Oura - Oura Ring 3

Love my Oura 4! I wore my Gen 3 until it got too big (I lost 25 lbs) and started slipping off. No problem with the app or algorithms. No scratches. No complaints.

Real talk-if I had to buy it again, I wouldn’t. I got mine fully through HSA funding and it’s been great for over a year, but it’s not for me in terms of what it offers. I mostly use it for stress management but that’s it. Solid product, I have a version 3, just a little expensive if you also rock a smartwatch like I do.

Can’t speak for 4 but I’ve really enjoyed 3. I can honestly say It’s really helped me improve my overall well-being over the last 3 years. I use my Apple Watch specially for tracking performance metrics during workouts (and for work notifications when I’m away from my computer).

I have a Whoop (obviously), Oura Ring 3 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 (+ Bevel App) in daily use. If I would need to remove one device it would be the Whoop. If I would need to remove two devices it would be Whoop + Oura Ring. In my use the Whoop is the most unreliable in terms of data collection. It regularly detects workouts when I do nothing. Recently had a „workout“ of Yoga that moved my strain on that day from 4.1 to 17.3 in just 20min. Problem was I was sitting on my chair doing office work. This stuff happens every few weeks and definitely lowered my trust in the accuracy of the device. Apart from that it is more comfortable to wear than the Apple Watch but less comfortable than the Oura Ring (especially for sleep tracking). What I like is the customization options with different bands (I have a black and a blue one) which you can use to make it fit your outfit better. I thought about getting a biceps strap but I‘m not paying the ridiculous prices Whoops charges for this. Oura is obviously always looking the same and I don’t like that it scratches relatively easily especially if you wear it while lifting. Build quality on the other side is perfectly fine for me. The Apple Watch feels most premium out of the three devices, has the most functions and I trust it‘s data the most in terms of accuracy. In combination with the Bevel App it gives me a lot of insight. Honestly without Bevel I would not get the Apple Watch if your only purpose is health tracking. Apples pre-installed health apps on the watch/phone have all the data but they way it‘s displayed and summarized is awful. I don’t mind paying my 6$ per month for Bevel and I got the Watch not only for health reasons but also to use its other features but keep in mind that Bevel is something you probably need to replace Whoop/Oura with the Apple Watch. If my Oura Ring 3 fails in the future I will probably get a Gen 4 ring. If Apple introduces a Ultra 3/4/5 etc with new useful sensors I can imagine upgrading. If my current watch breaks I would buy it again without a doubt. For Whoop I’m currently on the road to not extend my subscription once it expires. I‘m a bit over half way through my 2 year subscription and since I anyway paid for it I will continue wearing the Whoop daily but as of now I don’t really see a reason to renew it. Hopefully when this time arrives the introduced Whoop 5 or made significant improvements to the software and features. For those interested: Battery life I get with Whoop + Oura is basically the same of around 5 days. The Apple Watch lasts around 4 days (I have Always on off which boost the battery life significantly).

I don’t have the Oura Ring 4 but the third Gen of the Oura Ring next to my whoop for over a year. It’s pretty accurate based on my comparisons with an Apple Watch Ultra 2 and a Polar Chest Strap.

Compared to my Whoop 4.0 my Oura Ring Gen 3 is more accurate.

I’ve tried the Oura ring 3rd gen but returned it because I just noticed it on my finger too much. I have skinny fingers and the ring was just thick and heavy. I bought the 4th gen yesterday and there’s a big difference; this one’s a keeper. It’s much lighter and thinner, doesn’t have protruding sensor nubs like the 3rd gen. It recognized activity which was just me walking, playing fetch with my dog at the park where I was walking a bit faster than normal. I found that its ability to detect a change in my movement and heart rate, even a minor one, and to detect and label a walk was a bit surprising. It also captured my first nights rest spot on with the sleep and wake times and I didn’t notice the ring at any point. With 18 sensors versus the previous 8, I expect it to be consistently more accurate and helpful for my needs as it captures more data. I’ve also used Whoop off and on for years, the two most recent gen’s, where I used to like their data better. Oura has improved, though, and for a $5.99/ month membership versus $30 with Whoop, I’m gonna keep this ring and its membership for the foreseeable future.

I have had a gen 3 for \~4 years. I got it because I wanted to track my sleep and overall general health trends, and I don't like wearing a watch while I sleep. I was very happy that this technology existed. Over time, I've become frustrated with the lack of value in their subscription service (the ring itself isn't very insightful without it, and even though the subscription isn't that expensive, I still feel like I'm getting hosed). While OURA's customer service is excellent, the developers tend to randomly break critical functions and have little interest in fixing them. That part reminds me very much of what recently happened with Sonos: Fantastic hardware, but the app required to run all of it was compromised to support a new product launch that no one wanted. I still use it and interact with my stats daily. It's a great tool for anyone interested in incremental improvements to their health. Is it the best it could possibly be? Far from it. But it's pretty good compared to most of the options available on the market today.

I love mine. Had the Gen 2 then Gen 3. Fit is more comfortable, looks nicer too. Keep in mind in forums like this, you are 2x likely to get someone complaining as someone who is happy.

I had Gen 3 and now got Gen 4. The ring is still super clunky but I haven’t had any issues with it at all.

I bought the 4. Lasted 1,5 weeks before it lost connection to phone. Got a new one for replacement. Replacement process was very fast. How ever…. I got the replacement ring 12.12.2024, and the replacement ring died 2 days ago. So now i’ll be getting my 3rd ring in 2 months. Not very promising. Still waiting for customer services response…. I had Oura 3, and it didnt have any problems…

Any advice on how to adjust settings if you wear an Oura gen 4 and Apple Watch 10? I don’t sleep with my watch and used to wear Oura only at night. I’ve decided to wear it daily too but I’m getting duplicate steps and wildly different heart rate info. Wearing the ring on my right index finger and watch on left wrist. I really like activity tracking on the watch and thought the gen 3 ring was terrible.

