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