Coros Pace 4 review – Probably the best affordable sports watch

Tags: Review | Coros | Smart

16.1.2026 | 9 MIN

Functionally, the Coros Pace 4 doesn’t stray from what Coros already does well, but the price tag makes it one of the most compelling training devices on the market. And that’s a combo that’s hard to ignore.

Won’t impress, won’t disappoint

There’s one thing you can say about the Coros Pace 4 right off the bat – they don’t look outright bad, nor outright great. They’re just not the kind of watch that will draw compliments, but equally not the kind that makes people whisper around the corner, “Good grief, what on earth does he have on his wrist?”

The Pace 4 ditched the line around the display, stuck with a plastic case, and the only truly new element is the action button on the left side of the case. I already praised it in my Apex 4 review:

There are three controls on the case – a rotating crown, a bottom button (cycles widgets on the watch face and also takes you one step back), and the new action button. I love it because it solves exactly what annoys me on other brands – one button takes you to the map (in the case of the Pace 4, a breadcrumb map) and back again.

Data screens are both horizontal and vertical here. Imagine you’re on the second data screen, press the action button, you’re on the map, and pressing it again takes you back to the second screen (not all the way to the start). That’s a great touch.

You can also configure the action button for any sport profile. In strength training it will basically offer just switching between sets, but in running you get the screen toggle I mentioned, add location, and lap. Likewise, the lower right button is configurable. The crown also has some configuration – pressing it pauses the activity immediately and gives you options for what to do next, or on first press shows a menu of what you actually want to do. You can finish and save an activity without pausing it first.

29.12.2025
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The shame is the action button is action-only during a workout. Outside of it, it’s basically inert.

The biggest design draw of the Pace 4 has always been the weight. It depends on strap type (22 mm width), with a choice of silicone or nylon. On the nylon strap, the Pace 4 weighs just 32 grams, on silicone 40 g.

Coros states on its website: “At just 32 grams with a nylon band, PACE 4 is lighter than the gel in your pocket.”

The dimensions are as unisex as it gets in my view, with a case diameter of 43.4 mm. Thickness without the sensor is 11.8 mm.

Water resistance is 5 ATM, operating temperature -20 °C to 50 °C. I often see people taking their smartwatches into a sauna, so here’s your answer as to whether that’s a good idea.

MIP is dead, long live AMOLED

Coros was very specific when presenting the display shift. The Pace 4 has 164% higher resolution than the original third generation. At first glance it feels like a huge leap, but by the nature of the technology it’s worth noting that MIP (the previous tech) typically has significantly lower resolution than AMOLED, which the Pace 4 has now moved to.

Specifically, it’s a 1.2″ touchscreen AMOLED with a 390 × 390 px resolution.

I won’t lie – it’s a joy to look at. I’m a fairly practical person though, and I might personally appreciate MIP a bit more. The reason is simple: I don’t like when the screen goes fully dark. I want to glance at the time without nosy wrist-flicks. To be fair, it’s easy for me to say because I have no vision issues. For many people, MIP is simply harder to read due to the lower backlight and resolution.

So I get that, broadly speaking, it’s the better decision – AMOLED looks more modern, is easier to read, and apparently has lower manufacturing costs. And when you don’t need to combine a watch with solar charging, MIP doesn’t make as much sense anymore.

Why mention solar charging? As of today (January 9, 2026), there still isn’t a smartwatch that combines an AMOLED display with solar charging.

That said, the Coros Pace 4 is delightfully smooth, and the display is nicely contrasty with a huge color range.

Dual-band GPS on the cheap?

Looking at the competition (outside China), lower-priced sports watches often cut corners – they skip the barometer and dual-band GPS.

Coros bucks that trend a bit by including both a barometer and dual-band GPS.

I handed the watch to a triathlete colleague for testing. He put them through the wringer, and here’s the heart-rate comparison.

Strength training. Blue – Coros Pace 4, purple – Polar Verity Sense.

Swimming. Blue – Coros Pace 4, purple – Polar Verity Sense.

Indoor cycling. Blue – Coros Pace 4, purple – Polar Verity Sense.

Interval run workout. Blue – Coros Pace 4, purple – Polar Verity Sense.

Let’s be honest. The Pace 4 handled cycling well, but there are also minimal external variables there. With the other sports, it’s not exactly stellar. The question is whether this is the final state of accuracy. Coros often releases a watch, irons out a few kinks, and then it’s all fine – they simply adjust the algorithms.

What’s odd, though – the recently released Apex 4 had heart-rate tracking in good shape, and the Pace 4 is much lighter, so it should stay put on the wrist. Maybe they should have kept the original sensor from the Pace 3, that one was accurate. :)

We didn’t see any GPS anomalies; tracking was reliable.

Blue – Coros Pace 4, purple – Garmin Forerunner 970.

The full sensor set includes an accelerometer, barometer, gyroscope, compass, thermometer, GPS receiver, pulse oximeter, and heart-rate sensor.

Compared to higher models, the Pace 4 basically only lacks ECG. That serves to measure heart rate variability more accurately since it evaluates it based on the heart’s electrical activity rather than blood flow. At night, however, HRV is measured via the optical sensor.

Battery life is the stuff of fairy tales. Hard to believe it’s real

When a watch case is smaller, it usually hints there won’t be much room left for the battery. Nobody told Coros, apparently, because in smartwatch mode it can reach up to 19 days (6 days with Always-On Display). The gains in active GPS are even more interesting.