Had a size 9 gen 4 since launch, replacing a gen 3. Very happy with both. As above I don’t find value in the timeline, it’s not something I personally look at. I think the main page should be modular where we can add sections based on our ‘favorites’ or interests. But overall I’m quite happy with my purchases. Also own and wear an Apple Watch since launch, most recently an ultra 2, I feel Oura does the app quite a bit better.

One thing to keep in mind is that when people are happy with a product and they aren’t the sort to write reviews, they’re not going to post about it. I’m one of those people. I really like my Gen4, have not had any issues, but it wasn’t like some earth-shattering upgrade. So there wasn’t anything to really rave about. On the other hand, if people are having issues or if their expectations aren’t met, you’ll hear about it. My opinion: I recommend it. But I also recommend the Gen3. I don’t know that the differences are big enough for me to strongly recommend one over the other.

I've been an Oura customer for 2 years, nothing but excellent customer service and quality for me. I have literally never had a single issue with either gen 3 or gen 4.

I have the Apple Watch ultra too, and the gen three ring. I use my Apple Watch a lot more and I sleep with it on. You don’t care about fitness tracking which is perfectly understandable, but personally, I do prefer the Apple Watch because I like getting notifications and stuff. But it seems like the rain would do most of the stuff you wanted to do and it would’ve better battery life. It might be less accurate to be fair, but I don’t notice massive differences in the sleep tracking data from my ring and from my Apple Watch.

More people come to vent a concern to Reddit than sing praises… I have had Oura for about 5 years and it has helped me a lot and keeps evolving and growing with me and I learn more about my internal working and what impacts health and sleep daily. Personally, I upgraded to 4th gen at launch and as others have said, I am not gentle with it. It never leaves my finger except to charge. Lifting, swimming, rowing, inside of a boxing glove working a bag, cooking, and in general living. No changes in usage in any way from when I was wearing the Gen 3. No issues with it at all. With the recent post from Oura, the understand the cause, are making impacted folks whole, and are correcting the interlocking tolerances at the production spec edge to ensure the separation cases you are hearing should no longer occur moving forward. Overall, but direct from Oura and you should be getting the latest production runs and you should be ok.

I’ve had mine for about 3 weeks and it’s holding up though I have to charge it every 3rd day. I really do think the gen 3 horizon is a better buy. I haven’t returned or exchanged my ring bc the sizing is better for me and it hasn’t broken yet. Idk… my advice is hypocritical 🥲💜 good luck!

My spouse and I had the gen 3 since late 2021. We swapped to the gen 4 a few weeks ago and we love them. The fit is better for us in the 4 than the 3. Hope you like yours!

I bought the Gen 4 after being a loyal Gen 3 owner for three years. No complaints about the 4 for me. I understand that there is apparently a bad batch of 4s out there, but support will take care of you. I also went to Oura after not enjoying the rather garish look of health trackers.

I've had my Oura 3 since last fall: as for the device on its own, it's great. However, the android app is lacking, and if I had realized how Apple centric it is, I would have reconsidered...

Two main differences are: Apple has "find my ring", Android does not Apple has a widget to see data on the home screen, Android does not There are other minor things, I think, but these two stand out to me

Bought in 2023, Gen 3 Stealth. Wear and tear has been pretty minimal all things considered. Battery life is still pretty good. I’m not a huge fan of the App, but it does the job for the most part.

I was with whoop for 4 years. Left last year cause I just couldn’t justify the cost since I haven’t been active enough to need more than my Garmin when I do an activity, plus some bad relationships with sleep metrics. That being said, I’ve thought about coming back and Oura seems the way to go depending. I think Oura/Whoop is comparable to the Apple/Garmin situation. Apple is a great smart watch that’s good at fitness. Garmin is a great fitness watch that’s good at smart watch stuff. Whoop is a great tool for heavy athletes, and Oura is a great tool for people who may not be as serious about it.  For me personally, I couldn’t care less about strain atm. I just want to find a way to maximize my Deep and REM sleep on as few hours as possible, and buying a second hand Oura 3 for $100 seems like a better route than Whoop again 

While I agree with you on the fitness tracker comments, I disagree on the subscription fees. Oura is the only smart ring that charges a subscription fee...and they are losing marketshare because of it. AmazFit Helio Ring tried to charge a subscription fee for premium features of their app, but, after a few months, lowered the price of their ring AND now bundle the premium features for free. Ultrahuman has third-party add-ons called PowerPlugs. There are 12 of these niche add-ons and only two require a subscription. Cardio Adaptability, and Region-Limited AFib Detection. RingConn did say that they were considering subscription fees at one point before their Gen 2 started shipping, but later said they decided against it.

I typically am size 12 as that fits the most digits. For me, Oura Gen 2/Gen3 and RingConn Gen 1 size 12s are the same. But this may not be true for everyone with the slight differences in widths and in sensor bump placement. I would encourage you to get the sizing kit to be sure. I nearly made the mistake with Ultrahuman of assuming it would be the same size as Oura, but with Ultrahuman, I am size 11.

Well this makes my decision to return the ring once I get it a bit better. Going with oura for that. Watch wise...I guess this solidifies my thought to maybe go apple with iphone 16 and ultra 3 Real shame 🤦🏾‍♂️

Oura ring is the best on the market right now. But this is a ring, not a smartwatch. For smartwatch go for Polar

there are third party data analysis options available. and yes, i agree, if you're a serious athlete, it's where AW falls short. actually, if you do lifting or climbing or, hell, even rowing, the oura is uncomfortable - and in some cases, actively dangerous (you sure as hell should not climb with a ring on)

Oura also fucked people over even worse, which is one reason I went with the Whoop - Oura was "pay for the hardware, the app is free" and then moved to paid hardware and a paid subscription and bricked the devices of everyone who didn't want to pay for a subscription. Other reason I went with the Whoop is I lift weights and didn't want to scratch up my ring during training.

I'll give it a 7/10 Had to fight to get my warranty replacement because I wasn't there original owner Data no longer is syncing between Strava and Oura apps It's good to learn what you're baseline is but if you're a data geek maybe look at something else.

I'll say this in addition to my other comment... I'm probably not going to replace mine when this one bricks in the next year.

