If you could only use the Apple Watch, or the Oura Ring, which would be the best fitness tracker for you? Tom's Guide's face-off the Apple Watch and Oura Ring in a series of tests for activity and sleep-tracking to find the strengths (and weaknesses) of each device.
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00:00In the year plus that I've been using an Oura Ring,
00:04it has served me several ways in my day-to-day life.
00:06But more than anything, it's a conversation starter.
00:09When people see this smart ring on my index finger,
00:12they want to know whether it's worth it
00:14and what the Oura Ring can do for me
00:15that my Apple Watch can't.
00:18Still, after using it for over a year now,
00:20I've learned there's plenty that I like
00:22and also don't like about the Oura Ring.
00:24But the real question is,
00:25how does it compare to the Apple Watch?
00:27Two of the main functions of the Apple Watch
00:29and the Oura Ring are sleep tracking
00:31and activity tracking.
00:32However, there are pros and cons to doing so with each.
00:35First off, I'm heading to Human Apex Performance
00:38to take some tests and get measurements to compare
00:40against data that my Apple Watch and Oura Ring also collect.
00:43Now, to be perfectly clear,
00:44this is not going to be a test of my fitness.
00:47Instead, I'm going to see how the Apple Watch and Oura Ring
00:50compare to the professional tools in a sports lab.
00:55Hey, I'm Kate.
00:56Nice to meet you.
00:56Hey, Kate, nice to meet you.
00:57So we're gonna do two tests.
01:00We're gonna start with the resting metabolic rate piece,
01:01and then we're gonna go to a VO2 max test after that.
01:04All right, ready to go?
01:06I sound like Squidward.
01:11I actually do have an Apple Watch, which I'm wearing now.
01:14I like to know my heart rate zones,
01:15kind of how much I push myself that day.
01:18The Oura Ring doesn't measure heart rate
01:20throughout the day.
01:20It only gives you a snapshot every 15 minutes or so,
01:23but I do sleep with the Oura Ring,
01:24and that helps me kind of dictate, you know,
01:26what time to go to bed, what time to wake up.
01:29I like kind of keeping track of my deep sleep
01:31and my REM sleep.
01:32Sleep is one of the most important things we have.
01:34If I had to pick between an Oura Ring and Apple Watch,
01:37personally, I would use the Oura Ring,
01:39but I do know both together is the complete matrix of health.
01:43So the number you see here, 20, 30 kilocalories per day,
01:47is basically how many calories
01:48her resting metabolic rate is,
01:50meaning if she laid down on this table
01:52doing absolutely nothing all day,
01:53that's how many calories she needs
01:54to just sustain life function.
01:57My throat's dry.
01:59I'm so nervous.
02:01How long am I gonna be running for?
02:03We're trying to get you to maximal heart rate
02:04and also maximal oxygen uptake,
02:07and then once you finish the test,
02:08we're trying to see how your heart rate
02:10goes from high to low.
02:12While I'm running the test,
02:13you'll see the numbers on the machine,
02:15but I'm gonna be having my two iPhones here.
02:17One is hooked up to my Oura Ring,
02:18one is hooked up to my Apple Watch,
02:20and that way you'll be able to see
02:21my live workout heart rates on both.
02:24While the Apple Watch can give you your VO2 max,
02:26based on your activity throughout the day,
02:28it cannot give you a live VO2 max reading,
02:30so we're gonna take a look at that once my run is done.
02:33All right, so now if you're ready to get started,
02:34we're gonna get you hooked up to the mask,
02:35and then we can start going.
02:38No turning back now.
02:44Put in a good position.
02:49So we're starting at a light jog, 0% incline,
02:52and then at about two minutes in,
02:53we're gonna increase the grade about 2%,
02:55and then the speed about three to 5%.
02:59Keep going for as long as you can stay
03:00in the front of that treadmill.
03:06Good.
03:07Now you're gonna begin the heart rate recovery period,
03:09so you're just gonna breathe here.
03:11See if your heart rate goes naturally down.
03:15All right, congratulations.
03:17You can breathe now.
03:19Oh goodness.
03:21That was harder than I was expecting.
03:22Yeah.
03:24As you can see, the blue here is the heart rate.
03:25I kind of jumped around a little bit.
03:27Once you put on the mask,
03:28and it feels a little bit like breathing is harder,
03:31and your heart rate usually jumps up a little bit,
03:32and then it kind of steadies out.
03:34I see a little up and down.
03:36The maxes on both of these tests,
03:38it had about 174 for the Oura Ring and the Apple Watch,
03:42and then on our tests,
03:42we had about 168 for your max heart rate.
