I just got my hands on the Coros Nomad, a new rugged GPS smartwatch built with outdoor adventurers, from fishing enthusiasts to rock climbers, in mind. Priced at $349, it’s a direct competitor to one of my favorite tough-built smartwatches in 2025, the Garmin Instinct 3.
However, the Nomad has a few tricks up its sleeve, most notably the ability to download maps for offline navigation, which you won’t find on the Instinct 3.
In addition to supporting an enormous range of outdoor activities — there are ten fishing modes alone — an onboard microphone lets you record voice notes that sync up with your GPS data in what Coros calls an Adventure Journal.
The Coros Nomad also boasts dual-frequency GPS, impressive battery life, lots of physical controls — including a customizable ‘Action’ button — and a reasonably lightweight, albeit chunky design.
Is all this enough for the Nomad to earn a spot on our best smartwatches list? I’m still in the process of testing it, but my initial impressions are positive.
Coros Nomad: Quick facts
- Support for lots of outdoor sports: The Nomad Coros is designed for outdoor enthusiasts, with 55 tracking modes to choose from. These cover everything from hardcore, adrenaline-pumping activities like snowboarding and bouldering to slightly less intense ones like hiking and lure fishing.
- Offline Maps with navigation: Unlike the Garmin Instinct 3, the Nomad supports downloading maps for offline navigation. These maps are rich in detail with easy-to-follow navigation.
- New adventure journaling tool: Dual onboard microphones let you record notes mid-adventure, like “great photo spot,” or “enormous large mouth bass spotted.” Post-adventure, these audio notes are automatically transcribed and tagged to a route map. You can also sync photos from your smartphone to the Adventure Journal.
- Big on battery: The Nomad is rated to last roughly 22 days in smartwatch mode and up to 50 hours when using GPS for tracking.
- MIPS display: The Memory In Pixel (MIPS) touchscreen is sensitive enough, but the colors look dull and details lack contrast under certain lighting conditions, making it a bit tricky to see.
Coros Nomad: Price and availability
The Coros Nomad is available as of today, August 19th, for $349 in the U.S. and £319 in the U.K. in your choice of green (shown here), brown, or dark grey.
$349 is the same cost as the brand’s AMOLED running watch, the Coros Pace Pro. The Nomad is also notably $50 cheaper than the Garmin Instinct 3, which comes in several varieties, including with solar charging or with an AMOLED screen. The Instinct 3 Solar starts at $399, and the Instinct 3 AMOLED starts at $449.
Coros Nomad: Specs
- Dimensions: 47.8 x 47.8 x 16.4 mm
- Case weight: 41.5 g
- Display: 1.3-inch MIP touchscreen, 260 x 260 pixels
- Battery life rating (smartwatch mode): 22 days
- Battery life rating (with GPS): 50 hours, 34 (dual-frequency)
- Water resistance: 50 meters
- Onboard Sensors: Optical heart rate, SpO2, ECG, Temp, altimeter, accelerometer, gyroscope, compass, dual microphones
Coros Nomad: Design
With a case weight of 41.5 g, the Coros Nomad is a little bit lighter than the Garmin Instinct 3, which weighs in at 52 g (45mm Solar model).
The Instinct 3 comes in either 45mm or 50mm, while the Nomad splits the difference at 48mm. It’s a little bit thicker than the Garmin and sits a little higher on the wrist.
Coros went with a touch-sensitive Memory in Pixel display for the Nomad, which likely contributes to its impressive battery life rating. But unlike the Garmin Instinct 3 model with a MIPs display, the Coros Nomad doesn’t have a solar cell behind the screen.
Depending on the lighting, the Nomad screen is either highly visible or looks dull and washed out. I’m sitting in a coffee shop right now next to some large windows and can barely make out the smaller details on the watch face.
In addition to the touchscreen (absent on the Instinct 3), the Nomad offers four physical controls. On the lower left side of the case, you’ll find the new customizable Action button. Opposite the Action button on the right side is the ‘Back’ button.
On the top left of the case, you’ll find a ‘Digital Dial’ which can be used to scroll through settings and features. The dial also doubles as a pressable button, used to confirm menu options.
Overall, the Coros Pace wears comfortably on my 6.5-inch wrist, even though it looks somewhat massive. I dig the dark green colorway, but ultimately, I think the grey option is the snazziest.
Coros Nomad: Core features
The Nomad is jam-packed with health, fitness, and environmental tracking sensors. My colleague Nick put the Nomad to the test over many miles of running and found it to log accurate heart and distance data. But rest assured, further testing against the best GPS sports watches is coming.
You also get workout recovery advice, sleep tracking insights, and access to a small selection of free Coros workout plans.
For those who enjoy adventuring in Mother Nature, the Nomad not only supports downloading detailed navigation maps for use when off the grid with turn-by-turn, waypoints, and back-to-start guidance, but you can also view real-time weather reports on the watch face and even receive alerts for incoming storms (or high elevations).
The Nomad additionally reports daily moon phases, tides, air pressure, and sunrise/sunset.
Love fishing? The Nomad is positively brimming with tools for anglers, like offering ‘best fishing time’ calculations based on time of day, moon phase, and more. There’s also a ‘location lock’ that will alert you if your fishing vessel has drifted too far from your preferred area.
Coros Nomad: Adventure Journal feature
One thing that really sets the Coros Nomad apart from a lot of other tough-built, adventure watches out there is the new Adventure Journal feature, which lets you record audio notes at any point during a tracked activity.
Once you’re safely back home (or at the pub), these audio notes get automatically transcribed and added to an interactive map of your adventure. You can also sync photos and/or videos snapped with your smartphone to show up on the map based on their EXIF data.
I foresee this feature being especially handy for hikers, nature photographers, anglers, hunters, and birdwatchers.
Coros Nomad: Battery life
The Coros Nomad is rated to last for up to 22 days when using it in smartwatch mode (i.e., without using GPS tracking).
When using standard GPS, you can expect up to 50 hours of longevity, which is darn impressive, or 34 hours when using the dual-band GPS.
The watch doesn’t ship with a charging cable or wall outlet converter. What it does come with is a small dongle that plugs into the back of the watch; the other end connects to a standard USB-C cable.
This is the same charging dongle that comes with the Coros Pace Pro. It’s worth noting that Coros will send you a free USB-C cord if you really can’t track one down.
The dongle additionally comes with a goofy yet brilliant little keychain that it snaps into for safekeeping.
Coros Nomad: First impressions
The Coros Nomad has three major advantages over its nearest competitor, the Garmin Instinct 3, my current favorite outdoor adventure watch. First and foremost, you can download maps for offline navigation.
Not only that, maps are detailed, with contour and street/trail names, plus points of interest. Navigation is also straightforward and reliable from my limited testing.
Secondly, the Nomad has a built-in dual-microphone, not for taking phone calls, but for recording audio notes that get automatically transcribed, post-adventure, and combined with your GPS data.
Finally, the Coros Nomad is $50 cheaper than the Instinct 3. Of course, the Garmin comes with your choice of AMOLED screen or solar-charging, two things you won’t find on the Nomad.
There’s also no onboard LED flashlight, and water resistance is 50 meters compared to 100 for the Instinct 3. Even still, when it comes to tracking modes, onboard sensors, and longevity, both are rather evenly matched.
Stay tuned for my full review of the Coros Nomad. I’ll be taking it out into the Cascade Mountains in the U.S. Pacific Northwest over the next few weekends to see how it performs trailside and beyond.
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