I’ve only mine for about 6 weeks so I’m still waiting for the cycle tracking to take effect, which was a big reason for me personally, but I’m still getting heaps out of it aside from that. I was so pleasantly surprised at how good my sleep and heart health were. My stress less so, that was hard to see, it was a rude awakening to realise how much I ignore and dismiss all those cues in my body. So I’m meditating more and taking the need to make adjustments to my day to day life way more seriously. It’s also pretty hard to drink even a couple wines once you see how much it affects you. That’s grim. I find it funny someone commented about people wearing them for social status. The ring is ugly. My closest friend teases me about it. My partner hates it (when he asks “if I slept okay” he adds that he’s asking me and not the ring).

I’ve had mine for a little over a month or so, I think it’s comfortable to wear and tracks okay. I haven’t had any issues with it not tracking correctly with sleep but I work out and don’t think it tracks calories burned or activity in that sense super well. I do intense Pilates session and it usually only says like 100-130 calories are burned when google estimates a Pilates work out should be something like 200-300. I don’t track my calories so it’s not a huge deal to me but for others it might be. I’ve also noticed that when I’m stressed or maybe my heart rate is a bit up (anxiety) instead of showing as stress it’ll show as an activity. I have the gold and it still looks really nice but I do wear a silicone cover for work outs and when I’m at work, I work in a restaurant and worry about chipping with beer bottles and such. I find it really comfortable though and I hate watches so this is a better alternative but I do think it needs a little work. Also Amex sometimes does money back on oura rings so if you have one definitely check it before purchasing. Edit- I think over time it’ll track all my things better but I think it’s good to know these things. I’ve also seen on here that if you work night shifts and stuff it’ll not track it an activity.

I've been using my Oura Ring for about two months now and wanted to share my thoughts so far for anyone researching or those of you with advice for my problems! For context, I'm 26 y/o male who lives a pretty active lifestyle. My primary exercise is road cycling, with some strength training mixed in. My main motivation in getting the Oura was for sleep tracking, but I also wanted a fitness tracker that allowed me to still wear a regular watch. I've tried out Garmin, Whoop, and Apple Watches in the past. Here's my honest review: The Good: \- The sleep tracking is awesome. I had some concerns that I had sleep apnea due to a family history, and this allowed me to see metrics that put my mind at ease. I love checking out the sleep data each morning! \- Battery life is excellent. I'm charging every 4-6 days. \- User experience on the app is pretty good. Way better than Garmin, but not as good as Whoop - (the Whoop band always looked ridiculous to me) \- The resilience metrics are really cool. I haven't gotten sick since I got the ring, but my wife's is pretty accurate for recognizing when she's getting sick. The Bad: \- The ring scratches pretty easily. I even bought silicone covers to wear when weight lifting, but my silver ring looks very scratched after just two months. I'm just embracing it haha! \- I don't understand how the tags are supposed to be insightful. I've tried to be diligent with entering activities and when I drink coffee but am yet to learn anything from it all. They just launched this AI chatbot thing which doesn't seem to be very helpful. I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts on this. \- I don't think that it tracks stress accurately. I recently went through a week of having panic attacks off an on, but my ring would rarely label those times as stress. The Ugly: \- Okay here we go... I would discourage anyone who is a cyclist from getting an Oura Ring. I am yet to find any reliable way to accurately capture my bike rides in my Oura Ring data. I have it linked to Strava, but it cannot import any heart rate data for the ride. Also, the heart rate dashboard won't even give me an activity label for my Strava ride even when it's been imported. The majority of times I ride, the ring isn't even able to capture my heart rate, it just says "no data" for the time I rode. I messaged support about this, and all they could recommend is that I wear gloves so that the ring doesn't move around as much. No luck. \- The step counting is completely all over the place. When I first got the ring, it seemed to give me a step "equivalent" for my bike rides. Lately, it gives me virtually no steps for my ride. Obviously, when you are riding a bike you aren't taking steps, but they have to be able to think of some way to make an equivalent. \- Overall, I just don't really trust the activity data. I think that the Oura Ring is best labeled as a "wellness tracker" and shouldn't be considered by people that are more interested in tracking activities. If that's you, consider the Whoop or Garmin. Conclusion: I like my Oura Ring for the insights it gives me regarding sleep. However, If I had known that it would be so unreliable in tracking my cycling I probably would have gone back to Garmin. Would love to hear about other people's experience!

I absolutely love mine. If it broke today I’d buy another one and have it en route before I went to sleep tonight. I will say it’s not for everyone, definitely read through some complaints some people have on this sub. For example, everyone will tell you to get the silver because it hides scratches the best, and then you’ll see many complaints from people who did not get the silver and regret it haha ETA-my HSA paid for it so that was great

Very good when it works. Very frustrating when it doesn't. I wanted to wear mechanical watches that's why I opted for a ring tracker. Worked very well the first few weeks. It tracked everything and gave me very good insights about my health but I am now experiencing connection issues. I tried all their troubleshooting steps and still nothing. My ring has not connected to the app for 3 days now and support has been a nightmare as well. No response. Take that as you will, your milage may vary.

Yup I actually just posted it, but i will copy it here for you :-) I noticed lots of bad feedback so I decided to dilute it a bit with a positive experience, that I as a new customer and first time user have with Oura. It seriously makes me approach my health more responsibly and make correct choices during the day. Whether it’s more movement, put down the phone at night and try to go to sleep earlier (seems to be my biggest issue as me scrolling phone before bed takes away a deep sleep i could have gotten if I went to sleep earlier), or read better into my cycle (I am still collecting data there though). It also predicted a flu two times already. I was not used to having any rings so it took me some time to get used to it but it’s getting better. I still take it off when doing dishes or if I am cooking and my hands get dirty, but I also created the habit to put it charging whenever i take it off so so far it has never ran out of battery for me. I am currently testing the Meal feature and I enjoy testing the features out of the lab. So far my experience is super positive and cannot wait to collect more data and insights 🤓

Not cheaper. The hardware is an upfront cost of $250 to $500 (depending which version and color) and there's a $5.99/month subscription. You can no longer buy a lifetime subscription. And both of my rings (one gen2 and one gen3) died after 2 years. (The warranty is only 1 year.) Whoop is definitely better for exercise tracking. Oura doesn't track cardio in any useful way at all, and you'll want to take it off for lifting weights anyway.

