Hi and welcome to the running channel, i’m anna and today, along with andy, we’re going to be taking a look at some of the best gps running, watches out there, no matter what your budget is. It’S really important to note before we get started that we’re not paid to say nice things about any of these watches by the brands. These reviews are entirely our own thoughts, so it doesn’t matter whether you’re looking for an entry-level budget watch to get you going or if you want an all-singing, all-dancing watch that will keep you out on the trails for hours. Well, actually, none of them sing or dance, but you could sing and dance along to some of them that have got music included. Now we know there’s quite a big price range when it comes to running watches out there, so we’ve grouped them by price, starting with the cheapest, going right up to the most expensive.
Now, we’ve grouped them by recommended retail price because that’s the most straightforward but top tip shop around, because there’s definitely some bargains out there to be had we’ve gone for price ranges under 200 pounds, 200 pounds to 300 pounds and then 300 pounds and above but before We dive in and find out what we think are the best watches out there right now. Please do hit subscribe and tap the bell icon to be notified when we upload new videos all about running which we do every week, we’ve got the garmin four. On a 45 or 45 s now they’re the same watch, but the s denotes a slightly smaller form factor, even though they both have the same features. The s is what you’ll see on screen here now. This replaces garmin’s 4 on a 35 and it’s their entry level watch.
But in this case entry level very much does not mean basic, and actually you get a lot of pretty advanced features that were previously reserved for more expensive models. It’S lightweight at 32 grams for the s and 36 grams for the slightly larger regular 45. It’S got optical wrist based heart rate, monitoring, built-in gps and also smart notifications. If you do want to connect it to your phone, it has a 208 pixel by 208 pixel display so not the highest resolution on test here. But it’s clear and easy to read out on a run.
There are five physical buttons around the face of the watch that allow you to navigate the screens and start and stop, for example, and if, like me, you do a fair bit of interval, training you’ll be glad of that dedicated manual lap button. You get approximately seven days of battery life or 13 hours in continuous gps mode, and if you take your phone out with your own runs, you can take advantage of a couple of nice safety features like internet detection and assistance. If you’re keen to get the most out of your watch, you might choose to wear it when you’re not running too, to take advantage of things like heart rate and sleep tracking, which contributes to garmin’s body battery stats, which basically give you an indicator of how fatigued You are a bit like tracking your phone’s battery use.
Throughout the day, you can also take advantage of stress tracking, which uses heart rate monitoring. To give you an idea of your stress levels throughout the day too, garmin connect is the app that allows you to connect to all garmin watches and also gives you access to garmin coach, which provides you with training plans for specific goals or distances that you might Be training for you can also use the foreign 45 for different sports.
It allows up to six profiles on the watch at any one time or there isn’t currently a dedicated swimming profile. You get a lot for your money with the garmin four on a 45, so this is a watch that’s worth considering both for new runners and experienced runners alike, when it was first launched. The coros pace. 2 was the lightest gps running watch on the market at just 29 grams, and that includes the strap as well. There’S some pretty nifty features on this watch.
Considering it’s in our lower price bracket, for example, it’s got a track running feature on it, so you can set your activity to track running and then select which lane of a 400 meter track you’re running in and then the gps signal will snap to that particular Lane to give you more accurate readings, because if you’ve ever run on a track wearing a gps watch before you might find that it maybe cuts off some of the bends in your gps activity. So that’s a nice little bonus if you enjoy or running on a track. Much like our very own kate does the charging time for the coros pace. Two is around two hours for a full charge and with that you get a pretty decent battery life. In fact, coros claimed that the battery life on this particular model can last up to 60 hours.
So if you are looking to do an ultra, then this watch will see you through on a single charge and sticking with the battery life theme as well. When you have a full charge in this watch, it will give you up to 20 days of full use in regular modes. So not bad! If that’s something, that’s particularly important to you. When you’re looking at buying gps running watches, you control the coral space 2 with buttons.
So there is no touch screen on this model and also, if you are into trail running, then you will find that there aren’t any specific trail or mountain features featured in the different sport options. For this watch now, andy did do a full, in-depth, first look review when this watch was launched and that’s on the running channel so be sure to check that out. If you want a more in-depth guide to the coros pace, 2
The fitbit versa 3 is the only other watch on our list with a similar form factor to the apple watch. Now it’s not a dedicated running watch, but it is worth considering if you’re looking for an all-rounder and the styling from an all-day wear perspective is important to you too, particularly if you’re already familiar with fitbit’s ecosystem. Speaking of that ecosystem, the fitbit app has lots of data in it.