03:45One thing to note is that these could overestimate
03:48the actual heart rate a little bit,
03:50that it thinks you're working harder
03:52at the pace that you're going,
03:54which means that this could underestimate your VO2 max.
03:58Okay, so if I were an athlete,
04:00I'd really want an accurate reading.
04:03It's like what I need to be looking for when I'm training,
04:06but if that's not me,
04:07do you think I'm still getting accurate enough data
04:09from my wearables?
04:11I'm impressed that the Oura Ring and the Apple Watch's data
04:14were so similar to what we actually got on the test.
04:17When I did research on how valid the Oura Ring
04:20and Apple Watch's VO2 max measurement was,
04:23it was definitely a little bit of a margin of error
04:26off from what our actual value was,
04:29so I was a little surprised
04:30to see if the heart rates were so accurate
04:32because then you can get the heart rate zones
04:34from that result.
04:36I was definitely prepared for the worst,
04:38so the test was not as bad as I was expecting,
04:40but that also could be the fact that I was interested
04:43to see how my fitness wearables would perform.
04:46You know, I'm not a runner,
04:47but I do track my physical activity with these devices,
04:50and it's important to know that I'm getting accurate data.
04:53Now, I can leave here with a bit of peace of mind
04:55knowing that when it comes to heart rate,
04:57both my Oura Ring and my Apple Watch
04:59are giving me the measurements
05:01that I need to go about my day.
05:03You have no need to be skeptical
05:04about the data you're getting.
05:05So again, if that heart rate data
05:07is what's most important to you,
05:08you could just be using your Oura Ring
05:10to go about your workouts,
05:11but if you wanna get a closer look
05:12at those heart rate zones,
05:14that's when you might wanna look at an Apple Watch.
05:18Even in the controlled environment of the test,
05:20I still found myself glancing down at my Apple Watch.
05:23I still wanted to see my metrics,
05:25which is something that the Apple Watch can do
05:26during fitness tracking while the Oura Ring cannot.
05:29But I wouldn't count the Oura Ring out just yet.
05:31I'm gonna bring both my devices to a place
05:33where the Oura Ring really thrives.
05:38Sleep tracking is something
05:39that both the Apple Watch and Oura Ring can do.
05:42Each device tells you basic data
05:43like how much time total you spent asleep
05:45and even how much time you spent in each sleep stage cycle.
05:49But in my experience,
05:50the Oura Ring does take things one step further.
05:53For starters, the Oura Ring actually gives you a sleep score.
05:56Now your sleep score is a measure
05:58of your overall quality of sleep,
05:59but it pulls in some interesting data
06:01such as how much time you spent in bed,
06:03your sleep efficiency.
06:05That way you can kind of quantify how well you're sleeping
06:08and that gives you an actual number
06:09that you can track over time.
06:11The Apple Watch doesn't have a sleep score
06:12and I'm not saying that everything needs to be gamified,
06:15but it's a good way to track your trends over time
06:18if there is some actionable changes
06:19that you are making to your sleep.
06:21And for all the points of measurement that I mentioned,
06:23in the Oura app,
06:24there are information buttons pretty much everywhere
06:27so you can read further
06:28about what that data actually means.
06:30The Apple Health sleep section also has some literature,
06:33but it's not as thorough.
06:34And not only is the Oura app in general more thorough,
06:37but there's a lot of intuition
06:39built into the user experience.
06:40The best example of that is the bedtime window feature.
06:44Based on how well you slept the days before,
06:46your activity for the day,
06:47and kind of your general sleep trends,
06:49the Oura ring will send me a notification to my phone
06:52that also shows up on my Apple Watch
06:54telling me a couple hours
06:55before it thinks I should go to bed.
06:57And it makes that recommendation
06:59relative to how well I slept the days before,
07:01my activity for the day,
07:03how my sleep cycles have been generally,
07:05things like that.
07:06In comparison, Apple's sleep schedule feature
07:08is set by the user
07:09so you get the reminder at the same time every day
07:12when it's time to wind down for bed
07:14with no concern for how you slept the days before.
07:17My heart rate, my HRV.
07:22So as expected, the Apple Watch and the Oura ring
07:25both gave me my notifications
07:27to start getting ready for bed.
07:29So I actually acted on them
07:31and am winding down for the night.
07:33I had a really long day,
07:34so I know I'm hoping for a good night of sleep.
07:36Now, I don't know if you can tell by my choice of PJs,
07:39but being comfortable when I sleep is so important for me.
07:43So when I'm sleeping with wearables,
07:44that's something I have to consider.
07:45For the Apple Watch,
07:46I have to make sure I have the right band on.