The WatchOS 11 sleep tracking is the best of any consumer wearable. Oura 3 (and hopefully 4) is very close. Fitbit/Garmin are a step down from both of those with Polar, Coros and others even further away. Heart Rate tracking is by far the best on Apple Watch (both resting and during fitness activities) with Garmin, Polar, and Coros being fairly close. Oura is very accurate with heart rate when at rest, mostly accurate when moving with daily activities, and only fair to poor when doing cardio exercise. O2 monitoring is good on Oura, and unavailable in the USA (for now, there are rumors of a pending settlement now that the company that sued Apple for the O2 tech has fired their CEO and founder) on Apple Watch. Both are similar. Temp monitoring is good on Oura and Apple Watch. So... Apple Watch has the best DATA in all categories (except O2 for now) but Oura still has very good sleep, O2, temp, and heart rate (except during fitness activities) data. The difference is the software... Apple dumps tons and tons of data in the Apple Health app on the iPhone from the watch. In general its endless graphs and numbers but ZERO interpretation of that data, they leave that to you or your doctor. For the first time in WatchOS 11 they added a "vitals" app that tracks 5 of the main metrics (RHR, O2 (when available), temp, sleep etc.) and tells you if they are out of the norm each day, but very little information of why, what the norm is, what to do etc. There ARE several very good apps you can download and either are free or a reasonable yearly cost (ie. sub $30) like Athlytic that take the data from the Apple Health app and provide "Oura-like" interpretation of the information including stress, readiness, etc. The question here is how accurate those apps are, most of them are created by a team of one or two developers vs. a company like Whoop or Oura that in theory has doctors and scientists aiding the development of the intrepation of the data. Your mileage may vary. Oura on the other hand is all about taking the data it gets and interpreting it and putting it in forms that are actionable. It's not just how much you slept, or what your HRV was, or your RHR was... its how all 3 of those (and more) represent your readiness to tackle stress or heavy fitness loads that day etc. It's interpreting your overall cardio vascular health etc. The software makes the difference. Now Oura knows their weak spot is data accuracy in HR during fitness so it works with Apple Health to import fitness tracked by Apple Watch and use that data in place of its own if you want, a best of both worlds situation. So... Apple Watch is the best at gather data in essentially every single metric except O2 (and probably not for long) but Oura is "close enough" most of the time and you can use your Apple Watch, Garmin etc. data to supplement the Oura during its weak spots (cardio fitness activities) but the software is so much more holistic and willing to take a stance. With Apple YOU need to do the work to understand what the data means for the most part. They dipped their toe into interpretation with WatchOS 11 but Oura is already in the pool. None of this also accounts for comfort, ie. if you don't want to wear a watch at night, or if you want wear a non-smartwatch on occasion etc., obviously Oura excels at those situations. For me? I'm fortunate. I wear an Apple Watch Ultra 2 (except at night for comfort) and an Oura and while they overlap they help each other and help me in different ways.

Bingo. I still wear the watch all day, I love it for tracking my workouts, and I still try for the rings… but in general for looking at my sleep and for a comprehensive view of my health as a whole Oura is still best. I get people who struggle with buying the Oura and paying the subscription cost because as long as you can sleep in your Apple Watch you in theory have all the same data (but in many cases more accurate too) so people just wish Apple would be more aggressive at helping users interpret it and use it.

Oura will import Garmin data for the areas it is weakest like workouts to make its own overall view of your health more accurate.

I prefer my Fitbit over my Oura Ring, though I wear both most days and sleep them usually. My watch is far more useful on a daily basis, and has more integrated tracking for things like food, water, cals etc. And the fitbit app/basic things are free. Oura ring has an annual subscription and very limited integrations on apps for tracking anything outside steps, sleep, and period info which makes it somewhat frustrating for me to use, personally They're useful for different things and different reasons. I think smart watches are still the better buy right now, but I'd do some detailed comparisons between rings and watches for what you want to use them for then decide if it's worth it.

Yup! Had mine for 3 weeks, no complaints about the ring itself, tracking seems pretty good comfortable to wear, great battery life etc. My biggest gripe is that it can’t integrate data from different sources like Ring + Apple Watch/Health. So when I go for a hike, for some reason it automatically integrates my Health data from the hike BUT they can’t import HR from Health for some reason (even though it’s available)…. So my HR data for any workouts where I use watch + ring is just missing. Very frustrating. I’ve given feedback on this and all they said is ‘we hear you and we’ll pass along your feedback’.

I’ll piggy-back on this excellent review, since I generally agree with it. Sleep: I have both the ring and pay for Sleepcycle on the watch and find the ring to be more accurate than the watch but also on the conservative side — I don’t feel like I’m getting credit for sleeping when I should but it’s hard to know since human memory is not accurate either. Data: You can download your data if you want and there’s a lot of it. Advice/coaching: turning data into things you can do differently is probably a lot of their R&D and it is annoying because it can’t be turned off, nor can you streamline what data you’re shown to reduce obsessive thinking but the language choices are surprisingly not off putting Vs Apple Watch: Agreed on it being okay for exercise but short of the watch, which seems more accurate and easier to use. If you just want a vague sense of your activity level it’s good. Ring best for sleep, watch best for exercise

Don't buy! Lots of problems. First ring broke in 2 pc after 2 weeks (outside shel fell off), without any reason to break. A lot of work to send it back and receive a new one, a lot of research to connect the new ring. Now after a few weeks: no connection anymore with the app, whatever I tried (only sometimes when placing it on the charger), battery empty after a few days, a lot of gaps in the data while it fits tight enough. So you pay a lot for a not working ring and not only the ring, but also monthly.. Send an e-mail to Oura to return it, but still no reply. I'll buy another device.

Use the sizing kit and wear the plastic version for 7-14 days. I wore the white plastic sizing ring 10 days to make sure it fit well. And so far my data on my ring has been great. I've had it about 60 days. First 5-7 days it was calibrating so the really good data starts about a week in. Good luck!

