I’ve been a Garmin girl almost since I started running. The first watch I bought was a huge old Garmin that took up most of my wrist and definitely could not be worn at any other time aside from running.

Luckily running watches have come long way in the last 12 years with many other players now in the market. One of the biggest of these, certainly in terms of volume within mass market runners is Coros.

I resisted trying a Coros until I could no longer ignore the rave reviews from friends on the battery life, GPS and reliability. This review is my personal opinion of Coros Pace 3, with some comparison with Garmin Fenix 7S that I was wearing prior to testing the Coros.

It just so happened just after I started wearing the Coros Pace 3, my Fenix broke (one of the buttons stopped working) so after after a few runs wearing both to compare battery and GPS, I have solely worn the Coros for 6 weeks, testing it over long runs, track workouts, treadmill sessions and easy runs across multiple timezones and locations. I am not techy, so if you’re looking for a very in-depth tech review, I would suggest checking out DCRainmaker. This is the review of an average runner. utilising it for marathon training, stepcounts, swimming, biking etc and erm…telling the time!

Screen

This is my first time using a touchscreen running watch, and I’m not sure I’ll ever really get used to it (although I am accidentally stopping my watch mid-run less often!). The touchscreen allows you to swipe through data screens quickly whilst the red button on the side (apparently called a digital crown) is used to scroll through the tracking options (including different sports, history ….) as well as start and stop your run. Another button allows you to manually lap your run – luckily this is in the same spot as the Garmin button – handy when you are run/walking! I have found the digital crown more sensitive on the Coros than Garmin, and find that wearing long sleeves on the run can mean I accidentally scroll through data screens without meaning to.

Perhaps having used a Garmin for so long, I have found it more difficult to navigate and I definitely haven’t utilised all of its features yet.

GPS

The GPS is an absolutely brilliant, I would imagine thanks to the dual frequency GPS that I first tested in the Apple Ultra watch. Whilst I haven’t tested the Coros Pace 3 in a big city race yet – I found the GPS much more reliable in the dual frequency Apple Watch running London and Chicago marathons compared to the Garmin Fenix 7S and I would imagine I would find the same when comparing the Pace 3/Fenix 7S .

I am very inpatient and rarely stand still as instructed for the watch to find GPS, however even pressing GO straight away after travelling from London to Hong Kong, the watch accurately measured my distance and pace almost immediately (double checked the following day once I’d let the watch familiarise itself with where we were).

You can use the watch for navigation using breadcrumbs style navigation (no I have no idea what that means either) But the gist of it seems to be that you create the route in app and send it to the watch.

For those wanting to show off their runs or just track their distances and routes, I like the map and data produced by Coros in app, and it can easily be synced up with Strava etc.

Battery Life

Wow, I was told the battery life was good but it survived two full weeks of marathon training including daily wear, two long runs, speed sessions and easy runs. My Garmin used to last about a week. This may be due in part to Coros’ use of Memory in Pixel display – in non-technical terms, this means that the screen display is not very bright to save battery.

According to Coros it will last you up to 38 hours of GPS use, less if you use the music and navigation systems (which I don’t) and up to 17 days using it for daily tracking.

Workouts

It won’t surprise many that know me that I’m rarely organised enough to pre programme my workouts into the watch, preferring instead to manually lap during workouts and long runs. If you do like having your watch beep out your reps then you can create workouts in the app, set heart rate targets or link it with my training plan apps. You can automatically sync your Coros with the Runna app (use code CHARLIE for 2 weeks free).

Daily Tracking

As well as tracking your exercise, Coros Pace 3 will track your sleep, HR, “recovery”, training status, step count, flights of stairs climbed etc although I don’t find the level of details of each of these is as good or easy to navigate as Garmin.

I take the HR monitoring with a pinch of salt when using the inbuilt wrist monitoring, but am going to try out the new female focused Coros HR soon to see how it compares. I typically just try to stay within the ‘easy’ zone on easy runs but not give it too much of a thought on longer runs and harder efforts. However from reviews I have read where runners have compared the watch readings to HR monitor, they readings were very comparable.

Price

The price range of the Coros watches are definitely lower when compared to Garmin with Coros topping out at £599 with the Vertix 2. And I think. you probably get a little more for. your money with the mid-range Coros compared to Garmin. At £219/£229 (for the EK edition) I think the Pace 3 is really good value for everything you get from it. The price point is in line with the new Forerunner 165 which I look forward to testing it!

The Look

Now I’m going to be honest, this is where the Coros Pace 3 falls down for me (and I know that may well be because I have the Kipchoge edition) but it looks like a sports watch. The big run button makes it feel more like a stopwatch and the EK band doesn’t really go with my non-sports kit! That said, I have had quite a few compliments on it so it’s definitely personal taste. The nylon strap annoys me because it stays soggy when it gets wet and I imagine will smell after heavy summer efforts. However. you can buy a silicone strap in white which would be more stylish… (in fact, I’ve just ordered one to try!)

For those with a smaller wrist, the smaller face and easily tightening nylon straps may be a winner, especially compared with some of the other bulky watches available on the market.

Personally I do think the Garmin Fenix watches with the gold/rose gold hardware are more attractive for running and everyday wear even when compared to the Coros Apex Coral. I find myself taking it off the Pace 3 more than I ever would with my Fenix 7S. It feels a little cheap, which may be due to the lightweight nature of the watch.

Who should buy it?

If you’re looking for an affordable, reliable running watch that will accurately calculate your distance, time, pace and see. you through an ultra marathon – this is a great option. For runners that want a watch that can double up for daily wear, that shows their status as a runner even when dressed in ‘normal’ clothes, you may want to go for something a little…prettier.