Running
By price band
Trail & outdoors
Multisport & gym
Compare & decode
The quick answer
Our pick: the one we'd buy
Opens Amazon.com · Prices change often
Garmin Forerunner 70When Garmin wins under $250: a coach on the wristUnder $250
Garmin Forerunner 570 – 47mmWins the middle pair: music and Garmin Pay for road racingUnder $600
COROS APEX 4Top pair, for trails and ultrasUnder $500Price bands, not prices
| Watch | Verdict | Who it suits | The catch | Price band and link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 COROS PACE 4Our pick | Our pick: the one we'd buy | Road and trail runners who train mostly outdoors and want multi-band GPS, maps and long race battery with no subscription | Wrist heart rate is doubted in cold weather and on fast pace changes | Under $250View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) |
| Garmin Forerunner 70Buy | When Garmin wins under $250: a coach on the wrist | Newer runners who want Garmin Coach plans and a readiness score, or who will log most of their miles on a treadmill this winter | No music, maps, payments or open-water mode, and its best GPS mode drains fast | Under $250View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) |
| Garmin Forerunner 570 – 47mmBuy | Wins the middle pair: music and Garmin Pay for road racing | Road marathoners and triathletes on familiar routes who want streaming music and never need a map | About 3.5 days a charge with the screen always on | Under $600View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) |
| COROS PACE 4 ProWait | Wait for the November battery fix | Runners who want the biggest, brightest COROS screen with maps | GPS battery measured well under its claim on launch firmware | Under $450 |
| COROS APEX 4Buy | Top pair, for trails and ultras | Trail and ultra runners who navigate for a day or more between charges | The MIP screen goes dull on map pages under trees and in low light | Under $500View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) |
 Garmin Forerunner 970Buy | Top pair, for marathon and triathlon training | Serious road runners and triathletes who want routable maps, a flashlight and Garmin's deepest training tools | About 4.5 days a charge with the screen always on | Under $800View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) |
Most COROS vs Garmin arguments are really about which logo you trust. Put the watches side by side at the same price and the argument gets shorter. Milewright's pick is the COROS PACE 4. In the under $250 band it gives you multi-band GPS that labs rate with the flagships, free topo maps since September 26, and a battery a marathon barely dents. The Garmin wins for one runner. If you're new and want the watch to plan your weeks, or your winter is all treadmill, buy the Forerunner 70. It puts Garmin Coach and a daily readiness score on your wrist for free. Past the under $250 band the pairs split differently, so we take them one at a time.
COROS PACE 4Under $250Opens Amazon.com · Prices change often
Price band: under $250
COROS prints 31 hours of dual-frequency GPS on its battery page. Then it does something most makers won't: it prints the lower always-on figure right beside it. That's how a spec sheet should read. DC Rainmaker clocked about 4%/h, the share of battery burned each hour, with dual-frequency on and the screen never dimming. That pace projects to about a day, though nobody has run one down in that mode. Either way, a four-hour marathon uses about a sixth of the tank. Day to day, testers got 4–5 days with the display always lit, and 10–14 if it only wakes when you lift your wrist.
The GPS is why it wins. Every lab found clean tracks, on trails and downtown streets alike. At 1.1 oz (32 g) on nylon, it's the lightest watch here, and it has triathlon and open-water modes.
The maps are new. Firmware V3.2008.0 added global topo maps on September 26, 2026. They don't route you, and the 1.2-inch screen is small for a map. Storage is tight too: on DC Rainmaker's watch, more than half the 4 GB was taken before he loaded a map. Still: maps, under $250. COROS's own FAQ still says it can't do full mapping, the rare maker page that undersells. Music is MP3s dragged over USB, with no Spotify.
The catch is wrist heart rate. Most reviewers who checked it against a strap were happy. The Quantified Scientist wasn't: on winter runs he thinks it counted his footfalls, not his pulse. Owners say much the same when it's cold or the pace jumps. If you do January intervals by heart rate, budget for a chest strap. For runners who train mostly outdoors, we'd buy it. PACE 3 owners should read our PACE 4 vs PACE 3 page.
COROS PACE 4Under $250Opens Amazon.com · Prices change often
Price band: under $250
On paper it's the weak link, with no multi-band at all. On the road it isn't. In DC Rainmaker's testing, its routes through trees, office towers and gravel were hard to tell from a multi-band Fenix 8 Pro's.
