Coros Apex 2 Pro review: Super light, sporty, but not flash

Once seen as a more affordable and basic alternative to Garmin, COROS is starting to carve out a niche within the market of excellent GPS running watches as the no-nonsense ‘tool watch’ brand for serious athletes and adventurers. This perception might be helped by the fact that the APEX 2 Pro is endorsed by mountain running legend Kilian Jornet.

This watch’s main USP is its battery life, which is up there with the best of them: 75 hours in standard GPS mode, 45 hours with all satellite systems active, and 26 hours in dual-frequency mode. In daily use, it can last up to 30 days on a single charge.

Constructed with a titanium bezel and sapphire crystal, it feels durable yet lightweight, weighing a scant 53g with its flexible nylon-velcro strap.

The watch is thicker than some rivals though, with a more utilitarian and slightly less premium feel. But the two-button, rotating crown interface is very easy to use.

While the always-on LCD screen is functional, it’s not as crisp or bright as the latest AMOLED or Memory-in-Pixel (MiP) displays. For navigation, the Apex 2 Pro includes free global offline maps and supports GPX route imports via the Coros app or third-party apps such as Komoot.

You get a host of fitness tracking metrics, indicating training load and recovery, as well as everyday health and sleep analysis, and personal race training plans. The watch also features a built-in music player, but it only supports MP3 files and doesn’t integrate with streaming apps like Spotify (on the plus side, this means it works offline and saves battery life).

Overall, the Coros Apex 2 Pro still has plenty to recommend it, especially if your priorities are long battery life, a user-friendly app and interface, and access to plenty of fitness-focused data.

Design and display

The watch’s overall design is pretty much unchanged from the original Apex Pro, though this model has a titanium bezel and a sapphire crystal for improved durability and scratch-resistance.

It’s water resistant to 5 ATM or 50m, which is less than some rivals but sufficient for most users (and the watch’s activity modes include whitewater rafting and open water swimming, so it’s clearly intended to survive a dunking).

Whether you like the rounded case is a matter of personal taste – it’s inoffensive but perhaps a bit bland compared to the stylish designs of Suunto, for example. Nor does it feel quite as premium when it comes to overall build quality – but then, this is a watch with a competitive price point, so something’s gotta give. And the short lugs ensure it is very wearable, even for slimmer wrists.

The Apex 2 Pro has a 260 x 260px LCD display. This is lower resolution than most high-end competitors. Still, it works pretty well outdoors, even in bright sunlight.

However, it has a limited colour palette and is nowhere near as crisp or vivid as watches with the latest AMOLED displays or even most MiP (memory-in-pixel) screens.

There is a new watch face graphic specific to this model, which looks clean and uncluttered whilst still giving you plenty of useful info at a glance.

However, you can pick from 9 alternative styles that are all pre-loaded onto the watch, with the ability to further customise the look by selecting from various colourways. Style-wise, it’s basic stuff compared to that offered by Garmin or Suunto, but it does the job.

Comfort

The Apex 2 Pro has a mid-size case for a smartwatch, measuring 46.5mm in diameter. It is fairly thick, but the rounded, pebble-like design means it doesn’t feel too bulky or obtrusive. It’s not quite as light as dedicated running watches like the Suunto Race S or the Garmin Forerunner 965, but it’s comparable to multisport rivals like the Garmin Fenix series.

The supplied nylon-velcro strap is also soft and comfortable, with infinite adjustment for a great fit. It’s also surprisingly quick drying.

Overall, we much prefer it to a silicone strap, though it does make the watch more difficult to attach to a pack harness or bike handlebars if you don’t want to always have it on your wrist.

Performance

Battery life

The Apex 2 Pro offered best-in-class battery life when it was first launched back in late 2022, and even today, it remains one of the strongest performers on the market, especially for its price point.

COROS claims 66 hours in full GPS mode, 41hrs (all systems), 24hrs (dual frequency) and up to 21 days in daily use, which is impressive for a mid-size 47mm watch. It blows pretty much the entire Garmix Fenix and Forerunner series out of the water.

Indeed, this longevity is one of the main selling points of this watch. It will appeal to serious athletes like ultrarunners but also backpackers and outdoor users who spend plenty of time off-grid.

In fact, the only GPS watches that can really beat these figures are chunkier models equipped with solar charging, such as Garmin’s Enduro 3 (60hrs in dual frequency GNSS and up to 36 days in standard mode) or Suunto’s Vertical Titanium Solar (up to 65hrs in dual-frequency GNSS and up to 30 days in standard mode).

