Coros has launched a new Dura 2 Solar GPS bike computer that offers voice control alongside upgraded hardware, offline re-routing, routeless climb detection, live tracking, and new cycling-focused fitness metrics in the companion app. Like the previous model, the Dura 2 Solar comes with up to 120 hours of battery life – and solar charging adds more.
This comes hot on the heels of Garmin announcing two new voice-controlled GPS computers earlier in the week.
The Coros Dura 2 Solar GPS bike computer has a 3.5in touchscreen (increased from 2.7in) and a different look from its predecessor, made with an aluminium alloy upper bezel and a woven carbon backplate rather than the reinforced polymer body of the original.
Coros lists these features and specs:
- Advanced carbon and alloy construction
- 99g weight
- 3.5in Sharp Memory-in-Pixel touchscreen
- Advanced suite of navigation, performance, and customisation features
- 120-hour battery with 2:1 solar regen (gain two hours of battery for every hour of sun exposure)
- Three ways to interact: buttons, voice commands, and touchscreen
> Read our review of the original Coros Dura Solar GPS Bike Computer
Coros says that the Dura 2 Solar can operate for 70 hours in dual-frequency full-system mode and that solar charging under direct sunlight for an hour can extend the battery life by two hours. This means that in good conditions you’d rarely need to charge or even remove the Dura 2 Solar from your bike. However, the performance will need to have improved hugely over our experience with the original Dura.
The appearance is a big part of the story, according to Coros.
“For too long, bike computers have looked like functional tools attached to otherwise beautiful bikes. With Dura 2 Solar, we wanted to change that,” said Coros CEO Lewis Wu.
“We set out to create a bike computer that looks like it belongs on a great bike, not something you have to overlook because of what it does. But great design can’t come at the expense of performance. Dura 2 Solar has the features, navigation, accuracy, battery life, and solar charging to match its design. We wanted to build a bike computer that cyclists are proud to put on their bikes.”
The Dura 2 Solar is also extremely thin: just 5.7mm at the upper bezel, which Coros says will improve aero efficiency. Most bike computers are much thicker than that.
Re-routing is done in the Coros app, so you need to have your phone connected via Bluetooth for this feature to work. You don’t need a mobile phone signal; you just need to download your map regions in the Coros app before you ride.
If you go off route, you’ll get an alert after about 20m. You can choose whether to have it re-route you automatically.
Coros says that the Dura 2 Solar’s voice control function allows you to start and end rides, navigate, set alerts and more. Rather than swiping, you can simply command actions. You can also leave voice notes after activities to describe your perceived effort or other experiences.
The Dura 2 Solar integrates with a Coros ecosystem, meaning that rides recorded on the device automatically upload to the Coros app, where you can analyse them and track your fitness.
The app also allows you to build routes and will take data from other Coros wearables (watches and an arm-worn heart rate monitor) to give you a more complete view of your fitness and recovery.
The Dura 2 Solar is also compatible with most third-party cycling and training apps, such as Strava, Komoot, Ride with GPS, TrainingPeaks and TrainerRoad.
The Coros Dura 2 Solar will go on sale on 3rd November, priced at £429 for the unit only, or £479 including a mount. We have one here for review on road.cc so expect to hear what we think of it soon.
3 thoughts on “Coros Dura 2 Solar GPS computer gets larger touchscreen, voice control and off-line rerouting”
So, Coros has just doubled the price of the Coros Dura. Sure, lots of new features etc. But this feels like product development by accountancy. Shocking. Really shocking.
But honestly, 429 quid for an advanced bike computer – is it really that bad compared to Garmin, Wahoo or Hammerhead? Especially considering that it’s MSRP, not the street price.
If the quality is better this time, I’d say it’s a fair and market price. And the more competitors, the better off the customer.
@tomlew Got to say I agree. The original Coros had some very good points squashed by major limitations. Those seem to have been addressed in the new model, along with some genuinely innovative stuff like the way it links to your phone and uses its processor and data connection for certain functions. It also looks pretty cool.
So yeah, its double in price, but I wouldn’t have picked the old one over an Edge 540 at a similar price; and the new one seems to compete square on with the Edge 1050/Ace/Hammerhead. When you look at it like that, it actually seems reasonably competitively priced.