Coros Pace 4 Pro Review

Design and screen

• Coros’ biggest AMOLED display
• Choice of silicone or nylon straps
• Features sapphire glass

Like the Pace 4 and Pace Pro, the Pace 4 Pro version comes in just a single case size. That’s now a larger 47.6mm case, which measures in with the same 11.8mm thickness as the smaller Pace 4. It instantly reminds me of wearing Garmin’s Forerunner 970, which seems to be the watch Coros has in its sights with the Pace 4 Pro.

Coros has moved from a polymer-based case design to one made from titanium. That’s providing something tougher, while still keeping the weight at around 50g. If you go for nylon over a silicone strap, that will keep things the lightest overall.

There are three physical buttons, including a twisty dial, and it sits around a good-sized, 1.47-inch, 466 x 466 resolution AMOLED touchscreen. Coros is using LTPO display technology, which the likes of Apple, Google and Huawei also employ on their latest smartwatches. It helps to create this nicely vivid and glossy screen finish that improves visibility. Its inclusion also has a positive impact on battery performance.

It’s a high-quality AMOLED panel that’s nicely responsive to taps and swipes, emitting small haptic vibrations when you interact with it. You can adjust the display brightness level and do have the option to keep the screen on at all times, or just stay awake when you’re tracking a workout.

You’re also getting a much stronger level of scratch protection for that display than previous Pace watches. The Pace 4 Pro gets sapphire glass, which is great if you’re expecting to take it out for more rugged adventures.

I had it matched up with a silicone strap, which is pretty much a typical sports watch strap with a quick release mechanism in place when you want to swap in a new one. My only small gripe is that the clasp felt challenging to clip in place. Once it’s in, however, it does not budge.

There’s no change in waterproofing from other Pace watches. The 5ATM rating makes it suitable for swimming (pool and open water), as well as wearing in the shower. I wore it for swims, and it stayed on in the shower without issue.

Software and smartwatch features

• Same 32GB storage as Pace Pro
• Speaker included for hands-free calls
• Works with Android and iOS

Like a lot of smartwatches that put sports tracking first, Coros has been trying to make improvements with its software both on and off the watch. The Coros companion app remains a hub for your performance data and tinkering with watch settings, and you can also use it to create routes to make use of the mapping and navigation features.

There’s no app store here, with Coros focusing instead on making sure it offers strong support for the most popular third-party fitness apps. You can sync data to the likes of Strava, Zwift, TrainingPeaks, Stryd and Apple Health. The speed it fires data over to apps like Strava is quick too.

On the watch, I’d say there’s a very Garmin approach to how you get around the software. It lacks a little of the overall polish you get with Garmin’s user interface, but makes up for it with the way it integrates the physical buttons to get you to the key places.

Holding down the bottom button gets you into the very dial-friendly menu system. The one further up gets you into the workout tracking screen, while the button on the other gets you into your quick settings.

If you’re using the Pace 4 Pro like a smartwatch, then don’t expect it to function like a Google Pixel Watch or an Apple Watch. Unlike those two smartwatches, it does work across Android and iOS. I’ve used it with a new Pixel and iPhone, and the experience remains very consistent.

Notification support is a lot simpler than on those smartwatches but does the job. You can use it to remotely control your smartphone’s camera, while the music playback controls are a good match for the larger display and pretty slick touchscreen functionality. Loading music onto the available 32GB of storage does need to be mainly done via a computer, as Coros still doesn’t offer offline playback support for streaming services like Spotify.

The Pace 4 Pro becomes the second Coros watch to include a speaker and microphone after the Apex 4. That means you can receive audible alerts during workouts, use voice commands to access features and record notes on how you felt after a workout. It also means you can handle calls over Bluetooth. Coros hasn’t gone down the LTE route yet.

The speaker is notably loud, and call clarity is perfectly acceptable if you want to take calls with it. I found the voice notes after a workout a good way to bring audio into the equation. It’s a shame you can’t use the feature outside of workouts. The voice commands are more basic than other watches, but if you want to check the weather or start a run hands-free, you do have the ability to do that.

Sports tracking

• Free offline maps
• Dual-frequency GPS
• New generation heart rate monitor added

You’re mainly going to be casting an eye over the Pace 4 Pro for its abilities to track your workouts, and that is something it does a very good job of. It covers the same core modes as the Pace Pro, and that includes running, cycling, swimming (pool and open water) with modes for the likes of tackling a triathlon or hitting the ski slopes.

The big upgrades from the Pace Pro lie with adding a newer generation of Coros’ optical heart rate monitor. This also unlocks the ability to do on-the-spot measurements of your SpO2 levels and skin temperature. That once again joins an ECG sensor that’s built into the digital dial button and isn’t designed for serious medical diagnosis.

You’re still getting a watch that offers the latest dual-band GPS support for increased outdoor tracking accuracy. I’ve used it in some pretty challenging GPS conditions, and the performance has been very strong.

It was a similar story for that upgraded optical heart rate sensor, though I did find that the smaller Pace 4 was closer to readings from a chest strap in my testing. This included racing a half marathon. I also used it for indoor runs, pool swims and general gym workouts and it offered strong tracking across the board.

Coros also includes free offline maps, which are straightforward to get onto the watch and presented in a pretty slick manner. There’s turn-by-turn navigation on hand to keep you going in the right direction too, whether you’ve created a route on the app or imported one from a third-party app.

Where one of Coros’ biggest weaknesses lies is with its training insights. It’s not that they’re not good enough or reliable enough. It’s more to do with the fact that they aren’t necessarily presented on and off the watch in the most glanceable fashion.

I do think things have gotten better on that front. I could quickly see when my training load volume was optimal or excessive, for instance. I could see how much recovery time I needed to bank after a race or quickly check in on some pretty reliable-looking race predictions.

I’d still say some insights are a bit too number-heavy and could benefit from being more direct about what those numbers are telling you. Coros does at least feel ahead of the likes of Suunto and Polar on this front, so there is progress.

Battery life

• Up to 21 days smartwatch battery life
• Up to 7 days battery life with always-on display mode
• Up to 31 hours in best GPS accuracy mode

Strong battery life is one of the reasons Coros has edged its way into the conversation of smartwatches that want to track your fitness. Whether that’s when you’re working out, those periods during the day when you’re not doing much with it, or even taking it off for a period and leaving it in standby mode.

It’s no different with the Pace 4 Pro. Even with that larger AMOLED display in place. If we’re comparing it to the Pace Pro, daily battery life is up a day to 21 days and 7 days if you’re keeping the screen turned on.

That number is, however, not reflective if you’re also using GPS on a regular basis or you also have music streaming during tracking in play. When relying on the raise-to-wake mode, the Pace 4 Pro can comfortably last well over a week. As soon as you keep that display on, it’s been closer to 6 days with regular GPS use and tapping into available smartwatch features.

On the GPS front, sticking it into its best accuracy mode gets you up to 60 hours or 45 hours with the display on at all times. That drops significantly to 17 hours when you add offline music streaming into the equation. I found that an hour of running with the always-on display mode saw the battery drop by around 6-7%

Despite packing in a larger display, the charging speed on the Pace 4 Pro is actually quicker than the Pace 4 and the Pace Pro. I found it took around an hour and a half to get back up to full power.

Coros include useful battery modes on the watch to help you keep a closer eye on what’s draining battery and how much battery you have left to play with. I’m a definite fan of the keychain charger, which just means you need to have a spare USB-C cable handy to plug into it, making it ideal if you’re travelling around with it.

Should you buy it?