THE LATEST GEAR - TESTED BY EXPERTS
COROS PACE 3
£219 The latest Pace from the masters of battery life
Ladies and gentlemen, we have a confession to make. This tester is a technological idiot; a man who has yet to successfully transfer a GPX file or change a microwave’s clock. We long applied this digital dizziness to our tri training, until the arrival of the original Coros Pace in 2018. Here was a sports watch that was easy to use, lacked superfluous features and excelled in both its GPS pick-up and battery life.
That original Coros Pace is still giving us a host of metrics (VO2 max, running fitness, predicted race times…) today. But here comes the Pace 3, which, like 2020’s Pace 2 (£179), continues with a single button and dial but adds a touchscreen for swiping through the modes. You can pick a silicone or nylon strap, with early testing of the latter suggesting that heart-rate data is more reliable as it sits flusher on the skin to prevent light impacting readings (a chest strap is still the most reliable HR guide, however). What’s less clear, however, is when that nylon starts to smell like our trusty tri-suit…
The 30g weight (the equivalent of two compact discs) and small 4.19cm size (1.2” display) is barely noticeable on the wrist, while Coros again blows the competition away in the battery life stakes, with 38hrs in GPS activity mode and 30 days in normal tracking mode. Ultra triathletes take note.
The LCD screen is adequate in terms of display and brightness, but there’s an array of fun faces you can choose from on the app, including doughnut-themed backdrops. Custom data screens are available, too. Again, there’s no music streaming, but both MP3 playback and an on-device 4GB music storage are now present. Worth noting is that Coros only uses Bluetooth and not ANT+.
The Pace 3 lacks maps on the watch screen, but it’ll offer turn-by-turn instructions and breadcrumb navigation if you have your smartphone with you. You can also create routes on the app, which isn’t the most intuitive and struggles when planning trail runs. There are now 20 sport profiles, again including triathlon and swim, bike and run sessions both indoor and out, although sadly there’s still no MTB option. Swim metrics include stroke rate data and a SWOLF score; running has stride length, cadence and more (the Coros Pod offers further data for £100); and training plans can be uploaded from the brand’s website.
If you’re already happily embedded in the Garmin, Polar or Wahoo ecosystems (Coros doesn’t make a bike computer), for example, then it’s admittedly hard to make the
