Is the Coros Nomad actually an journey watch?

Coros’ Nomad is marketed as a “go-anywhere, do-anything” journey watch. It’s obtained GPS and offline maps and can monitor a variety of actions, from yoga to bouldering. There’s an “Adventure Journal,” which the advertising and marketing copy guarantees will assist you document “every step, catch, and summit.” While it doesn’t have a number of the bells and whistles of a costlier competitor like Garmin, it’s a product seemingly geared toward campers, backpackers, and different outdoorsy varieties who aren’t glad with one thing all-purpose like an Apple Watch. So when my colleague Victoria Song flagged the Nomad to me, I took Coros at its phrase — and, as The Verge’s resident dirtbag, took the Nomad on the Tahoe Rim Trail.

Outdoor recreation is a rising market. Notably, the market can afford smartwatches — the variety of members who make greater than $100,000 a 12 months is rising, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. Hiking is the most well-liked exercise.

And backpackers, particularly weight-obsessed thru-hikers, are completely deranged gearheads. Gear was the most typical topic of dialogue amongst hikers after I was on the Appalachian Trail earlier this 12 months. Go to any backpacker discussion board and also you’ll see the identical factor. A very well-designed system isn’t going to wish a lot advertising and marketing — phrase of mouth was sufficient to get me to check out the Haribo Mini Power Bank, the lightest 20,000mAh battery in the marketplace and presumably additionally the cutest. There’s additionally plenty of room to beat the value of Garmin smartwatches — the high-end fashions value greater than a grand. The Instinct 3, a comparable Garmin watch, is $399 at the absolute cheapest, despite the fact that you’ll be able to’t obtain maps for navigation on that watch like you’ll be able to with the Nomad. I haven’t owned a Garmin watch in about 10 years, largely as a result of I simply didn’t discover the watches to be well worth the price ticket.

I used the Coros Nomad, which prices $349, on my hike and for a month of coaching beforehand. I’m about to determine a bunch of limitations for my particular very outside sports activities, however earlier than I do this, I need to be clear: this can be a good watch at a fantastic worth. But I obtained the sense it was designed by and for weekend warriors (or perhaps simply suburban distance runners?).

There’s a world the place somebody delivers every little thing the Nomad guarantees — however the Nomad itself doesn’t. This is a failure of promoting, clearly, however it obtained me considering. Why aren’t hikers and path runners demanding extra from these merchandise? Even essentially the most “outdoorsy” ones are nonetheless primarily meant for street runners.

Let’s simply get it out of the way in which: the battery life kicks ass, particularly compared to my Apple Watch Series 6. (Unlike a few of our evaluations crew, I’m a expertise regular and use issues till they break, just about.) The Tahoe Rim Trail is officially 165 miles, although the FarOut map I used for navigation put it at 174. I created — and largely caught to — an 11-day itinerary. I charged the Coros Nomad earlier than I left, then wore it nonstop for the whole lot of the hike. It ran out of battery as soon as, close to the top of day 6, at mile 19 of 25, after greater than 40 hours of actively monitoring my hikes. After a recharge, I didn’t must cost it once more for the remainder of the hike. Not dangerous.

But my first clue that the Nomad hadn’t actually been designed for me occurred as quickly as I opened the Coros app. The defaults on that app provide you with a way of who it’s for, and the third part down, after the “Today” information and the coaching calendar, is a immediate for creating a customized marathon plan. Coros’ shows are admirably customizable, so eradicating the marathon plan part was straightforward, however I had nothing comparable to exchange it with. In reality, whereas the watch has a variety of options for street and monitor runners, they don’t are likely to generalize to individuals who hike, backpack, and even do path operating — a significant missed alternative.

The app had a immediate for a operating health take a look at, however it solely works in “run” or “track run” mode, suggesting it’s not likely geared towards path runners. Road and monitor operating are primarily about tempo. Trail operating usually includes dodging obstacles, coping with uneven or free floor, and longer, steeper climbs. That makes tempo much less of a precedence, partly due to the will increase in agility, steadiness, and energy calls for. My guess, based mostly on the truth that path operating, as a selected exercise, is excluded from operating health checks, is that Coros is aware of the “fitness test” gained’t be correct for path runners. That’s irritating in an “outdoors” watch — it means the outdoorsiest runners aren’t getting the identical sorts of coaching insights as their street runner brethren.

