COROS Vertix - review

Introduction

GPS watches are now almost an indispensable piece of equipment for active people moving in the mountains. They record a lot of practical data about the activity - distance, elevation, pace of movement, etc. And just like GPS navigation in a car actively helps you move from point A to point B, GPS watches can also help with navigation during races, training or on a hike. Or they can help you safely return to the start of the route if conditions suddenly deteriorate (Back-To-Start function). Many people appreciate the fitness functions in regular use of the watch (number of steps taken or number of calories burned per day). Others use smart functions, when the watch notifies you of messages and calls on your smartphone. The uses are truly diverse.

When choosing the right GPS watch, I focus primarily on what is most important to me. Since I do endurance sports in the mountains, the battery life of the watch in GPS mode is one of the main criteria for me. This allows me to completely rely on the watch to be able to navigate me for several dozen hours and I don't have to think about the charging agenda at all. The accuracy and reliability of GPS is another important factor for me. During a race or training, I appreciate accurate information - what kilometer I am on, what altitude I am at, or how far I am from the nearest refreshment station at the race. And COROS builds on these two qualities - battery life and GPS recording accuracy. After reading many reviews and watching various videos, I decided to give the American brand COROS a chance and chose its flagship model - Vertix .

First impressions and handling

COROS Vertix is ​​impressive right from the start. It is not packed in a traditional box. It is delivered in a professional, waterproof Pelican case. This can then be used in a variety of ways. The activation of the watch is also interesting. There is no need to connect it with a cable to a computer on which I have installed some special software. After the first power-on and subsequent selection of the language, a QR code appears on the watch display. I scan it with the COROS app on my smartphone. The watch is thus activated and connected to my COROS account, which stores the entire history of activities and settings on the server (similar to the Garmin Connect service). Subsequent communication of the watch takes place only with the COROS application on the phone. That is, any adjustments to the watch, transfer of .gpx routes, software updates, etc. take place exclusively between the COROS app on the smartphone and the watch - via Bluetooth connection. No cables, no complicated transfers of .gpx files from the computer to the watch.

I have used Garmin Fenix ​​and Suunto 9 Baro in the past. The COROS Vertix is ​​in the same class of GPS watches. However, I would estimate that the Vertix is ​​about 20-30% smaller physically than competing models. And not just in size - but also in weight. The Vertix is ​​sturdy, but it doesn't feel like a dive alarm on the wrist. It doesn't protrude too much above the wrist and doesn't get caught when putting it on and taking it off. I like that.

Competing brands often charge a few hundred extra for premium materials such as titanium or sapphire glass. COROS doesn't mess around with this, so to speak, and the Vertix has sapphire glass with a special surface treatment (DLC - Diamond-Like-Coating) as standard, which further improves durability. The bezel around the display is made of titanium, as is the back cover. On quality mechanical watches, fastening individual parts to the watch body with screws is highly appreciated. This is exactly the construction method used in the COROS Vertix. The robust titanium back cover is attached to the body with screws. Similarly to the bezel on the front. These details also contribute to the water resistance of up to 15 ATM or 150 meters. Overall, the construction and materials used seem premium to me. I even suspect that the buckle on the easily replaceable silicone strap is also made of titanium (it does not react to magnets). It is not made of ordinary steel and certainly not plastic, as I experienced with the original replacement strap for the Suunto 9 Baro.

Another interesting feature of the COROS Vertix control is the Digital Crown. It is like a nostalgic, symbolic return to controlling traditional watches via the crown. However, the Digital Crown is firmly in the 21st century. It can handle up to three interactions - turning (moving up and down) and pressing to confirm a menu selection. This detail significantly simplifies control and saves time. I don't have to press several different buttons on both sides of the watch to perform an operation on the watch. The classic control of the watch via a button allows only one interaction - pressing. I had the opportunity to try the Digital Crown during the winter while skiing and it works perfectly, even when I was wearing gloves. When turning the Digital Crown, the watch vibrates clearly, so every interaction, every movement in the menu is clear and conscious. The upper button serves to illuminate the display. The lower button, in turn, serves to go back, or. to activate the Quick Menu.

