Coros Pace 4 Pro: How It Actually Stacks Up Against the Pace 4, Forerunner 570, and Forerunner 970

Coros just launched the Pace 4 Pro, and it's the first watch in the Pace line to get two features the brand has never offered before: a real ECG sensor and a built-in speaker. At $449, it's also the most expensive Pace watch by a wide margin. Here's exactly what changed, and how it actually compares to the watches most people are cross-shopping it against.

What's Actually New vs. the Regular Pace 4

Both watches now have offline maps, Coros pushed that out to the entire current lineup in a September update, so that's no longer a differentiator between them. What you're actually paying $200 more for is ECG, a speaker for hands-free calls, a titanium-and-sapphire build, a meaningfully longer GPS battery life, and Coros's deepest analytics tier. If none of that matters to you, the regular Pace 4 still covers almost everything the Pro does.

Pace 4 Pro vs. Garmin Forerunner 570

This is the comparison that actually matters, and here's the honest take: on paper, the Pace 4 Pro wins.

The 570 uses the same Elevate Gen5 heart rate sensor that powers ECG on Garmin's higher-end watches, Garmin just hasn't turned the feature on for this model. That's a real, if slightly frustrating, distinction: the silicon can do it, the firmware won't let it. The Pace 4 Pro ships with ECG active, ships with real offline maps the 570 doesn't have at all, costs $100 less, and more than doubles the GPS battery life.

Where the 570 still wins, and it's not nothing: Garmin Pay and NFC contactless payments, true Spotify and Amazon Music streaming sync (Coros tops out at Bluetooth-headphone playback of locally stored files), ANT+ support for pairing chest straps and power meters beyond what Bluetooth allows, and Garmin's broader, more mature app ecosystem. Coros has been upfront about this gap themselves, their own materials on the Pace line note the off-wrist ecosystem isn't as deep as Garmin's.

So "beats it on paper" is fair. "Beats it in every way that matters to every runner" isn't. If you live inside Garmin Connect, use a power meter, or want contactless payments on a run, the 570 still has a real case.

Pace 4 Pro vs. Garmin Forerunner 970

This one's closer than the $300 price gap suggests.

Both watches now match on the two features that used to be Garmin's biggest advantage over Coros: ECG and real offline maps. The Pace 4 Pro actually delivers more GPS battery life than the 970 does. What's left for the $300 premium is mostly the same list as the 570 comparison: NFC payments, ANT+ sensor support, streaming music, a built-in flashlight, and Garmin's ecosystem depth. That's a real, legitimate set of reasons to pick the 970, but it's a narrower gap than the price tag implies.

The Honest Weak Points

No watch is a clean win across the board, and the Pace 4 Pro has real limitations worth knowing before you buy:

• No NFC or contactless payments, at any price, across the entire Pace line
• No true streaming music. You can play locally stored files through Bluetooth headphones, but there's no Spotify or Amazon Music app on the watch itself
• No ANT+, so pairing older sensors or dedicated power meters is more limited than on Garmin
• 5 ATM water resistance, not dive-rated, which is a little surprising on a titanium "Pro" watch at this price
• Coros's ecosystem is genuinely thinner than Garmin's off the wrist. The training tools on your actual run are excellent. The app, the third-party integrations, and the overall polish still lag behind Garmin Connect

Bottom Line

If you're deciding between the Pace 4 Pro and the Forerunner 570 specifically, the spec sheet genuinely favors Coros here, cheaper, with ECG active out of the box and real offline maps the 570 doesn't have. The 970 comparison is closer than its price suggests, but Garmin still wins on ecosystem depth and a few hardware extras like the flashlight and NFC.

Want to see the full head-to-head breakdowns? Check out Pace 4 Pro vs. Forerunner 570, Pace 4 Pro vs. Forerunner 970, or run your own comparison in the Watch Finder.

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