Coros Pace 3 boasts improved GPS, battery life and adds touchscreen support

Coros has delivered a new entry to its line of budget GPS running watches, the Pace 3. 

The follow-up to the popular Pace 2 that released way back in 2020 - a watch we still rate as one of the best cheap options on the market - the new model offers a boatload of internal changes. 

The outer design is relatively unchanged, retaining the ultra-light feel at just 30g. 

However, touchscreen support is now included, as well as improved GPS, a new processor, an upgraded optical heart rate sensor and extended battery life. There's even 4GB for music storage, as well.

On paper, it's a huge upgrade from the predecessor, though it does also bring with it a slight price increase compared to this previous generation. 

The Pace 3 will retail for $229 / £219, which is up from the Pace 2's tag of $199 / $179. 

The move to dual-frequency GPS is the headline addition, and means Coros can offer the gold standard of tracking at a lower price than the likes of Garmin, with new navigation smarts such as breadcrumb tracking and turn-by-turn alerts boosting it further. 

Coros also estimates that the battery life (in regular use) has been upgraded to deliver 24 days - and 38 hours of continuous GPS use. That's up from 20 days (and 30 hours of continuous GPS) available from the Pace 2. 

It's something we're keen to test out during our extended review of the Pace 3, which we're also expecting should deliver more accurate HR tracking and a bit of a smoother on-watch performance, thanks to that new processor. 

Whether these new additions are a dramatic enough difference to justify that bump in price, however, remains to be seen. Stay tuned for more over the coming weeks.