Gorgeous Display, Beautiful Price: COROS Pace 4 Sport Watch Review

COROS has been playing catch-up to competitors for years. With the latest update to its flagship Pace line, the brand may have finally matched stride with the leaders.

That’s not to say that the Pace 4 represents the pinnacle of sports smartwatches. You’d have to pay three to four times the price to get something top-of-the-line. But most of us don’t need the best of the best.

Most of us just need a durable watch with reliable health and activity tracking, some decent navigation/GPS, and maybe some training help for the more serious athletes out there. Looking sexy ain’t too shabby, either.

The new Pace 4 offers a solid blend of these qualities, and at a price that’s far lower than I expected. I put the Pace 4 through its paces on long trail days, nighttime bike rides, and casual river hikes. It’s a solid watch design coated with a gorgeous display. There’s loads to love about this one, even when it lacks some top-shelf features found on pricier models.

In short: With the Pace 4, COROS adds an AMOLED display and other new features like voice notes and a flashlight — while keeping the price tag to a reasonable $250. The watch’s balance of features and price makes it a serious competitor to more expensive “name brands” like Garmin and Suunto. Beautiful, functional, and straight-up fun to use, the Pace 4 is a mid-tier sports watch that’s an attractive choice for first-time smartwatch buyers. It might even convert loyalists away from other brands, too.

COROS Pace 4 Review

It’s been 2 years since COROS released the Pace 3, a reliable, affordable design that soon became GearJunkie’s pick for Best Budget Fitness Watch in our guide to the Best Fitness Watches of 2025.

In general, the Pace 4 doesn’t deviate too much from the success of that model. Instead, it offers a few more reasons to strap it on and keep it there. The AMOLED display is the big add-on here — and it certainly makes a huge difference.

I’ve been testing the Pace 4 against the Apex 4, which has a lower-clarity MIP display, and the Garmin Instinct Crossover AMOLED, which balances the upgraded display with analog hands.

AMOLED displays just look awesome. They make it easier to quickly read and comprehend the complex data that’s now available on all these devices. Getting a better display on the Pace 4 while only raising the price $20 from the previous generation? That’s a pretty good deal, especially considering that Garmin didn’t hesitate to raise prices again this year, and by much larger margins.

In other words, COROS must have been listening to reviews like the one from my GJ colleague Nick Belcaster. He wrote in 2023 that the Pace 3 “ruined my love affair with high-end watches.” The Pace 4 adds to what Belcaster loved about the previous generation — without sacrificing any of its tried-and-true hardware.

AMOLED and Battery Life

Though I’ve been enjoying the COROS Apex 4, I have to admit that I miss the Pace 4’s AMOLED display. Of course, there’s a good reason the Apex 4 uses a MIP display — the battery lasts longer. Given that the Apex series is designed for longer activities in more remote areas, it makes sense to give it a more efficient display.

The Pace series, by comparison, aims for road runners and other activities closer to home and cell service. It’s a watch that’s perfect for most athletes, and only falls short once you’re aiming to do longer, multiday activities.

Despite sporting an AMOLED display that uses more battery, the Pace 4 still improves on battery life compared to the Pace 3 in almost every category. In gesture-based mode (when the watch only turns on the display when you look at it), you get 19 days on the Pace 4 — 4 more days than the Pace 3.

However, if you use the watch with the display always turned on, the Pace 4 battery life drops significantly compared to the Pace 3. You only get 6 days of life with the Pace 4, compared to 15 days on the Pace 3.

Navigation

Pace 4 has breadcrumb navigation, but no offline maps. That means you can get some help with directions. The breadcrumb-style navigation works just fine on streets — less so on trails. But for $50 more, you can get the Pace Pro, which does include that feature. This is likely a smart upsell strategy from COROS for those who want the additional navigation help.

But again, most people likely don’t need detailed turn-by-turn maps for daily workouts and neighborhood runs. Unless you want to expand into longer runs on unmarked trails, you likely don’t need the additional mapping available on the Pace Pro, Apex 4, or other, more expensive COROS models.

In general, I found navigation on the Pace 4 to be sufficient when using it on city bike rides and daily runs. The watch also served me decently well during trail runs around Stone Mountain Park. However, there were moments on Stone Mountain’s Cherokee Loop Trail when I wished I had the additional mapping available on the Apex 4.