All buttons and the Digital Crown are on only one side of the watch body. This offers its advantages. Like the Apple Watch, the COROS Vertix can be worn equally on the left (right-handed) or right hand (left-handed). This information can be specified in the settings menu and the watch display will adapt to it. Similarly, the direction of rotation of the Digital Crown can be set. Simply put - the watch adapts equally to both right-handed and left-handed people.

I'll add a comment about the design of the buttons. Before the COROS Vertix, I used the Suunto 9 Baro, whose buttons felt very inconspicuous to me when pressed. You had to press them quite deeply and there was no positive click at the end that would give me feedback that I had really pressed the button. With the COROS Vertix, the button pressing distance is very short, but with adequate stiffness and a very positive click. The Digital Crown is also very well designed - pleasantly stiff when pressed. It does not offer resistance when turned, so it can be controlled only by briefly sliding your finger across the surface of the Crown. Of course, accidental pressing of the side buttons and the Digital Crown can be prevented by locking the display. So there is no risk of me accidentally stopping my activity during training, or accidentally activating some function during activity or during normal use.

Finally, on the topic of buttons and controls, I would like to add an observation that I only realized when actively using the watch. Since all the buttons are on one side, I don't have to remove all layers of clothing in winter while skiing or running to get to the buttons. I just need to pull my clothes a little away from the right edge of the watch and I have access to all the buttons and therefore to the watch controls. A small detail, but in winter it makes a huge difference.

The display of the COROS Vertix model also allows touch control. However, COROS applied this control method very soberly and the desired action can always be performed both via the touch display and classically via the buttons. Let me give an example - the barometric pressure widget, which records the development of atmospheric pressure over time, can be viewed in detail both via the buttons and via touch interaction with the display. This confirms to me that COROS primarily focused on active people, athletes, when developing the watch. Operating the touch display in the rain, with wet or dirty fingers is always problematic. The user therefore has a choice of how he wants to control the watch.

Vertix is ​​the highest model in the COROS range. And this is also visible in the number of sensors that are in the watch. There is a barometric altimeter, thermometer, optical pulse sensor, accelerometer and gyroscope. And there is also a not quite common optical pulse oximeter, which is automatically activated at an altitude above 2500 m above sea level and which measures the amount of oxygen in the blood for safe acclimatization. Of course, the COROS Vertix also includes a GPS module. (COROS was one of the first manufacturers of GPS watches to start using the very energy-efficient Sony GPS module of the latest generation, which is de facto used by almost every manufacturer of GPS watches today.) It can communicate with satellites of the American GPS system, the Russian Glonass, and recently support for the Chinese BeiDou satellite system was also added, which expanded to the European continent in 2020. In the future, support for the European Galileo system should also come via a software update. I can define whether the watch should connect only to GPS satellites or to two different satellite systems (e.g. GPS + Glonass). I will go into more detail about GPS measurement below. For now, however, I can say that it stands out with two qualities - the speed of acquiring a GPS signal before activity and the accuracy of recording. These are extremely important advantages for outdoor activities.

Of course, COROS Vertix can connect to external devices via ANT+ or Bluetooth protocol. For example, to a chest strap for measuring heart rate, power meter, cadence meter or other additional devices used during running or cycling.

Main trump cards

Without a doubt, the biggest trump card of the COROS Vertix is ​​its battery life. No GPS watch on the market currently offers a battery life of up to 60 hours in second GPS mode. That is, the watch connects to GPS satellites every second to determine its position. At the same time, it also measures heart rate via the built-in heart rate monitor. In this mode, it can operate for up to 60 hours. That's 2.5 days to taste. If I still wanted to extend the battery life (e.g. during multi-day races), the battery life in UltraMax mode is up to 150 hours (more than 6 days). With normal use, the battery life is up to 45 days. My personal experience, as well as the experience of my friends, confirms that this value is very realistic. With almost daily training, I charge the watch approximately once every 2 weeks. In other words - when using the COROS Vertix model, a person almost forgets about the charging agenda. In practice, this great battery life also means that I don't have to lug around a charging cable and power bank for a long weekend in the mountains. Or worry about whether my watch with 10% battery will last me during a long workout. I also didn't notice any unusual battery behavior - for example, a sudden, unpredictable decrease with only a few percent of battery capacity left. Recently, COROS even added the option to turn off the built-in heart rate monitor during activity via a software update. Without this measurement, the watch will last more than 60 hours in GPS mode.