But those watches are bigger and bulkier, not to mention considerably more expensive (£770 and £625 respectively), compared to the COROS Apex 2 Pro’s £450 price tag.

Mapping

The Apex 2 Pro offers free topo mapping, but in our opinion, it lags behind the mapping offered by its main rivals (Garmin, Suunto and Polar). It shows roads, rivers and contours but is fairly basic and lacks any text labelling, which isn’t helped by the limited colour palette and fairly low resolution of the Apex 2 Pro’s display.

However, one advantage of the watch’s practical interface is that you can easily zoom in and out via the rotating crown on the right-hand side of the case, while the touchscreen allows you to pan around the map just like you would if navigating on a smartphone or modern GPS unit.

Of course, navigating on the fly is never easy with a small device like a watch, and we suspect most users will import GPX tracks to follow. This is pretty easy to do via the Coros app, then you simply sync with your device to upload them to the watch.

We found the process far less complicated than it is in Garmin’s software ecosystem, for example. It doesn’t offer full turn-by-turn navigation or rerouting if you go off course, unlike Garmin’s high-end watches, but it is more advanced than a simple breadcrumb-style trail.

You can scroll between map and multiple additional data screens, enabling you to monitor a wide range of hiking or running stats (including elevation gain, total heart rate, pace and distance as well as lap heart rate, pace and distance, total activity time, effort and grade, time of day, and remaining distance/ascent to your finish point).

The GPX track shows a lined trace of your progress, as well as the plotted route ahead. You get turn-by-turn navigation, and if you veer off course, the watch will beep and tell you how far off-route you are. The only downside is that, on occasion, maps can be a bit dull and difficult to make out.

When it comes to route planning, you can plot a course directly in the COROS app, which is actually fairly intuitive and offers quick ‘snap to path’ routing. It also works seamlessly with third-party apps like Komoot and Strava (both in terms of importing routes and exporting/sharing logged activities), which is a big plus for users of those apps.

Accuracy

The Apex 2 Pro has multi-band capability, connecting to all the major global navigation satellite systems (GNSS): the United States's Global Positioning System (GPS), Russia's Global Navigation Satellite System (GLONASS), China's BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) and the European Union's Galileo, as well as Japan's QZSS.

The watch tracked all of our activities reasonably accurately and precisely, locking on to GPS signal quickly before starting a hike or trail run. The GPS plots are broadly smooth and contiguous – but not quite as accurate as the Garmin models we tested alongside the Apex 2 Pro (Fenix 8, Enduro 3 and Forerunner 965). Weirdly, the Apex 2 Pro usually found a GPS signal quicker than any of those rivals though.

The heart rate sensor is consistent, but remember that no wrist-based sensor will be as accurate as a chest strap. However, it’s undoubtedly an improvement on older COROS watches.

Interface

The Apex 2 Pro uses COROS’s rotating pusher crown and two-button layout, which some will love and others will hate. We’re big fans, since it makes things a lot simpler than some other brands’ complex five-button layouts. It also has touchscreen capability.

As with many other smartwatches, various short- and long-presses also give you access to different menus, including a handy Garmin-esque widgets menu (long press the lower right button).

Recording an activity is easy and straightforward, so if you’re primarily using this as a multi-sport watch to log hikes, rides and runs, you can get out and get active pretty quickly. The watch also offers some unusual activity modes, such as multi-pitch climbing, which distinguishes it from the competition.

Then there’s all the usual stuff, which covers most of the bases both in terms of indoor and outdoor fitness. If your favourite activity isn’t listed, there’s also the option to build a custom sport via the app, as well as create specific workouts.

App

COROS’ app is easy to use and logically laid out, which you can’t say about all rivals. Compared to Garmin’s increasingly complex software ecosystem, the COROS functionality is refreshingly straightforward.

Tweaking settings and personal data, for example, seems a lot more intuitive. Initial setup proved to be quick and easy, and linking to third-party apps like Strava was similarly straightforward. Nor did we get any lag or other issues when uploading and syncing data.

COROS has also developed a good reputation for iterative improvements, with regular rollouts of new features and tools that generally get pushed to a wide range of compatible watches, not just the high-end models.

Indeed, since the Apex 2 Pro was launched back in late 2022, the brand has added a swathe of extras – adding Strava Live Segments, group tracking, floor climb mode, gear tracking, turn-by-turn alerts, and a Wellness Check tool.

