There’s no doubt about it: the Apple Watch is a popular piece of equipment, not only for techies and gadget lovers, but also for athletes, wellness enthusiasts, and everyone in between.
However, the Oura Ring’s all-in-one tracking device makes it an attractive alternative to the Apple Watch, especially if you want to monitor your sleep patterns and physical activity with more precision than the Apple Watch offers. The Oura Ring and Apple Watch comparison might be an excellent place to start your research if you’re looking to buy a new fitness tracker.
While there are quite a few different fitness trackers out there, these two devices seem to be at the top of their game and have some interesting things in common and some differences that set them apart.
In this Oura Ring and Apple Watch review, we compare the two devices’ features, functionality, battery life, and price to see which device fits your lifestyle better. Let’s get started!
Oura Ring vs. Apple Watch: A Side-by-Side Comparison
| Oura Ring | Apple Watch | |
|---|---|---|
| Release Date | 2015 | 2015 |
| Developer | Oura Health | Apple |
| What is it? | Smart ring to track sleep and recovery | Smartwatch to get updates about health and fitness and notifications from mobile |
| Battery Life | 4-7 days | Up to 18 hours |
| Sensors | Optical heart rate, body temperature, accelerometers, green LED lights | Optical heart rate, electrical heart rate, accelerometer, altimeter, gyroscope |
| Features | Monitors body temperature, heart rate, sleep, activity, and calories | Captures heart rate, sleep, calories burned, activities performed, navigation, GPS tracking, phone notification, music listening, emergency call alerting, and other data |
| Size | 6-13mm | 45mm, 41mm (series7) |
| Color | Silver, Black, Stealth, Gold | Blue, Midnight, Starlight, Green Red |
| Price | Starts at $299 | Starts at $399 |
Oura Ring vs. Apple Watch: 7 Must-Know Facts
- The Oura Ring exclusively collects data from arteries to track sleep and day and night activities, and it’s also a wearable ring that is lighter than other rings.
- On the other hand, the Apple Watch is a smart wearable wrist device that functions similarly to a mobile phone. It communicates with mobile applications to transmit health and fitness data collected by the blood oxygen sensor.
- The Oura Ring is considerably cheaper than the Apple Watch at $299, it’s about half the price of an entry-level Apple watch.
- The Oura Ring has a battery life of up to a week, while the Apple Watch needs to be charged every 18 hours.
- While the Oura Ring is designed to work with an app on your phone, the Apple Watch has built-in apps that are much more advanced than what’s offered by Oura.
- Both the Oura Ring and Apple Watch can track fitness activities such as steps taken and calories burned.
- The Oura Ring can measure your sleep cycle and quality in bed with incredible accuracy and provide more detailed information and valuable data on your sleep habits than an Apple Watch.
Oura Ring vs. Apple Watch: What’s the Difference?
The Oura Ring and Apple Watch are incredible pieces of technology that can help you monitor your health and well-being. The Apple Watch is a sleek, sophisticated timepiece. The Oura Ring is a minimalist, customizable fitness tracker. Which one is right for you?
Here are some key differences between the two products that can help you decide which device is best for you.
Design
The Oura Ring and Apple Watch are not the same in terms of physical design. But, they have one thing in common: they both appear sleek and fashionable, though the smart ring is less noticeable.
The Oura Ring has a ring-like design that fits around your finger. The Apple Watch has a more traditional watch style, but it has some unique features, such as making calls by holding down on the screen for a few seconds, sending texts, using Siri to get directions, sending iMessages, and more. It also comes in many different colors and styles, so you can find one that suits your taste perfectly!
©charnsitr/Shutterstock.com
Battery Life
The Apple Watch lasts for about 18 hours on battery life. But, don’t be fooled by Oura’s little frame. It has a battery that will keep you going for 4 to 7 days. The Apple Watch includes more features that demand more battery power, such as the display screen, the running applications, notifications, and calls. Oura’s battery takes around 20 to 80 minutes to be fully charged, but the Apple Watch requires overnight charging. Both gadgets can track current battery consumption.
Price
- Bright, retina display
- Advanced sensors monitor your health
- Various bands and watch faces
- Excellent safety features (crash and fall detection)
- Compatible with Apple devices and services
![Apple Watch Series 8 [GPS 45mm] Smart Watch](https://history-computer.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/41lez0Kg9jL._SL500_.webp)
The price of more recent Apple Watch models ranges from $449 to $499. You can get it through Apple Stores, Amazon, and Apple’s website. The third-generation Oura Ring costs $299. It has a free 6-month trial subscription; after that, it costs $6 per month. You can get it on Oura’s website.
Check out the Apple Watch Series 8 on Amazon here.
Features and Functionality
The Oura Ring is a smart ring with an activity tracker, sleep quality monitor, heart rate monitor, and blood pressure monitor. The device tracks your steps, distance traveled and calories burned by syncing with your smartphone. You can also track your sleep patterns and activity level. The ring connects to the Oura Health app on your smartphone to view your activity data in one place. The Oura Ring is designed with advanced sensors such as photoplethysmography, infrared light, an NTC temperature sensor, and an accelerometer that collects data on body temperature, activity, and calorie burn and delivers it to the Oura mobile app.