It’S really nicely laid out, and it’s really clear and easy to read. The display on the watch itself is pretty high resolution at 336 by 336 pixels and it’s really bright and really vibrant. Now, there’s no physical buttons, but there is an indentation on the left hand, side which you can press as well as a touch screen to navigate the menus. Now, because it’s not a dedicated running watch, if you’re heading out to do things like interval training. Quite a lot you might find the lack of physical buttons and increased functionality slightly frustrating and potentially not up to task.
But if you’re looking for an activity, sleep and heart rate tracker, then that’s the sort of thing that fitbit do really well. The sleep tracking is really intuitive and there are really nice features like tracking your mindfulness, as well as following, along with guided meditations in fitbit’s app built-in gps is a step up from some of fitbit’s other models, and it does a pretty good job overall. In terms of accuracy, it’s just not quite on the level of some of the other models on this roundup, so this is a great looking watch with a bright screen. That’S easy to use for those who are looking for something to wear all day to track their activities, which do include runs, but you aren’t too worried about some of the more advanced insights into training and running that you might get from some of the other models. [, Music, ], the polar vantage m, comes with 20 different sports settings, so you can track all kinds of activities on this watch.
It also has precision prime optical heart rate sensors, so that includes nine leds. On the back of the watch. To give you the most accurate heart rate reading, which you can have on 24, 7 or just during activities, so the battery life on the polar vantage m is at around 30 hours in full gps mode from a full charge, and that will give you a gps Signal ping every one second, as with the majority of polar models, which means that realistically, your gps tracking should be pretty accurate from it. There’S a whole ton of options in the polar flow app which you can get on mobile and desktop and means that you can look more in depth at the metrics that you get from your runs and also from your day-to-day recordings like, as i mentioned before. Heart rate, for example, now this polar is a cheaper price point than a lot of the other polar devices, but with that it does mean that it comes with fewer features, so there isn’t root navigation or music capabilities, for example.
So you control the polar vantage m by using five buttons. You’Ve got two on one side and three on the other. There’S no touch screen capability for this watch, which some people do prefer, especially when out running in case your sleeve catches, your touch screen and then changes your metrics or your data screens and what you’re looking at, for example – and you can get smart notifications through on This watch, as you can, with most gps, watches nowadays. Finally, the polar vantage m also has the ability to track your sleep data, so it can tell when you went to bed track any movement during your sleep and also work out when you got up out of bed as well. Unless you sit doom scrolling after you wake up because it does sense, the movement of getting out of bed rather than your actual eyelids opening, which is understandable and, on the whole, the tracking of your sleep, is pretty accurate on the polar vantage m as well.
The garmin 4 on a 245 music is a step up in price and functionality from the 45 and whereas, with the 45, you can control music on your phone using the watch. In this case, you can ditch your phone all together and have music and podcasts, including episodes and playlists from spotify on the watch itself. You get all the same features that we mentioned for the 45, but you also get a bigger screen and better battery life. 23 hours in gps mode for continuous gps, provided that you’re not listening to music at the same time, you’ll also benefit from a couple of additional sensors, namely a compass for navigation and a pulse ox monitor, as well as some additional monitoring tools in terms of hydration And menstrual cycle tracking you’ll also benefit from in-watch cardio, workouts strength, workouts and automatic rep counting, but ultimately the biggest changes you’ll see will come in the form of the running training features.
Now your data is combined to give you insights into things like your training status, which is how effectively you’ve been training based on your training history, as well as training load, which tells you how hard you’ve been working overall and could help give you an early indicator Of potential over training, then there are cool features like pace pro, which helps with your pacing strategy for runs and races and other things like race, predictor.
Something else which is really cool is the ability to plan a route and then follow it on the watch. Using point-to-point navigation, you can also ask the watch to send you back to the start of a run if you happen to get lost, there’s a swimming specific feature too, and that has clever features like stroke detection to work out what stroke you’re doing and the watch Supports multiple other sports as well. The samsung galaxy watch 3 looks more like your typical watch than an activity tracking watch, so something that you can probably still get away with wearing if you’re in a smart suit or a nice dress at a wedding or similar. So the samsung galaxy watch 3 has tons of smart notification compatibilities and will work with android 5.0 and above and ios 9 and above or iphone 5 and above there’s, a rotatable bezel around the outside, which means that you can cycle through screens quite easily.
