gps-guides

COROS APEX Pro

First Impressions

This isn’t a full review (or even a mini-review) and is simply a list of bullet points that I noted down after my first few sessions using the APEX Pro.

Pros

• Well made product with a comfortable wrist strap.
  • Probably waterproof but this will only be proven in time.
• Battery life is very impressive - 30 days (non-GPS) or 40 hours (GPS).
• Easy of use - nice interface on the watch and in the COROS app. The dial is intuitive.
• On the water display - shows most GP3S speed categories, including nautical mile.
  • Customisable screens in the speed sailing mode are also very useful.
• End of session - auto-syncs with the COROS app, enabling easy review on mobile devices.
• Automatic upload to GP3S - available for posting via a web browser, even on a phone.
• Can export sessions as FIT data from the COROS app to Dropbox, etc.
• Other features - GoPro control, saving current position, heart rate, etc.

Cons

• Wheel control is sometimes unresponsive when trying to unlock / control the watch.
  • Scrolling in the opposite problem will usually resolve the issue.
• There is no “peak” speed reading as such, only the best 2s average.
  • However, instantaneous speeds can be misleading due to “noise”, etc.
• Data quality is ok but certainly nothing special.
  • Not as good as the traditional Locosysy devices; GT-31, GW-52, GW-60.
• Results in the COROS app can differ from GP3S upload and FIT export.
  • Alpha 500 results on the watch and COROS app are often very wrong.
• Pretty expensive at slightly over £400 but the cost is evident in the build quality.
  • Need to consider the risk of losing it on the water… one friend lost his APEX Pro!

Setup

• Linking COROS and GP3S accounts was straightforward for automatic uploads.
• I originally decided to set the GPS mode to GPS/GZSS.
  • After upgrading the firmware in March 2022, I chose “GPS, Beidou, Galileo, QZSS”.

Issues

• Session summary was not correctly counting or reporting all of the runs.
  • This improved after increasing the “run entry speed” to the max of 12 knots.
  • Speeds reported on the app sometimes changed when posting to GP3S.
  • Alpha results on the watch and COROS app were observed to be very unreliable.
• Auto-Sync to GP3S often resulted in duplicate sessions available for posting.
  • Update: This issue does not seem to happen nowadays; March 2022.
• Early analysis in GPSResults lacked some data; Satellites, COG, HDOP, SDOP, +/-.
  • This has been confirmed as being due to the content of the earlier FIT files.
  • All of my FIT exports since early Oct 2021 have contained Satellites, COG, HDOP.
  • Sessions from Mark include additional data as of late July 2021. Possibly due to changes in 2.54?
• I could not see any of the water sports sessions on the COROS website.
  • Most other activities were visible on workout history; run, bike, swim, triathlon, etc.
  • Subsequently discovered all of the water sports sessions in the personal workout list.
• GPX tracks cannot be trusted for speeds.
  • This is fine and is to be expected to some extent. Export FIT data for the best data.
• FIT data suggests that speeds are being smoothed and somewhat unrealistic.
  • See my article describing the data issues on the APEX Pro and VERTIX.