That’s not surprising, though, given that the Apex is specifically designed for trail runners. There are lots of smartwatches out there now, so it’s important to understand how each model serves different purposes.

Pace 4 Sport Watch: Other New Features

COROS also introduced a couple of other new features on the Pace 4, with mixed results. For starters, a software update released with the watch includes a Flashlight function. However, this is essentially just an extra bright, all-white display on the watch.

It’s helpful, and I can see why COROS introduced it. Garmin has added a built-in torch to its watches in recent years, and it proved far more useful than I expected during testing of the Garmin Crossover Instinct AMOLED. While I applaud COROS for trying to keep up, its light just can’t compete in usefulness.

Another new addition is the ability to record voice notes. The Pace 4 includes a microphone, which allows for voice recording shortly after activities. Many athletes use voice notes to leave themselves reminders about how to improve. Once recorded, these voice notes are stored in the COROS app with the activity. They’re even transcribed for you, which is a nice addition.

I didn’t find myself using this feature too much, but I can see how it could be useful on longer trails. Notably, it’s also available on the Apex 4, where I imagine I’ll use it a bit more to remind myself about the complexities of tackling longer trails, like where to filter water or managing surprise obstacles like flooded trails or fallen trees.

What’s more notable than either of these updates? For me, the addition of media controls. Unlike the Pace 3, this newer model allows you to control music and media playing on your phone directly from the watch. That’s good news for any runner or cyclist who likes to keep listening without taking a break between songs or podcasts.

Health Tracking

I’m probably far less focused on health tracking metrics than many other smartwatch users. That being said, I have found the data on sleep and heart rate to be helpful in managing day-to-day life. The Pace 4 reliably clocked my sleep and presented the data in an easy-to-understand format. Same goes for the HRV, or heart rate variability.

Though we’re all aware to some degree of our stress and energy levels, there is something undeniably helpful about reminders that we actually have to rest if we want to get better. The Pace 4’s sleep-, heart rate-, and stress-tracking features are sufficiently accurate to provide a big picture of what’s happening with our bodies.

And with the super-clear AMOLED display, perusing the watch’s various health data and graphs can even feel kinda fun. COROS has come a long way in terms of the accuracy of this data. I’d say the brand is nearly as accurate as Garmin — and far more accurate than the many cheaper smartwatch options now available.

Testing Notes

So the Pace 4 isn’t a Garmin Fenix or even a COROS Vertix, the brand’s top-of-the-line fitness watch. The Pace 4 is meant for a broad audience, not the slim minority of athletes who need all the bells and whistles.

That comes through in the watch’s super slim, lightweight design. While the Pace 4 may not have the same mapping functionality as the Apex 4, it’s lighter and less bulky. And that’s pretty great when you’re wearing these watches most of the time.

In my testing, the Pace 4 really shone at night, literally and figuratively. The AMOLED’s brighter colors really pop in the darkness. I wore both the Pace 4 and Apex 4 on several runs and bike rides, and I found myself looking to the Pace 4 more frequently — despite the improved mapping available on the Apex.

But when tackling a 5-mile loop trail on Stone Mountain, where there are many possible paths and limited signage, the Apex 4’s maps proved far more helpful than the breadcrumbs available on the Pace. So if you’re a road runner or cyclist seeking personal bests on tried-and-true courses, the Pace 4 is a solid choice. But trail runners and more backcountry adventurers will probably want an upgrade.

Conclusion: Who’s It For?

If you’re looking for a solid sports watch for yourself or the athletic person in your family, the COROS Pace 4 won’t disappoint. Its battery life is better than Apple’s, its price is cheaper than Garmin’s, and the brand is clearly committed to improving its software at every opportunity.

While my colleague Nick Belcaster gave the Pace 3 a score of 6.5, I think this successor deserves a raise. With prices skyrocketing on nearly everything these days, it’s worth acknowledging a brand that’s giving more product with only a very small price increase. To be clear, the Pace 4 hasn’t improved from its predecessor in durability or navigation.

But most Pace 4 users will likely embrace the brighter display and improved software. For those looking for a general-use, midtier fitness watch that won’t empty your wallet, it’s hard to beat the Pace 4.