255 or Pace 2

On a Garmin forum its very unlikely you will find anyone who uses a Pace 2 to offer a useful opinion.

However as it happens I own both..;)

Firstly you should be comparing with the 245 not the 255 where pricing is closer.

Anyway the Pace 2 is excellent, its small and lightweight.

You say you only get 4 to 5 days battery life from the 255 - that seems low, I get 8 to 9 days typically with 10 to 12 hours of GPS a week.

The Pace 2 will give you better GPS time but there is 'but' that no reviewer or Youtuber will tell you - this ONLY applies if you do not use external sensors like heart rate monitors or power meters. If you use external sensors then battery life is no better and maybe worse than Garmin.

GPS accuracy is excellent. The inbult HRM is OK, sometimes it can match my HRM Pro, other times it will cadence lock.

There is no trail running profile on the Pace 2

No maps or music or payments on the Pace 2

No cycling or running dynamics on the Pace 2

No gimmicky metrics like stress / body battery on the Pace 2

Its inbuilt running power basically is like having a free Stryd! - its running power is better than Garmins.

The crown is actually very good - its like having 2 1/2 buttons and replaces the up/down buttons on Forerunnrrs.

For runners, its excellent. Eveyone who has the Pace 2 loves it.

I have happily used it as a backup watch for major events like races etc

Sounds like I should hold on to the Garmin!

Do you think that, straight up, the Garmin is worth the $200 premium over the Pace 2? Running only.

5907435 said:

Do you think that, straight up, the Garmin is worth the $200 premium over the Pace 2? Running only

My currency is not dollars so its hard for me to put a figure on that  but asuming you mean US dollars, then I would turn the question around and ask do you need that 200?

For runners there is no question that the Pace 2 is more than up to the job, so value really is how much you want or need the extra stuff Garmin provides.

I think i'd try to figure out why your 255 battery life is below expectations first.

Garmin has a more impressive featurelist than other brands. Garmins marketing department makes sure it stays that way. Longer featurelist sells watches to people who fear missing out.

Sure, it’s fun to look at data, but do you really do something with it (adjusting your trainingplans?) $200 is a lot of money for just some numbers. I rather spend that money on trailrun entry fees.

Coros has some tricks to extend batterylife. As I understand correctly it doesn’t measure heartrate 24/7 every second, but every so much minutes. For the purpose of determining rest heartrate that is just fine. For some reason there are people who want to see their current heartrate all the time that is unacceptable. As mentioned above, there are other tricks,

Your 255 should have better batterylife. Is bavklight turned on all the time? Or did you enable pulse oxygen? That last one you better turn of. It isn’t accurate, not useful for normal people anyway and uses a lot of battery.

The pace 2, however, lacks a feature I do use quite a lot: navigation. The simple breadcrumb navigation of a 255 works good enough. That makes a pace 2 for me a no go.

I still use my 5 year old forerunner 935. Featurewise it’s stil ok. Battery is worn out a bit. Have to charge twice a week. If a new Coros Apex comes out, that would be tempting. Any new Garmin models aren’t. You pay to much for features and data that aren’t necessary.

just my 2 cents.

Elbo said:

Coros has some tricks to extend batterylife. As I understand correctly it doesn’t measure heartrate 24/7 every second

That is correct outside of activities, but during activities it runs 100% of the time.

The built in HRM is actually pretty good - here from a nearly 3 hour trail run, there was only meaninful differences towards then end vs an HRM Pro / Fenix 6 - the Coros is light blue here (why it has running power and the Fenix doesn't)

Good addition. Forgot to mention that it measures every second during workouts.

I don't know if optical HRM of the pace 2 will work for me. My current en previous watch don't give good results for me but other people report to have no problems at all. Well, I'm fine with a cheststrap. 

Elbo said:

I don't know if optical HRM of the pace 2 will work for me.

Running power fans would say you don't need HR and you run to power instead.

That is nonsense of course! 

I agree. I live in the Netherlands which is quite flat but also windy. Stryd does take wind into account (a bit), but others don't or take the weather forecast as actual. 

And now with higher temperatures my heart rate is also higher and gives a good 'warning' to take it easy. I doubt a powermeter will take that into account when calculating power. (funny, it's called a powermeter but for running it's really a powercalculator, or powerguestimator)

I’d go for FR255 without thinking twice if the other option was Pace 2.

Maybe check out Polar Pacer 2 as well.

If one needs lightweight watch without baro&compass, Suunto 5 Peak is €235 in Decathlon.

If you want something cheaper then a forerunner 55 will do. That one is about €199

If you don't need navigation a 55 is already more than plenty for most people. (unless you have fomo)