Coros Pace Pro, A Garmin Fenix 8 Rival For Hundreds Less

Coros has announced its first AMOLED watch, the Coros Pace Pro.

At $349 the watch is significantly more expensive than the popular Pace 3 ($229) but does bring with it a host of features and upgrades that could make it a viable alternative to the Garmin Fenix 8.

First up, the Pace Pro’s 1.3-inch OLED display will appear much brighter than punchier than the MIP screens used in other Coros watches. It’s a 416 x 416 pixel display, resulting in a high pixel density count, and its maximum brightness is claimed to reach 1500 nits.

It’s a bigger watch than the Pace 3, too, with a mid-level 46mm diameter.

Full offline maps are included this time, and are downloaded to the 32GB internal storage. The Pace Pro also supports ECG readings, seen in the higher-end Vertix series but not the Pace range, until now.

The Pace Pro also has dual-frequency GPS, although this became an expected feature in mid-price Coros watches even before Garmin or Apple.

Like other Pace watches, the Pace Pro has a fairly practical non-flashy design in order to keep pricing low. The casing is a polymer, a form of plastic, and the display protection an unnamed toughened glass. Higher-end series like the Vertix 2S make use of Titanium and Sapphire, which are much more expensive.

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Other claims Coros makes of the Pace Pro include it can last up to 20 days between charges, or six with the always-on display mode engaged, that it is twice as fast, performance-wise, as the Pace 3, and has three times the Wi-Fi speed.

Getting all of this for an additional $120, over the Pace 3, starts to sound like quite a solid deal.

Coros vs Garmin

Garments closest alternative is probably the $599 Forerunner 965.

So can you really save $250 by buying a Coros instead? While I haven’t used a Pace Pro myself yet, there are some reasons to temper that comparison.

First up, Garmin’s software is deeper and more developed than Coros’s. As well as providing better workout construction, the last time I tried to use Coros’s mapping solution, I did not find it particularly satisfying. The ECG implementation was poor too, not that this is necessarily too big a deal for a fitness, rather than general health, watch.

The Coros Pace also only has water resistance of 5ATM, where 10ATM is more desirable for use while swimming.

Still, you appear to get a lot for your money. The Coros Pace Pro is available to order now, for $349.