The sizing was accurate. My ring is a bit loose. I do occasionally have to realign the sensor with the inside of my hand. Most times I check it, it is fine.  But the finger I choose has a large knuckle. I probably could go down a size on the ring if it fit over the knuckle. But the performance is great. 

I mainly got it to sync with Natural Cycles as we prepare to try to start a family— the other data is interesting, but it’s such an expensive purchase that I don’t know that I would have gotten it solely to look at my other stats.

My partner also wanted me to start wearing a heart rate/fitness tracker but I couldn't stomach putting my Apple Watch back on, so I bought an Oura ring. The Whoop fitness tracker also seems like a good alternative to a smart watch. For a fitness tracker it is 100% best practice to wear it 24-7 for at least the first few months - but if you don't want to do that, workout + sleep is a good compromise that should still create plenty of data for your health apps to analyze.

I too have an Oura ring. I do not believe it is a great fitness tracker. More for casual telemetry and for sleep. If I were very serious about working out, I would have a recent Apple Watch. Edit: important to note that it is a terrible idea to wear an Oura ring while lifting anything. Degloving is a thing.

Very good when it works. A lot of things just aren’t that accurate though. Depends on what your needs are from it

Stress, steps, and readiness

I have had an Oura ring for almost a year now and it is worth it for my needs. For women who get a monthly cycle, it is great for tracking, tips and connecting to other apps like Natural Cycles, Clue and I think one more. For me, the sleep data is also very helpful as well. (I only wear it to bed) It is also able to detect if something is straining you or you’re not feeling well. For me, it is worth it for the connection to the apps. The other bonuses are pretty good.

I wanted to keep track of my sleep and my cycle. I had garmin before but sleeping with it was uncomfortable. I love it, but def I think I can learn about my sleep cycle and then ditch it lol the subscription is ok now but anything with this economic landscape if needed I will cancel. its great for learning how your body reacts but I guess we can learn and then just recognize it without paying the sub.

I love it! I think it depends on what exactly you want it to do. I wanted it to track my cycle and help with family planning while also helping me track my overall sleep and health in the right direction. I just found out I’m pregnant which is in huge thanks to the ring so i am very happy with my purchase!

Same on the Oura ring. Bought it a few weeks ago after I bought my aqua terra. So far so good. Although be careful on the sizing, I would wear the sizer (which is 10 dollars at target which you get back if you purchase ) for a few days to determine the finger that is most comfortable for you. Unfortunately the information is best done on the index and middle finger which makes me feel like Tony Montana in scar face. lol

Subscription and overpriced. Really not worth it after owning for a year.

don't think it is as simple as alternatives. All the devices mentioned are just different . I have Samsung Galaxy Watch ultra ,oura ring and whoop . if I wasn't exercising/pushing as much as I am I would not be using Whoop . Whoop is by far the best for that .Oura ring is by far the best lifestyle tracker with best insights. And it is not close . If I could only choose one device still would choose only my watch . Having the screen +apps +ability to go for a run with just your watch and listen to books /podcasts directly,payments with just your watch ,easiness of activity tracking and heart rate tracking . Could go on and on . Second device I would choose would be oura ring for the quality of data and insight that is far superior to Whoop . Whoop shines when it goes to form .the strap is superior form if you are an active person . Not having it off makes it less burdensome too . I think Strain is superior form of tracking and gives me much better insights when it goes to overtraining and when to push or recover . If you can only buy one device buy a good smartwatch for the versatility .

I’m loving it. It gives you understandable insights, analyzing your data., tips etc. other wearables provides similar info but not in the same user friendly way. Eg I have an Apple Watch that use to track my workouts but in terms of sleeping only tells the time you slept and the phases. Oura tells you if your sleep was repairing, if you had movement during your sleep, advise on the best time for you to go to sleep…

My Oura used to say I was consistently stressed, everyday, for at least 5 hours. Now, this past week, it’s read that I was “engaged” when I experienced one of the most stressful weeks of my career. It doesn’t record gym activity all that well either. I think sleep recording is pretty good. It’s a nice gift.

Love mine and it’s great. I’m very rough with it and I’ve had no problems. Data seems SUPER accurate.

I use an Oura ring for daily monitoring (whilst embedding the Omega) and sleep tracking but a Garmin watch for activities. Let’s face it, you’re not generally going to be wearing your nice Omega when you go out for a run anyway (at least, I don’t).

I use Garmin for activity tracking, Oura for sleep/recovery/cycle tracking— I don’t think Oura is meant to be an activity tracker honestly.

I love my Oura ring and Garmin Venu!

agree with oura ring and i also wear mine when i work out! i only take it off when im doing lat pull downs because it pinches my skin a bit. you can get a silicone cover for it if you dont want it to get scratched when you're lifting

I'm in love. I literally tell people that I know they should try it because it helps me better truly understand where I am. For example, my readiness score today is a record low 31. I have upped respiratory issues, a screwed stomach, back pain, a headache, and allergies. All I'm ready to do is go to bed. Without knowing this, I'd really try to keep pushing. I can make better decisions because I know what's needed.

You can totally wear it during your workout. I wore my Oura ring everyday for 8 months and I lift 6 days a week. It got scuffed, for sure, but for me it was a tracker and not a fashion accessory so I didn’t really care and you couldn’t see them unless you were really close up

Have you considered a wearable ring? I have an Oura ring and it’s fine for tracking fitness/steps/calories and obviously a wild bunch of other shit, But it’s just a ring, no screen, no nothing.

100% agree Also more 5 years using the ring. Worth it for HRV data alone! In the 40 years since I tracked fetal well-being by HRV as a labor and delivery RN, clinical & research support for the measure is stronger than ever. Id say skip the ring if you’re looking to measure your exercise. (Personally, I can tell when I am exercising.) I appreciate having sleep and HRV data in planning and evaluating my activities of daily life. It helps to get my feelings, opinions & assumptions out of the way. For example, an interpersonal experience that I considered a stressful loss resulted in significantly increased HRV that remains after nearly a year. Whatever my emotional experience of the event, the data show that it calmed me down (=resulted in a permanent decrease in sympathetic nervous system tone) Clearly it was good for me. Knowing this helps me put the experience in perspective. And I’m not worried about support for breakage: Oura responded immediately with a replacement the only time Ive had an issue.