Likewise, whereas there may be an “auto pause” characteristic obtainable for runners, it doesn’t work for climbing and strolling — which is bizarre. My Apple Watch doesn’t have an issue noticing after I’m not shifting. (There is a “resume later” mode if you wish to monitor multiday actions in a single monitor; I didn’t use it as a result of breaking my hike into segments by day made extra sense to me.)

I additionally discovered myself pissed off by the coaching calendar. While I might enter my energy routine and my path runs, I couldn’t add hikes. The upside of the coaching calendar was that I might summon a selected exercise on the Nomad as I did it — so if I used to be doing an interval run, the watch would notify me when every interval was over. For street and monitor runners, there are even preloaded exercises you’ll be able to add, quite than painstakingly programming your personal. Sadly, there wasn’t something comparable for path runners.

The watch did effectively at monitoring walks and runs, after all. Both the gap and the altimeter appeared correct after I examined them towards my Apple Watch — I obtained roughly the identical readings. But the default watch show on climbing was 5 screens of information. On the primary web page, it gave distance and velocity, with the period of time spent doing the hike in a bar close to the underside. The second web page contained my coronary heart price and the time of day. The third web page was Coros metrics — coaching load, in addition to how environment friendly it felt my cardio and anaerobic coaching was. The fourth web page was lap (which on this case simply meant mile) time, how far I’d gone till the following mile, and my velocity. The remaining display was the grade, my elevation achieve and loss.

This is nonsense. I’m merely not going to scroll although that many screens on a hike. That Coros’ made-up metrics take priority over elevation and velocity looks like a vital error of judgment.

On any given day I’m on path, I must know roughly what my total per-mile tempo is, what my present tempo is, what number of miles I’ve traveled, and when the solar goes to go down. (It’s good however not essential to know my total elevation achieve — when mixed with info from mapping apps, it will possibly inform me how shut I’m to being achieved with climbing for the day with out me pulling out my telephone.) So I consolidated the screens of information to 2 helpful ones. But the tradeoff for simply changeable widgets is that the watch isn’t designed to be readable at a look. Maybe it’s simply my middle-aged eyes, however the mixture of the show and the comparatively small fonts meant I used to be squinting on the watch extra typically than I ought to have been — particularly provided that it was taking over a lot actual property on my wrist. A much less modular show might need created room for extra readable design.

But maybe essentially the most damning factor concerning the Nomad and the Coros app is how a lot they depend on being linked to the web. The greatest failure is that the Nomad advertising and marketing copy advertises security alerts that permit the watch proprietor to ship an SOS — however with out mobile information, they don’t work. If the watch can’t contact a satellite tv for pc by itself, it’s no good within the wilderness as an SOS system. (Most watches can’t join on to satellites, although some new fashions will.) My downside right here is the advertising and marketing: if you’re promising that the watch is for going wherever, the protection alert characteristic you’re promoting had higher go wherever, too.

In the Sierras, there are sometimes afternoon thunderstorms, and whereas I used to be on the Tahoe Rim Trail, I had 5 straight days of them. (On the primary one, I even obtained hailed on.) I had a 25-mile day not as a result of I meant to stroll 25 miles, however as a result of I’d gotten a lot of the means as much as the very best level on the path, Relay Peak, when a thunderstorm started. I appeared round at bushes close to me that had clearly been struck by lightning in some unspecified time in the future prior to now, determined that discretion was the higher a part of valor, and commenced heading again down.

I’d gotten a lot of the means down when the thunderstorm handed, after which I had a call to make: was I going to attempt to recover from the mountain once more? This wasn’t actually a call the Nomad might assist me with. My Garmin InReach Mini 2 had helpfully knowledgeable me that there was, certainly, one other thunderstorm on the way in which — it’ll work so long as it has a view of the sky, although a climate report will value you one among your costly textual content messages. The Nomad, however, pulls most of its information from Apple’s Weatherkit API, which implies it solely works in case your cell phone has service, so if you happen to’ve put your telephone in airplane mode to preserve battery otherwise you don’t have service in any respect, you’re out of luck. So if you happen to’re attempting to remain protected by planning for the climate, the Nomad doesn’t actually lower it within the backcountry.

