COROS Apex Pro - review

Introduction

We all watch him intently. Tomáš – also known on the Slovak ultra scene under the nickname Kaktus – sits on a camping chair, covered with a blanket, and is pushing warm soup into himself from a plastic plate. With force and resistance. He is on a 160 km ultra run course across the harsh Scottish countryside . He has been running all night and is feeling like crap. Suddenly he starts to pull himself up. We have all been kind of expecting this. We lift him from the chair. In short order he throws down several hearty sabers. Everything he has crammed in – fluids, energy – is out. There is nothing left in him. Even though he is on a total, he lifts and prepares to leave the refreshment stand. A chill runs down our spines. Before that - in a semi-delirium - he complicatedly unhooks his GPS watch from his wrist, attaches a charging cable clip to it, which is attached to a small power bank, which he slips under the twisted buff around his wrist, and puts the watch back on his hand. I understand him. It's worth it for him to hold back like this. He wants the watch's battery to last him during the more than 15-hour race and to have important information at his disposal, such as what kilometer he is at, how many kilometers he has to go to the nearest refreshment station, how many kilometers to the finish line, how many meters of elevation he has already climbed, how many more he has to climb. Any little thing in ultra running that we can put aside, that we don't have to mentally scrap, that we don't have to deal with, helps immensely.

A few months later, on an October evening, I am sitting at the finish line of a Slovak ultra run . Doped up on caffeine from gels, I can't sleep and I listen to the stories of other runners who finished. Some say that they did not record the race route on their watch as a precaution - just so as not to risk the watch battery running out three quarters of the way through the run. They describe where they got lost, how many kilometers they involuntarily walked, how much time they lost and how much nerves this mistake cost them. They gave up on a very helpful tool that modern GPS watches offer - recording the route and navigation, which warns us when we deviate from the route, or shows the direction of the route. Similar to when we are guided by GPS navigation in a car. Others packed their watches in a backpack halfway through the race because the battery ran out and their watches were useless.

Even when I talk to an ordinary person who doesn't run ultras, somehow intuitively most confirm that battery life is one of the most important criteria for them when choosing a GPS watch for the mountains or for sports activities.

The common theme of these mini stories is the battery life of GPS watches. The vision of a weekend trip in the mountains, where in the evenings we have to think about cables, power banks and charging, is not attractive. We expect more from GPS watches nowadays – independence, autonomy, excellent battery life. In ultra running, this is one of the most important qualities when choosing a GPS watch. A device that can measure the route, provide vital data and navigate without any charging during 20-40 hours of activity is the holy grail.

COROS - a new player on the market

It was on this wave that the GPS watch of the American brand COROS caught my attention. At first, I was very skeptical - how can a newcomer on the market bring something new, interesting, revolutionary? Especially when this market is dominated by two strong players with decades of experience. However, when in the summer of 2018, American elite runners Hayden Hawks and Tim Tollefson became COROS brand ambassadors and used the Apex model with a 35-hour battery life at the legendary UTMB in Chamonix, I paid attention. Later, Sage Canaday and David Laney joined these famous names in the ultra world. COROS launched other models on the market - for example , the Vertix with an incredible battery life of up to 60 hours in a second-by-second GPS recording. I became more interested in this brand. I found out that the COROS brand is owned by the Chinese group YF Tech, which has been manufacturing and supplying GPS modules to cars for decades - especially for the Volkswagen group. They apparently have plenty of experience in developing and manufacturing GPS devices.

In the fall of 2019, several models were recognized in respected periodicals and received prestigious awards. For example, the COROS Apex model received the prestigious Editor's Choice 2019 award in Runner's World magazine. It particularly highlighted the excellent battery life of 35 hours in second-by-second GPS recording and the accuracy of GPS recording. The renowned test portal Outdoor Gear Lab evaluated the COROS Apex model as the best GPS watch for running and training - Editor's Choice 2019. The COROS Vertix model, in turn, was named the best watch with an altimeter for 2019. In reviews, real users highlighted the very fast acquisition of the GPS signal, the accuracy of GPS recording even in difficult terrain, and the standard use of premium materials. However, for me, the biggest draw was the excellent battery life. I was also impressed by the use of only premium durable materials - titanium and sapphire. I decided on the Apex Pro model and I bring my first impressions of use.