The battery is where the box flatters. Garmin claims 16 hours in its best GPS mode. TechRadar's one measured hour came in just shy of 10%/hour, projecting to roughly two-thirds of that. It's one sample, but the only one. That still covers any marathon, and it's well short of the PACE 4. Daily wear holds up: against Garmin's 5 days always-on, Tom's Guide got 6. DC Rainmaker reports the battery is user-replaceable, though Garmin hasn't published how. A battery you can change is worth more to us than any feature on this list.
What you're paying for is the coach. Garmin Coach adaptive plans, run/walk included, come free with a daily Training Readiness score. COROS has free plans but no readiness score. Treadmill runners have a second reason. One Northeast owner says his PACE 4's VO2 max stayed blank after months of indoor-only miles. That's one home's report, and nothing in the evidence contradicts it.
The catch is what's missing: no music or headphones, no Garmin Pay, no maps beyond breadcrumbs, no open-water mode. For a first watch or a treadmill winter, we'd buy it over the PACE 4. Our beginners' guide explains why. The older Forerunner 165, a band lower, lacks Training Readiness, so it isn't in this fight.
Garmin Forerunner 70Under $250Opens Amazon.com · Prices change often
This pair is lopsided for now, and the reason is a firmware date.
Price band: under $600
Garmin claims 14 hours of multi-band GPS for the 47mm, more than any marathon needs. Nobody has published a long multi-band run on this size, so that stays the maker's number. Tom's Guide put about 150 miles on this exact size, and its tracks and pulse readings stayed trustworthy throughout.
What it does that no COROS does is stream. Four services sync offline to it: Spotify, Amazon Music, Deezer and YouTube Music, each on its paid tier. The phone can sit out the long run. Apple Music isn't among them on any Garmin. You also get Garmin Pay and Training Readiness, and the manual says its triathlon mode can detect each leg itself. There are no maps, only breadcrumbs. It weighs 1.8 oz (50 g), which some owners notice most when they try to sleep in it.
The catch is the bright screen. Left on all day, it lasts 3.5 days, so you charge twice a week. Raise-to-wake stretches that past a week. For headphone racers who know their routes by heart, we'd buy it. It's the one to take home from this band. More in our Forerunner 570 review.
Garmin Forerunner 570 – 47mmUnder $600Opens Amazon.com · Prices change often
Price band: under $450
The spec sheet is lovely: a 1.47-inch, 3,500-nit AMOLED under sapphire, 32 GB for maps and a speaker for calls, at 1.5 oz (43 g). COROS claims 40 hours of dual-frequency GPS, and 30 hours with the screen always on.
On launch firmware, DC Rainmaker couldn't get near it. He projected under 20 hours that way, with 8% gone in a 90-minute run. COROS blamed GPS and sensor-scanning bugs and promised a November fix. As of October 30, the release notes show only the September 26 build. When a maker publishes 30 hours and the first measurement can't find 20, I'd want the corrective action before the purchase order. Everyday wear isn't the problem.
The call is wait. Until the fix ships and someone measures it, buy the PACE 4 for less, or the Forerunner 570 for music.
Trails and long days go one way. Roads and triathlons go the other.
Price band: under $500
The box promises 41 hours with dual-frequency tracking switched on. DC Rainmaker logged about 2%/h over a 14-hour mountain hike with navigation running, a burn that projects beyond that figure. It's a projection: no tester has drained one to zero in that mode. If that pace holds, a 100-miler fits on one charge. Daily wear is a separate result: Tom's Guide ran almost daily for 12 days and still had 34% left.
The topo maps carry trail names, fit in 32 GB and give turn-by-turn on loaded routes. Owners keep reporting they pan quickly, though they don't route you. What's missing hardly matters on a trail: no ANT+ sensors, no streaming, no wallet, no readiness score. COROS lists it at 2.3 oz (64 g) on the silicone band.
The catch is the screen. The always-on MIP display goes dull on map pages under thick trees, just when you want a map. For trail and ultra runners who navigate for a day or more between charges, we'd buy it. See our APEX 4 review, and check your longest day with the battery planner.
COROS APEX 4Under $500Opens Amazon.com · Prices change often
Price band: under $800
Garmin's box figure for multi-band GPS is 21 hours. Over a 10K race, screen lit the whole way, Tom's Guide logged 4.8%/hour, which projects to about 21 hours. That covers any marathon with plenty in reserve.
