NOMAD

I've just moved from a Pace 3 to a Nomad and, honestly, they're cracking pieces of kit. I've not had any issues with them since moving to Coros watches in February. For trails I would lean towards at least the Pace Pro or the Nomad/Apex 4 (they're basically the same) simply due to offline maps. Either way, Coros or Garmin, there's a device that meets your needs at a price you are willing to pay.

I've just moved from a Pace 3 to a Nomad and, honestly, they're cracking pieces of kit. I've not had any issues with them since moving to Coros watches in February. For trails I would lean towards at least the Pace Pro or the Nomad/Apex 4 (they're basically the same) simply due to offline maps. Either way, Coros or Garmin, there's a device that meets your needs at a price you are willing to pay.

"No Feature locking" is not true. Fishing modes are not shipped to all watches, just Nomad and vertix. Also other activity modes are not available on all watch models although it is not a hardware issue

He might be saying that because of how expensive a new Garmin is. If money is no object for you and you're giving it to him as a gift then a Forerunner 970 is a far superior watch. If he really wants to try Coros, he should do it with his own money and buying it from somewhere that you can return it without paying a restocking fee or shipping such as REI (in-store returns) or Amazon. I'm coming from Garmin and I've been pretty happy with my Coros Nomad, though there are a lot of mostly UI quirks. Functionality wise it's FAR better than Suunto and close but not quite there to Garmin. There is at least 1 completely dealbreaking flaw for me which is that the fonts are way too small in certain places and can't be increased. I can't read my notifications at all which kind of kills all the smartwatch functionality for me.

Interesting choice with the Apex 4, I think the Nomad is a better and cheaper watch 🙂 although I'm a sucker for a ruggedized plastic watch.

I returned my Coros Nomad because the font was just too small. They make pretty decent products but they fall short of Garmin with not being customizable in quality of life ways such as font size, screen brightness (way too bright), beep sounds (too loud and can't turn off or make quieter), and their watch faces aren't customizable. 

A few notes after owning a nomad for almost two weeks: Screen lock during activities - this only locks the dial button, not the dial wheel and the two other buttons. The reason I was using the screen lock is so my gloves don't scroll the data pages while riding an MTB, my gloves often press against the dial.  Notifications - if I toggle the notifications button on and off on the app, I will temporarily get all notifications to the watch. But after time, it resets to some glitch where I only receive phone calls notifications, not texts.  Real time HR - the watch will freeze on HR data until you hand gesture for the screen to wake up. Then the HR will appear in real time again. I started noticing my HR was either high or low, but when I moved the watch to look closer, the HR jumped from say 74 to 57. Just an example. The second dial disappears until you hand gesture.  Laps on the walking activity - my auto lap happens on 0.62mi, not 1mi.  Overall, this watch is great. The thing just works. I am recent convert from Garmin (Fenix 5) so this was a game changer in regard to HR, HRV, Screen technology, and just updated user interface. 

I took a leap of faith and purchased a Coros nomad instead of a garmin instinct as my first “running” watch. I love it so far. It has all the same capabilities as a Garmin so far. I run a lot of trails and I can download a route from my phone and it uploads to my watch fast. That being said I did have to download the region maps that I live in order for the GPS to have the most accurate streets. It’s got several preset watch faces to choose from. There is a few customization options. But I’m a newbie so all I need on my everyday watch face is date time and step count. It also displays battery life. Battery life is great. I’ve logged 25 miles in a week with the GPS option on showing me the routes and street names when I did do road running. I’m at 55% after logging those runs and also playing with the watch learning it lol. As far as selecting workouts it’s super easy. You can modify your watch to have only the activities you do. It’s a simple 3 clicks on the dial and you’re started. During the runs there super clear display screens and you can easily select which ones to use by rotating the dial. It will even display live map while you run. Each mile you hit it gives you a notification screen with how many miles, that mile pace and overall pace. Ending the run or activity is just as easy, simply hold the dial. The application on the phone is super easy to navigate. It allows you to permission Coros to send your run Data to Strava easily and there’s only about a 30 second delay once you complete the activity. There’s several other app options I just prefer Strava. Updating the watch is super easy from the app. It manages the watches storage which comes with a 32GB storage out the box. I downloaded four region maps and only used 125MB so overall I feel they have optimized this really good. Also it is easy to access to the app to shut off functions of the watch you do not use to optimize battery life.

I switched from an apple se2 to a coros nomad and I will never go back. My apple almost died when I was doing a trail race. We have the same concerns, battery life. I only switched because I really wanted the data, I think you probably should think about it. But the aw was a really good daily watch, notifications and all that jazz. But being away from that was pretty good detox too.

Love my Coros nomad - particularly for the value. Metal finishes aren’t as good but price, battery, and speed can’t be beat. You mention bulk/ so might not be best, but gotta look at the Coros.