm
Price
$429
$479
Size
42.6 x 42.6 x 15.8mm
46.2 x 46.2 x 15.5mm
Case weight
38g
44g
Display
1.2in 240 x 240 MIP
1.3in 260 x 260 MIP
Screen
Sapphire crystal
Sapphire crystal
Bezel
Titanium
Titanium
Waterproof rating
5 ATM
5 ATM
Smartwatch battery life
15 days
24 days
GPS battery life (all-systems)
34 hours
53 hours
Coros Apex 4 review: design and display
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The Coros Apex 4 has a mostly plastic case with a titanium bezel and a sapphire crystal display, reinforcing it in the most important areas. It feels like a sturdy watch on the wrist, but it doesn’t have the unwelcome bulk you get with most adventure watches.
While it’s not as light as the all-plastic Pace and Pace Pro models, the Apex 4 46mm I tested is only 64g with its silicone band, and around 50g with a nylon band. The smaller model is just 56g with a silicone strap.
It’s still a fairly thick watch, though, and I wouldn’t say its design is that attractive. Part of that is down to the 1.3in (1.2in on the 42mm watch) memory-in-pixel (MIP) display, which is duller than the AMOLED displays that you now get on most sports watches, especially when using the watch indoors or under cloud cover.
MIP screens do have some advantages, the main one being that they are much less taxing on battery life. They are also as visible as AMOLED displays in bright sunlight — some would argue more so, but I’ve found AMOLED watches to be just as clear in sunny conditions as MIP in my testing over the past couple of years.
The battery life on some AMOLED watches is also now getting good enough that you don’t have to make such a tough choice between the bright display and battery life. The Suunto Vertical 2, for example, offers up to 65 hours of GPS tracking in its most accurate mode.
That said, I do think it’s good for consumers to still have the choice of MIP watches, and with Garmin and Suunto recently launching only AMOLED options of their top models, the Apex 4 stands out as a great option for those who don’t like AMOLED displays for whatever reason.
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The Apex 4 is loaded with sensors, including a barometric altimeter and pulse oximeter, and has a waterproof rating of 5 ATM. It also has a mic and speaker.
There are three buttons on the watch, with one being a digital dial. The button on the left is called the action button and can be set to activate a shortcut during activities, like switching between your map and stats screens, or dropping a voice pin.
One other small design thorn I have with the Apex 4 is that it doesn’t have a built-in flashlight. It’s a handy feature that’s becoming standard on Garmin’s watches, and is available on the Suunto Vertical 2.
Coros Apex 4 review: sports tracking and training analysis
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The Coros Apex 4 is loaded with customizable sports modes that cover a wide range of outdoor pursuits, including several climbing and winter sports modes as well as less risky activities like pickleball and frisbee.
You can display up to eight stats on a page during activities, and there are some useful dedicated pages for things like weather and wind forecasts.
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The data from your activities feeds into the training analysis you can view on the watch or in the partner Coros app. This includes info and guidance on your training load and an estimate of your running fitness and predicted race times.
It’s not as comprehensive as the training analysis available on the best Garmin watches in particular, which include extra metrics like training readiness and the brand’s hill and endurance scores, but I think Coros has found a good balance in offering the most important info to data-keen athletes in an easy-to-understand way.
Coros Apex 4 review: GPS and heart rate accuracy
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I’ve done about 100 miles of running with the Coros Apex 4, along with several indoor bike rides and strength workouts. I’ve tested the GPS accuracy in the most accurate multi-band mode, checking the GPS tracks and comparing the watch to other multi-band devices that have proved accurate for me, like the Garmin Fenix 8 Pro and Apple Watch Ultra 3.
In my testing, the Coros Apex 4’s GPS accuracy has been excellent, with the tracks closely matching the routes I ran, even under tree cover. The accuracy is a major improvement on that of the Coros Apex 2 and Apex 2 Pro, which often threw up errors during my testing.
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The heart rate accuracy is also an improvement on the previous Apex models, with the Apex 4’s readings being in line with those of a chest strap monitor most of the time during my testing.
I did see the occasional erroneous spike in my heart rate on the watch, and it is more prone to errors than a chest strap, but that’s true of all sports watches in my experience, and the Apex 4 was accurate enough to judge my efforts using the heart rate reading on the watch.
Coros Apex 4 review: battery life
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Long battery life has been a key feature on all Coros watches to date, and the Apex 4 lives up to this reputation. Since charging the watch to 100% I’ve had it on my wrist for 12 days at the time of writing, running almost every day, and it’s still at 34%.
The listed battery life is 24 days on the 46mm model and 15 days on the 42mm watch, though this will come down if you regularly track GPS activities. The 46mm Apex 4 offers up to 41 hours of GPS tracking in the most accurate GPS mode, and 65 hours of all-systems GPS using its smart Endurance Mode, which only uses the strongest satellite signals, turning others off at times to save battery.
Given that the watch is not very large or heavy, these battery numbers are impressive and are the main advantage of opting for an MIP watch over an AMOLED one. You can also extend the battery further by turning off the stress tracking on the watch, not wearing it for sleep, or setting the daytime heart rate tracking to only take measurements every 10 minutes.
Coros Apex 4 review: maps and navigation
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The Apex 4 has offline maps that you can download to the watch using the partner app. The maps have trail and street names and load incredibly quickly when you zoom in and out or pan across.
You can create routes in the Coros app and sync them straight to your watch, where you get turn-by-turn directions plus an elevation plot so you can see the climbs and descents to come.
During activities, you can quickly drop a pin using the action button and voice commands, and this will be logged on the map in the Coros app to make it easy to create routes using these as waypoints.
Coros’s mapping tools are easy to use, and the brand has been upgrading them further regularly with software updates over the past year or so.
While they are not as advanced as those on Garmin watches, which can create routes on the fly and reroute you if you go off-track, the navigation features on the Apex 4 are very good and will be invaluable to those regularly heading off the grid.
Coros Apex 4 review: smart features
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The Apex 4 doesn’t offer a lot in the way of smart features. You get notification mirroring and weather forecasts, as well as music storage for MP3 files, but that’s about it. You can’t connect to streaming services or control music playback on your phone, and there are no NFC payments.
This is not only a far cry from the features on true smartwatches like the Apple Watch Ultra 3, but it’s also a long way off what you get from Garmin watches, which have NFC payments and can link up with music streaming services.
Should you buy the Coros Apex 4?
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The Coros Apex 4 is an accurate and durable sports watch with excellent battery life and all the features you need to train as a keen runner or cyclist, or to head out into the great outdoors for more adventurous activities.
If you’re not a fan of the market trend towards AMOLED watches, it’s one of your best options, being cheaper than the Garmin Enduro 3 and Coros Vertix 2S, though the Coros Nomad is equally as good if you’re a fan of its chunky plastic design, and even cheaper than the Apex 4.
Other MIP rivals include older watches now often on sale, like the Garmin Fenix 7 Pro and original Suunto Vertical, which have more premium designs than the Coros Apex 4, though they aren’t as lightweight.
Personally, I do prefer AMOLED sports watches, and found the duller display on the Apex 4 less engaging and clear throughout testing. I think there are enough MIP fans out there to make the Apex 4 a success, though, and with other brands focusing on AMOLED watches, Coros might be smart to take ownership of this niche going forward.