Navigation is the headline: routable maps and a real white and red LED flashlight. Around them sit an ECG app, Garmin Pay, streaming music and Running Tolerance, under sapphire at 2.0 oz (56 g). Maps draw slowly. Triathletes should know its open-water GPS trails Garmin's older watches.
The catch is the always-on screen again. At launch, DC Rainmaker got 2.5 days; after updates, Tom's Guide's six-month figure is 4.5 days. Several owners report about two weeks between charges. Most don't say how their screen is set, but raise-to-wake is the likely difference. For serious road runners and triathletes, we'd buy it. Already settled on Garmin and want one watch with everything on it? This is the one. It's also our pick for marathon training, with full detail in our Forerunner 970 review.
Garmin Forerunner 970Under $800Opens Amazon.com · Prices change often
Some did. In the weeks after COROS's mid-May firmware, a number of watches stopped working. Most were two to four years old, and the PACE 3, COROS's best seller, was hit hardest. COROS says all but a sliver of updates went through. On DC Rainmaker's arithmetic, that sliver is roughly 2,000 watches of about 2 million. A small rate, and a lot of unhappy runners.
The handling is what to weigh. First came an AI chatbot offering a discount on a new watch. Only after owners pushed back did COROS confirm, on June 17, 2026, that a watch killed by the update gets swapped for a working one. A maker that needs a Reddit uprising to honor its own watches has a process problem, not a hardware one. COROS's warranty page gives 2 years from activation. It covers Amazon purchases only from COROS's own Amazon store, so check the seller.
Garmin's 970 forum has a ghost-touch thread, where scrolls register as taps. It has 27,334 views and 160 replies. Some owners say a replacement fixed it, and Garmin is dealing with reports one at a time. Views tell you how many people looked, not how many watches failed. Neither brand publishes a failure rate. Garmin has shipped its own bad update too, in January 2025. No CPSC recall touches either brand's watches. None of this moves our call: for serious road runners and triathletes, we'd still buy the Forerunner 970.
Not for training. Garmin says existing features stay free, and no source we read found one moved behind Connect+. That optional plan is $6.99 a month or $69.99 a year in Garmin's announcement (read November 1, 2026). It mainly buys nutrition logging and AI insights. COROS has no paid tier in any source we read. The subscription you're likelier to pay is music: Spotify on a Garmin needs Premium.
| Watch | Band | Best-accuracy GPS claim | What testers measured | Maps | Music | Call |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COROS PACE 4View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) | under $250 | 31 h | about 4%/h, always-on | Topo since Sept 26, 2026; 4 GB | MP3 only | Buy |
| Garmin Forerunner 70View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) | under $250 | 16 h (single-band) | just shy of 10%/hour over one hour | Breadcrumbs only | None | Buy |
| Garmin Forerunner 570 (47mm)View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) | under $600 | 14 h | 3.5 days always-on; long GPS run not measured | Breadcrumbs only | Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, YouTube Music | Buy |
| COROS PACE 4 Pro | under $450 | 40 h (30 h always-on) | under 20 h projected, always-on, launch firmware | Topo, 32 GB | MP3 only | Wait |
| COROS APEX 4 (46mm)View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) | under $500 | 41 h | about 2%/h with navigation on | Topo, 32 GB | MP3 only | Buy |
| Garmin Forerunner 970View on Amazon (opens in a new tab) | under $800 | 21 h | 4.8%/hour, always-on | Routable, 32 GB | Spotify, Amazon, Deezer, YouTube Music | Buy |
Sensors: the APEX 4 and PACE 4 Pro pair Bluetooth sensors only, and COROS names only Bluetooth straps for the PACE 4. Garmin's 570 pairs ANT+ and Bluetooth power meters. The Forerunner 70 takes no power meter at all.
Our pick: the one we'd buy
Match the watches price for price and COROS gives you more of what decides a race day: multi-band GPS with maps, and far more battery than Garmin offers in the same band. Garmin gives you a better coach, better music and a wallet, and charges a band or two more for most of it. For most runners, the PACE 4 is the watch we'd buy. It's the cheapest way to stop thinking about your watch at mile 20.
