Apple Watch SE 3 vs Coros Pace 4

How long is your longest run, and do you mind a charger on the nightstand? Answer those two and you're done here.

For running, I'd buy the Coros Pace 4. If you want an Apple watch and you'll charge it every night anyway, the SE 3 is the cheaper way in. I haven't worn either. The measurements below come from Outdoor Gear Lab and Expert Reviews, the specs from Apple's and Coros's own pages, and the 7.8 and the picks are mine.

What they cost

The SE 3 is $249Not verifiedNot verified (checked November 1, 2026). The Pace 4 is $249Not verifiedNot verified (checked November 1, 2026). Neither had a sale price when I checked.

Expert Reviews frames the SE 3 as a "hidden gem" with 99% of the Series 11's features for nearly half the price. Which? calls it "perhaps the smartest buy in the line-up" in the part of its review anyone can read. The scores and battery result sit behind a sign-up, so I can't quote them.

So the SE 3 is already Apple's budget pick. The question is what the Pace 4 gives you for its price instead.

Battery: the SE 3's dumb problem

Apple rates the SE 3 at up to 18 hours, or up to 32 hours in Low Power Mode. The Series 11 gets 24. Expert Reviews calls the SE 3's battery abysmal compared with much of the non-Apple competition and says to plan on charging daily. That annoys me on a watch meant to track sleep.

Charging softens it. Apple says about 45 minutes gets you from 0 to 80%, and 15 minutes buys up to 8 hours of normal use. Expert Reviews reports the same numbers.

Coros claims 41 GPS hours in All Systems (High) mode and up to 19 days of daily use. Outdoor Gear Lab measured 40 hours of GPS in All Systems mode, calling that "remarkable for an AMOLED watch at this price." The 19-day figure is Coros's claim; none of the tests I read checked it.

A fair warning on the numbers. Apple's 18 hours is normal use, not a GPS workout. Apple's GPS-workout battery figure is not published on its compare page. Even so, 18 hours against 19 days isn't close.

GPS and accuracy

The SE 3 has standard GPS. Apple keeps dual-frequency GPS for the Ultra models.

The Pace 4 tracks in an All Systems mode, and Outdoor Gear Lab gave it 9.0 out of 10 for accuracy, a category worth 30% of its score. On its 2-mile course, the watch logged 2.02 miles. I have no published accuracy test for the SE 3 to set beside that, so I won't pretend the two are level.

Size, weight and water

Both are light. The 44mm SE 3 weighs 32.9 g with GPS and 33.0 g with cellular, and there's a 40mm case too. Coros lists the Pace 4 at 32 g on the nylon band and 40 g on silicone, at 11.8 mm thin. Outdoor Gear Lab weighed it at 31.2 g.

Here's where Coros's page gets thin. It doesn't publish a case size or a water rating. Outdoor Gear Lab lists 50 m water resistance and a measured body diameter of 49.0 mm, but its spec table also says 16.0 mm thick, which contradicts the 11.8 mm in its own review text. I'd trust the 11.8 mm Coros prints, though I'd like that table fixed.

Apple rates the SE 3 water resistant to 50 meters. Its thickness is not published on the compare page I read.

Screen and chip

The SE 3 has an Always-On Retina LTPO OLED at up to 1000 nits, 368 by 448 pixels on the 44mm, and Apple's S10 dual-core chip. The Pace 4 has a 1.2-inch AMOLED touchscreen that Coros says has 164% higher resolution than the Pace 3. Its brightness is not published.

Both have OLED-type screens now. That used to be a reason to skip Coros. Not anymore.

Who should buy which

Training for a marathon, or out for 5-hour weekend runs? The Pace 4. Forty measured GPS hours means a whole week of training on one charge, and Outdoor Gear Lab's accuracy result backs it up.

The SE 3 makes sense if you want Apple's watch first and a running tool second. You'd get the cellular option and, per Expert Reviews, almost everything the Series 11 does. You'd also get a charger habit. Fifteen minutes in the morning covers a workday, which is the best thing I can say about that battery.

Browse the rest in watches.