Another trump card of the COROS brand is the accuracy of the GPS recording. When I was looking into the details about the COROS brand, I learned that the parent company is a renowned manufacturer of GPS modules for the automotive industry. And it has been serving the Volkswagen group for a long time. Their competence in this area has also been confirmed in practice. Finding a GPS signal before starting an activity is fast - even in difficult terrain. The accuracy of the GPS recording is also excellent. I have never observed measurements and data that were completely "off". On the same training routes, the measurements were consistently the same.

I also take this opportunity to mention the behavior of the COROS brand. While using the Suunto 9 Baro, I received about two software updates in a year. Nothing groundbreaking, just fine-tuning of details. At COROS, they look at this matter differently. Software updates are released about once every month and a half. And these are not small adjustments or fine-tuning at all. The COROS Vertix watch has become much better in a few months than when I started using it. Many completely new features have been added to the watch through updates. I will mention at least a few: strength programs with recording exercises and repetitions, notifications about food and fluid intake during activity, training plans, native integration with the STRYD device (measurement of effort in watts during activity). Several people told me that such an approach is often not standard with other brands. Other brands seem to deliberately not add new features through software updates. Although the watch itself could tighten it up in terms of hardware. Perhaps they want to achieve this by making the user buy a new watch every few years and thus work on new functions. The COROS brand approach is different and reminds me more of Tesla's behavior. Tesla cars become better over time thanks to constant software improvements and the addition of new functions. In the few months of active use of the watch, I have the impression that COROS follows this new and modern principle. They sell the customer service, experience and (as cliché as it may sound) customer satisfaction is their top priority. This is how a love brand is built. And I think this is the only way COROS can break through among established players. I like this approach very much.

Using your watch during activities

COROS Vertix offers a wide range of outdoor and indoor sports activities to choose from. Each activity can be customized and adjusted to your needs. During an activity, there are 5 screens available and I can view 2 to 6 pieces of data on each screen. Moving between screens is done by turning the Digital Crown or via the touchscreen. Alerts during an activity are a given - e.g. a notification after covering a certain distance, pace, cadence, etc. The Nutrition Alert is also very useful. The watch will notify me of this, e.g. every 45 minutes. This is a very valuable feature for long training sessions or ultra runs.

During an activity in unfamiliar terrain and, for example, when conditions change suddenly, I can activate the Back-To-Start function. I know from hearsay that this function is appreciated by mountain guides in difficult terrain when conditions change suddenly. This way, they can safely and quickly return with their clients along the same route. Himalayan climbers or frequent visitors to the Alps use this function when returning from the summit, when crossing a glacier is often complicated and dangerous. The watch reliably navigates them along the identical route along the glacier when returning from the mountain. Also, today it is a given that I can download a .gpx file with the race route from the website of a sporting event. Or I can click on the route or hike myself on the map and easily transfer the .gpx file to COROS Vertix. Before starting the activity, I can choose the route I want the watch to navigate me along. After I deviate from the route by more than 20 meters and for more than 10 seconds, the watch will alert me and actively navigate me back to the route. This feature has saved me a lot of nerves and lost time during ultra races.

Even though the watch has navigation, there are no offline topographic maps in the COROS Vertix. And I can't even imagine how I would be able to clearly read a topo map on such a small display. I always have my mobile phone with me in the mountains and I can conveniently see my exact location on a detailed map on the smartphone display.

For ultra runners and generally active people who often train during twilight or in the dark, there is a great feature in the watch. The special Night Mode gently illuminates the display - so that I can read all the data on the display. However, thanks to hardware optimization, using this mode has only a minimal impact on battery life (only 10% higher energy consumption). Ultra races are often run all night long, and with this special Night Mode, I don't have to press the button on the watch to illuminate the display every time. The fact that this detail is really well thought out is also evidenced by the fact that it automatically turns off an hour after sunrise (or when the activity ends). So I don't have to worry that the watch's battery will continue to drain during the day.