First impressions – startup mindset

I'm immediately confused after unpacking the watch. In the past, I've used the Garmin fēnix 3 and Suunto 9 Baro. I subconsciously expect that a GPS watch with good battery life must be relatively large, robust - with a sufficiently large battery. However, in front of me are the Apex Pro, which are an estimated 40% physically smaller than competing models from other brands. Despite this, the Apex Pro offers up to 40 hours of battery life in a second GPS recording. That's quite a bit more than, for example, the Suunto 9 Baro with approximately 33 hours of battery life. When I hold the Apex Pro in my hand, I shake my head in disbelief again. It's very light, which I'm used to. Only 59 grams including the strap. The lightness is also achieved thanks to the titanium bezel. The display glass is made of sapphire, which is harder only than diamond. With competing brands, we usually have to pay a few hundred euros extra for premium materials. With COROS, it's standard - only premium and durable materials. The watch doesn't feel like a tank to me, something I notice all day long. wrist. I realize what a difference 25 grams less makes in the perception of size and weight (Suunto 9 Baro weighs 81 grams).

I turn on the watch and a QR code appears on the screen. I scan it with the COROS app on my phone. And that's it. No cables, no software installation on the computer, no lengthy software update on the watch. In the past, I struggled with connecting the watch via Bluetooth to the app. It was almost never the first time, it was often lengthy. I am pleased to welcome the simplicity and speed of connecting the watch to the app. This is one of the things that several reviews have mentioned. Established players on the market carry the burden of the past with them - GPS watches were connected via cable to a dedicated app on the computer. In other words, they are often burdened by the past and less flexible in pushing boundaries, introducing new technologies. On the contrary, newcomers are not burdened by such a past and can fully build on the new, modern architecture.

This view was confirmed a few days later when COROS contacted me via email with an offer to test the beta software, which focused on fine-tuning the last details and collecting feedback from real users. The stable version was released at the end of December 2019. However, I was able to test the beta version on my watch for almost 3 weeks and try out new winter sports - skiing, cross-country skiing and alpine skiing. And the fact that they know how to listen to feedback from real users was confirmed a few days after the release of the final version of the software, when they responded, for example, on Instagram to comments from ordinary people and assured that they would include suggestions for changes in the next update. Speaking of updates - they are very active and a new version of the software is released approximately every month.

All these first impressions, flexibility and the ability to be open to feedback, remind me very much of the attitude of a beginner – a startup mindset – who has to try very hard to break through in a strong competition. A person in such a position has to try twice as hard, has to be flexible and above all has to bring something innovative to the market. I have exactly this feeling about COROS and I like it very much.

Usage

Before buying, I was interested in one thing about the COROS Apex Pro. The unique control via the digital crown, which COROS calls the Digital Knob. Of course, the Apple Watch has been using this method of control for years. However, it is not very common in sports outdoor GPS watches. It is a symbolic return to the classic rotating crown on a wristwatch. The Digital Knob offers two functions - turning (moving up and down in the menu) and pressing the crown at the same time, which confirms, diving into the menu. This is a fundamental difference compared to the classic button, which can only perform one function at a time. On the one hand, it reduces the need for multiple buttons on the watch and at the same time it allows for very intuitive and easy control. The Digital Knob is designed to be operated even with gloves. When turning and pressing the crown, the watch creates a very pleasant haptic response. I tested the digital rotating crown on a glacier in Austria, while skiing, with gloves on my hands, and it works without any problems.

In addition to the usual sensors such as an optical heart rate sensor, barometer, accelerometer, compass, gyroscope, thermometer, and connection to other devices via the universal ANT+ protocol, COROS Apex Pro also includes a unique sensor - an optical pulse oximeter. At altitudes above 2500 meters, this sensor measures the amount of oxygen in the blood and thus monitors the course of the acclimatization process. It is a vital tool for safe progress to higher altitudes - during acclimatization.

Many useful functions even for the average person

COROS Apex Pro offers a wide range of sports activities to choose from. For each of them, one of five screens can be configured in the app, and each screen has three to six fields that the user can freely select. The whole process is very simple and fast.

Of course, you can upload a route (hike, race, etc.) to the watch and the watch will actively navigate or warn you when you deviate from the route. Also very useful is the preview of the altitude and distance profile of the route and the indication of our current position, how many meters of altitude we have already climbed, how many kilometers we have already traveled and how much we have left to the destination. When performing these operations, you can use the digital rotating crown (e.g., with a recorded route, turning the crown will give you a larger preview, or zoom in on the route - zoom out and zoom in) and at the same time the touch screen (e.g., with the aforementioned route, we can move it right, left, up and down). When navigating, I will also mention that it allows navigation - returning to the beginning (back to start).

Recording a route or hike to a watch with such good battery life is very practical in the mountains - on hikes, treks, weekend trips. We don't have to check our position on the map on our smartphone every time - we can save it for taking pictures or for important phone calls in case of an emergency or unforeseen situation. We can also record a route to the watch from our smartphone - we don't need a computer for that. We export the prepared route as a GPX record, which can be sent wirelessly via the COROS app to the watch in a few seconds.

