Coros Pace 2 review

In a sports activities watch world that’s dominated by Garmin and Polar, Coros has come alongside in recent times to shake issues up. It began with the Tempo and with the Coros Tempo 2, it’s providing one thing that’s going to enchantment to runners, swimmers, cyclists and even triathletes that don’t need to spend huge on one thing to trace that multi-discipline time.

Whereas the primary Tempo felt like a Garmin clone, its successor provides a extra distinctive design, the promise of improved monitoring and coaching evaluation all whereas providing sturdy third social gathering app help and battery life that may final for weeks versus days.

It would miss out on fascinating options like navigation help and never be wealthy in smartwatch options, however what’s there makes it a reasonably formidable choice for anybody that doesn’t need to break the financial institution for an amazing sports activities watch.

Design & construct

• Weighs 29-30g
• 42mm case solely
• Silicone and nylon band choices

The Coros Tempo 2 seems markedly completely different to the unique Tempo not simply in look but in addition in stature as nicely. Coros has dropped from a 43mm case right down to a smaller 42mm one. It’s nonetheless all polymer, however when paired up with the lighter nylon strap it weighs in round 29g-30g, making it lighter than the equally priced Garmin Forerunner 55 (37g). 

Mike Sawh

The strap paired up with that polymer case are 20mm sized ones, which use a pin mechanism to make eradicating them a fast course of. Whether or not you go along with the silicone or nylon strap choice, the value on the Tempo 2 stays the identical. When you go for silicone, you’ll get three case color choices as an alternative of the 2 you get going nylon. The silicone strap choice will get you blue metal, navy or white seems, whereas the nylon will get you simply the navy (pictured) and white choices.

In relation to interacting with the watch, Coros has ditched the 4 bodily button setup from the primary Tempo for its now extra acquainted single button and twisting dial button mixture. That dial permits you to scroll by way of screens emitting a small haptic vibration as you twist it. The only real bodily button is your manner to return a display, soar into the fast settings menu and may activate the backlight. Coros additionally features a night time mode, which can preserve the backlight on throughout exercise monitoring should you want that fixed illumination to take a look at these real-time stats.

Mike Sawh

Entrance and centre is a 1.2-inch, 240x 240 decision, all the time on reminiscence LCD display with Corning Glass providing some further safety. It’s not a touchscreen show so you possibly can’t swipe and faucet on it, however you do get some color in menu screens and watch faces, but it surely’s actually all about delivering sturdy viewing angles in shiny out of doors mild with out hogging an excessive amount of of the onboard energy and that’s one thing the Tempo 2 does provide.

Flip the watch over and also you’ll discover the optical sensor array, which may ship coronary heart charge, however misses out on the SpO2 monitoring that pricier Coros watches do pack. Beside that’s the charging port, the place Coros’ proprietary charging cable that appears quite a bit like a Garmin one, plugs in.

Coros does provide monitoring for pool and open water swimming right here and also you’re getting a design that carries a 5ATM water resistance ranking making it secure to be submerged in water as much as 50 metres depth. 

Health and sports activities monitoring

• Sturdy monitoring for runs and swims
• Good coronary heart charge monitoring efficiency 
• Companion app not the slickest

Coros watches have been designed with triathletes in thoughts so the corporate focuses on overlaying the working, biking, swimming and triathlon bases first, but in addition contains monitoring help for indoor exercises and different out of doors pursuits that may make it helpful outdoors of these core makes use of.

Urgent the digital dial button will get you into the exercise monitoring display the place you possibly can twist to scroll by way of supported actions. For every exercise you’ll have extra settings to tinker with. So for pool swims, you possibly can arrange distance and coronary heart charge alerts whereas runners can arrange interval coaching periods from the equal display.

Mike Sawh

The Tempo 2 makes use of a reasonably normal accelerometer sensor to trace actions for indoor exercises and might look to one of many 5 huge satellite tv for pc programs to trace out of doors exercise. It’s a single frequency setup, however with GPS, Glonass, Galileo, Beidou and QZSS programs supported, I discovered that it picked up a sign shortly and distance monitoring and core metrics together with tempo, elevation, break up occasions on the entire was very dependable in opposition to a Garmin watch. 

Coronary heart charge monitoring efficiency was surprisingly stable right here too, providing related common and most coronary heart charge readings up in opposition to a coronary heart charge monitor chest strap. The small design and good match appears to assist generate these good readings, but it surely wasn’t resistant to the serving up questionable information, primarily when upping the depth in exercises. Coros does provide the power to pair exterior sensors by way of ANT+ and Bluetooth and I had no issues pairing up a chest strap in my testing.

One factor you’re lacking out that runners and out of doors lovers is perhaps disenchanted by is the power to add routes, view maps or use the watch to navigate your manner round a location. This type of help is obtainable on the dearer Coros Apex and Vertix 2 watches, however clearly it’s a function that was sacrificed on the Tempo 2 little doubt to maintain the value down.

Mike Sawh

For coaching indoors, the Tempo 2 dished out dependable information for pool swims and for indoor bike and rowing periods. An enormous new addition is the energy coaching mode, which provides computerized rep counting by way of the included movement sensors whereas a muscle heatmap within the Coros companion app provides a reminder of simply how a lot time you’ve spent engaged on that higher or decrease physique. It’s not the primary watch to supply computerized rep counting, but it surely undoubtedly felt essentially the most dependable by way of the monitoring accuracy even when it did miss the odd rep right here and there. When you needed one thing to trace that energy coaching time, the Tempo 2 doesn’t do too dangerous a job.