During the activity itself, I also appreciate this small detail - excellent choice of font and readability of data from the display. The display is easy to read even in direct sunlight and in dim light. For those who have trouble with small letters, the font on the activity screen can even be enlarged.

Other useful features

COROS Vertix is ​​sufficiently prepared for everyday use outside of sports activities. In addition to the typical functions of a quality GPS watch, it also offers the most popular smart watch functions. These popular functions certainly include displaying notifications from a smartphone on the watch display. I can set which apps on my phone I should receive notifications from on the watch. And I can also set a special mode during everyday life and during an activity. For example, when performing an activity, I can disable notifications from communication apps, but I can enable notifications about phone calls. During training, when my phone is in my pocket, it is very practical to see information on the watch about who is calling me. And accordingly, decide whether the phone call is important or can wait.

In my experience, the Bluetooth connection between the watch and the COROS app on my phone is perfect. In fact, no matter how much I search in the watch menu, there is no way to turn off Bluetooth on the watch. The modern Bluetooth LE (Low Energy) protocol that the COROS Vertix uses not only has a minimal impact on battery life, but is also very reliable.

Of course, it measures the number of steps, calories burned, or stairs climbed per day. Those who like Apple's closed-circle theme (fulfilling daily goals) will find those here too.

Photographers or lovers of observing sunrises and sunsets will be delighted by the widget with detailed information about sunrise, sunset, dawn and dusk. Data geeks will be delighted by a clear and detailed interactive graph of the development of altitude, barometric pressure, temperature and heart rate over the last 6, 12 or 18 hours.

Other useful features of the watch in today's busy world include monitoring sleep quality. By wearing the watch at night, I can see how many minutes I spent in deep and light sleep. When moving in the mountains, the warning function for an approaching storm (in the event of a sudden change in air pressure) is useful. A stopwatch, countdown timer and (multiple) alarm are also here.

COROS app

All activities recorded by the watch are synchronized to the native COROS app, which is available for both Android and iOS. In the COROS app, my COROS account is linked to my watch. In the COROS account, I have the entire history of my activities stored on the server. If, for example, I change or lose my phone in the future, I just need to log in to my COROS account in the COROS app and the workouts will be automatically downloaded from the server to the new phone. Of course, automatic forwarding of workouts to third-party services, such as Strava or Training Peaks, is available.

The synchronization of activity data to the COROS app is extremely fast and reliable. It cannot be compared to what I experienced with the Suunto App. Even long, several-hour workouts are synchronized to the COROS app and Strava within 3-4 seconds.

There are several sections in the COROS app itself. A daily overview of activities and other fitness data (number of calories burned, stairs climbed, etc.). Next, there is a list of my activities organized in a weekly, monthly, annual overview. One of the things I missed in the Suunto app was the statistics of cumulative altitude meters climbed over a certain period. Despite communicating directly with Suunto, they were unable to add this elementary overview to the Suunto app. In the COROS app, this information is there and I can even assign cumulative altitude meters climbed to a specific activity (e.g. cycling or running). I can dig into the statistics quite a bit and create different combinations of reports - e.g. running pace during training depending on the changing profile of the course.

There is also a library of my routes. I can send routes downloaded from, for example, a sports event website to the COROS app as a .gpx file. Alternatively, I can save a route I have already completed as a .gpx route to the route library. Transferring a route from the COROS app to the watch takes 2-3 seconds.

In a recent software update, COROS also added the option to train according to structured workouts. On the COROS website, you can download ready-made workouts from renowned athletes. Alternatively, I can create my own workout. COROS perceives training quite holistically and also offers workouts that strengthen all parts of the body (e.g. core, thigh muscles). After starting a strength training workout, the watch actively navigates the user to which exercises and in what repetitions to perform. The gyroscope and other sensors can also record the number of these exercises (e.g. the number of push-ups).