I did make it up and over Relay Peak earlier than the following storm started, a deluge that soaked me to the pores and skin regardless of my rain gear. But I had loads of time on the down slope to surprise, soggily, if it might have been useful to have gotten a storm alert earlier than the primary thunderstorm began. I came upon after I obtained again to civilization that it was, in actual fact, doable to get a storm alert — the Nomad has a built-in barometer. Unfortunately, it was buried in a menu I hadn’t explored, and the storm alert defaulted to off.

I don’t anticipate Coros to thoroughly retool its app to prioritize backpackers. But it might need been useful to get a few of these particulars in a one-sheet with the Nomad quick-start information: find out how to activate climate alerts, find out how to take a look at for altitude acclimation, that the SOS service and climate require mobile information. I do know that lots of people take pleasure in playing around with each menu and setting on their devices, however personally, I’d quite hike. Pointing me at what may be helpful would assist me with that objective.

If the corporate needed to take a position extra in coaching plans for path runners, hikers, and backpackers — or, at minimal, permit individuals so as to add deliberate hikes to their exercise calendar — that may be nice. But there are different methods the Nomad fails the outside athlete.

As I used to be preparing for the path, I introduced the watch to all my exercises, which is uncommon. Generally I reserve exercise monitoring for cardio exercise, as a result of watches are fairly good at monitoring that, and fairly dangerous at most every little thing else. But with its coaching load metrics, its restoration timer, and its sleep focus, the Coros app suggests the corporate’s gadgets can be utilized to foresee an individual’s wants doing pretty difficult actions.

Unfortunately, these actions are fairly idiosyncratic.

The Coros app is considerably profitable at estimating coaching load for cardio, however the limitations round the way it handles different actions make the “insights” suspect. The coaching load is predicated on duration and heart rate — which implies for non-cardio actions, it’ll skew low. This information is then used to set a restoration timer, which is meant to let you know how lengthy it’ll take earlier than you’re again at 100%. Because the coaching load isn’t based mostly on dependable information for non-cardio actions, the restoration timer isn’t reliable both.

These issues aren’t distinctive to the Nomad; the Apple Watch (and just about each wearable health tracker) sucks at monitoring these items, too. But it doesn’t attempt to give me restoration metrics or in-depth coaching insights.

Like most sports activities watches, the Nomad wasn’t superb at dealing with my energy coaching or yoga. The bouldering settings struck me as extra helpful. The watch will cue you to deal with your first downside; if you’re completed, you click on one among its buttons, and may then enter the way you tackled the climb, utilizing the game’s specialised jargon. Afterward, you’ll be able to see your whole ascent, how lengthy you rested between issues, and the grade you climbed at — in addition to some much less helpful information, like coronary heart price. But with all three sports activities, the watch had hassle telling how a lot I’d exerted myself.

On path, the Coros restoration timer wasn’t significantly better. After the primary day, in accordance with the watch, I used to be fatigued and wanted to relaxation. The restoration timer stayed there all through the length of the journey. There had been days I wakened feeling recent and able to go, after which glanced on the Coros app, which instructed me I used to be at 0 % of my capability. That felt foolish, particularly after I’d then knock out 15 miles.

And regardless of all of the exercise modes the Nomad supplied, there was an vital one lacking: rucking, or strolling with weight. That’s the important thing characteristic of backpacking. The Apple Watch doesn’t supply rucking, both. Whoop additionally has a rucking mode, however doesn’t track weight. Coros’ direct competitor Garmin introduced a rucking mode earlier this 12 months, permitting customers to trace their pack weight, and whereas its options go away some issues to be desired, it’s a begin.

It’s bizarre that rucking is so completely ignored. Bro influencers, from Andrew Huberman to Peter Attia, have been singing its praises; GQ named it “the workout of 2024.” Axios notes it’s on the rise among women, too; Women’s Health highlighted its useful effects on bone density. Even Tom’s Guide has referred to as it a “game changer.” Look, I think about myself a backpacker quite than a rucker, however no matter you name it, that is an underserved market.

The promised customized coaching applications Coros’ app gives merely don’t match something I’m doing. To prepare for a thru-hike, I usually do path runs and rucks utilizing my precise backpack. On most workdays, I’m not going to have the ability to get in even a 10-mile hike, so operating is vital for my cardio capability. As for rucking, that’s partly to get my ft used to the calls for of the additional weight. The objective is to ruck with both my most pack weight or extra for the month earlier than my hike.

