COROS launched the PACE 4 Pro on Tuesday September 22nd, giving runners its largest watch screen to date, a titanium bezel, sapphire glass and a claimed 60 hours of GPS recording. It costs €449 in Europe and £389 in the UK. The obvious question for runners is what they get for that money when the standard PACE 4 starts at €269.
A Big Screen on a Light Watch
The PACE 4 Pro has a 1.47 inch AMOLED screen with a claimed peak brightness of 3,500 nits. The case measures 47.6 mm across and weighs 43 g with a nylon strap, or 51 g with a silicone strap. A titanium bezel and sapphire glass give it more durable materials than the standard PACE 4. It is a sizeable watch on paper, so the fit on smaller wrists is something a proper road test would need to assess. COROS publishes the full specifications here.
The extra screen space could be useful when checking pace during an interval session or following a route without stopping to squint at a map. The watch has 32 GB of storage for offline maps and music, and the maps include street names, trail names and contour lines. It supports directions along routes prepared in the COROS app.
What Does 60 Hours of GPS Actually Mean?
That headline figure comes with a qualification. COROS estimates 60 hours in High GPS mode, falling to 40 hours in Max dual frequency mode. Keep the screen on throughout an activity and those figures fall to 45 and 30 hours respectively. For everyday use, COROS claims up to 21 days, or seven days with the screen always on. Music, navigation and other settings can change the result. Those figures come from COROS battery specifications, rather than our own testing.
For marathon training, even the 40 hour estimate in the more demanding GPS setting leaves considerable room for long runs and race day. The more useful question is how often it needs charging through an ordinary week of training, sleep tracking and daily wear.
The €180 Question
The standard PACE 4 has a smaller 1.2 inch screen, weighs 32 g with its nylon strap and offers a claimed 41 hours in High GPS mode. Crucially, COROS added offline maps to the PACE 4 this month, although that feature is still in beta. Maps alone are therefore no longer a reason to pay the extra €180.
The Pro makes its case with a larger display, more storage, longer battery life and tougher materials. Those will matter most to runners who use navigation often, want more information visible at a glance or need longer recording time for ultras and other lengthy outings. Someone who mainly runs familiar roads and wants a light watch for pacing and training data has a strong reason to look at the cheaper PACE 4 first.
There are limits at this price. The PACE 4 Pro has no contactless payments, and offline music requires files stored on the watch rather than a Spotify download. Its maps can guide you along a planned route, but they cannot calculate a fresh route on the watch in the way some Garmin models can. These are among the points raised in an early hands on test by Tom's Guide.
That reviewer reported accurate GPS tracks and heart rate readings close to a chest strap across 11 days of use. It is an encouraging early result, though a firm verdict on comfort, reliability and battery life calls for longer testing. On specifications alone, the PACE 4 Pro is a serious option for runners prepared to pay for its screen, build and endurance. The standard PACE 4 makes the buying decision more interesting than the Pro's impressive numbers might suggest.
