Coros’s New Apex 4 Adds a Speaker and Microphone to the Apex Line

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Coros today launched a new version of its Apex watch, the Apex 4. Like the Nomadic released earlier this year, it features a MIP screen, an action button for shortcuts, and maps with street names.

How does the Apex compare to other Coros watches?

Coros offers three lines of watches in addition to the Nomad: the Pace, the Apex and the Vertix. I wrote about the Rhythm 3 And Rhythm Proboth solid watches that rival Garmin’s features at a lower price. (I swapped my Garmin for a Coros for a month this summer; you can read my thoughts on this here.)

Compared to the Pace line, Apex is made of more robust materials and is presented as an adventure watch. It has features suitable for skiing and mountaineering, in addition to the usual running and fitness capabilities. This Apex model and the one before it both feature sapphire crystal and offline mapping. The Apex 2 only has single-band GPS, while the Apex 2 Pro has dual-band like the new Apex 4.

What’s new in Apex 4?

Before the Apex 4, there was the Apex 2 and 2 Pro. (Yes, Coros skipped 3.) Compared to them, the new Apex 4 adds:

• A speaker and a microphone

• The ability to record voice pins linked to locations (enabled by this microphone)

• Trail and street names on maps

• A programmable action button for shortcuts, instead of a dedicated backlight button

• Faster map rendering

• More accurate altitude readings

Battery life is similar to the Apex 2 Pro, with 24 days of daily use or 17 hours of activity tracking in all-systems mode.

The Apex 4 is $479 for the 46mm size and $429 for the 42mm size. For comparison, the Apex 2 Pro costs $449 and is available in a size of 46 millimeters, and the Apex 2 costs $349 and 43 millimeters.