17.12.2021 | 7 MIN
Coros Pace 2 is considered to be one of the lightest sporttesters ever. It looks a bit like a swimming chip with an added crown. But the price tag is really low, and the watch is definitely worth the money you put into it!
Another piece from the precision line made by Coros, when it comes to route and heartbeat recording. No, the watch is not the smartest in terms of urban features. But it doesn't even pretend to be. On the contrary, it does what it can do the best, and it can be a heck of a help to a person training for better results.
Very light. And also super fast. As I wrote in the begginig, the watch reminds me of a swimming chip with a crown. Now let's be real here, it's no design masterpiece. It is another piece from the line of typical running plastics watches, which won't impress you with its style, but that wasn't the purpose anyway.
The minimalist case has only two mechanical elements. One is a rotating crown, which can control almost the whole device. You can choose from two types of straps – silicone or nylon. To test the watch, I have chosen the nylon strap, and let me just say, it's amazing. The watch fits on the hand perfectly, and the nylon strap, and the silicone one as well, is attached to the case by Quick Release spring bars. And the weight. You really feel it.
And by feeling it I mean you will not feel it. With a silicone strap, the watch weighs 36 g, and with nylon it is only 29 g. This ensured the watch the title of the lightest sports tester in the world. It's just an indisputable fact that it's like having nothing on your hand. The "nothing" has a case diameter of 42 mm, which is absolutely suitable for both a woman with a thinner wrist and a running greyhound with a thin wrist. Coros wrote it itself: "So light it could fly."
It is no wonder Coron went with a Corning Gorilla Glass for this model. I have already mentioned somewhere that even a sapphire is 1.6 times heavier than a Gorilla. This could be why it was not used here, but I think it was mainly about keeping the price low.
However, below the Gorilla glass, there is an Always-On memory LCD display with 64 colors and a resolution of 240 x 240 pixels. I probably have nothing to complain about the display. It doesn't create reflections, it looks beautiful in direct sunlight, and is quite well smoothed (without pixelization). I am a little sad that the watch doesn't have a button for illumination. That is activated automatically when you press a button or rotate the crown (it can also be turned off).
Behold, that's how it is. Just for fun, I tried to put these two watches in a comparison. Except for the pulse oximeter, it has the same equipment as the Fenix 6. Even though the watch is primarily targeted for road running, it still has a barometer, a sensor used for mountains. From the basic functions, there is an accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, thermometer, optical heart rate sensor and, of course, GPS, which can also read GLONASS, QZSS, and BeiDou.
As for accuracy, again, I have nothing to complain about. Thanks to the lightness of the watch, the heartbeat measurement is very accurate even from the wrist, and if we focus on GPS, it comes to be much smoother than, for example, my Garmin Enduro (Pace 2 combines GPS + QZSS + GLONASS). Even loading the GPS takes only a few seconds, so you don't have to spend minutes waiting for a signal in front of the house. An interesting thing about this watch is also the fact it supports MGSR coordinates which are used by the army.
Garmin Enduro is marked with green and Coros Pace 2 with red color
The sports use of the watch is clear. Even though there are 12 sports in the watch (running, cycling, triathlon, swimming...), the main sport is still running. There are three running modes – running, running on the track and running on a treadmill. It is a pity that there is no trail running mode since the watch has a barometer, but for running in nature the running mode is enough. But no need to worry. Your VO2 Max won't decrease when running on trails. Pace 2 recalculates the altitude meters and considers them in the calculation.
Apart from Polar, Coros is the second in the world to add watts to the wrist and I have to say it's working really well. The information I will interpret now is from the American reviewer DC Rainmaker, but I believe them to be 100% true. The point is that watts often vary. In numbers, in the speed of reactions, etc.
The most famous wattmeter for runners is the STRYD, and it is also considered to have even the most accurate measurements. And according to Rainmaker's research, Coros's measurements are almost identical. The reason for this is the fact that STRYD cooperates with Coros, so the watch has a similar if not the same algorithm as STRYD. I know we haven't really talked about wattmeters in the past, but I promise I will get on that.
If there is anybody who doesn't know who we're talking about, it is the inconspicuous gentleman who ran the marathon track as the first person on the planet in less than 2 hours. In addition, he added a gold medal at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games for the marathon distance and reigned in the 5,000m run in 2003. Eliud Kipchoge is a Kenyan athlete and also an ambassador for Coros.
Victory at the Tokyo Olympics 2020 – 2021. Eliud has a Pace 2 model specially collored for the Olympics.
Coros made a limited edition of this watch just for him. It has red and green colors inspired by the Kenyan national flag. This special edition has a nylon and silicone strap, and the price also includes the Coros Pod sensor, which measures other running metrics in addition to watts.
Unfortunately, this product will not be available in our store :-(
The size of the battery is big as an elephant, and it also has a widget that nicely summarizes the use of the battery. First, it evaluates the percentage in a graph and then the percentage you have used for backlighting, daily use, and sports. It even offers estimated battery life.
As a base, the manufacturer states 20 days of battery life in the smartwatch mode and 30 hours for a second on GPS. Before I paired the watch, I looked at the widget, and the watch without a paired phone, according to the estimates, can work for up to 44 days with the battery charged at 97%. I think Garmin is starting to feel the pressure ...
What can you do. It is not exactly an urban smartwatch with which you can handle emails, play music and pay for food in the store. Pace 2 is a model targeted exclusively to sports. It can do notifications from the phone (without the option to reply), all-day heart rate monitoring (you can choose if you want it every second or every 10 minutes), steps, sleep, calories, and that's about it.
Among the more non-traditional functions, there is a metronome, heart rate sharing, a compass, and then there are the classics such as an alarm clock, stopwatch, and timer. Honestly, I tried to set an alarm, and with how small the watch is, it's a lot of fun. I think it would surely wake me up even after a race.
Now, you will also find a satellite signal widget in the Pace 2 model, where you can check how many and which satellites are currently flying over you. In addition to the visual view, the widget also tells you the exact number from which you will receive a quality signal.
Right at the beginning, let's say that the whole app, like the watch, is in English.But I don't think it should be a problem, because everything is pretty nicely done, and English knowledge is not much needed. The app is devided into 4 categories. The basic summary, exercise history, Coros EvoLab, and paired devices.
All 4 categories are done logically, and I especially like the EvoLab, where you can find everything about your practice and potential progress (Dominik talked more about this in his Coros Vertix model review). In the last column of the device, you can set the order of the apps, data fields in sport activities, and more. It's a pity that the settings can't be done in the watch, and it is also a shame that the app doesn't have a web version that I think would work better and would be more organized.
20.1.2022
Coros Vertix 2 review – I came, I saw, I won?
Coros has been very popular lately. It is popular among our editorial staff, and it is also seen at the races among runners more often. Yes, Garmin is so far winning when it comes to numbers, but that doesn't mean that can't change. I will say it again. Coros has been on the market for only three years, and it already has the most powerful sports tester with a very small price tag, many many sports function, and huge battery life.
The watch won me over, and I have to admit that as a training device it is ingenious. No useless additives, only fast tweaks that help you achieve your personal best.
Alternatives to this model are hard to find. From the Finnish ranks, an alternative might be the Suunto 5, or the Polar Vantage M2. Both models are very sporty, though they have a slightly smaller battery life than Coros. The American representative which would compete with Pace 2 is the Garmin Forerunner 245, which is a bit smarter, lacks wattage, and also loses a bit in the battery field. Overall, Coros can chill, and other brands should be very careful about what they show next.
