Oura - Oura Ring 1

I’ve had OURA since Gen 1 and live by the metrics. Lots of nitpicking complaints from people who sound like they complain about a lot of tech or other things, or have minor troubles and would rather posts negative comments than simply reach out to OURA. I’ve had one ring with a bad battery and OURA replaced with no questions asked, and even sent 2 day air. I’m grandfathered into their software subscription and would pay even if they changed that. It’s simply that good of a wearable health device. Recommend 10/10. Read and learn what the metrics mean and how to understand them. Can lead to get health improvements. I lost 40 pounds, understand my sleep and exercise patterns, and know what will happen if I drink too much or eat too close to bedtime. Lots more that is useful.

This is my perspective as someone who uses Whoop and wears an SMP or a Speedy that I rotate according to how I feel. Also, I've tried Oura, and liked it, but it wasn't for me. And I have an AW Ultra that I use when running and hiking, and this is after a few years of using a Garmin Fenix. Most people think of Whoop as simply a fitness tracker, which it is, but it is much more. What seperates Whoop from other things is how it shows you the impact of your behaviors. Yes, I think Whoop was less than honest about their upgrade policy with the new 5.0 and MG release, but I still can't find anything like it. The "magic" of Whoop is that it allows you to pre-select certain behaviors that will appear in a daily journal. Each morning you take 30 seconds to check yes or no on these items, e.g. Did you consume added sugar yesterday? Did you eat a late meal? There are endless options. As times goes on, Whoop continues to show you how these behaviors are impacting your sleep so that you discover how far before bed you should stop eating, or what's the latest time of the day you can drink caffeine without it impacting your sleep (even though you may think it doesn't because you fall asleep quickly). I'm not trying to sound like an advertisement for Whoop, but I think most people evaluate Whoop without knowing what it really does. So when I run or hike I use my Ultra for reasons that don't overlap with Whoop. But the rest of the day, when wearing my SMP or Speedy, or when I sleep, I wear Whoop because it is providing overall health insights that I find valuable and have led to lifestyle changes that I may not have made otherwise--even as a person in great shape who works out six days a week.

I use Oura Ring for the last three years now solely for sleep tracking. 299.00 looks to be the lowest price. May be worth the little extra. You hardly notice it's there.

Agreed. I own an Apple Watch Ultra, a garmin instinct, an aura ring and a whoop. There is no perfect fitness tracker, they all have pros and cons. People who give a black and white “x is better than y” always get a raised eyebrow from me.

Recovery to strain analysis. After 4 years I can use whoop to get myself ready for race day while maximizing my training in the weeks leading up to it. Over time the metrics have allowed me to perform better in my 40’s than I did in my 20’s. It’s not just the device, I find the algorithms and the app itself make a big difference. I tried the oura, it felt like a less accomplished version. I don’t want a watch. I know the AW has better hardware, but it doesn’t have the data analysis and I already wear watches. It’s also not 24/7 due to charging. So the app, lack of screen, 24/7 wearability due to charge on wrist. If I’m going for serious assessment of potential overtraining or such I have a frontierX chest strap that is more accurate than the AW.

Garmin Epix Pro, HR strap (I use a Polar one) & an Oura for Sleep & Recovery has been my trio that has worked the best to get me through training.But do yourself a favor and never look @ your scores for sleep and recovery race day!

Plus one for the Oura. I know the Whoop is a more comprehensive fitness tracker but it looks terrible. Oura delivers almost everything I’m looking for in a wearable. My current setup for running is Strava on the phone plus a Wahoo Tickr, and on the bike I have a Garmin 520. I’m considering supplementing my Oura with a Garmin Instinct for running so I don’t have to take my phone with me to get better stats.