Just by turning it, which is a really nice feature of this watch that you don’t see on a lot of gps, running, watches battery life wise, it has 43 hours at regular use and up to 120 hours at low use. So that’s something to bear in mind when considering the samsung galaxy watch three, and it also has plenty of different customizable watch faces too. So if that’s your bag – and you want to be able to change the face of your watch, then there are plenty of options there, there’s a 4g version or bluetooth version, that’s at a lower price point as well. So that is something worth looking into. If this is a little bit out of your price range, there are still cheaper versions available. It has multi-sport capabilities and you can also measure your heart rate as well. On the samsung galaxy watch, 3
There’S also alerts that you can set up for if your heart rate dips below a certain number of beats per minute or goes above a certain number of beats per minute, which is a nice additional safety feature. The apple watch series 6, like most apple products, is a physically beautiful thing to look at, but it’s also had six different iterations to get to the point where it’s arguably the best smart watch from an all-round perspective that you can buy, there’s also a cellular version Which allows you to go out without your phone, but still stay in contact with the rest of the world as per the series 5 there’s an always on screen feature which is great for runs, because it always means you can see your data.
Clearly, the screen is bright and always easy to read for me: there’s a big advantage in a dedicated physical lap button like on some of the specialist watches on test here, because it isn’t always practical to tap or double tap on a touch screen at all times And it’s in running specific areas that the apple watch is slightly less accomplished than some of the running specialists that we’ve got on test in this roundup. That said, the gps tracking is now really accurate and the heart rate monitoring is excellent.
Add to that the added bonus of apple’s ring system to keep you motivated and to hit your goals and you’ve also got sleep tracking, although that isn’t as accomplished as a lot of the other more specialist watches in this roundup. It’S worth mentioning apple fitness 2, which provides lots of classes like dance cross, training and core which integrate directly with the watch. So if you’re doing a hit workout on the tv, then it will read out the details from your watch like heart rate and so on. You do have countless straps to choose from, and it’s a very comfortable watch to wear and there are also a wealth of apps on the app store. So you might want to replace the native worker app with a different one that you prefer, or you might want to use an app for things like yoga or strength and conditioning because it’s designed of every aspect of your life and not just running those of you.
Considering buying the apple watch will need to bear in mind that you might need to consider charging it almost every day and whilst it’s brilliant at loads of things, it won’t be able to compete with the specialist running watches that we’ve got on test here. In terms of in-depth analysis and on-run functionality, so we’ve already covered the coros pace 2 and i suppose you could describe the coros apex pro as its big brother. So coros is a pretty big brand in trail running and ultra running in the us. But it’s only really been over the last six months to a year or so that coros have become a bit bigger and more well known here in the uk. So the coros apex pro really is a meaty watch and will pretty much do everything you want it to do apart from make you a copper, this watch has a huge battery life up to 30 days, in fact, and it really is squarely aimed at the ultra Market, as is probably quite obvious because of that massive battery life, it’s waterproof up to 100 meters and has multi-sport functionality, as you would expect built into it, is a thermometer barometer, accelerometer, gyroscope and oxymeter.
Basically, as i said anything that you could possibly want it to measure this watch can so. This watch has three button functionality, so one on each side of the middle button, which is shaped like a crown and has a scrolling feature. So some people may find that when scrolling buttons sit on their wrists, that they can accidentally knock them. But with this there is an auto lock so that you can stop it from doing that, which is obviously very welcomed if you’ve ever accidentally paused your activity without realizing, because your button is hit on your wrist. Another thing about this watch is that, although it has such a big battery life, it’s actually pretty lightweight compared to the others in the same sort of market as it and another big plus for this watch is that it can go from flat to a full charge.
In under two and a half hours, which is pretty handy, if you’ve grabbed your watch from your drawer about to go out for a run and realise that you haven’t charged it just and have your breakfast while it charges one final additional point about this watch. That makes it an ultra runner’s dream is that you can set reminders for fueling and drinking along the way as well. So if you want someone else or something else, to take the pressure off of you, remembering especially when you’re getting tired, then you can set those alerts to make sure that you’re topping up on fuel and water as needed. The sun tone 9 is suntoes flagship watch and it’s a big one at that, whilst it weighs in roughly the same as garmin’s phoenix 6
It’S physically slightly bigger so, depending on your wrist size, you might want to take that into account, particularly when fit is so important when it comes to optical heart rate accuracy. But if your wrist can take it, then the size does bring with it.