Of course, to get the most out of COROS’ fitness and training insights, you’ll need to perform a running test and/or a cycling FTP. Not an issue if you’re a regular runner or cyclist, but if you’re primarily a hiker, running steadily for 25 minutes with an average heart rate of 142bpm plus might be a challenge!

This really points to the fact that the Apex 2 Pro is a watch best suited to active types rather than casual users looking to record occasional activities and keep a general eye on their overall health/wellness.

As such, COROS’ baseline health/sleep tracking is not as advanced or accessible as other brands, and its fitness/training emphasis is definitely on supplying you with raw data rather than a lot of AI-based interpretation, coaching advice or similar.

It will still indicate training load, status and estimated recovery time, as well as generating personalised training plans if you want them, but it’s a different approach to that found with other watch brands (or other fitness apps such as Runna, for instance).

Some will like this more serious, less fluffy approach, others might find all the data a bit intimidating.

Other features

COROS built its reputation on its no-nonsense running tools, and though the Apex 2 Pro is marketed as a multi-sport watch, it will particularly suit fell and mountain runners. Perhaps it’s no surprise that this is the watch of choice for ultra runner, ski mountaineer and all-round alpine superman Kilian Jornet.

However, hikers and backpackers will also appreciate the watch’s useful built-in sensors such as a barometric altimeter, accelerometer, gyroscope, digital compass, thermometer, pulse oximeter and HRV sensor.

Obviously, this kind of stuff is more useful when training at altitude, in places like Jornet’s native Pyrenees or the Alps, as opposed to UK hills and mountains, but it’s still nice to have.

You can also add a Weather Widget, which pulls data from Apple Weather to provide live data for temps, wind, precipitation as well as 6-hour and 7-day forecasts. It’s no substitute for looking at a proper mountain weather forecast, but again, it’s nice to have.

What else? Well, the Apex Pro 2 does have on-board music storage of a sort, but it requires you to add MP3 files, rather than being able to use a streaming service. This feels a bit old-school (we haven’t used MP3s since we last owned an iPod), but it is still better than having to carry a phone if you want to go for a run with music.

One unusual feature this watch does offer is remote camera control for GoPros and similar devices, which is a key point of difference over most rivals. We didn’t try it, but conceivably, this could be a very useful extra for outdoor content creators and influencers.

Bottom line? Though it’s far more than a fitness tracker, the Apex 2 Pro is very much a fitness tool, not a smartwatch. It does have phone notifications and the ability to see incoming calls, but you can’t answer them. Nor does it offer contactless payment.

Basically, if you’re looking for a GPS watch that you can also use in lieu of a smartwatch for everyday connectivity, this probably isn’t it.

Price and competition

The COROS Apex 2 Pro has a UK RRP of £450. This makes it one of the more expensive watches in the brand’s line-up. In fact, only the flagship COROS Vertix 2S is pricier, at £599. The Apex 2 Pro does most of what the Vertix does though, so for us, it’s a better value proposition. If you’re only a casual runner or hiker, it’s also worth looking at the entry-level Pace 3 or Pace Pro.

Compared to many rivals, all COROS watches seem like good value, and the Apex 2 Pro is no exception. It was the second-cheapest GPS watch in our 2025 GPS watches group test, beaten only by the Suunto Race S (£299 in stainless steel, £395 in titanium).

As an overall value pick, we think the Race S is probably the better choice for most people – it’s a nicer-looking watch with plenty of functionality for runners and hikers alike, not to mention a bigger, brighter AMOLED screen. However, the battery life is far inferior, so if that’s a priority, then the Apex 2 Pro should be your go-to pick.

This is really where the COROS punches above its weight – outperforming anything else of the same size and price point. As we mentioned earlier in this review, when it comes to long life, the only watches that really compete on this front are the bigger boys.

By this we mean seriously chunky solar GPS watches like the Garmin Enduro 3 (£770) and the Suunto Vertical Solar (£499 in stainless steel, £625 in titanium). But both are 1) more expensive to buy and 2) much bulkier to wear on the wrist.

Verdict

A user-friendly GPS watch with exceptional battery life, comprehensive fitness tracking, and solid navigation tools. While it lacks a full suite of smartwatch style features, it's a reliable choice for trail runners, mountain athletes and active outdoor adventurers.

About the author

Matt Jones is a freelance journalist based in the heart of Snowdonia National Park, he’s a vastly experienced gear tester and self-confessed outdoor kit geek. Matt’s been one of our main gear testers for the last couple of years and is the first person we call with any complicated kit queries that need in-depth and forensic analysis.