COROS sent me their new NOMAD watch a couple of weeks prior to its launch date, and I wasted no time in putting it to the test. Being familiar with the COROS family following the COROS Apex 2 and Vertix 2 reviews a couple of years ago, I was interested to see what the refinements and new features in the NOMAD would bring to the table.
I hit the ground riding, relying on the NOMAD to guide me on a lap of Whistler’s epic Lord Of The Squirrels loop. With absolutely zero familiarity with British Columbia’s mountains, the NOMAD’s ability to guide me with the GPX file I had downloaded was going to make or break the ride. Uploading the route to the watch via the COROS app couldn’t have been more simple, with the app appearing in my share menu and quickly reading and interpreting the data. Within just two minutes I had it loaded up on my watch and was ready to hit the trails.
Once on the trails, the relatively simplistic map had me a little unsure at times. When two trails ran close to one another, it was difficult to ascertain which was the correct choice until far enough away to prompt an “off trail” notification. Though you can zoom in on the map using the watch’s dial, I didn’t find myself 100% confident at all times, albeit in a densely populated trail area with lots of off-map offshoots. Once higher up the route and outside of the spider’s web of trails, the NOMAD had me stuck firmly to the correct path with confidence.
During this ride, I played with the voice note functionality to document feelings along the way. From pain on steep pinches of the climb through to the quirks and moments of brilliance of the Forbidden Dreadnought I was riding, I was able to produce a useful recollection of the adventure as it played out. While COROS watches haven’t reached the day-to-day user friendliness of the likes of the Apple Watches, functions like this are helping them get closer.
Where COROS’s NOMAD far outperformed my Apple Series 9 watch was in the battery life. Over the day, which included a 7.5-hour adventure during which there was full GPS functionality both guiding the path ahead and logging the data from the meters before, it only dropped an impressive 21% battery. On rest days, the NOMAD sipped just 1-3%. That means I could easily run this watch for six or more days in a row during the biggest periods of activity in my year, though endurance athletes may demand even better.
My complaints with the COROS NOMAD are almost exclusively reserved to non-adventurous times. During activity, it displayed relevant and useful information clearly, and went about its business collecting data effectively. At under 50g, it was impressively comfortable and unobtrusive to wear. If COROS could work to incorporate elements for day-to-day use such as wireless payment and the ability to type and call from the watch, it would be a serious contender to Garmin’s offerings as an overall product. For now, it’s still an excellent sports watch for us mountain bikers and adventurers, thanks to its ruggedness and no-frills design.
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