COROS Apex 2 mini-review

Before Christmas I faced up to the fact that my beloved Garmin Fenix 6S wasn’t cutting it any more; after over five years of heavy use its battery had dwindled to the point that a five hour run using navigation was becoming a game of battery chicken towards the end.

I spoke to Garmin, and was disappointed to find that they don’t do battery replacements, only a 30% discount on a new model. With Fenix prices having skyrocketed (the new Fenix 8 models are over £800 and in some cases over £1000), I started looking at alternatives. There’s also a relatively recently launched (2024) Fenix E - the E stands for ‘essentials’. I did a bit of reading, and the online tech world is emphatically not keen! The consensus seems to be that the E model contains old, rebranded tech (still priced at over £500) in an attempt to keep Fenix customers who aren’t willing or able to pay £800 for a watch. So I decided not to get one of those!

I’m a lifelong (running life, anyway!) Garmin girl, but I can’t justify spending £800 on a watch, even with a 30% discount. Yes, there are less expensive Garmin alternatives, but I’d also be removing features that I use. I wanted a watch that did most of the same things as my Fenix, at a more sensible price point. Enter….COROS!

It has seemed for a while like the ‘other’ watch brands - primarily COROS and Suunto have been quietly growing their brand, their tech and their customer base. I’d heard good things about both, and the Fenix prices were the push I needed to give something new a go. After some research, I bought a COROS Apex 2 for £350.

As noted above - this is very much not a comprehensive review of the Apex 2 and its features. If you’re looking for one of those, DC Rainmaker is your man (and for any other tech you care to name!). But here are my observations, top tips and reflections on the watch so far.

I really like:

• Most of the watch’s functionality. It’s simple and intuitive for the most part, and highly customisable, all the way to choosing what the buttons do, and even which side of the watch you want to wear them on. If it’s lacking features and functionality that my Fenix had, I haven’t noticed; it has everything I need.

• The app. It’s much cleaner and easy to use than Garmin Connect.

• The mapping. While it’s not hugely different from Garmin mapping, it feels somehow easier and clearer - I can’t put my finger on what the difference is, but I’m happy it’s so.

• The cost! At £350 (and you can find it for less), the Apex 2 does pretty much everything my Fenix did.

  
  

I’m not certain about:

• the touchscreen. While I do use it (really helpful in nice, calm, dry conditions), it becomes a bit of a liability when it’s wet, or the watch is under layers; my sleeve is constantly scrolling. You can turn the touchscreen off, but I’m not sure it’s something I ever wanted in a sports/outdoor watch in the first place! Having said that, adding touchscreens isn’t just a COROS thing, so I can hardly put it in a ‘bad things about the Apex’ box.

• the styling. I know that’s daft! The Apex 2 is not ugly, exactly, but it’s much more functional looking than Garmin watches, and they don’t have the same range of options for customisation of appearance.

  
  

I’m really cross about:

• The battery life. The Apex 2 is advertised as having 40 hours of battery life in ‘standard GPS’ and 25 hours in ‘all systems on’ mode. While I certainly read this information, it simply didn’t occur to me that ‘all systems on’ would include…mapping. Basically, if you want to use navigation on the watch, ultramax mode can’t be switched on. This is different from Garmin, where using max battery mode turns off some features and changes the GPS sampling rate, but it doesn’t mean you can’t nav. While this is entirely my fault for not checking, I think COROS should make this clearer, given that I’d imagine most people who want to get 40 hours on a single use of their battery are probably also going to be wanting to use navigation. [note: if I’m wrong about this, I’d love to know]. If I’d known, I’d have added the extra £100 for the Pro model, which has 41 hours in ‘all systems’.

  
  

In sum, I don’t think COROS are 100% there with a product that completely competes with Garmin. But that’s ok by me, because they’re not asking for the same prices! If you want the ‘premium’ experience, don’t go to COROS (yet). If you’re happy with a watch that does the job without bells and whistles, I can highly recommend it.

Update: After about six months of use, my Apex 2 started giving very inflated elevation gain stats - up to 1.5-2x the actual gain. It took a bit of time to get through to a real person at COROS customer support, but they have agreed to replace the watch under warranty. Let's see what happens with the new one - my interactions with Garmin customer support in the past were noticeably speedier, but the eventual outcome with COROS has been good.