I turn off measures that drain battery. Pulse ox maybe? Luckily I haven’t been sick enough to need it.

Had it for two years. It’s a lot of fun and it has positive reinforcement. Has replaced the information from my phone. I prefer a ring than having to wear a watch

Idk I’ve had it since November and it just tells me I’m stressed all the time, even after days where I will feel like I has a good day and was relaxed. Nope, stress. Going to give it a year before I make any decisions with it.

I am also grandfathered into the membership which is why it continue to be worth it to me. I have small issues like, you used to be able to contact customer service much easier like there used to be an actual email, the perfectly round ring isn’t as stylish to me I’m sad that I don’t have the other look in the new ring anymore but I was forced to upgrade as my ring basically stopped working as soon as the new ring launched, that happened with the last ring launch as well so feels rigged. I don’t love the new app interface, but I am a long time user so I just was used to the other one. I don’t believe oura is the greatest activity tracker, I primarily use it for sleep tracking and overall wellness stats and for sleep tracking I think it is 10/10. Def get the sizing kit to be sure and even wear the sizing kit to bed so you know whether or not you like sleeping w a ring on.

I wear my oura ring and have a cover for it. It’s in decent shape and tracks my kb workouts.

The ring has literally changed my life. The way I eat, what I drink, how I workout - everything. I’m 45 and in the best shape of my life because I can see the impact of all my previous bad habits that I had no idea were so bad (eating a lot before bed, drinking, over training, etc.) The metrics and dashboards give me such positive reinforcement for the good things I do that it makes lifestyle changes not only manageable, but exciting. I once lost my charger and was devastated that I lost days of data waiting for the new one. With my new ring I bought two juuuuust in case. I work in digital tech and this is my favorite piece of technology I’ve ever purchased. Does that help? 😂

I second the Oura ring! I want to give a very strong disclaimer that it's not the best activity tracker, but my active calories on my oura vs my garmin are usually around 50-100 calories off and I burn about 600-800 per day depending on what I do. Then you can use strava on your phone to track your miles if you would like. Oura will track HR and active cals.

I returned mine last week, I just didn’t feel it was worth the price point. It fit properly but I didn’t feel the feedback was useful for me, more often than not, days where I had a great recovery score - I felt like garbage and was exhausted. My sleep score was usually off, it tracked me as sleeping even when I was laying in bed reading for hours thanks to my insomnia. I get the stress readings are based on multiple factors but it would register me as relaxed even when I was in super stressful situations at work, then would say I was stressed when cuddling on the couch with my dogs. I just didn’t feel like the info was helpful to me, maybe it was correct and I was interpreting things wrong but either way, the price point didn’t equal the value to me.

I love my oura ring. It definitely helps me monitor sleep quality. I also use visible but not really getting much out of it.

I’ve had an Oura ring for the last 8 months after using Apple Watches for years. It’s been an absolute game changer for my overall health vs just fitness tracking. It’s comfortable to sleep in and the battery lasts for approx 5 days, so it’s convenient and the data is really useful especially around sleep and ‘readiness’. I prefer rather than having a set of static goals, it adjusts them based on how my stats are. So if I’ve had a rubbish nights sleep or been travelling a lot and jet lagged, my exercise goal reduces while I recover and get back to baseline, if my stats are good and I’m sleeping and recovering well then it automatically Increases goals. It’s also got a tagging function so you can see how certain things affect your sleep, HRV, body temp etc. it’s helped me cut down caffeine, put extra attention to my sleep, reduce alcohol etc just because I can see what actually happens to my body when I do things ‘right’.

LOL that sounds like Oura rings customer service. SO done with Oura!

Great app and insights. Horrible finger eczema.

I've only had it for about 3 weeks, but I've enjoyed using it so far! I've found the sleep data to be pretty accurate. Sometimes I get enough sleep but I feel really crappy and groggy for hours in the morning, and I've realised that it happens on days where I wake up from deep sleep or REM. I'm not sure there's much I can do to control that, but I also realised that my resting heart rate always lowers late which is probably because I eat late, so I'm going to try and eat earlier and see if that helps. The readiness scores are also interesting to me. There have been days where, like I said earlier, I've woken up feeling exhausted, looked at my glowing readiness score and thought "I don't think so!", but then later I've felt more energised and managed to have a great gym session. Lastly, I go to the gym regularly and I usually push it hard every session. The recovery adviser almost feels like it's giving me permission to tone it down on some days, it's okay to do an easier session or skip the gym and do a bit of walking instead. Recovery is important! I don't find the tag feature helpful. I think it'd be much more helpful for me if there was a notes/memo feature when it does the stress adviser summary at the end of the day so I can write anything pertinent for that day. It'd also be a good way to reflect.

I’ve had mine for 4.5 years (with some replacements). I love it. Excellent life addition.

Oura. I still think sleeping with a watch on is weird.

To be honest, this is more of a comment about bio tracking and expectations. Data is great but it really is what you do with it. You need to perform the changes. -1) the data is not perfect. It is very good but not perfect. To be honest, nothing is perfect. 2) why do you want it? Most people i know who has the whoop, oura or apple watches dont even look at the data. Or— they do after a workout. 3) oura is more of a recovery/sleep tracker than it is on working out. I have a heart rate monitor that syncs with apple health which syncs to my oura app. You wouldnt want to workout with oura ring unless you’re running or cycling. Injury with something on your finger is real especially lifting weights That being said- i look at my data and have made better life choices because of it. I add tags everyday to see if there are any patterns This data + general feeling of self allowed me to realize alcohol’s impact on my recovery. Ive decreased drinking dramatically. I also have been optimizing my sleep and oura has been great to have as a north star. Is what im doing really impacting XYZ. Most people dont. Most people use it for social status.

I highly recommend the oura ring. I've been wearing one for something like 8 years, in various models. It's excellent as a wellness and sleep tracker but less so as a fitness tracker. But I also wear a Google watch on my right wrist (mainly to be contactable) and a constellation on my left (because it's pretty). I have no shame in that - each device has its own purpose, nobody cares that I'm wearing two watches - there's bigger shit to worry about imo.