Casual weight lifter over here. I do two strength days a week and the finish on the ring got scratched up and looked awful within two weeks. I returned it

Have tried the Oura and Ultrahuman, but the RingConn was much better for me as it is invisible when worn. None of them are particularly accurate, however, and the tech is still in its infancy. The Fitbit Luxe is small on the other wrist, but is not perfect. Sadly an Apple Watch or Garmin are way better, but double writing is tricky.

Used to do Apple Watch and switched to Garmin, but not for daily tracking. I did it specifically because of the data it gives me for workouts, and the training plans. It’s a training watch. I think all the stuff you mentioned for me I don’t really need a lot of frills around, really. A simple line chart showing me VO2 max over time is fine. My Garmin Fenix shows me my current estimated VO2 max right on the face. I do like how Garmin charts HRV, but neither Apple or Garmin should be considered best for this if you really care. Wrist is just not an ideal location for it, even if Whoop had done well. I use Oura for sleep tracking. Apple and Garmin BOTH are kinda weak here. What Garmin does do well is show me trends of HRV, and from that it can be useful in terms of telling me recovery impact to training. Ultimately I view Garmin as a training device and Apple Watch as a lifestyle device. Both are about the same for daily tracking of activities and Garmin can feed Apple Health. If you like Apple nudging you to “close the rings” you’re maybe more of an Apple Watch candidate than Garmin. If you like Garmin telling you that today you should run intervals or ride a long zone 2 ride then you’re a Garmin candidate. I also hated having notifications and apps and stuff on my wrist. It was cool at first and then it was annoying and distracting. My big motivation away from Apple Watch was this. First I stopped wearing it at all. Since my goal is training data I was doing activity tracking from my phone and it was unwieldy. I looked at trackers like Fitbits and Whoops and stuff and settled on Garmin. Admittedly I kinda needed out on the data and the maps of the Fenix. I do some remote canoeing and hiking and thought the maps would be really useful. I think the only thing I really want from my watch is some ability to control audio from it. Admittedly Garmin isn’t strong here: they do have Spotify but no way to do Apple Music or Audible or anything, and what you can do is limited. So if I want to run or ride with music or a book my phone always comes with me. I remember when Apple Watch first let you do music from the Watch back in like 2016 and it was really cool at first, then I didn’t care and was bringing my phone on runs anyway. Since you asked about badges and motivation and whatnot: as mentioned Apple has really nice stuff, but I view it as more pedestrian oriented. Ultimately I didn’t ever feel motivated by it. Garmin seems to have tried to get into the social game, too, but I don’t know many people that use this and do gamification. They have a great badge system built more around training than anything else. That said… As another poster mentioned, I also use Strava and Strava as a social media platform is far more motivating for me. If you’re into training at all, look into it. Strava tells you about your previous times on a segment, for instance, and whether you’re getting a PR. It does Q/KOM (Queen or King of the Mountain). It can show you routes and segments in your area. It has a great interface for breaking down training data as well. Garmin is better for like overlaying cycling power with heart rate and elevation, but Strava gives you a lot of this data as well. You can feed Strava with either Apple or Garmin. At the end of the day my opinion on why to chose Garmin is if you want the training planning and tracking. If you have a goal like a race then it’s a pretty cool coach. If you have a program you’re already following and just want to track against it then it matters a lot less. The only other winning thing is depending on model you can get Garmins with incredible battery life. My Fenix 7 gets almost a month on a charge. My wife charges her Apple Watch daily. I’d probably go without a smart watch before going back to an Apple Watch because all of the cool features of an Apple Watch are lost on me.

I have a Whoop and Oura, and neither of those seem ideal for your use case. They don't provide continuous SpO2 readings, just a single daily value for SpO2 (I believe this is averaged overnight but not 100% sure). I take multiple times daily SpO2 readings with a finger pulse oximiter and they don't correlate super great with the wearable readings; the Whoop seems to underreport much more than the Oura. Here's a plot of the last 4 months to compare, with the average of my finger readings during the day in green: [https://imgur.com/a/dOAgBcm](https://imgur.com/a/dOAgBcm)