07:48Some bands are just not comfortable to sleep with.
07:50I also need to make sure that it's in the sleep focus mode,
07:54otherwise the screen might go off
07:56and that's super disturbing in the night.
07:58Now, I don't have to worry about that with the Oura ring.
08:00Super discreet, forget it's there.
08:02The only thing I will say is sometimes
08:04if I'm sleeping on my arm weird
08:05or my finger gets swollen overnight,
08:07it might get a little uncomfortable.
08:08But overall, I'd have to say the Oura ring
08:10is the less invasive sleep tracker.
08:16Here we go.
08:19That's my snooze going off again.
08:23Yeah, good morning.
08:24It was honestly a bit of a struggle to get up this morning.
08:27I am super interested to take a closer look
08:31at the sleep tracking data from my Apple Watch
08:33and my Oura ring.
08:35But first, let me make sure the devices are charged.
08:37Let me get ready for the day
08:39and I'll catch up with you soon.
08:50So I've just had a look,
08:51and the first thing that I can see
08:52is that the Apple Watch and Oura ring
08:54have slightly different times
08:55for how much sleep I actually got.
08:57The Apple Watch says I got about nine hours
09:00and 15 minutes of sleep.
09:01The Oura ring puts me closer to eight hours and 50 minutes.
09:04A 25 minute difference or so
09:06seems like it would make a difference to me,
09:08but I should say that there's no way to know
09:10which one was actually accurate.
09:11This isn't something that we tested in a sleep lab.
09:13It's just kind of my perception of my overall rest.
09:16To that point, both devices give me different estimates
09:19of how much time I spent in each sleep stage cycle.
09:22For example, the Apple Watch says I spent two hours
09:24and 45 minutes in REM sleep,
09:26while the Oura ring says I spent just two hours
09:28and 15 minutes in REM sleep.
09:30But something that I see on both devices
09:33and is something that I look for
09:34when I test wearable devices
09:35is that they picked up that time in the middle,
09:38the night where I happened to wake up,
09:39and I can see that just before 4 a.m.,
09:42both devices detected that I was awake.
09:45Some other data that I can see from my sleep
09:47for both the Apple Watch and the Oura ring
09:48are my average oxygen saturation and my heart rate overnight.
09:52Now, I actually don't care much day to day
09:54about what those numbers look like,
09:56but for times that I'm not really taking care of myself
09:59or I'm traveling or I feel like I could be getting sick,
10:01I actually do wanna know that data.
10:03As of the Apple Watch Series 8,
10:05both devices have a skin temperature reader.
10:08But where the Oura ring actually uses that data
10:11for actionable advice is the readiness score.
10:14According to the Oura ring,
10:15my readiness score for today is an 81,
10:17which is good, not great.
10:19That could have to do with the fact
10:20I had a hard workout yesterday.
10:21I've been traveling quite a bit.
10:23So today I am gonna get some movement in,
10:25but I'm not gonna push myself too hard.
10:26For me personally, this readiness score means everything.
10:30I don't wanna get hurt.
10:31I don't wanna get sick.
10:32I wanna take care of myself
10:34so that I can be my best person every single day.
10:36And if I'm not sleeping right or recovering properly,
10:39I need to know these things.
10:41And I guess that's why I'm so surprised
10:43that the Apple Watch doesn't have a feature
10:44like this of its own.
10:45So when it comes to sleep tracking,
10:47I think the Oura ring has more to offer
10:48than the Apple Watch.
10:49And if I could only choose one device to sleep with,
10:52it probably would be the Oura ring.
10:54So in the end, I think that this test
10:56proved to be a bit more anecdotal than scientific,
10:58but I found the Apple Watch is the better activity tracker.
11:02It's better in the moment.
11:03You can see your data on the screen.
11:05And that's before digging into all the other features
11:07available through the Apple Watch
11:08with connectivity to the iPhone, mobile payments,
11:11things like that.
11:12The Oura ring on the other hand is the better sleep tracker
11:15because it has that recovery data.
11:17It's more discreet and comfortable to wear.
11:19Me, I like having both.
11:20I think I like to know both kinds of data.
11:23However, if you only could have one of these devices,
11:26consider activity tracking or sleep tracking,
11:28which is more important to you.
11:30Be sure to let me know in the comments
11:31which device you would pick.
11:33And if you're curious about whether the Apple Watch Ultra
11:35could replace your iPhone, check out the video up here.
11:38In the meantime, see what we're doing on social,
11:40Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok at Tom's Guide.
11:42And as always, I'm at Kate Kozich.
11:44Thanks for watching.
11:45I'll catch you next time.