Oura ring is what I use

I bought an Oura ring because it was cheaper at the time than an Apple Watch. I love it! It serves more as a sleep tracker and it has significantly improved my sleep - plus it does track workouts. I’ve been using it for 3 years and still look at the app every day!

I love mine! Have had for over a year now. It has really changed my perspective on health in general and challenged me to make better choices. Especially when it comes to sleep and stress. The membership is so little so doesn't bother me. In general it's been amazing. For example, I got the stomach flu a couple days ago and the insights helped me so much. Showing me my heart rate and quality of rest etc. There's a feature called "resilience" and it shows how well you adapt to stress. It's so helpful to see when stress is overcoming me and my ring picks it up pretty much immediately. Before my ring I had spells of "idk why I'm so tired" "I just feel like crap" and now that I have the data it's pretty obvious what was causing me to feel that way.

I have an oura ring and hate it way too uncomfortable, the ring is too thick. I was an early adopter so don't pay a subscription, but battery life is shit. They also crippled my battery life when they released the new model, probably hoping people would pay to upgrade... I'd live if Fitbit released a band without a screen

I've had mine for 5 years. Got it in the UK and that comes with a 5 year warranty. In that time, I've gotten 3 free rings and a free lifetime membership, all because of dying batteries. Customer service is good and happy to replace it with no questions asked (they can see from the app that the battery is draining too quickly). It is not like Lord of the rings, that when you put it on, it fixes all your sleep problems (or makes you invisible). It does drill in how severely alcohol affects your sleep. But I'm lounging around all day in my pajamas, watching TV, and it tells me that I have had 5 hours of high stress... Which I clearly haven't. Sometimes I think I slept great, check my ring, see I got a bad sleep score, then realize "actually, I don't feel that good" and it ruins my day. It is useful for temperature and heart rate.. you have an objective measure of how you are doing.. if you are getting sick, if you are recovered. And that's all I have to say about that.

I dumped whoop and moved to Oura ring a couple of months ago. Couldn’t be happier. And bloody glad I did after this scam.

\+1 for Oura. Great for sleep and HR tracking. Sucks for activity tracking but I realized I dont really need to track that. Did I go to the gym today, y/n, is all I need lol.

It’s kind of stressful like a mom telling you you have been stressed for 8 hours so need to breathe deep for one minute😂. I like some of the data but it seems like it tells me the opposite of how I feel-when I am stressed it will say “you are relaxed” and vice versa.

Oura tracks temperature and connects to natural cycles and therefore should be better for tracking menstrual cycles. Whoop doesn't do much at tracking menstrual cycles.

Apple watch in the gym only for me. Oura ring everywhere else. Good point on the degloving, absolute nightmare.

Upvote for the Oura ring as someone who also got into watches recently and was daily'ing an Apple watch. (I daily a Speedmaster now) The battery life isn't as great as the new Apple watches, but will be fine for a normal work day.

Ultrahuman is full of unreliable algos to drive metrics, better go with Oura or Garmin.

I like my Oura ring for sleep & recovery. And I use an Apple Watch to see my heart rate during workouts.

I don't have a single device recommendation, but I have the same strong feelings about wrist based devices. I bifurcated; I wear an Oura ring for general biometrics and tracking, and a Wahoo bike computer for cycle-specific stuff. Wahoo and Oura both talk to Strava for aggregation. It's an extra gizmo but it fits my own very picky requirements. I couldn't find a less intrusive biometric device than the ring options (Oura, Ultra human, whatever else is out there now). Good luck!

I’ve had mine for 2 months now. Which reminds me I should put it on now. It’s a lot bulkier than I thought it would be. The sleep information is nice. I bought it because I would sometimes wake up with headaches/migraines. I thought maybe my sleep apnea came back or something. Looks like there is no correlation. So now I can narrow it down to consecutive nights of poor sleep or wrong pillow. It’s good at its job. But once you have the info you need I feel like you don’t need to wear it so much anymore.

I have an oura ring, it’s brilliant for telling me when I’m starting to shown signs of a flare or another illness. I also have an Apple Watch but the oura has rendered it pretty much redundant now

It measures hrv, temp, rhr, cardiovascular fitness and loads of others to do with health and sleep. Yes it does require a subscription, I think the app is pretty basic without it. I wouldn’t be without mine now. The battery lasts about 5 days and it’s completely unobtrusive with no screen or audible notifications. My watch used to irritate me with constant notifications

No, mainly the sleep and readiness pages. Says about mr hrv, what type of sleep I get etc I tend to miss deep sleep when I’m flaring. Resting heart rate and recovery index also show when I’m starting to drop a bit. I have had my oura a while now and consistently use tags for flare symptoms etc which helps me understand more if that makes sense

It doesn’t work a lot of the time. I get a lot of missing data and/or wrong data. I ended up selling mine because it was really just useless for me. I would not recommend.

Oura all the way. Apple Watch is getting better but is a pain in the ass to sleep with. The only thing the Apple Watch has over Oura is activity tracking and sounds like you have that covered with the Garmin. The Oura will give you all the information you’re looking for about how your lifestyle influences your stress and sleep. I have both and I basically ignore my Apple Watch for everything except activity now. There was a meme going around this sub about how Apple Watch prioritizes fitness no matter how your body is feeling and Oura is about balance. Oura has made me have such a healthier relationship with my body.

Sure thing! Oura was a great investment in my health. My only caveat to people is that it’s only as good as the data you provide it and what you then do with the data. Some people take it off when they go out drinking or know they aren’t going to get good sleep and that just does you a disservice.

I don’t. I have the 7. I was considering upgrading until I bought the Oura. Oura is so much more comfortable to wear at night and just practical to keep on during the day. I wear my Apple Watch 80% of the time but so love actual watches and wanted to wear them more.

Why would I bother upgrading if I’m getting everything I need? I think Apple Watch is great at a lot. But I find the Oura way more practical for stress and sleep tracking. Apple products haven’t changed all that much with the upgrades in my opinion. Everyone can of course make their own choices.