I’ll spare you the small print of hiker math, however right here’s the naked define: I knew my gear alone could be 16.2 kilos; that I’d want to hold about 5 liters, or about 10 kilos, of water at most; and that water carry could be after I was additionally carrying 4 days’ value of meals, or about 8 kilos. My pack, at its absolute heaviest, would weigh about 32 kilos.

That meant after I did coaching hikes, I loaded up my backpack till it weighed 35 kilos. Those hikes had been largely vibe-based — I normally climbed a minimal of two,000 ft over 10 miles as shortly as I might. But whereas I used to be coaching, I had loads of time to fantasize about how a backpacker-oriented health watch might make my life simpler. Here’s what I got here up with:

Sure, there are a restricted variety of thru-hikers who’re going to be doing this explicit model of coaching — however it’ll additionally profit the a lot bigger quantity of people that ruck for health. And who is aware of? If a smartwatch got here up with couch-to-thru-hike app, it’d catch on similar to couch-to-5K.

On each the Nomad and the Apple Watch, I tracked my hikes as “walks” and my hikes with weight as “hikes.” That helped me separate the actions at a look. But there have been nonetheless some annoyances. On the Apple Watch, each my hikes and walks counted towards my estimated VO2 max, which is an indicator of cardio health that’s significantly vital to endurance athletes — and whereas the precise worth is form of a bullshit metric that can range fairly wildly between watches, the pattern line is what I’m watching. When I’m climbing with weight in preparation for a backpacking journey or on the journey itself, my VO2 max takes successful. When I cease climbing with weight after the journey, my VO2 max shoots up. Garmin will get round this downside by disabling the VO2 max when its watches are in rucking mode.

The Nomad’s VO2 max is buried within the “Running Fitness” menu, a characteristic I didn’t click on on for a really very long time as a result of, effectively, it turns on the market’s no information obtainable for me since I’m not a street or monitor runner. Neither walks nor hikes depend towards that rating — and neither do path runs.

I perceive the Nomad added offline road names to its GPS navigating capabilities, which was mainly meaningless to me — there aren’t a variety of streets the place I’m going. The watch’s display wasn’t large enough to be my essential supply of navigation; FarOut is fairly powerful to beat, not least as a result of it will possibly do issues like let you know if a water supply remains to be operating even if you happen to don’t have service. It’s additionally tough to get misplaced on the Tahoe Rim Trail, which is effectively groomed and clearly signed. Perhaps if I had made camp and gone for a day hike, it might have been extra helpful in retracing my steps again to camp. Still, I didn’t see any apparent flaws utilizing it, and I used to be impressed by the dearth of lag.

The map the Nomad generates can be utilized because the spine of its Adventure Journal operate. This is the distinguishing characteristic of the Nomad, which helps you to add photographs and voice notes made on the Nomad watch — it’s obtained a built-in microphone — to your recorded exercise.

Sadly, it, too, doesn’t work until you might be linked to the web. This limits its on-trail usefulness.

For ultralight varieties, maintaining notes in your telephone is sweet sufficient. I carry a pocket book and pen — luxurious gadgets, however pretty versatile ones. I maintain a path journal on the times I don’t instantly go to sleep as quickly as I lie down in my tent. (It’s a pleasant approach to wind down.) I additionally use it to sketch out my supposed route, make procuring lists for my resupply runs, and, in a pinch, go away a observe on the dashboard of my automotive saying after I anticipate to be again from my journey. For the form of hiker who doesn’t need to deliver a pen (0.3oz) and pocket book (5.4oz), it’d function an improve over attempting to kind on a telephone.

Writing in my journal is a behavior; making voice notes is just not. So whereas I used to be climbing the TRT, I didn’t use the microphone, as a result of it merely didn’t happen to me. To be trustworthy, I’m undecided what notes I’d make on a thru-hike that have to be coordinated to a selected level on path. The voice notes characteristic might be most helpful for individuals who hunt and fish, or birdwatchers. Like many different Coros options, it’s not precisely straightforward to search out the voice observe operate from the exercise display — however as soon as I positioned it, it labored effectively sufficient.

The picture characteristic was extra intuitive. You can take photographs within the Coros app, although I didn’t; I discover it simpler to take photographs with out unlocking my telephone. Because I went so lengthy with out an web connection, I used to be dreading coping with the backlog, however importing the pictures to my actions was pretty easy — and after I despatched a few of my travelogue to my buddy Rusty, he didn’t have any hassle seeing each my route and my photographs.