Past monitoring, Coros does provide a lot on the coaching and evaluation entrance. Together with the power to construct exercises and coaching plans, it additionally contains new Evolab information insights, which delves into the realms of coaching impact, coaching load and assessing fatigue. There’s additionally running-centric insights like assessing your marathon degree, scoring your present working efficiency degree and predict ending occasions for 5k, 10k, half marathon and marathon distances. All of those insights are reliant on the monitoring and sensor information being dependable and whereas I’d say pair up a coronary heart charge monitor to get essentially the most dependable insights, options like marathon degree and the race predictor felt very in tune with our present coaching. 

With that accelerometer on board Coros does additionally provide the power to trace each day steps and might monitor sleep as nicely, breaking down sleep levels in a reasonably acquainted style. You may as well monitor coronary heart charge repeatedly and that features throughout that point you go to mattress. The exercise and sleep monitoring information felt good on the entire, although if these are the type of options you care about, you’ll discover richer help and insights on different sports activities watches and smartwatches.

Smartwatch options

• View notifications
• GoPro and Insta 360 cam management mode
• Suitable with Strava and Apple Well being 

Very similar to that 24/7 exercise monitoring, Coros doesn’t go huge on smartwatch options, specializing in providing someplace you possibly can view notifications out of your Android telephone or iPhone, set alarms, change up watch faces and use discover my telephone and watch modes. That’s about it although.

Mike Sawh

When you personal a GoPro or an Insta360 motion digicam, there’s help provided to take management of these motion cams out of your watch, so Coros is including the type of good performance it thinks will give it extra enchantment to out of doors lovers.

The Coros companion smartphone app is the place you possibly can actually dig into your stats, modify watch settings additional and arrange exercise and coaching plans. It isn’t the best-looking app on the market, however just about does the job in the case of wanting over your stats and altering settings. Knowledge syncs good and shortly post-workout and should you don’t need to spend a lot time within the Coros app, you possibly can share that information with a bunch of different apps. That features Strava, Apple Well being, Coaching Peaks, Adidas working and Stryd together with help for its exterior foot pod sensor. Knowledge fortunately syncs shortly to these third social gathering apps too when you’ve arrange these connections, which is good and easy to do.

Battery life and charging

• 20 days in each day use
• Sturdy GPS battery life for the value
• Helpful battery utilization mode

The excellent news is that in order for you a sports activities watch that you need to use to trace indoor and out of doors exercises often all through every week, the Tempo 2 greater than lives as much as that and has the capability to go longer.

Mike Sawh

It’s improved battery on all fronts on the primary Tempo, whether or not that’s in essentially the most correct monitoring mode, utilizing it day-to-day or choosing the UltraMax GPS mode, which widens the GPS sampling interval charge to ship larger battery numbers.

There isn’t a worrying drop-off in battery when utilizing it with that high GPS accuracy mode and it takes a small dent for indoor exercises as nicely. The standby efficiency is nice as nicely with little seemingly taking place within the background to quietly drain the battery. Coros additionally features a actually helpful battery Battery Utilization function that provides estimated battery life primarily based on utilization, and might let you know once you final charged the watch together with present battery drop-off since that final cost.

In relation to charging, Coros has successfully modelled its charging cable on Garmin’s one, which sits securely within the rear of the watch and can get you from 0-100% in below 2 hours. There’s no fast cost function and whereas it may not be the snappiest charger, its capability to carry battery basically actually makes up for it.

Worth and availability

The Coros Tempo 2 may not be essentially the most finances multisports watch choice, however at $199/£179, it nonetheless sits on the very reasonably priced finish of the market and is available in cheaper than lots of watches from rivals Garmin and Polar.

You should purchase it straight from Coros or REI within the US, and from Coros, Cotswold Outside, Decathlon, or Amazon within the UK.

To place issues into perspective, the entry degree Garmin Forerunner 55 is priced at $199.99/£149.99 whereas the Polar Pacer is available in at $199.95/£169.50. So it’s in and amongst Polar and Garmin’s most cost-effective new sports activities watches.

Verdict

The Coros Tempo 2 is a multisport watch that provides nice options for the value. Runners is perhaps the important thing focus right here, but it surely’s a watch that may also serve swimmers, cyclists and triathletes nicely and even covers indoor actions like energy coaching nicely too.

Crucially, it tracks these actions reliably and offers you the choice to enhance that accuracy by pairing up exterior sensors. The large factor lacking right here is any form of navigation and mapping help, which you’re going to get on pricier Coros watches, however should you can stay with out them, it’s a complete sports activities monitoring expertise total.

It isn’t a watch you seize for smartwatch options, but it surely does be sure to can hearth off your information off to huge identify third social gathering apps as an alternative, which suggests you possibly can spend much less time in a companion app that also seems like a piece in progress.

Whereas it’s barely dearer than Garmin’s very spectacular Forerunner 55, the additional cash you’re paying for the Tempo 2 will get you extra in each sports activities monitoring and battery departments.