COROS has announced a smattering of new features for both their watches, as well as their Dura bike computer. In the case of the bike computer, this firmware update will mark the resumption of shipping, after the company halted shipping back shortly after launch, due to issues with the mounting tabs on the Dura breaking in K-Edge bike computer mounts (arguably the most popular 3rd party mount company out there). The company says they’ve wrapped up testing with an improved mounting tab, which resolves the issue across a number of scenarios, including high-vibration scenarios.
In any event, the majority of today’s updates are device firmware features, with a smattering also being app update features. This won’t be a long post, since none of these features are earth-shattering, and most fall within the realm of ‘new data fields/pages’, rather than big-ticket new features. As COROS has matured and grown as a company, we’ve seen the pace of updates slow, and the breadth of those updates slow. That’s somewhat natural, of course.
Still, there’s one feature that I think is actually pretty nifty, and unique in the watch world. Let’s dive into it!
COROS Watch Updates:
Starting off on the watch side, COROS is announcing that they’re discontinuing new feature updates for the COROS Pace 2 (introduced Sept 2020), APEX Pro 1 (introduced Sept 2019), and Vertix 1 (introduced May 2019). They cited lack of internal memory space for all these watches. That said, despite announcing that, the Pace 2 is actually getting one last hurrah, with three of the new features coming to it. Thus, it’s going out in style.
Next, here’s what’s coming to all other COROS watches:
– Added Gear Tracking (shoe & bike tracking)
– Added All Day Sleep Tracking (doesn’t care what time of day you fall asleep)
– Added Sleep Quality rating/score in app
– Added Gravel/MTB Activity Modes
– Added Swimming Drill & Interval Modes
– Added New Data Fields: % FTP (Cycling), % Max HR, % Heart Rate Reserve (HRR), % Lactate Threshold HR
– Added support for Insta360 overlays from COROS data (watch and bike computer)
Here’s a gallery of those things, from COROS:
I’ll point out that I rather like the implementation of the shoe selection on the watch. This is the singular feature here that none of their competitors have. Kudos on this. The way this works is you first great your shoes (or bikes) in the app. You can specify an exact/real model name, but also give it a nickname. Further, you can specify the starting mileage, as well as starting date. You can also specify a limit.
Also notable, on the next page, you’ll specify which running profiles it’s good for. This will control whether it shoes that shoe on the watch.
Then you go out and run. Or walk. Or suffer. Whatever it may be. At the end of the run, as soon as you press save (but before the summary screens), you’ll get this:
You can either skip it, or select the correct shoe.
Then, back in the app, it’ll track each shoe, you can retire shoes, and you can see on any given run, which shoe was assigned to it. Here it is after a short run to show the differences:
People have been asking for proper shoe tracking (on-watch) from Garmin for more years than I can remember. Maybe this will get the ball rolling.
Just for clarity, here’s what’s coming to each watch. Note that the ones coming to the Pace 2/Apex Pro 1/Vertix 1, are all actually just app updates, thus, they aren’t firmware tied to the watch itself.
From a date standpoint, here’s the plan:
– Public Beta: September 23rd (today)
– Full Production Release: October 2024
Note though, that the Pace 2, with its limited memory and old age, is a bit slower, and won’t be ready till October. Maybe it can get one of those little airport carts to go faster.
– Public Beta: October 2024
– Full Production Release: October 2024
Got all that? Good.
COROS Dura Updates:
Meanwhile, on the Dura side, as noted above, they’ve added the following features:
– Added lap summary page
– Added real-time elevation profile (full ride)
– Added upcoming climb view (auto-split into sections)
– Added status bar
– Added dual-sided power meter recording/support
– Added workout progress view
– Added support for Insta360 overlays from COROS data (watch and bike computer)
– Added automatic lap by position
– Added battery level support for ANT+ Lights, electronic shifting, power meters, ANT+ radar, and other sensors
– Added ‘Navigate to Start’, and ‘Back to Start’
– Added a bunch more unspecified tweaks
Here’s a little gallery of what each of those new pages look like, from COROS:
Everything you see above is pretty standard on all Hammerhead/Wahoo/Garmin bike computers, so this is simply catching up to them. As always, the exact implementations differ a bit. Some might prefer one styling over another, but at their core they’re relatively similar. For example, the upcoming climb view is what Garmin calls ClimbPro, Wahoo calls Summit, and Hammerhead calls Climber. There are a boatload of nuances to each company’s implementations, but that’s another post for another day.
Finally, as noted above, the COROS Dura will begin shipping again this week. Specifically, starting September 26th, from COROS directly. And then from other retailers in October.
Wrap-Up:
As you probably noticed above, almost none of the features are unique to COROS. In fact, all but one feature here is what I’d describe as a ‘catch-up’ feature (the single exception being able to select a shoe on the watch, which is pretty cool). Meaning, all other features their competitors have had for upwards of a decade (in most cases), and are needed to check off spec comparison lists. Some of them, like the dual-sided power meter data recording one, might seem kinda minor, and from an implementation standpoint it is. But it’s the perfect example of a ‘feature’ that any bike computer reviewer would look at (if missing), and say “Wait, are you kidding?”.
When the COROS Dura announced, I talked about how it really needs till next Spring to be competitive, but once it gets there – Wahoo especially – will need to watch out. It’s these silly little tweaks that COROS will spend the winter knocking out. There are arguably hundreds of these tiny little things, many of which you don’t even think to ask for, until it’s not there. Such is the life of an entrant into a new category.
Still, as I often say – we want all the entrants we can in these categories. Competition is good, and as we see some legacy companies in the endurance sports realm slowly fade away, we’ll see new ones come in to replace them. That’s the natural course of business. But what is clear, is that consumers expect updates, and they expect them for at least 3-4 years. With the Pace 2 (and to a lesser extent, Vertix 1) removal from future firmware updates, COROS does loose a little bit of their ‘update shine’ compared to Garmin’s seemingly more strict update policy. Wahoo saw the same thing over the last year or two, as reality hit on updating older devices. Heck, we’ve even Apple get more creative on how they justify whether or not older watches get features updates that seem quite possible on existing hardware.
In any case, more to come as I start looking at the COROS Dura with what I’d consider to be the real launch firmware. Full and final in-depth review probably in October.
With that – thanks for reading!
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