The Garmin Forerunner 970 is the best sports watch on the market, in my opinion, while the Coros Pace 4 is the best value. They’re probably my two favorite watches overall, and I’ve been wearing both of them since I started testing the Pace 4 ahead of its launch.
That period included my training leading up to, and then running, the Brighton 10K on the south coast of England, where both watches impressed for the accuracy of their distance and pace tracking.
I’ve worn the Garmin Forerunner 970 and the Coros Pace 4 for two weeks now to compare their features and see if the Forerunner 970 is worth the extra you pay for it — it’s $500 more than the Pace 4, but it does have a lot of extra features.
There’s more detail on the individual watches in my Garmin Forerunner 970 review and Coros Pace 4 review, but below, I’ve highlighted what stands out as the most important differences between them during testing.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4: Price & availability
The Garmin Forerunner 970 launched in May 2025 and is one of the more expensive sports watches on the market at $749 / £629. As a fairly new watch, it’s yet to start popping up in sales.
The Coros Pace 4 sits at the other end of the price spectrum, costing $249 / £229, making it one of the most affordable sports watches. It was launched in November 2025, so it is also not likely to appear in sales soon, especially as Coros doesn’t tend to discount its watches.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4: Specs
| Row 0 - Cell 0 | Coros Pace 4 | Garmin Forerunner 970 |
Price | $249/£229 | $749 / £629 |
Size | 43.4 x 11.8mm | 47 x 12.9mm |
Display | 1.2in 390 x 390 AMOLED | 1.4in 454 x 454 AMOLED |
Bezel | Plastic | Titanium |
Screen | Glass | Sapphire crystal |
Weight | 40g | 56g |
Water resistance | 50m | 5ATM |
Battery life (watch mode) | Up to 20 days | Up to 15 days |
Battery life (GPS) | Up to 24 hours (multi-band, always-on) | 21 hours (multi-band GPS, always-on) |
Navigation | Breadcrumb | Offline maps |
NFC payments | No | Yes |
Mic/speaker | Mic | Mic & speaker |
Storage | 4GB | 32GB |
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4: Design and display
The Garmin Forerunner 970 is larger and heavier than the Pace 4, but still feels like a slim and comfortable watch to wear 24/7. It has some key design upgrades to make it more durable than the cheaper watch, including a sapphire crystal screen and a titanium bezel.
It also has a larger, brighter display and uses Garmin’s five-button design, which I slightly prefer to the three-button setup on the Pace 4, one of which is a digital dial that I find quite easy to trigger accidentally (if you don’t have auto lock turned on).
Another notable design difference between the watches is that the Forerunner 970 has a built-in flashlight, which is extremely useful. The Coros Pace 4 does have a flashlight mode, where you can use the screen to light the way, but it’s not as bright or easily directed as the flashlight on the 970.
The smaller size and lighter weight of the Pace 4 are a plus, though, especially if you have skinny wrists like me. It’s less noticeable on the wrist, and the screen is still bright and clear in all conditions.
Both watches can link to external sensors, though with the Forerunner 970, this is via both Bluetooth and ANT+, whereas the Pace 4 only uses Bluetooth.
They both offer multi-band GPS tracking and have other key sensors like a pulse oximeter and an altimeter. The Forerunner 970 can take an ECG measurement, which isn’t available on the Pace 4.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4: Sports tracking and training analysis
Both the Pace 4 and Forerunner 970 are full multisport watches with a multitude of sports modes that you can customize to your heart’s content.
There are some differences in the training analysis on offer, though. The Coros Pace 4 has all the classic training tools available from running watches — it will show your training load, advise on your recovery time, and give race predictions and a VO2 max estimate.
The Forerunner 970 goes beyond this in offering all of Garmin’s advanced training insights, including a training readiness score, ratings of your endurance and hill climbing ability, and your running tolerance, which takes into account distance and intensity of runs.
It also provides advice on how well acclimated to heat or altitude you are and suggests workouts to do each day to balance your training. When paired with the Garmin HRM 600 chest strap heart rate monitor, the Forerunner 970 can also measure your running economy.
You might not need some or all of these features, but like other top Garmins, the Forerunner 970 offers the most impressive set of training analysis tools you can get. The Pace 4’s analysis provides everything I really need as a marathoner, but I do find the extra tools on the Forerunner 970 useful and interesting.
When it comes to race predictions, the Forerunner 970 predicted I could run a 32:05 10K, while the Coros Pace 4 said 32:09. I ran 31:54 on the day, so both were pretty close, but the Garmin was slightly closer.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4: GPS & heart rate accuracy
Throughout testing, I used both watches in multi-band mode, which is the most accurate GPS setting. This included the race in Brighton, which had a pretty simple course along the seafront that both watches tracked very accurately, though the Forerunner 970 went wide at the main turnaround on the course.
Both have been reliable throughout testing, and despite being a cheaper watch, the Pace 4 is as accurate as anything on the market for me when it comes to running.
With regard to heart rate accuracy, both have also been very good for me in testing, when compared to the reading from a chest strap. The Pace 4 has made a few more errors than the Forerunner 970, I’d say. If you don’t plan on using an external sensor, it would be stronger on this front, but I prefer to link a chest strap to both for the most reliable results.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4: Battery life
As the bigger watch, you might expect more battery life from the Forerunner 970, but its larger, brighter display does come at the cost of battery, and Coros is very strong on battery life across its line-up of watches.
The Forerunner 970 is listed as lasting up to 15 days and offering 21 hours of multi-band GPS tracking, whereas the Pace 4 can reach 19 days and has 24 hours of multi-band tracking with the screen always on.
With the screen always on, running every day, both watches tend to last me four or five days on a charge. With the screen set to raise-to-wake, the Forerunner 970 hits eight to nine days, whereas the Pace 4 lasts 10 days. It’s not a huge difference in practice, but the Pace 4 outlasting the larger watch (as a rule) is impressive.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4: Smart features and navigation
The Forerunner 970 offers more smarts and navigation features than the Pace 4, with the Coros only having breadcrumb navigation and some basic smart features like notification support, a weather forecast widget, and the ability to store MP3 files.
You get offline maps on the Forerunner 970, which can create routes and re-route you on the fly. When it comes to smarts, the Forerunner 970 can link to music streaming services, has NFC payments through Garmin Pay, and access to the modest Connect IQ app store.
Coros has focused more on the essentials with the Pace 4, which is fair enough in my view, but these are some notable extra features you get on the pricier Forerunner 970.
Garmin Forerunner 970 vs Coros Pace 4: Verdict
The list of extra features you get on the Garmin Forerunner 970 versus the Coros Pace 4 is long and has some notable inclusions that could be key for you, but the Pace 4 does nail all the key features runners and triathletes need in an attractive and affordable package.
If you buy the Forerunner 970, you’ll want for nothing in terms of features or performance, but if none of its extra features really stand out as vital to you, the Coros Pace 4 offers excellent accuracy and usability at a much lower price.
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