Coros launched the Apex 2 and Apex 2 Pro watches on the same day to refresh the middle of its sports watches range. Both are among the best running watches thanks to the extensive features they offer for the money, but it’s probably only worth spending the extra $80 in the US or £100 in the UK for the Apex 2 Pro if you value battery life very highly.
The Apex 2 packs in a lot of features for a mid-range watch, including maps and music storage, and is smaller than the Apex 2 Pro.
For
- Smaller, lighter design
- Good battery life
- Cheaper than Apex 2 Pro
Against
- No multi-band GPS
- Shorter battery life than Pro
- Smaller screen than Pro
The Apex 2 Pro has all of Coros’s top features and lasts forever on a charge, but performs similarly to the Apex 2 in its sports tracking.
For
- Multi-band GPS
- Long battery life
- Larger screen
Against
- More expensive
- Similar tracking accuracy
Coros Apex 2 Vs Coros Apex 2 Pro: Price And Availability
Both watches launched on 3rd November 2022. The Apex 2 costs $399/£349 and the Apex 2 Pro costs $499/£499. They are initially only available from the Coros website.
Design
The two watches use the same materials, with a sapphire glass touchscreen and a titanium alloy bezel, but the Apex 2 Pro’s case is larger and heavier, weighing 53g vs 42g for the Apex 2. The Pro has a larger screen at 1.3in (33mm) compared with 1.2in (30.5mm), and the screen is 260 x 260 resolution versus 240 x 240 on the Apex 2.
While the difference in screen size is noticeable when using both watches side by side and it makes stats on the Apex 2 Pro easier to read while running, that improvement is offset a little by the fact the Apex 2 is a lighter, smaller watch.
The Apex 2 Pro does put its extra size to good use with a bigger battery and also more storage, offering 32GB compared with 8GB on the Apex 2, which will be handy for those who want to fill their watch with music and routes.
Battery Life
One area where the Apex 2 Pro is a clear upgrade is battery life, it lasts almost twice as long as the Apex 2 in smartwatch mode, and offers 30 more hours of GPS battery life. However, the Apex 2 is still a long-lasting watch compared with other brands’ similarly priced devices.
| Header Cell - Column 0 | Coros Apex 2 | Coros Apex 2 Pro |
|---|---|---|
| Smartwatch | 17 days | 30 days |
| GPS-only | 45 hours | 75 hours |
| All-systems-on | 28 hours | 45 hours |
| Multi-band | N/A | 25 hours |
Sports Tracking
Aside from the addition of a multi-pitch climbing mode to the Apex 2 Pro, the sports tracking offered by the two watches is the same, and both provide Coros’s EvoLab training analysis, which you can see on the watch, and in the partner app and website.
GPS And HR Accuracy
I have tested the Coros Apex 2 Pro and Apex 2 together on several runs and for the most part the performance of the GPS and heart rate monitor has been similar. However, the Apex 2 has been slightly more impressive on heart rate, closely matching a chest strap’s readings during runs, with its smaller, lighter design perhaps helping ensure a snugger fit against my wrist than that of the Apex 2 Pro.
Given that I set the Apex 2 Pro to multi-band mode I expected it to outperform the Apex 2 in all-systems-on mode, but this has not been the case in any of the three runs I’ve done with both watches. Neither has been perfect, often rounding off corners that are tracked more accurately by the Garmin Epix 2 in multi-band mode, but on every run the Apex 2 has been just as good as if not better than the Pro.
Based on my testing so far, I wouldn’t say paying extra for multi-band tracking on the Pro is worthwhile, and it uses more battery too. However, if you're a climber you may get more benefit from the multi-band mode, since this is where Coros suggests it comes into its own in reducing reflections in signal off tall walls.
Smart Features And Navigation
Coros focuses on the sports rather than the smarts with its watches, but both the Apex 2 and Apex 2 Pro offer music storage. You have to drag and drop MP3 files across to the watches, with no links to streaming services yet, which undercuts its usefulness as a feature.
Both watches also offer Coros’s mapping features. If you create a route and sync it to the watch, you can select it and it will appear during outdoor activities overlaid on a colour map, along with a graph profiling the elevation on the route. You don’t get turn-by-turn navigation but both watches will alert you when you deviate from the course.
