Since Coros released its first triathlon watch, the original Pace, I've been a fan of a brand that thinks outside of the box, keeps its prices low, and buttons up its software. It's a pretty high bar, and the new Coros Pace 4 lives up to it.
For the most part, since 2018, Coros has been less expensive pound-for-pound than most Garmin running watches. Coros hasn't had systemic issues like Polar and (early) Amazfit. Unlike Apple watches, Coros has really been targeted to triathletes too. And, until a few years ago, Coros has been well ahead of Suunto.
Coros has had some wins in the intervening years, most often with a Pace line that originated with a slightly clunky, slightly overpriced initial offering in 2028, but then struck gold two years later with a featherlight, well-priced Pace 2 ($200) and then a nicely updated Pace 3 in 2023 that still rang in under $250.
In the meantime, some of Coros' other lines have become superlatives (the Vertix line still has some of the highest battery life of any smartwatch), while others have languished (the Apex line still struggles to find a foothold in most places except the ultrarunning market). And most of its competition -- Suunto in particular -- has upgraded most, if not all, of its lines to include bright and beautiful AMOLED touchscreens with capable battery life.
While an AMOLED touchscreen may seem like a bit of a vanity feature, it vastly increases the screen visibility and mapping/navigation functionality - which has varying degrees of use for triathletes. And in recent years, better technology has helped AMOLED screens avoid a battery-life death sentence - which is, of course, crucial for busy triathletes.
Then last year, Coros finally caught up to Garmin, Polar, Apple, and Suunto by releasing its first AMOLED-screened triathlon-capable watch, the Pace Pro.
I liked the Pace Pro when it came out because it was such a tool. It wasn't pretty or fancy, and you definitely wouldn't wear it out at night (or probably even to the office), but it did its job super well, had a super fast, reliable screen, and when paired with the screen extender feature on the Coros smartphone app has been my go-to for deep-country, off-grid trail exploration (if you feel so called). And at $350, it was still a really good bargain.
Now Coros has released its second AMOLED-screened triathlon watch, the Pace 4, and at $250 is still a steal with only a few little issues.
I've used the entire Pace line, and loved all of them (except the Pace 1). Looking at the 2023 Pace 3 versus the 2025 Pace 4, there are a few major differences, but many are surprisingly minor.
* "Real world" settings include always-on display at lowest readable brightness in direct sun, one-two 30-60-minutes workout per day with most accurate GPS, no music, heart-rate variability tracking, and sleep tracking.
The very quick rundown if you don't have time to parse out the chart is this: The Pace 4 and Pace Pro have AMOLED screens (which are exponentially easier to see in daylight than the Pace 3's MIP screen), but far less battery life; the Pace Pro has offline mapping and a bigger screen; the Pace 4 has voice pins/logging. The rest of the differences are more or less inconsequential.
Like previous versions of the Pace line (after the Pace 1), there's not much to dislike about the Pace 4. It's light weight, incredibly easy to use, super accurate (for GPS and heart rate), and priced probably just a little lower than it could be.
It's a great value, and there's a good chance you won't be missing anything that can be found on most sub-$400 watches. If you needed to buy a new Pace 4 every two years, it'd still be a decent financial bargain -- with an environmental toll.
The new AMOLED touchscreen is remarkably crisp and fast, if not faster than watches two-to-three times the price. There's very little delay on raise-to-wake, and the screen refreshes as fast as many MIP displays.
While I did have more than a few accidental button presses while wearing the watch at night (however, the Pace 4 does a great job of sleep tracking and HRV reading), it could be a "me" thing. With the bright AMOLED screen it would light up my room like a Christmas tree every time.
Then, when you compare the Pace 4 to its competition in the sub-$300 price range, you're talking about watches like the new Suunto Run (which is a great watch), the Polar Pacer (which is not a great watch), and the Garmin Forerunner 165 (which is also decent).
The Pace 4 beats the above when it comes to out-of-the-box battery life and screen response and has that voice pin/logging function; the Run has a bigger screen, but substantially less battery life; the Garmin has the Garmin app/partner ecosystem and a host of features and customization options. All of them can control music from a smartphone, except, inexplicably, the Pace 4.
So with three watches so close in quarters, what makes the Pace 4 stand out? A few things:
First -- and this is the case for all Coros watches -- the extended screen feature allows a connected smartphone to solve the "no offline maps" problem. This is surprisingly helpful in many navigation situations, but does require you bring your phone and then take out to see your location and route on a map in real time. You can also use Coros smartwatches to effectively mirror your data onto the Coros Duro bike computer while in triathlon mode. This means you control everything from the smartwatch (hitting lap on swim exit, again upon heading out onto the bike, in transitions, and so on), but your bike data will automatically get "handed off" to the Duro on your bike.
Second, the voice pin/logging feature might seem like a novelty, unless you're someone -- like me -- who has their best ideas out while training but hates ruining the moment by whipping out your phone to take a note or voice memo.
Hold the pin button on the Pace 4, record your thoughts, then when you upload the run to your smartphone, it'll automatically transcribe the recording using AI (at a maximum of one minute per recording, but you can keep recording over and over if your thoughts are...long). And it's pretty darn accurate. You can also do the same thing when prompted at the end of your run as a "training log" item (again, limited to one minute, sadly).
The Pace 4 has an interesting use case profile as a special type of triathlon smartwatch for certain athletes. As I saw when I tested the new Coros Apex 4, which was somewhat underwhelming for me, I realized that I'm AMOLED spoiled and now struggle to use the dim, dull MIP screen; if you're like me, you'll love a $250 running watch with a really great AMOLED screen.
Also, if you're someone who doesn't actually, really use offline mapping and navigation very often, you probably won't miss it on the Pace 4. But couldn't the same be said for the Suunto Run and Forerunner 165? Not quite.
If you do end up needing serious navigation and offline mapping from time to time, you can still use Coros' unique extended screen with the Pace 4 and your smartphone for mapping needs. For me, there's very, very little use case when I'm so far off the grid that I need smartwatch offline mapping, but that I also wouldn't also bring a smartphone for safety/backup. So while the Pace 4 has breadcrumb nav, it's super bolstered by the companion smartphone app, which is very, very good (and provides a way larger/more useful screen than any smartwatch would anyway).
Finally, one of the features I thought was a total throwaway (the other being the new action button, which, in my opinion, is severely underutilized by not being very customizable), the voice pin/logging has actually been a game-changer for my training.
At first, I couldn't figure out why I'd ever want to use this feature, but being able to log my ideas, sights, and trail notes on the go, then have them automagically transcribed by AI without any extra steps has been a frictionless way for me to explore and brainstorm better while out training. Yes, the Apex 4 also does this - but without an AMOLED screen.
The Apex 4 does have a few other features that top the Pace 4, including much better battery life. But surprisingly I'll probably reach for this $250 running watch more often than the $400-plus one.
Bottom line: the Pace 4 is a well-rounded, well-featured running watch and easily my pick for the best triathlon watch under $400.