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Coros, maker of some of my favorite running watches, has launched a new model: the $349 Nomad. It’s an adventure watch, meant to appeal to outdoorsy folks, with features for hiking and fishing. In some ways it’s like a Garmin Instinct, but I wouldn’t take that comparison too far—it’s really its own thing.
Coros Nomad’s main features and specs
In this list of highlights I’m focusing on the things that set it apart from other Coros watches and from competitors like the Instinct.
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Full color, touchscreen MIP display. This is the kind that’s reflective with a backlight rather than the smartphone-style AMOLED screen that’s more popular these days. (I wrote an explainer on the pros and cons of this type.)
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Maps with street names. The Pace Pro has maps, but street names seem to be an entirely new offering.
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A new “adventure journal” that lets you mark a pin on a map with a voice note saying what it is. Coros suggests using it for campsites, fishing spots, and places you might have to cross water. (Having fumbled through menus recently to add and label waypoints for all the water taps in my favorite park, this sounds amazing.) You can add photos and videos to the journal from your phone.
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Moon phases and tide data, aimed at anglers.
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22-day battery life, not counting activities, or 50 hours running an activity with all-systems GPS (34 hours for dual band). This is a few days longer than the Pace 3 and Pace Pro, but less than comparable Garmin Instinct models.
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48 millimeter size, weighing in at 61 grams with the silicone band, or 49 if you swap in a nylon band. (Coros is only selling a silicone band version at the moment, but it takes standard 24 mm watch bands—larger than the Pace Pro or Pace 3.)
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Price is $349, same as the Pace Pro, but cheaper than any of the Garmin Instinct 3 models.
What the Coros Nomad is missing
For a watch that seems to be angling itself as a Garmin Instinct competitor, there are two huge omissions: The Nomad does not have solar charging, nor does it have an LED flashlight.
Garmin’s Instinct 3 comes in either an AMOLED version (the glowy smartphone-style screen) or a MIP version that can top up its battery from a solar panel built into the screen. With the Coros Nomad, you get MIP rather than AMOLED, but you still don’t get a solar panel.
The Nomad also only comes in one size, which is typical for Coros. Garmin’s Instinct 3 comes in 45 and 50 millimeter versions. The Nomad is 48 millimeters, splitting the difference but still a large watch compared to a lot of what’s on the market. The Pace 3, for example, is 42 millimeters.
For Coros fans who were hoping that today’s announcement would be about a new version of the company’s Apex or Vertix watches, Coros teased a forthcoming release cryptically in a comment on a Reddit thread about the Nomad: “While I can’t say much publicly about specifics, I can say that for those who are disappointed, we are currently developing and testing some really cool (and expected (?)) things to be released before the end of the year :)”
