Navigating with the Garmin Forerunner 570 and the Coros Nomad
Over the last week or two I tested the Garmin ForeRunner 570 when navigating from Crans-Montana to Leukerbad. I also tried a group run navigating with the 570 during a Décathlon run, before spotting that the Coros Nomad and Coros Apex 4 offered full map navigation without paying the Garmin premium price.
Hiking with the 570 is a red line on a black line. You look at the squiggle and intuit where you’re meant to go. With hiking it worked most of the time, although in one or two situations context would have been nice to have. In the second I was running with a group as unofficial navigator. I had the red line helping me intuit where the track was and I got it right.
A few weeks earlier I had tried navigating with the Garmin Instinct 2 and I had misread one turn. The problem with the Instinct 2 was lag while running.é The 570 doesn’t have that issue.
Now, the nomad and Apex 4 are similar watches but the nomad is cheaper, but larger. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. If you’re navigating, information is key, and a big screen provides you with more. Having said this, walking with a dinner plate on your wrist (slight exaggeration, it’s a normal size, 46mm).
I tested the watch during a group run with a pace of 5:40/km as well as a bike ride from Morges to Cossonay and the result is good for running, and bad for cycling.
When you’re running, you can easily lift your wrist, look at the map and see where the squiggle requires you to turn, and whether it’s at a roundabout or some other intersection. When people look back and ask “And now where do we go” you indicate “straight ahead” or left in 200m.
The alternative, is running with a phone in your hand, with the screen timing out and having to navigate back to screen, interpret the map, and then continue. With a wrist mounted GPS you know within a glance.
Now, with cycling it becomes less interesting. With cycling it will say “turn right” but it doesn’t say “turn right at the second exit” or show a “straight at the roundabout graphic”. It just says “turn right” or “turn left”, without context. When you cycle that context is key. You need driving directions like you get with a car gps, or the explore 2.
The Premium Feature at an Affordable Price
With Garmin and Suunto, map navigation is a premium feature of watches in the 600 CHF+ range, whereas with Coros this is a 294 CHF watch. That’s as cheap or cheaper than an Apple Watch SE with a battery that lasts for weeks, rather than a day.
Downloading Maps
If you live by the Léman, then the map is perfect. You download one square and it should cover most of your hikes, walks, runs and bike rides but if you ride around Denia and Javea spain then you need to download four map squares to include Calpe and Valencia.
Synching Routes
You can draw a route quickly via the Coros app, or if you’re participating in a group activity via Strava, then you can sync the route by saving route, and then sending the route to the Coros device of your choice. You can then activate the route from within the activity.
The Mild Learning Curve
Coros has a simpler app, and devices encourage you to wear them at night, for sleep quality and HRV, but other than that they are not bothered about you wearing the watch between workouts. This makes a refreshing change from Suunto, Garmin and Apple. There is also no gamification that I noticed.
And Finally
With Garmin offline maps are a premium feature whereas with Coros and Suunto they are not. This means that you could more comfortably go for a hike without your phone, or, at the very least your phone could stay in your pocket or rucksack rather than in your hand. You save on weight and gain in convenience.
The key lure of Coros aside from offline maps, is the step away from gamification. I’m tired of watches that want me to wear them 24/7, that tell me off for not sleeping well, and tell me that I’m losing fitness because I didn’t go for an exhausting bike ride twice in the last week. Coros feels to have a healthier mindset, for now.