Sleep tracking is one of the Oura Ring’s primary selling advantages. The ring delivers more specific and essential data about your sleeping habits. Since it’s impossible to generalize without specific details, some of the most important elements to consider include duration, amount of sleep time spent sleeping in bed, resting heart rate, sleep stages timing, and latency. The ring is available in various colors and styles so you can select one that best suits your personal style.
The Apple Watch is a sleek gadget that offers many features and functionalities. The Apple Watch Series has a powerful array of accelerometers for tracking movement in any direction and a gyroscope to help identify rotation across three axes. These features are essential for recognizing any activity, including walking, jogging, and cycling.
The Apple Watch SE and later models include an always-on altimeter for detecting elevation changes, including arm movements, making the wristwatch more useful for activity tracking. Apple Watch Series 4 and beyond feature more advanced accelerometers and a gyroscope to detect a fall. If you’re a mountaineer, cyclist, or climber, this feature is a lifesaver because it sends emergency messages if it detects a fall.
Compared to the Oura Ring, the sleep tracking features offered by Apple are pretty constrained. Apple will just track how long you sleep and when you wake up. These are helpful if you don’t yet have a baseline for these measures. It’s crucial to remember that the Apple Watch does not provide you with useful advice or information about your sleeping habits. Besides fitness and health tracking, the Apple Watch displays notifications from your phone, allows you to make calls or send messages using its built-in speakerphone, and even lets you control music on your device using Siri. The watch also comes in several different styles and colors, so finding the suitable model for you is easy.
Waterproof
The first-generation Apple Watch and the original Apple Watch are not waterproof. However, they are splash and water-resistant, so you may use them while working out, while it’s raining, and even while washing your hands. Older Apple Watch models are unsuitable for sports involving high-velocity water or immersion below shallow depth, such as scuba diving, water skiing, or swimming in a pool or ocean. However, they should not be exposed to any scented products, including but not limited to fragrances, lotions, shampoos, conditioners, and soaps. The benefit of the more recent Apple Watch models is that when they detect water, they instantly lock the screen to prevent accidental tapping.
On the other hand, Oura is in a different league regarding protection. Its entire body is sealed, protecting its interiors from water, dust, dampness, and other substances. It’s okay if you want to dive with your Oura! Oura is waterproof to a depth of 100 meters. You are free to do whatever you want with it (well, within reason).
Pros and Cons of the Oura Ring and Apple Watch
While both the Oura Ring and Apple Watch are excellent fitness-tracking devices, they also have their own unique set of pros and cons. Here is a comparison of the two devices below.
| Pros of Oura Ring | Cons of Oura Ring |
|---|---|
| Attractive design, making it ideal for both men and women | Data is not available directly on the device, like a watch |
| The battery life lasts up to seven days on one charge, which means you won’t have to recharge it every day as some other brands require | It doesn’t capture the type of exercise; it needs to be synchronized with another device |
| Waterproof and comes with a free app that lets you track your sleep patterns and get insights into how you’re sleeping | Data cannot be viewed directly on the device, like a watch |
| Syncs with Apple Health and Google Fit so you can see your data at once, including graphs showing how often you wake up throughout the night | The ring material is rigid and does not accommodate changes in finger size |
| Comfortable to wear day and night | When performing specific exercises, it can get bulky |
| Pros of Apple Watch | Cons of Apple Watch |
|---|---|
| There are many different ways to customize your watch face and apps on your phone | Expensive |
| You can use the heart rate sensor to monitor your heart rate and track your steps and calories burned | Battery life is not good enough |
| It’s easy to use, and the interface is intuitive | Only works with an iPhone |
| Sleek and lightweight | No new case shapes or diversity in design |
| Apple Watch works with Siri voice assistant to provide various kinds of information in response to voice commands from your iPhone or iPad | Notifications can be distracting |
| With the advent of Apple Pay, Apple Watch users can pay for goods and services using their watch without taking out their wallets or purses first |
Oura Ring vs. Apple Watch: Which One is Better? Which One Should You Use?
Oura Ring and Apple Watch are great for tracking your sleep and activity levels and looking at other important metrics like heart rate. However, the Oura Ring is our top choice if you’re specifically looking to track your sleep patterns, while the Apple Watch is better suited if you’re more interested in your activity levels.
The Oura Ring excels in the realm of sleep-tracking and can tell you how long you’ve been asleep, how many hours of deep sleep you get each night, and how restless your night was. On the other hand, the Apple Watch is better suited for fitness tracking but doesn’t give insights into your sleeping patterns, quite as the Oura Ring does.
If you’re choosing between one or the other, it comes down to what’s most important to you to track!
Up Next…
Interested in any other riveting comparisons? Read some of our favorite articles in this category, below:
- WHOOP vs. Apple Watch: How to Know Which is Best for You: One is especially preferred by athletes, the other is the most widely sold smartwatch on the planet. Click on this link to find out which option is the best for you.
- Apple Watch 5 vs 7: What’s the Difference? They come with different chips, dimensions, and operating systems. Just what does that mean for each of them? Find out here.
- Apple Watch 5 vs. 6: Which is Better? They will both let you listen to music, that said they use different chips, and only one will provide you with details of your blood circulation. Find out which of these smartphones you should choose.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©romul 014/Shutterstock.com.