COROS PACE 4Under $250Opens Amazon.com · Prices change often
| Watch | Source | Unit | Setting | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PACE 4 (standard, W336) | COROS battery page | Maker claim | Dual Frequency / All Systems | 31 h / 41 h, each with a lower always-on figure; 19 days daily |
| PACE 4 | DC Rainmaker | Review watch | Max (dual-frequency), always-on | about 4%/h (a projection, not a rundown); about 6 days always-on with about an hour of GPS a day |
| PACE 4 | Tom's Guide | Review watch | Always-on, daily multi-band runs | 4–5 days |
| PACE 4 | The Run Testers | Six months of racing and training | Always-on, sleep tracking | about 4.5 days; GPS near flawless incl. Paris Half and London Marathon vs FR970 |
| PACE 4 | TechRadar | Review watch | Raise-to-wake, a few workouts a week | 10–14 days |
| Forerunner 70 | Garmin manual | Maker claim | All-Systems / GPS-only / smartwatch | 16 h / 23 h / 13 days; 5 days always-on (DC Rainmaker quoting Garmin) |
| Forerunner 70 | TechRadar | Three weeks | Best GPS mode, about one hour | just shy of 10%/hour (one sample, brightness not stated) |
| Forerunner 70 | Tom's Guide | Two weeks, newer runner | Always-on | 6 days |
| Forerunner 70 | The Run Testers | Two runners | Always-on, daily runs | 4.5 days |
| Forerunner 70 | DC Rainmaker | Loaner plus retail unit | Single-band vs Fenix 8 Pro multi-band | Tracks virtually identical on trail, downtown and gravel |
PACE 4 heart rate: DC Rainmaker and Tom's Guide found it close to a chest strap, Tom's Guide noting spikes at starts and after pauses. The Run Testers saw it keep pace with a Forerunner 970 in races. The Quantified Scientist (Polar H10 reference, winter, video March 8, 2026) found running HR poor with suspected cadence lock, indoor cycling good, strength poor. The split is likely temperature, fit and individual wrists; it's open. COROS also holds a second FCC ID named PACE 4 (W335) whose difference isn't stated; no US listing seen carries it, and all evidence here is for the standard W336. The aluminum and Black Crystal editions are look-alikes and weren't used.
PACE 4 maps: Tom's Guide (November 2025), TechRadar (February 2026), The Run Testers (May 2026) and the coros.com FAQ say no offline maps; the September 26, 2026 firmware and COROS user guide say global landscape and topo maps. Firmware explains it. DC Rainmaker tested the September beta and saw slow map rotation; no review since the release.
PACE 4 training: DC Rainmaker notes the watch zeroes its weekly load figure each Monday. There's no readiness score; overnight HRV status stands in (Tom's Guide).
Forerunner 70 elevation: there's no barometer. Tom's Guide found climb data considerably lower than an Apple Watch SE 3 on a walk; DC Rainmaker saw only a few meters' difference on a trail run. No triathlon mode either. The indoor-only report comes from one r/Coros owner (October 4, 2026), unresolved.
| Watch | Source | Unit | Setting | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forerunner 570 (47mm) | Garmin manual | Maker claim | Multi-band / SatIQ / GPS-only / smartwatch | 14 h / 16 h / 18 h / 11 days; 8 h multi-band with music |
| Forerunner 570 (47mm) | Tom's Guide | 47mm | Always-on, daily runs | 3.5 days; no significant GPS or HR error over about 150 miles |
| Forerunner 570 (47mm) | Android Central | 47mm | Gesture display, 1–2 workouts a day | about 7.5 days |
| Forerunner 570, size not stated | Tom's Guide 10K | Size not stated | Multi-band, always-on | One 10K at a pace projecting past the 14 h claim; not this exact variant, so not used in the call |
| PACE 4 Pro (W337) | COROS battery page | Maker claim | Max / High / daily | 40 h (30 h always-on) / 60 h / 21 days |
| PACE 4 Pro | DC Rainmaker | Launch firmware V3.2008.0 | Max, always-on | under 20 h projected; 8% in a 90-minute run; 4–6 days daily with 1–2 h of GPS |
| PACE 4 Pro | Tom's Guide | 11 days of testing | Always-on, daily runs, most power-hungry GPS mode | over 7 days |
| PACE 4 Pro | Max Kelly | COROS-supplied, one runner | Half marathon, GPS mode not stated | 4.3%/h |
Forerunner 570 (47mm) extras from the manual: calls through a paired phone, the touchscreen switches off during swims, and Lock Device locks touch and buttons for a multisport activity. The flashlight only lights the screen. The 42mm Forerunner 570 is a different watch for battery (shorter claims) and its reviews weren't used. Forum owners of 570s of unstated size report headphone audio muting on software 18.29 and pauses once an activity starts; it appears Garmin-wide and headphone-dependent.
