Coros Apex 4 GPS Watch Review

I haven’t worn a watch consistently since I was a teenager, despite the cultural shift to hop on the smartwatch bandwagon. However, in the last few years, I’ve done trial runs with other wearables. I experimented with Apple Watch (wasn’t a fan), tried non-screen wearables like the Polar Loop (needs improvement), and even reviewed some purpose-built sports watches by the industry titan, Garmin. Even the Coros Pace 4, which I highly enjoyed, didn’t quite become a permanent fixture in my life.

Admittedly, all the options were impressive in some way, but I inevitably gravitated back to bare wrists. However, that all changed with the Coros Apex 4. Put simply, I love this watch.

No matter what I’m doing, the Apex 4 makes it more fluid. From hiking and mountain bike trails, to daylong river paddling or navigating labyrinthine downtown streets — this watch has proven itself functional, reliable, and kinda sexy. I even wore it while performing wedding gigs, sporting the all-white silicone band along with my black-and-white attire (my bandmates were jealous).

In short: The Coros Apex 4 ($430) offers incredible battery life, terrific mapping, and loads of activity tracking. It also has the best user experience of any “smart” wearable I’ve tried. Coros could improve the watch band, and the MIP screen can sometimes look a bit dim. But those are minor quibbles compared to the solid navigation and mapping. For bike rides or just tracking my sleep, the Apex 4 just works — no need to consult Google or a watch manual.

Compare the Apex 4 to others in our guide to the best GPS watches.

Coros Apex 4 Watch Review

I know what many of you watch fanatics are thinking right now: How dare you rate this watch so highly! Such is the life of a gear reviewer in the age of the internet. I’m aware that this watch won’t tickle the fancy of every athlete or casual weekend warrior. That’s the benefit (curse?) of having so many options now.

But while there are certainly an abundance of options these days, Coros is my personal favorite. Well-known brands like Garmin and Suunto offer most of the same features, but it’s Coros’s approach that really works for me.

This model is geared toward climbers and trail runners, with a nearly 2-week battery life (depending on how you use it) and loads of navigation features. It also provides (mostly) accurate tracking of activities and health metrics. In general, it’s a joy to use.

Over the last few months, I’ve taken the Apex 4 on nearly all of my outdoor activities: climbing, cycling, trail running, road running, and even river paddling — the watch has performed admirably through it all. I love the ease of its GPS mapping, and new features allow you to record voice notes for each activity, which you can also review later on through the app.

The overall user experience of the Apex 4 just works better than anything else I’ve tried.

An Athlete-Focused Watch

There’s no doubt that an AMOLED screen makes the visuals on a smartwatch sparkle. But that colorful light show comes at a high cost for the battery life.

The Apex 4 uses a MIP screen instead. That means it’s a bit dim in some situations, especially in direct sunlight. But I wonder if that’s only apparent because I’ve used AMOLED smartwatches. The Apex 4 is always bright enough to read the data clearly — it just doesn’t pop like a mini Pixar movie. For athletes looking to maximize battery life for multiday adventures or even set a fastest known time on a long trail, the battery life easily trumps the screen’s color range.

If you make a few tweaks to the watch’s functionality — like less frequent HR sampling and turning off both notifications and a constant backlight — you can use this watch for 1-2 weeks without needing a recharge, even with frequent activity tracking. That’s pretty wild, and it will spoil you for most other smartwatches.

I’m also stoked about Coros’s approach to the user experience. The Coros dial just works way better for me than the button-based approach of Garmin and other brands. Modern smartwatches have dozens, if not hundreds, of features. It’s way easier to scroll through them all with a dial than repeated button presses.

Some other brands circumvent this problem by adding a touchscreen. The Apex 4 has a touchscreen, too. But when I’ve got sweaty, dirty hands, using my fingers on a small screen isn’t ideal. For me, the Coros dial wins the UX award among smartwatches.

The watch is also highly durable. I’m pretty hard on my gear, and despite a wide range of uses, it has only one scratch. (That’s better than expected when you wear a smartwatch on rugged outdoor rock climbs.)

Navigation and GPS

I’m a huge fan of how navigation works on the Apex 4. It’s the main reason why I’ve taken to wearing it all the time — and it’s a major improvement from previous Coros offerings.

As long as you have service, it’s possible to get detailed map views without downloading maps ahead of time. For anyone who likes to just get outside on a new trail without adding to the amount of preparation, that’s a big deal. You can opt for either 2D or 3D views of the surrounding terrain, and a quick-access mapping button during activities feels both useful and intuitive.

I also love how easy it is to plug in a specific location or address in the Coros app, and then send the route to the watch. To be clear, if I were going to hike a couple of 14ers, I’d make sure to download the GPX file first and to always have a map. But that’s probably not the most frequent scenario, even for mountain athletes. More often, you just want a quick route without needing to hop on a computer, and the Apex 4 makes that a breeze.

This generation of Coros watches also has a “voice notes” feature. That means you can tag specific landmarks or trail junctions with a pin and a voice note, which are logged as journal entries accessible from your phone. Admittedly, I haven’t used this much. But it’s a cool add-on, and I can see it being useful to trail runners or mountain athletes.

Health Metrics

I’m probably less focused on health tracking via wearables than many users. It’s a testament to the many capabilities of modern smartwatches that they can serve so many different purposes.

But I have found a few of these features genuinely helpful. Both the sleep tracking and HRV (heart rate variability) have helped me make smarter choices about sleep and recovery. After months of use, I’ve decided that these health-tracking tools are more accurate than other options I’ve tried, including other wearables and even earbuds designed for sleep.

Downsides

My one major critique is of the silicone watch band’s design. Overall, it’s comfortable, functional, and uses a normal metal cinch for tightening, just like the G-SHOCKs I loved as a kid.

However, the Coros band uses a small metal pin to keep the tail end flush with the rest of the band. It’s constantly being knocked out, which is slightly irritating. Worse, after a few months, the pin was knocked out entirely while I was moving gear out of my car. I never found it, so I had to switch to a nylon band. That one doesn’t have the same issue, but also isn’t quite as comfortable (or stylish) as the silicone band.

I can also see how some users could dislike the Apex 4’s MIP screen and its lower visual clarity. In that case, it’s probably better to opt for a Coros Pace 4 or another AMOLED smartwatch. After all, the MIP screen is mainly used to increase the watch’s battery life — a trade-off that many of us are just fine with.

Conclusion & Competition

There are certainly great competitors for the Apex 4. For slightly less money, you can get a Garmin Instinct Solar, which allows for basically “infinite battery life” through solar charging — but lacks the Apex’s mapping capabilities. A Garmin Fenix 8 Solar beats the Apex 4 in terms of features (it has all the mapping plus solar charging). But also costs nearly twice as much.

In other words, the Apex 4 balances features to appeal to a variety of outdoor lovers and athletes. Unless you’re going on a weeks-long expedition without cell service or charging, you’re unlikely to ever use the full capabilities of a Garmin Fenix. And if Coros’s watches work for an elite mountain athlete like Kilian Jornet, they should be just fine for the rest of us.