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WATCH REVIEW: Coros Pace 2

Run with a watch you won't notice on your wrist

If you are looking for an affordable GPS sports watch to handle all your weekly mileage, look no further than the Pace 2 from Coros. This watch is packed with easy-to-use features and geared toward athletes who are less engaged with mountaineering and focused on easily accessible activities like running, swimming and biking.

Photo: Coros

The Coros Pace 2 has all the core functionality you’d need from a running watch. The watch contains plenty of data fields for the user to choose from and supports ANT+ and Bluetooth accessories. Therefore, it’s easy to connect with a heart rate monitor, cadence foot pod or mobile device. A feature that makes the Pace 2 unique is having access to wrist-based running power output statistics at your fingertips (something few other brands offer, at least not at this very affordable price of $280).

After wearing this watch for three weeks of training, I’ve fallen in love with four specific features: its weight, track run mode, battery, and simplicity. 

Lightest watch on the market

The first thing you notice when you hold the Pace 2 is how light it is. It’s so light that half the time, I forget I am even wearing it. At 29 grams, the Pace 2 is the lightest model on the market. Users also have the option to make it even lighter by switching out the perforated silicone band for a nylon one.

Photo: Coros

When racing, I’m old-school–I want my wrist to be bare, or for any watch to feel as light as possible. You barely notice the Pace 2 on your wrist, and it feels incredibly light while racing or doing fast intervals.

Track the track distance

My favourite feature about the Pace 2 is the track run mode. This feature allows you to specify which track lane you’re running in on any given athletics track. After running one lap of the track, the GPS will pick up the distance for that specific lane and save it on the watch, so your splits and distances for track workouts will be as accurate as possible. To enable this feature, users should choose the Track Run option from the sports menu when they start a run.

Photo: Coros

Three weeks of battery life

According to Coros, the Pace 2 has approximately 20 days of battery life per charge. I started using this watch at full charge and I’ve only had to charge it once in three weeks of use, running every day. For someone who has previously had to charge a sports watch every day, this is a very attractive feature. Coros says the watch will run for 30 hours in GPS mode and up to 60 hours in battery-saver mode, which is a 20 per cent increase from the original Pace model.

Charging the watch to full battery from less than five per cent took less than an hour. 

Easy to use

Before wearing this watch, I’d never worn a Coros product, but this is one of the easiest watches to use, and I only had to take a peek at the instruction manual once. The setup is simple and only took about four minutes to learn about the two buttons and their basic functionality. The Coros app is also easy to use and follow, syncing automatically over WiFi without any issues during testing.

Photo: Coros

The watch face is large enough to easily read and interpret words or numbers during exercise. The crown dial and one-button design are simple and easy to navigate. The new Coros Digital Dial gives users a straightforward experience, with only one finger needed to navigate screens.

The verdict

This watch is perfect for anyone who loves to engage in common daily activities and wants to understand the simple statistics around their exercise. Although it is not packed with mind-blowing features, it has everything you need for serious training. I was pleasantly surprised by the battery life of this lightweight watch; usually, lighter watches tend to have a shorter battery life, but the Pace 2 packs all the power needed to guide you through your toughest weeks of training.

Of all the watches on the market, the Pace 2 offers amazing value for the price. It has similar features to many high-end models that cost twice as much. The Pace 2 is your basic, but very reliable and capable, sports watch that can help you get from point A to point B with plenty of battery life left.

You can order or check out more about the COROS Pace 2, here.

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