WHAT'S NEW

Coros

PACE 2 GPS PREMIUM SPORT WATCH 42 mm, available in dark navy or white, with nylon or silicone band $280

The original Coros Pace watch, introduced in 2018, was an affordable, capable and easy-to-use multisport GPS watch with great battery life. The new Pace 2 (the upstart brand’s first hardware update) is still highly affordable, and it’s significantly lighter, more powerful and has even longer battery life than before. And it’s still very easy to use – something that’s valued as much by veteran marathoners as by those just getting into running.

There’s a new backlight for outdoor use at night, and instead of a four-button system, the Pace 2 has graduated to the single-button-plus-digital-dial system typical of recent smartwatch models. At only 29 grams, it claims to be the lightest smartwatch on the market, yet its processor is one-and-a-half times as powerful as the original Pace’s and it can hold four times as much data. Integration with the Stryd power meter is a new feature, and you can connect to peripherals (such as a chest strap for more accurate heart rate monitoring) via Bluetooth and ANT+. The improved Custom Training mode lets you create interval workouts easily, and the new Strength activity mode can sense your reps when working out in the gym. For navigation, it uses GPS, GLONASS and BeiDou (with Galileo possibly coming in a future update).

The Pace 2 offers an impressive 30 hours of battery life in full GPS mode (or twice that in UltraMax mode), almost three weeks of regular non-GPS use and 40 days of standby time. Charging takes about two hours.

The Pace 2 also offers optical heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, barometric altimeter, magnetic compass, thermometer, left/right balance, accelerometer and gyroscope. Plus, it’s waterproof to 50 metres. Available at coros.com and via select retailers.— CR