In HIGH mode the watch lasts up to 41 hours (30 hours with Always-on), and in MAX mode 31 hours.

Those are honestly very nice figures. Turn on music and battery life drops significantly, specifically to 14 hours. Dual-band reception with music is a bit more demanding still, bringing you to about 12 hours.

From a features standpoint, the Pace 4 is largely similar

If you know Coros watches, I won’t bore you with a complete feature dump — let’s go straight to what’s new.

Voice Notes. A relatively new thing for Coros – you can save voice notes tied to a specific location. Yes, it’s not just “into the air”; they must always be linked to a GPS location. You can save a spot and, say, add a note that there’s a nice viewpoint. Or scout a future race course this way. Playback is only possible on the phone, as the Pace 4 has no speaker.

Flashlight. No, it’s not a classic LED flashlight. The whole display simply lights up, which is partly a consequence of moving from MIP to AMOLED.

Music controls. A big step for the Pace line, even if in the broader wearable world it’s more of a basic feature.

Menstrual cycle tracking. Essentially a cycle log with the option of alerts three days in advance and ovulation prediction.

Where Coros is magical is the minimal segmentation across its lineup. Barring full maps, the Pace 4 is functionally almost on par with the top models.

Since Coros is primarily a sports brand, let’s start there.

So what does Coros measure?

• Marathon Level – A numerical expression of your ability to run a flat marathon distance. This value considers VO₂ Max, lactate threshold, and your running efficiency. The higher the score, the faster you can run a marathon.
• Training Load – A numerical expression of the training impact on your body based on exercise intensity and duration.
• VO₂ Max – The maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can utilize during exercise.
• Running performance – How good your run was relative to your fitness on a scale from 80 to 120.
• Lactate Threshold – The heart rate or pace at which lactic acid (lactate) begins to accumulate in your body more rapidly and fatigue sets in faster.
• Resting heart rate
• Base Fitness – A numerical expression of your body’s capacity to train longer and more frequently at higher intensity.
• Load Impact – The higher the number, the greater the impact on your body and training limitations due to fatigue.
• Fatigue – The difference between Base Fitness and Load Impact. The higher the number, the more overreached you are (values above 60 indicate overtraining).
• Race Predictor – Predicted results for 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon based on your fitness.
• Recovery time – A percentage representation of your recovery since the last workout.

You can literally bathe in these metrics — either in their app or the desktop version on your computer. I always say Coros is for tech tinkerers. These definitely aren’t watches for complete beginners, because the metrics often aren’t presented as hand-holding as with the competition. That’s fine, though. Coros simply wants real athletes using its watches.

A sport activity summary looks something like this:

Or you can bathe in these numbers:

Look, with Coros you can be sure it’ll tell you everything that should be said about your training. Your strong and weak running areas, whether you’re recovered, your VO2 Max, which muscles you loaded in your last strength workout… There’s a lot.

I always praise Coros for its training library as well. Whether it’s individual workouts or full training plans, it’s hard to find another brand that has it as stacked as Coros.

Even though Coros leads with sports features, it lags a bit behind the competition in health and smart features.

From a health standpoint, I always put sleep tracking first. Coros does a solid job there. You get the essentials on sleep duration, the breakdown of stages, and even a verbal assessment of individual components — whether you woke up a lot, whether sleep was continuous, whether you spent enough time in each stage… I used to complain that Coros didn’t have one simple number to rate sleep from 0 to 100, but then it dawned on me that a verbal and color-coded assessment has a slightly lower psychological impact.

During the day, the watch — almost as a given today — measures heart rate, stress, calories, and other metrics.

Personally I like the Wellness Check function, where the watch measures heart rate, HRV, stress on a 0–100 scale, respiration rate, and blood oxygen within a few dozen seconds.

And what about smart features? Let’s be honest, Coros has never built its reputation on them. It’s not really their natural habitat.

Probably the smartest function is the music player, where you can transfer MP3 tracks to the watch via the app. Coros doesn’t support streaming services in any way. I personally don’t use on-watch music much, but I do appreciate being able to control music playing on the phone — that’s a feature I use often.

Even more often, I use navigation. The Pace 4 may not have full maps, but it can display a route line and give turn alerts. It can also use that line to guide you back to the start of your activity.

If you use an action camera, Coros supports controlling DJI, Insta360, and GoPro.

The Pace 4 naturally handles the basics too, like alarms, a stopwatch, and notifications. But you have no way to respond — not even on Android.

So what is the Coros Pace 4 like?

I don’t want to repeat myself. Whether it was the latest Nomad, Apex, or now the Pace, my take is the same — the features aren’t revolutionary, but the price is.

Looking at all the new stuff, here’s how it shakes out:

The new heart-rate sensor is definitely an upgrade, but we’ll have to wait a bit for it to be truly trouble-free.

Voice Notes aren’t a key feature for me, and honestly I’m not sure I’d use them in day-to-day life at all.

Music controls are nice.

The menstrual calendar is a welcome improvement for women, but again, nothing groundbreaking.

What is truly great? That price tag.

Coros swapped plastic glass for mineral, extended battery life, and kept the price almost the same as the third generation. That’s genuinely impressive.

I’m personally quite frugal, and if I were looking for a pure training device, the Coros Pace 4 would make a lot of sense to me.

And as for the HR sensor, I believe if you’re reading this three months after this review was published, it’s already fixed.

Image credits:

• screenshots – Coros app
• studio photos – Hodinky 365 photographers