Oura Ring vs Apple Watch 2023: which one should you consider?

The Oura Ring is a smart ring that you can wear and that can track and keep an eye on different parts of your health and well-being. Its main purpose is to track your sleep, giving you information about your sleep stages, length, quality, and even how ready you are for the day ahead. The ring also has a heart rate monitor that lets you keep track of your heart rate all day and while you’re doing things. It can track stress based on what it learns from your heart rate variability (HRV), and it can track basic activity like counting steps and calories. The Oura Ring works with both iOS and Android phones and tablets.

Apple Inc. made the Apple Watch, which is a very popular smartwatch. It has a lot of features and functions besides tracking your health and fitness tracker. It can keep track of your workouts, steps, calories burned, and more, and it can do so in a very detailed way. The Apple Watch also has a heart rate monitor, an ECG feature that can find irregular heart rhythms, and a blood oxygen level monitor. It has a wide range of notifications, works with apps, and lets you make and take calls. The Apple Watch is mostly made to work with iOS devices, and you can choose from different models and ways to customize it.

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch Price and Affordability

The Silver, Black, and Stealth materials with the Heritage design on the Oura Ring Gen 3 start at $299. If you want the classic Horizon look, you’ll have to pay $50 more. But materials that are more rare will cost more. For example, the Gold Horizon Oura Ring will cost you $499, but if you want it in Rose Gold, it will cost you $549. But you have to pay a monthly subscription fee in addition to the price of the Oura Ring when you buy it. Without a subscription, you can only see three simple daily scores: sleep, readiness, and activity.

On the other hand, the GPS-only version of the Apple Watch Series 8 starts at $399. You’ll have to pay $749 for the larger 45mm screen with a stainless steel case. You can save money by getting the Apple Watch SE (2nd Generation), which starts at $249 for the basic model. Even though their prices are about the same, the Apple Watch is a much better smart device than the Oura Ring. Still, buying an Apple Watch means you already have an iPhone, which is a key assumption.

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch Comparison Table

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch Design

In terms of how they look, the Oura Ring and the Apple Watch are not the same. But they both look sleek and stylish, though the smart ring is less obvious. The Oura Ring is made to go around your finger like a ring. The Apple Watch looks like a traditional watch, but it has some cool features that other watches don’t have. For example, you can make calls by holding down on the screen for a few seconds, send texts, use Siri to get directions, send iMessages, and more. It also comes in many colors and styles, so you can find one that’s just right for you.

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch Sleep tracking

Apple didn’t add the ability to track sleep to the Apple Watch until the watchOS 7 update in 2020. This update is only for Apple Watch 3 and later, so if you already have the original, first, or second-generation Apple Watch, you can’t get this important new feature. Apple doesn’t have a lot of ways to track your sleep. Apple will only record how long you sleep and when you go to sleep and wake up. You can use these if you don’t have a starting point for these metrics yet.

It’s important to remember that the Apple Watch doesn’t give you useful advice and information about how you sleep. It only gives you raw sleep data and trends through the Health app. Only you can figure out what that means, which may take some time to learn. If you really want to change the way you sleep, this can be a big setback.

One of the best things about the Oura ring is that it can track how you sleep. The ring gives you more specific and useful information about how you sleep. These include total sleep, time in bed, resting heart rate (the number of times your heart beats per minute when you are at rest), sleep stages (REM sleep, deep sleep, and light sleep), timing, and latency (how long it takes for you to fall asleep). With the information it has, Oura gives you a pretty good idea of how your night went.

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch Fitness Tracking

If you buy a fitness tracker, you’ll want it to be able to keep track of as many of your body’s functions as possible. So, let’s see how the Apple Watch Series 8 and the Oura Ring 3 compare in terms of what they can record. Since the Apple Watch is much bigger than the Oura Ring, you can expect it to have more sensors, like ECG and Crash Detection. Still, the Oura Ring has everything you could want in a fitness tracker: a blood oxygen sensor, readiness score, heart rate, skin temperature, and more.

But the Apple Watch is much more than just a set of sensors because it has a screen. The Apple Watch can make and take calls, send and receive messages, and even install apps. Also, the apps you can download for the Apple Watch can add features that Apple didn’t include in the watch itself.

Oura Ring vs Apple Watch Battery life and comfort

A good sleep tracker should be comfortable and last long enough that you can wear it all day and night. Oura does well in both of these categories. Its small size makes it easy to wear all night, and its battery life is much longer than that of the Apple Watch. If you want a sleep tracker that can also keep track of your activities and workouts during the day, battery life is important. In practice, my Oura ring lasted five days on a single charge, while the Apple Watch Series 8 or Apple Watch SE only lasts me about a day and a half.

Even the Apple Watch Ultra couldn’t beat Oura; it only worked for about three days and two nights. How you use your device will always change how long the battery lasts, so your experience may not be the same as mine. When the always-on display is turned on and GPS is used to track outdoor activity, the Apple Watch’s battery usually dies faster. Oura also says that features like meditation sessions and real-time heart rate tracking will affect how long the battery will last.

When we wore the Oura ring and the Apple Watch, we kept track of spinning workouts, an HIIT workout, and walks outside. During testing, we also left the Apple Watch’s always-on display on and didn’t use low-power mode. When worn overnight to track sleep, both devices should be charged at least 30%.Again, it’s important to remember that the Apple Watch is always doing a lot more than the Oura ring, so the difference in battery life makes sense. Not only does it need to run a screen and stay connected to the internet, but it also needs to show you notifications from your phone all day long.

Oura Ring: Pros and Cons

Apple Watch: Pros and Cons

Which one should you consider?

The Oura Ring is a great sleep tracker because it has a long battery life, a useful Sleep Score, a small size, and a wide range of sleep metrics. The problem, though, is that these benefits come at a high cost when you consider that most of them require a monthly subscription to use.

Overall, Oura is the better sleep tracker, but the fact that it requires a subscription makes it hard to recommend. Still, Oura is better at using the data it collects to give advice that can be used. The Apple Watch is better for iPhone owners who care more about having a smartwatch that can be used for many things and can also track sleep stages.

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