The actual query across the Adventure Journal was how a lot it locks your notes into the Coros system, and the reply is: no less than a bit. I used to be capable of export the info from my final day, after which add a GPX of the hike to CalTopo, one among my favourite mapping applications. Though the info included my pins — the spots the place I’d taken photos — the images themselves weren’t included.

I agree with a lot of simple hardware reviews concerning the Coros Nomad — the battery life is incredible, the watch itself is comparatively gentle and may take a beating, the offline navigation works very effectively (for a watch — display limitations are all the time going to matter), and it’s appealingly low cost. It’s an incredible improve over my present watch in these respects. While a flashlight or photo voltaic charging could be good, they’re not requirements. No, it’s the software program I’ve beef with.

As far as I do know, there hasn’t but been a very nice backpacker watch, and the Nomad positively isn’t it. The Adventure Journal is a neat toy, however not far more. The software program fixes that would get the Nomad over the road would possibly embrace coaching applications for path runners and backpackers, a rucking mode (ideally with higher help for rucking than the comparatively paltry choices by its rivals), and a extra thought of restoration program. Even less complicated fixes — highlighting the capabilities that the Nomad does have however are buried in a non-intuitive menu, an easier-to-read design in exercise modes, an app that does extra when it’s offline — could be enhancements.

But let’s dream for a minute, as a result of the Nomad actually obtained me occupied with what a great out of doors watch might do. Obviously, the battery life and GPS navigation are nonnegotiable. But the one {hardware} modification that would actually change the sport is satellite tv for pc connectivity. I do know it’s doable to connect with a satellite tv for pc through a watch as a result of the Apple Watch Ultra 3 gives it — however that watch solely has an estimated 72 hours of battery life in low-power mode, and it’s $800. The new Garmin Fenix 8 Pro additionally gives it together with roughly 27 days of battery life, however it requires a subscription on prime of its absurd beginning worth of $1,200.

A watch that lets me drop the Garmin InAttain Mini (3.5oz) has advantages past the burden financial savings and letting me cancel an costly subscription: I’m much less prone to lose my watch in a fall than I’m to lose the Garmin system, even when it’s clipped to my belt loop. A watch that lets customers ship an actual SOS — in addition to check-in notifications — goes to be far more of a recreation changer than photo voltaic charging, flashlights, music, or wallets. Add alerts for extreme climate, and also you’ve obtained a winner. That’s security gear, and nobody of their proper thoughts skimps on that within the backcountry. People are going to purchase Garmin’s Fenix 8 Pro, regardless of the eye-watering worth and subscription, for precisely this cause. Shit, I may be one among them after I want to exchange my InAttain — despite the fact that the Fenix 8 Pro is full of options I don’t need or want, like audio system, a voice assistant, preloaded golf course maps, and dive performance. I’d love a greater, cheaper different.

When I’m on a solo hike, individuals are persistently shocked that I — I’m overtly feminine — really feel protected sufficient to hike alone. Thru-hiking is fairly male-dominated, and a lot of effort goes into assuring women that we are fairly safe outdoors. I ponder what number of different ladies would possibly attempt their first solo hike in the event that they knew they might simply summon assist by urgent a button on their watch. Probably lots! And I guess there are a variety of ladies street runners on the market, particularly in rural areas, who would profit from figuring out they will summon assist with out cell service too.

This is perhaps a major instance of how designing gear for essentially the most intense customers additionally expands the market. That’s the norm for this sport. Ray Jardine pretty much revolutionized backpacking by slicing weight and kicked off the ultralight motion. Ultralight gear made the game extra accessible to ladies, older individuals, and folks with accidents, rising backpacking’s reputation. Thinking about thru-hikers and path runners — particularly ones who’re coaching for the extra maniacal races, resembling 100Ks — is like making basketball sneakers for LeBron James. Ideal gear will matter extra to LeBron, however the common highschool participant stands to learn too.

So: is the Nomad watch? Yes, in some methods, if you happen to’re evaluating it to present choices from Apple or Garmin — particularly in its worth vary. But it doesn’t dwell as much as its advertising and marketing marketing campaign of letting you go wherever and do something. The fairly reasonably priced watch that can do this for the world’s most deranged gearheads doesn’t exist. At least, not but.