PACE 4 Pro: the bezel is titanium. COROS blamed bugs in the GPS subsystem and in cycling sensor scanning. Early owners report implausibly low workout heart rate, one heavily tattooed; no reference strap. T3 called the build plastic and said there's no music storage; COROS's spec page and DC Rainmaker's review both describe a titanium bezel and MP3 storage. No open-water test of the PACE 4 Pro had been published by November 1, 2026. COROS's help table lists it at 4 GB while its product page and two reviewers say 32 GB; the table is probably out of date.
| Watch | Source | Unit | Setting | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| APEX 4 (46mm, W541) | COROS battery page | Maker claim | Max / All Systems / Endurance / daily | 41 h / 53 h / 65 h / 24 days |
| APEX 4 (46mm) | DC Rainmaker | October 2025 firmware | Dual-frequency, navigation on, 14-hour mountain hike | about 2%/h, projecting past the 41 h claim (a projection, not a rundown) |
| APEX 4 (46mm) | Tom's Guide | About 100 miles vs Fenix 8 Pro and Ultra 3 | Running almost daily | 34% left after 12 days of daily wear; GPS excellent under trees |
| Forerunner 970 | Garmin manual | Maker claim | Multi-band / GPS-only / smartwatch | 21 h / 26 h / 15 days; 12 h multi-band with music |
| Forerunner 970 | Tom's Guide 10K | UKA-measured course | Multi-band, always-on, HRM600 | 4.8%/hour; 9.98 km logged |
| Forerunner 970 | DC Rainmaker | Launch firmware, June 2025 | Always-on, default brightness, 1–3 h GPS a day | 2.5 days |
| Forerunner 970 | Tom's Guide | Six months, after updates | Always-on below brightest | about 4.5 days |
| Forerunner 970 | Reddit owners | Six months to over a year of ownership | Display mostly unstated | about two weeks between charges |
APEX 4: music is MP3 only; phone music controls arrived in December 2025 firmware and Hill Alerts in March 2026. ANT+-only power meters won't pair. DC Rainmaker found the track turned to "connect the dots" with a route loaded, smoothing switchbacks even in Max mode, though total distance stayed close (October 2025 firmware). Other reviewers, who mostly ran without a route loaded, saw no issues. No release note through September 26, 2026 names a fix. Treeline Review saw phantom turn prompts on some imported routes. One of two Run Testers saw heart rate spike after stops. Inbound calls repeatedly failed to appear for DC Rainmaker. The 42mm APEX 4 has shorter battery claims and wasn't used.
Forerunner 970 maps: TopoActive maps are free; Outdoor Maps+ is a paid option, per the manual. DC Rainmaker found map rendering slow, helped by turning layers off. Open water: DC Rainmaker's sea swims (June 2025) were weaker than earlier Garmins and "getting worse" by September 2025; the5krunner's single calm lake lap came within 1.6%. Owners report pool lap-count errors that come and go by firmware. The 2.5-day and 4.5-day always-on figures differ by firmware and brightness. The owners' two-week reports mostly don't state the display setting; one owner's halving after turning on continuous pulse ox shows how much settings matter.
COROS bricking: COROS said nearly every update installed cleanly; DC Rainmaker's arithmetic puts the failures near 2,000 of about 2 million, and he estimates part of the Reddit pile-on came from fake accounts. COROS confirmed on June 17, 2026 that watches lost to the update would be replaced. Security: eight Bluetooth and account flaws found on a PACE 3, reported March 2025, disclosed June 2025; COROS was slow at first, then fixed them in firmware from July to September 2025. Garmin: a faulty update in January 2025, after which Garmin posted reset steps; the 970 ghost-touch thread at 27,334 views and 160 replies, with replacements fixing some units and not others. Garmin's US warranty term wasn't confirmed from a Garmin page. CPSC recall queries for COROS and Garmin returned none. Connect+ also covers text-message LiveTrack, per Garmin's announcement.
Research count: 8 models weighed; 4 maker manuals among them; across this site's research, 367 sources kept in full; 148 Reddit threads read, kept as the reader's summary, not in full.
How we research
Milewright doesn't test watches. It sets each maker's claim against what labs, reviewers and owners measured on the exact same model, and tells you which number to believe.
By price band
Trail & outdoors
Multisport & gym
Compare & decode
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