The big benefit of increased battery life, particularly when it comes to gps performance for the hardiest and longest adventures that you might take on claiming 120 hours and hardy and adventure are probably the right words here. It’S a very sturdy, tough watch that looks and feels incredibly well built. There are three buttons on the right hand, side coupled with a touchscreen which is disabled during activities. The screen is nice and big as you’d expect, but it doesn’t actually extend all the way to the bezel to make full use of the real estate on offer and actually sometimes in bright sunlight. I did find it quite difficult to read.
There are various settings to get the most out of that battery life called performance, endurance and ultra with each progressive setting endeavoring to eat more battery life out of a single charge. It will also try to let you know with a reminder potentially to charge your watch ahead of the time that you usually take on your longer activities, and it will show you how much battery life you have ahead of starting an activity using the existing settings. A great thing about the sunto9 are the navigation features things like real-time breadcrumb trails as well as route planning, although, ironically, i found the navigation of the menus within the watch itself not to be particularly intuitive compared to some of the other brands on tests and that Required a little bit of a time, investment on my part to feel like. I was ready to actually go where i wanted to go within the watch. There are 80 different sport modes and you get accurate gps even using the battery saving measures, there’s optical heart rate and the barometer and you’ll also get weather insights and information.
Alongside that, you can track your sleep and recovery using epoc, which is excess, post exercise oxygen consumption to hopefully get the most out of your training. So if you’re looking for a rugged running watch that can cope with even the longest adventures that you might throw at it or just one which will last you more than a week, including a fair few runs, then this could be worth looking at. So we’ve included the phoenix 6 series in this round up because, although garmin have recently launched their enduro and the solar power edition to this range as well, which is a great plus point if extreme battery life is what you’re after the phoenix 6 series. Is a group of watches that we have all tested here on the running, channel and love and know in quite a lot of depth? So that’s why we’ve decided to pick this one for the roundup, but if ultra watches, are your bag then do check out the enduro, as it has some pretty cool additional features like being able to track the time that you spend aid stations on ultras, for example?
So into the phoenix 6 series, so what does this watch have for features? Well, there is a feature that i particularly love and did me an absolute solid when i was running amsterdam marathon and that is pace pro. So the pace pro feature means that you can add a distance or a gpx route for a course, and you can program in your goal time to complete it. You can play around with things like whether you want to do negative splits or whether you want to run harder or easier up the hills easier. Please, and it will then tell you what each of your mile or kilometer splits should be.
You set the pace pro running while you’re running, and it gives you mile by mile or kilometer by kilometer whether you are ahead behind or on track for your gold times. That’S a feature that i particularly love about this watch. You can navigate using this watch, so you can upload routes that you’ve created on strava, you simply favorite them and then sync, your watch through garmin connect and your route is then available for you to give you turn by turn directions out on the run. The phoenix 6 series does everything that you would expect it to from a high-end gps running watch, so it has heart rate, sleep, tracking training, load performance data, loads of metrics, that you can go into more detail in in the garmin connect app, and it also has Built-In music, so you’ve got the ability to store up to 2000 songs and you can connect it to spotify or deezer streaming. Services you’ll also get audio, prompts in your bluetooth headphones.
So when you’ve set up a workout, it’ll tell you which step is coming up next as you’re about to start it, and we’ll also give you audio, prompts if you’ve set a specific pace intensity that you want to hit. That will tell you whether you are ahead or behind that pace. The battery life on this watch can vary depending on what setting you have it on, so it can be anything from 72 hours. Up to 48 days, lots of people have asked whether i charged my garmin fenix 6s during the tribe run for love ultra. The answer is yes, but only once, whilst we’re at a hotel in the middle of the race itself, so that one did me across six days with one full charge so that hopefully gives you an idea of how big a battery life.
That is, if you make certain tweaks to the settings, so i mentioned there that i had the phoenix 6s. There are three sizes of watch in the phoenix 6 range, the 6s, the 6 and the 6x, and there are two different versions as well. The pro and the bass, so pro has things like wi-fi maps and music as well as golf maps. If that’s your bag, whereas the base one does not have those features. So those are our top picks for the best running gps watches on the market.
Right now did any of them take your fancy, or do you already have one that you swear by? Let us know in the comments below and we’ll see you next time on the running channel.
