A smartwatch with WiFi that has clear intentions to distinguish itself from the competition in design and move beyond the touch screen (which it has).
The COROS health app is part of Health Connect, which was launched by Google in 2022 to unify health data, in order to make it compatible and provide great value to the COROS Pace 3 smart watch that we have analyzed in EL ESPAÑOL – The Free Android.
A COROS Pace 3 watch that can be purchased in Spain at a price of 249 euros and that is characterized by its functions for health and exercise, plus a very special design that makes it a very striking smartwatch; also for its light weight and size to be a smart watch that can be recommended to the female public ; You may have a hard time finding one that fits your wrist size.
Without a doubt, one of the aspects that attracts the most attention is its design. In our case we have tested the white model that has a silicone strap . From the COROS website in Spain, different variants are available with the option of purchasing the model with Nylon in various colors, and another in silicone in black and white.
We first focused the shot on the design, not only for its external visual appearance, but also for its dials and clock interface on the screen that go hand in hand to generate a great visual experience in unison in all its corners. It is a smart watch that attracts attention on the outside, and is also distinguished by its specifications.
We start with its dimensions: 41.9 x 41.9 x 11.7 mm . It is very similar in size to the Galaxy Watch 6 and it can be said that it does not ‘eat up’ all the space on the wrist, so it is once again emphasized that it is an ideal watch for women. Its weight is 39 g with the silicone band, and remains at 30 g with the nylon band.
Its screen takes center stage with 1.2 inches and a resolution of 240 x 240 with 64 colors; some desaturated colors to create an interface that tries to harm the battery as little as possible to extend the autonomy of the watch and is precisely one of its key aspects. In fact, it almost offers a monochrome experience. Of course, you have to forget about the AMOLED panel to be an LCD one; but it almost doesn’t matter, and it’s just one of his highlights.
Its interaction: two buttons
The COROS Pace 3 watch has a digital dial and a back button , so the interaction is a different experience, but satisfactory at all levels, and even more so if for some reason the hands are not dry enough and You have to manage yourself with this smartwatch.
In fact, by default it is configured without on-screen touch controls so that it can be easily operated with the two physical buttons. This is another point that makes it stand out from other models from other brands and can be the ideal watch for practicing water sports or wearing it when you are in the shower. It is a smartwatch made to control everything with physical buttons.
In this case, the physical buttons behave differently than other phones such as the Galaxy Watch 6 or those from Huawei. The button located at the bottom, with one press, changes exactly the data that appears below the time : sunrise time, sunset time, height, or stairs climbed. If held down, it opens a dial with the most important options such as system, music, battery and more; Yes, to move between them you do it using the wheel on the other button.
Its customization is also important with a good variety of dials (many of them with a retro look that looks scary), and the ability to modify the training menu to the diner’s taste, thus eliminating sports practices that will never be done. carry out; daily data, with an interface that allows you to sort the data or even eliminate what is not needed; and the tools, as apps and thus reduce the number of them (which are quite a few).
On this last point, the COROS Pace 3 has apps such as compass, heart rate, altitude performance, rest HR, battery use, metronome, navigation, one to save the location, satellite, stopwatch, timer and the typical alarm, mode night, music, mobile camera control, find my mobile or WiFi synchronization.
That said about WiFi, it is another of its most interesting connections that allows it to not consume as much battery compared to using Bluetooth to connect it to the mobile. It is another detail that adds to COROS’ entire value proposition.
Measuring health and exercise
To measure health and other experiences, it offers a good range of sensors : optical heart rate monitor, barometric altimeter, 3D compass, thermometer (for body temperature during activities) and optical pulse oximeter. Of course, it also allows sleep tracking.
A quality detail is that right at the end of the sporting activity, as long as the GPS is active, it presents a first screen with a summary of the total time, average time per lap and a small map that shows the route carried out . Of course, it wouldn’t be bad if the screen with the exercise data summary had a timer , since it can stay on for minutes (it could be easily resolved in an update due to the battery issue).
When you get home to transfer the exercise data, the COROS app is very complete and on the first screen as a summary — and with an interface that differs from that seen in others such as Samsung Health or the Huawei Health app — is distinguished by a dark theme and the use of brightly colored icons to emphasize the various health cards.
At the top you can read the total steps taken, calorie consumption and time spent exercising for the day. Then you can find a small map with the summary of the sports practice, the training calendar, its load , and other data, when you scroll down to the recovery status, such as heart rate, sleep, body mass and others. data.
Recovering what was said about the route map, on the summary screen you can access it with all the practice data such as distance traveled, race time, average pace, effort pace, best km, average HR, calories, ascent , race status and training load on the first card. Right after, different graphs of great value and very well presented visually appear to measure the min/km pace with the different sections according to the pace carried out in the race or practice.
That is, it offers a complete experience to which you can add more graphs such as cadence, stride length, running power and lap time. A perfect app in this sense to measure every aspect of health and physical exercise and thus be able to measure the progression in weeks.
There are other aspects of great value such as the ability to create a training plan for days and weeks or even download verified workouts from the coros.com website.
Another highlight of the app is the personal records, and ultimately, in terms of the experience of practicing sports to take into account each piece of data, it is a watch that offers great value with a very well-crafted app and its own design.
Your autonomy
Regarding autonomy, with the use of GPS and in our tests, it reaches almost two days with GPS systems and, if all available geopositioning systems are already used, it goes to 25 hours and 9 hours of music. With daily use you reach 17 days to measure sleep and daily health; and with stress up to 15 days.
In a sports practice of going out for a 11 km run , the consumption with the GPS active as the watch is configured (not the complete one receiving all the geopositioning signals) has been 5%. Nothing bad.
I buy it?
And for the rest, it is a perfect accessory for a mobile phone to receive call notifications, and configure all the messaging apps from which you want to receive your chats. That is, as a smartphone companion it also fulfills its function.
Of course, you cannot make calls, but it has 4 GB of internal memory to store music. In general terms, it is a watch that is different from those on the Spanish market and that surprises with its interaction concept to do everything through physical buttons.
If we add its special design, which is not one of those large watches and which has a well-worked app in terms of functions and visual appearance to track health and sports practices (with its wide variety of sensors), it leaves the feeling that it is You are facing a brand that knows what it is doing and is not simply here to try to grab market share by copying others.