Dude. Chill. I was giving my opinion. You clearly also have one. Oura works much better for me and my lifestyle. I lift regularly and the Apple Watch works great for that. But I’m also a woman and vastly prefer Oura’s cycle tracking. And yes. I do like Oura’s data visualization better than Apple’s. I’m not looking for clinical level HRV rates. If I wanted that I would get a medical device. I hope you have a better day than you seem to be having this morning.

I’ve never been able to get it to not track steps during outdoor rides. Avid cyclist and Oura user since 2020. I started doing structured training 4 months into using Oura and the increase in HRV was amazing. Being able to monitor HRV along with the peaks and rests taught me how to manage my activity levels and that helps me manage my life stress. I’m sorry you suffer with anxiety. I hope this is an area Oura is looking at.

Certainly and thanks for yours! I should add that I record activities outside Oura. I’ve never thought of it as an activity tracker but a recovery tracker.

Did bought an Oura ring ... Went from a plastic device to titanium. From a US to an more Europe based company. From a subscription over 20€ a month to 5,99. After this announcement from Whoop my Oura ring smiles from my middle finger ;) Cheers.

Misfit has worked well for me for years. There's many ways to wear it, too, as a necklace, as a watch, and at one point, I got an ankle band and put it in there to be really out of the way when I was working at Walmart in the deli and still wanted to track my steps but was afraid of losing it if I attached it to my shoe with the included clip. ETA: Misfit also has a speedo version that tracks swimming laps, which is helpful for a lifeguard! Right now, though, I'm using the Oura ring, and I like that as well, but if you want the readiness scores and insights, you need the subscription (about $6 per month), but you can also use it as a basic fitness tracker without the subscription, I've heard. I've never had it without the subscription to know personally what ask that entails, though, and it's quite pricy to have things withheld. These are some common complaints along the users. If you're considering it, there's a subreddit dedicated to it with screenshots of the app, discussions of results, and common complaints being discussed with cost versus benefits.

Oura is probably the best for that, but it mainly works as an accountability tool. Some people get inspired by that, some annoyed.

I got mine in December and I’m loving it! I’ve gotten great insight to stress management and getting better sleep (what I got it for) and I have been able to improve both of those. It was also really interesting to see how everything was affected when I was sick last month. I definitely recommend it!

For what it’s worth, I am super sensitive to lights at night—even tiny LED lights. If there are any at home, I put black electrical tape over them, and in hotels I use shirts or anything I can to cover them. But the light that occasionally shows from the Oura ring when it’s taking a reading somehow does not bother me one bit. I guess I don’t sleep with my index finger right by my eyeballs, but then again, it’s a lot closer to me than hotel room thermostats! Just mentioning in case that helps. :)

I really like my Oura ring. That said, if you can tolerate how ugly the Whoop is, I found the data to be more useful.

Oura Ring has very good sleep analytics. Highly recommended. I’ve used them for several years and they keep getting better.

Can use oura ring for sleep. And not wear watch in sleep.

I like the Oura, but if bulky is a deal breaker, Ultrahuman seems to be a better fit. I read the reviews and I was torn between the two. If you want more info, they are explained in decent detail here. https://kalodynestudios.com/home/kalodyne-studios-expert-reviews-buying-guide/best-smart-ring-of-2025/

I have Oura and Apple Watch. For years, AW passively fed me data and I made no lifestyle changes. After a month of Oura grading me every morning, I started taking sleep seriously. Two years later, I've gone from 5 hours to 7-7.5. Life changing stuff. My RHR is down 25%, HRV is up. Oura's daily score keeps me honest. AW is better activity tracker. Oura is better at sleep, recovery, nudging you towards change. If you're susceptible to being graded and interested in recovery and sleep metrics, Oura is for you. For activity tracking, I'd skip it.

I have an Apple Watch and it works for every except sleep since you got to charge it. For sleep I use the Oura Ring, that is really good. And for calories and macro tracking I use Cal AI

I have had mine for 2 1/2 years. I love it and will keep having one in the future.

I use both but I remove watch to sleep. Oura is more accurate

Exactly the same, BB always correct. Sleep detection time is not correct on Garmin, but I have also the Oura ring.

I returned it because I work night shift and they don’t track movements between midnight and 4am. Also, the ring looks pretty cheap

100% agree - a major for instance for me feeling better is I did not know that if you want/need more deep sleep, you need to go to bed early i.e. within the recommended timeframe from the ring and indeed your deep sleep will increase… I figured if you got say eight hours it didn’t matter when that eight hours was but it turns out that is not the case! It’s things like that that have made my Oura uper worthwhile for me! Symptom tracker is also a game changer!

This I’ve spent a stupid amount on my oura ring plus over a year fees vs just buying the garmin watch and being done on that front (I still use both now that I added a garmin)

I don't use Apple health. I use them independently within the Oura app and Garmin Connect. If I was starting fresh right now I'd probably just get a good Garmin watch and leave it at that. I like the Oura and the data and the interface and appearance but...I'm used to it as I've had it well over a year at this point, and it gives me apples to apples comparison over time where I don't have that history with Garmin. But the Garmin seems to have plenty and do well enough, just it should be good. Also my Garmin 965 battery lasts a lot longer than my Oura ring's battery so the need to charge is less (I can get up to 3 days/nights on the ring but try to charge M/W/F from my desk at work so it never has to go too long and get too low. I could probably get, IDK over a week from the Garmin maybe two I charge it when it is at like 50% and that's maybe every 4 days or longer

I got mine free from work and it wasn’t my thing. I didn’t like how thick it was, it was thicker than my husbands wedding band. I had major sensory ick. I felt like it had to be charged often too. I liked it more than the Apple Watch but tbh I love my Fitbit more

Ik this is 4 months old. Oura and whoop both detect alcohol easily. When i used whoop everytime i drank my recovery was in the red. Even if just 2 Miller lite. It's literally a poison it's horrible for you.

I got mine for free, so I’m not that biased. I’m honestly blown away. It has exceeded my expectations and I’m loving it more for every day

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)