In today's busy world, the sleep quality monitoring function is also appreciated. The watch monitors our heart rate on our wrist while we sleep. In the app, we can then view detailed data - individual sleep cycles (light, deep sleep).

The aforementioned heart rate monitoring via the built-in optical heart rate sensor can inform us very precisely about the effort expended on a hike. This way, we can stay informed in the aerobic zone. Exceeding it causes excessive fatigue, which we often perceive as "muscle soreness" the next day.

Very accurate GPS recording

Acquiring a GPS signal before starting an activity is very fast and the user has the option to choose between connecting to GPS, GPS + Glonass or GPS + Beidou satellites. The Chinese Beidou system is expected to launch coverage in Europe in 2020 and it is good to know that the watch is ready for this standard as well.

The transfer of completed activities between the watch and the app on the phone is done via Bluetooth. Data transfer is extremely fast and reliable. From my own experience, the entire transfer of a 2-3 hour workout to the app and also to Strava takes 10-15 seconds. It is a very pleasant change after the not-so-great experience with the Suunto 9 Baro. Speaking of Bluetooth – it never turns off, it is always on. I still can't figure out how they achieved such a good battery life, which is physically shorter than that of the competition and, for example, the screen is always on (it doesn't turn off in the absence of movement), or Bluetooth is always on. In competing products, turning off these functions or connections is not uncommon, in an attempt to save battery as much as possible.

For those who prefer notifications on their watch about incoming messages or calls, COROS Apex Pro of course supports this. It is also possible to selectively define which communication services/apps should notify us and also whether this should happen during the sports activity itself.

The fact that the watch is hardware-optimized especially for endurance sports is also evidenced by the fact that a special mode called simply Night Mode was activated/added in a recent software update. The screen is continuously and sufficiently backlit so that the data on the screen can be read, but at the same time so that it has a minimal impact on battery life. For ultra runs, which often run all night, this is a very clever trick.

Summary

I could continue listing and describing other features, such as data on the suggested recovery time between workouts, a weekly overview of activities in the app, and also data on the number of meters climbed, which are missing in the Suunto App, for example (despite several communications with the Suunto App developers and the proposal to display this elementary data). Or, for example, the display of the number of satellites above us at a given moment and the quality of the connection with each of them. However, given my limited experience with the COROS Apex Pro GPS watch, I do not have the ambition to provide an exhaustive review. Rather, I would like to describe my first impressions and point out the main advantages of this newcomer to the market. (You can find more observations in the photo descriptions in the photo gallery.)

My experience so far is more than positive and many of the gadgets pleasantly surprised me. It is great to see that someone new has the ambition to enter the GPS watch market, where it may seem that the cards have already been dealt. Someone who, so to speak, throws the gauntlet into the ring to strong players such as Garmin or Suunto. The end user, the average person, can significantly benefit from such a competition. It seems that the American brand COROS is fully aware of what it has to bring to this game in order to be able to attract and win the hearts of athletes. I am very impressed by their flexibility, dynamism, and listening to feedback from TOP athletes and ordinary users.

Without a doubt, the biggest advantage of the COROS GPS watch is its unbeatable battery life. Even established players don't offer 60 hours of battery life in second-by-second GPS recording, as is the case with the Vertix model. And even 40 hours in the case of the Apex Pro, which I tested, is not a given.

Conclusion

Industrial design legend Dieter Rams defined good design as almost the absence of design – less is more, focusing only on the essentials. It is inspiring to observe that the COROS brand managed, despite the certainly great temptation, to say no a thousand times and not purposefully cram a million (often unnecessary) functions into the watch. Despite this, they focused hard on finding their specific place, their own niche, and thus serve a specific group of athletes who live mainly through endurance sports and can appreciate qualities such as battery life and GPS recording accuracy. And at the same time be convincing in this domain - to bring real solutions for real users and their real situations. Through hardware and software tuning, through fast and reliable GPS signal acquisition, accurate GPS recording, more than excellent battery life and many other details, I think they succeeded.

I can forgive them for the sometimes exaggerated taste of the graphical display of icons in the menu, or other elements that perhaps point to Chinese roots, for a European. Or the occasional inaccuracy of the altitude data before training, which can be solved with about a 15-second altitude calibration, and which I am sure they will fine-tune with the next software update.

The sum of my positive experiences far outweigh these few shortcomings. I look forward to continuing to use the COROS Apex Pro GPS watch for mountain sports.