I tested the Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro — which should you buy?

(Image credit: Future) The Garmin Forerunner 970 is the best sports watch I've tested and has some useful extra features compared to the Coros Pace 4 Pro, but costs a lot more. As well as being cheaper than the Forerunner 970, the Pace 4 Pro is lighter and slimmer, and has longer battery life and a bigger AMOLED display. I test a lot of smartwatches, but only the very best of them stay on my wrist after I’ve reviewed them to track my own training, and the Garmin Forerunner 970 and Coros Pace 4 Pro both certainly count among the best sports watches I’ve ever used.The Garmin Forerunner 970 has been my go-to watch for a year and I used it to train for and run the London Marathon in April. For the last month, however, I’ve been using the Coros Pace 4 Pro as my main watch for my Frankfurt Marathon training.To compare them directly I’ve also run with both at the same time (several times), including on a recent 20-miler. If you’re picking between the two, you can’t go too far wrong, but here are the key differences in design, features and accuracy I’ve noticed in my testing.Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: price (Image credit: Future)The Garmin Forerunner 970 is more expensive than the Coros Pace 4 Pro, costing $749/£629 compared to $449/£389 for the Coros.It’s a big price difference, but it is reduced a little at times because the Forerunner 970 does usually get discounted in big sales periods like Black Friday, when you can expect to pay $649, whereas Coros doesn’t tend to reduce its watches.Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: design and display (Image credit: Future)The Forerunner 970 and Pace 4 Pro are both light and slim watches with big, bright AMOLED displays and titanium bezels, but there are some notable design differences between them.This starts with the fact the Coros is a tad lighter and slimmer, and also has the slightly larger display of the pair. I prefer the look and feel of the Pace 4 Pro myself, but both are good-looking watches that are comfortable to wear 24/7, and I’d say Garmin has better line-up of watch faces to pick from.Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. (Image credit: Future)With the Garmin you get five buttons to navigate the menus, whereas the Coros uses three buttons, one of which is a digital dial.On the top of the Forerunner 970 is a built-in flashlight, which I find incredibly handy and more useful than the flashlight setting on the Coros, which uses its screen.Both watches have the same extensive array of sensors, including an altimeter, barometer, optical heart rate sensor and multi-band GPS chipset, but when it comes to connecting to external sensors the Garmin can do this via both Bluetooth and ANT+, whereas the Coros just uses Bluetooth.Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: sports tracking and training analysis (Image credit: Future)Both watches offer sports modes to track a huge variety of activities and in-depth training analysis to help guide your approach to workouts, but the Garmin Forerunner 970 does have some features you don’t get on the Coros.For one, it has a Training Readiness score that brings together a lot of information like your recent training load, sleep and stress to give a rating out of 100 on how ready you are. (Image credit: Future)The Forerunner 970 also goes beyond the normal training analysis stats you get on watches to offer features like Running Tolerance, which estimates your running mileage taking into account intensity as well as distance, and Running Economy (when paired with the Garmin HRM 600 chest strap), which estimates your efficiency on the run.You also get Hill Score and Endurance Score on the Forerunner 970, two more metrics that are unique to Garmin that rate your climbing ability and overall endurance. (Image credit: Future)The Coros Pace 4 Pro has all the classic training analysis data though, like training load, a VO2 max estimate, race predictions and an overall rating of your running ability, and you can use its overnight HRV measurements as a proxy for readiness.Both watches present the data they track engagingly both on the watch itself and in their partner apps, and both have enough to satisfy even the keenest amateur athletes, but the Forerunner 970 does go above and beyond what you get from the Coros when it comes to training analysis.Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: GPS & heart rate accuracy (Image credit: Future)I’ve run thousands of miles with the Forerunner 970 and hundreds with the Pace 4 Pro, including multiple races with both watches, and kept tabs on the GPS accuracy of them throughout by checking GPS tracks and comparing them to official race distances.I use both in the most accurate multi-band GPS mode, and both are about as good as it gets for GPS accuracy. I’ve been able to rely on them even during twisting city races like the London Marathon with the Forerunner 970, and the Shoreditch Half Marathon in London with the Coros Pace 4 Pro.I did a long workout with both watches recently, looping around a park near me, and they recorded near identical distances both overall, and for each of the seven 3km reps I did in the session. (Image credit: Future)With regards to heart rate accuracy I’ve compared both watches to a chest strap throughout my long-term testing and both have mostly impressed, delivering readings that are closely in line with the chest strap most of the time.The Coros Pace 4 Pro is a little more prone to make errors in my experience, sometimes spiking for no reason during runs, but these spikes don’t usually last long before it returns to the right heart rate reading. Image 1 of 1 (Image credit: DC Rainmaker Analyzer) This happened during the long run I did with both watches, where the Pace 4 Pro had a couple of erroneous jumps in the middle of the workout, but for the most part both watches were closely in line with the chest strap.I’d rate them equal for GPS accuracy but give a slight edge to the Forerunner 970 for heart rate, though if you really value accuracy with the latter I’d still pair a chest strap to either watch, as I do most of the time.Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: battery life (Image credit: Future)Battery life has always been a big strength of Coros watches and that’s the case with the Pace 4 Pro, which is rated at lasting up to 21 days in watch mode and offers 30 hours of multi-band GPS.The Forerunner 970 is listed as lasting up to 15 days and offers 21 hours of multi-band GPS. (Image credit: Future)In testing I had the always-on screen enabled on both watches and used the most accurate, and power intensive, GPS mode, and I also enabled real-time heart rate tracking on the Coros outside workouts (it’s set to take readings every 10 minutes outside workouts as default).With the same use, the Coros Pace 4 Pro lasts me seven days on a charge, running every day, whereas I need to charge the Forerunner 970 every four or five days.Seven days is exceptional for a slim watch like this with a bright AMOLED screen, and only really beaten by much larger AMOLED watches like the Suunto Vertical 2 and Garmin Fenix 9 Pro, or watches with memory-in-pixel displays.Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: smart features (Image credit: Future)While neither watch matches the smarts of a device like the Apple Watch Ultra 4, Garmin wearables are much more advanced in this area than other dedicated sports watches.The Forerunner 970 has NFC Payments, offline music storage and the ability to link with streaming services including Spotify, the modest but useful Connect IQ app store, and a lot more customization options with its watch faces than the Pace 4 Pro.You can store music on the Pace 4 Pro, but only MP3 files you drag and drop across to the watch, and it doesn’t have an app store or NFC payments. If it’s smarts you need, the Garmin wins the day in this comparison.Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: maps and navigation (Image credit: Future)Both watches have offline maps and can guide you through routes with turn-by-turn directions and give guidance on individual climbs and descents you encounter on those routes (like how long is left to the summit).However, the Garmin Forerunner 970 has routable maps, which means it knows where you are and can create routes for you on the fly, and guide you back to a route or starting point with a new route if you go astray. (Image credit: Future)The Coros Pace 4 Pro’s maps are more like an image it overlays your route on, so you have to create routes on another platform (like the partner app) and send them over.These non-routable maps are more than good enough in most scenarios in my experience, but the Forerunner 970 does have an extra string to its bow in that it can create routes without needing your phone at all.Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: specs compared Swipe to scroll horizontally Coros Pace 4 Pro vs Garmin Forerunner 970 Header Cell - Column 0 Coros Pace 4 Pro Garmin Forerunner 970 Price $449/£389 $749/£629 Size 47.6 x 11.8mm 47 x 12.9mm Display 1.47in 466 x 466 AMOLED 1.4in 454 x 454 AMOLED Bezel Titanium Titanium Screen Sapphire crystal Sapphire crystal Weight 51g 56g Water resistance 5 ATM 5 ATM Battery life (watch mode) Up to 21 days Up to 15 days Battery life (multi- band GPS) 30 hours 21 hours Navigation Offline maps Offline maps NFC payments No Yes Mic/speaker Mic & speaker Mic & speaker Storage 32GB 32GB Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4 Pro: verdict (Image credit: Future)The Garmin Forerunner 970 has some clear advantages over the Coros Pace 4 Pro, with more training analysis, better smart features and navigation tools, and that handy built-in flashlight, but it does cost a lot more.Furthermore, the Coros is not just cheaper, it also has longer battery life and its design is lighter and slimmer despite having a bigger screen, and it matches the Forerunner 970 on the essentials on sports tracking.I’d say the Garmin Forerunner 970 remains the best sports watch overall you can get, unless you want something more rugged with connectivity like the Fenix 9 Pro, but the Coros Pace 4 Pro is better value and the watch I’d recommend if you don’t need the extras on the Forerunner 970. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button!More from Tom's Guide If you enjoy lifting weights — these are the only 3 gym shoes I'd wear, and they're up to 30% off in Prime Day salesI’ve tested the Hoka Clifton 11 vs Hoka Bondi 9 and this is the one I’d buyMy favorite trail-running shoe is 34% off for Prime Day, and it’s great for hiking too Nick Harris-Fry is an experienced health and fitness journalist, writing professionally since 2012. He spent nine years working on the Coach magazine and website before moving to the fitness team at Tom’s Guide in 2024. Nick is a keen runner and also the founder of YouTube channel The Run Testers, which specialises in reviewing running shoes, watches, headphones and other gear.Nick ran his first marathon in 2016 and became obsessed with the sport. He now has PBs of 2hr 25min for the marathon and 15min 30sec for 5K. Nick is also a qualified Run Leader in the UK.Nick is an established expert in the fitness area and along with writing for many publications, including Live Science, Expert Reviews, Wareable, Coach and Get Sweat Go, he has been quoted on The Guardian and The Independent.