A few weeks ago, COROS also added a calendar overview of training sessions. I personally don't use this feature. However, I can imagine that for a person training under the supervision of a trainer, this could be a useful feature. In the app, I can also change the watch faces (the way time is displayed), of which there are countless and everyone will find their own. I also define the number of data fields on each screen during an activity and the number of these screens - for each activity separately.

Room for improvement

Every product has its strengths and weaknesses. When choosing a product, it's important to know what's important to me and what's not. Also, to know how the brand responds to user feedback and how quickly it brings these improvements to real life.

Initial and occasional issues with altitude accuracy (variation in meters) were addressed very quickly by COROS via a software update. The issue was resolved by automatically calibrating the altitude in the background regardless of whether the watch was being used for an activity or in everyday life. I haven't had these issues since.

However, some problems persist. One of them is the slower reaction of the watch to changes in pace during activity. For example, if I start running faster sections during a running workout, the watch will start showing the change in pace after about 10-20 seconds. I wrote about this directly to COROS several times. The great thing is that they always wrote back to me within a few hours. They informed me that this is set up this way intentionally. They make sure that the watch has enough collected data on changes in speed of movement and only then is this data displayed on the display. Otherwise, COROS argues, the watch would often behave inconsistently and the data would “fly” from one extreme to another. I realize that this is a really specific problem. Many people train according to heart rate or according to the effort expended in watts (COROS can work with this metric natively). However, if someone trains according to pace, they must expect a slightly delayed response from the watch.

Another area in which COROS lags behind the competition is the absence of a web interface, in which you can conveniently drill into data on a computer screen. However, COROS has informed that it is working on this. For those who require it right now, the solution may be to forward activities to Strava, where detailed data can also be viewed in a computer browser. A minor drawback is also the absence of automatic display lighting when the watch displays a notification from a smartphone. I have not noticed any other major shortcomings in several months of intensive use of the watch.

Conclusion

Arthur C. Clarke defined his third law as follows: any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And this is how one could summarize the biggest advantage of the COROS Vertix GPS watch in one sentence - battery life. Up to 60 hours of second-by-second GPS recording is simply something magical. I know many people who had to recharge their watches with a power bank during ultra runs, just to have GPS navigation and performance recording available. Or their watch battery simply died after 10 hours. And so they were without navigation, without vital data - what kilometer of the track they were on, how many more they had to go, how many meters they still had to climb. Putting this whole agenda of worries behind them and focusing only on performance is something very liberating. COROS Vertix, so to speak, wiped the mustache of all competitors. No competing flagship model offers such fantastic battery life. And for that I applaud them. In this respect, they have brought a real innovation to endurance sports in the mountains. In practice, however, this advantage also has other implications. Not only me, but also my friends who use any COROS model, said that they completely forget about the whole charging agenda. They usually tell me that even with almost daily training, they charge the watch about twice a month. And my experience only confirms this.

If I had to highlight another quality of the COROS Vertix GPS watch, it would be the accuracy of the GPS recording and the speed of acquiring a GPS signal. I have experienced several situations where the COROS watch acquired a stable GPS signal several times faster than the flagships of competing brands.

And thirdly, I would mention the reliability of the operating system. In almost a year of use, the watch has never turned off, restarted, or froze. On the contrary, with each software update, the system has become even more agile and responsive.

Sure, COROS, as a newcomer to the GPS watch market, has a long way to go. Other players in the market have had decades to build a rich and robust ecosystem of services, features, and user base. But when I consider what COROS has managed to build in about two and a half years, I just have to applaud them. I like their flexibility, ability to listen to customer feedback, and quick implementation of changes and improvements through software updates.

In Slovakia, we have lived in a kind of status quo for decades, when we could choose from two or three brands that offered a competent and high-quality GPS sports watch. It is great to see that COROS has muddied the waters and offers relevant and advanced GPS watches. In other words - the competition has become tougher and we have more choice. Only we - the end users - can benefit from this equation. In many ways, COROS GPS watches have their own unique qualities, which will be appreciated especially by lovers of endurance sports in the mountains. My approximately 10-month experience of intensive use of the COROS Vertix model is very positive and I have my fingers crossed for this brand.