Oura Ring vs Apple Watch: A battle of form factors

The Apple Watch is one of the most well-known wearables on the market and is recognizable on sight to most shoppers. The Oura Ring 3 prides itself on its inconspicuous form factor and strives to blend in with users’ standard jewelry. Yet, both devices boast many of the same health and fitness tools and features. So how do you know which of these two powerful fitness trackers is right for you? Find out in our Oura Ring vs Apple Watch comparison.

The designs of these two wearables are simply different. For starters, one is meant to slip onto your finger and the other is built to strap onto your wrist. The Apple Watch boasts a colorful AMOLED display meant for scrolling menus and tapping notifications, while the Oura Ring offers a subtle monochromatic look. The newest Oura Ring 3 comes in 8 different sizes, two designs, and five colors. The Apple Watch Series 8 comes in two case sizes, two materials, and six colors.

The titanium Oura Ring 3 weighs in around 5g, measures roughly 8mm in width, and aims to resemble a modern wedding band. It’s small and discreet with a single, uniform exterior void of any screen or buttons. Off your finger, the ring tells a different story. Here, users will find a transparent plastic window filled with hardworking green and red LEDs and bulbous sensors. The Oura Ring is a health and fitness monitoring device meant to blend into your everyday look and collect data behind the scenes.

Up your wrist, the Apple Watch delivers a very different impression. Though the popular wearable boasts a sleek, elegant aesthetic, it is first and foremost a gorgeous screen. The always-on display of the Apple Watch Series 8 stretches across the 42 or 45-mm watch case showcasing everything from customizable watch faces to real-time activity metrics. The device is largely designed around the user’s experience of its onscreen features and smart capabilities.

Depending on the material you choose, the watch weighs between 32 and 52g, and we’ve never found them to be heavy or cumbersome. If you spring for an Apple Watch Ultra, you’ll have a much larger, titanium device on your hands. Off the wrist and turned over, Apple Watches showcase a robust sensor package and a similar LED light show to that of the Oura Ring.

During both our Apple Watch Series 8 review and our Oura Ring 3 review we found the devices comfortable for all-day wear. The Oura Ring is lighter than a typical ring, but thicker as well to make room for its sensors and Bluetooth chip. Our review found the least obtrusive fit on their middle finger. For the Apple Watch, you can choose from dozens of band materials and colors, including replacement options from third-party retailers. Our reviewers recommend silicone or nylon bands for workouts and sleep tracking because they’re typically the most comfortable and can be washed after particularly sweaty sessions.

On paper, the Apple Watch and Oura Ring 3 offer many similar health features. Both aim to track users’ daily activity, rest, and general well-being. Each packs accurate sensors for all-day heart rate monitoring as well as SpO2 tracking. Unlike many other wearables in the market, both also offer temperature sensors which are leveraged for more insightful sleep tracking and women’s health tracking data.

Where the devices begin to deviate is in how they collect and present your data. With its interactive touchscreen, the Apple Watch provides instant access. With its famous rings, it offers at-a-glance feedback and prompts users to stand, move, and pursue an active lifestyle. It also has a dedicated app for recording nearly 20 specific workout types ranging from outdoor runs to Tai Chi. Our reviewer found the ability to view metrics such as distance, stride, and heart rate zone a major benefit. She was able to analyze and adjust her output and effort mid-exercise leading to more effective sessions.

Beyond the gym, if you want to check your blood oxygen saturation or previous night’s sleep, you can also do so right on your wrist. The device features one of the most accurate heart rate sensors on the market and can take on-demand ECG readings as well. To further dig into details about any metric, you can open the Health app on your paired iPhone, review your data, and analyze trends. There you’ll find your tracked information organized by topic.

With the Oura Ring, health and fitness tracking are passive as you can’t see any data fields on the device itself. The ring tracks all the necessary details while you go about your day, then boils your results into three digestible scores: Sleep, Activity, and Readiness. These scores, presented in the Oura app, reflect how your body is performing compared to the goals you select at set up. Goals are personalized and can range from higher productivity to improving athletic performance to managing stress. Sure you can drill into details if you want, but the point is that Oura synthesizes the important pieces so you don’t have to.

That said, athletes may be wary of the ring’s inability to provide exercise details and reliable automatic workout tracking. Our reviewer noticed oddities in her data and discovered the ring uses different algorithms for recording daytime heart rates and workout heart rates. If you forget to manually start a workout, you may lose potentially valuable insights. The ring also misidentified daily activities like walking as cycling workouts. In other words, it isn’t the right device for dedicated athletes specifically looking for workout details.

Instead, the Oura Ring 3 is the perfect pick for anyone interested in broad-picture insights and excellent sleep tracking. Both devices track your time asleep, sleep stages, bedtimes, and wake times. Both will also help you set goals and guide your progress to some extent. Generally speaking, we’ve found both offer reliable data. However, the Oura Ring 3 offers much more than the usual counting of Z’s.

Oura also tracks details like how long you spend in bed, breathing regularity, and overnight movement. It also offers a comprehensive sleep score based on how long you spend in each sleep stage to give you a clearer view of how effective your rest was overnight. The ring can even identify and record naps more than 15 minutes long. After wearing the ring for 6 weeks, our reviewer called it one of the best sleep trackers we’ve tested.

The short answer is the Oura Ring has none and the Apple Watch has them all. Without a screen or even vibration haptics, the Oura Ring 3 can’t do much beyond tracking your details. Meanwhile, the Apple Watch is the best smartwatch available offering everything from messaging to music storage and everything in between. The device can pay for groceries, check the weather, call your loved ones, or attempt to wake you up with a scheduled alarm. It has environmental noise alerts, a handwashing timer, GPS navigation, plus so much more. It also boasts an unrivaled app store so you can find a third-party resource for anything you don’t find on the device natively. If you are interested in smart features, wristwear easily wins the Oura Ring vs Apple Watch matchup.

As for battery life, that is one arena where Apple’s display will cost you. Apple Watches feature a battery life claim of 18 hours that we’ve found stretches closer to 24 hours in real-world usage. The line offers a Low Power Mode to add a few more hours on your wrist, as well as fast charging capabilities on the Series 7 and Series 8 to alleviate the constant need to plug in. For when you do need to power up, Apple ships each watch with a proprietary charging puck and USB-C cable.

Without a screen or smart features, the Oura Ring drains its tiny battery much slower. The ring will last from four to seven days between charges and takes about 80 minutes to charge up when you’re tapped out. We found that a 20-minute top-up while showering keeps the ring running smoothly without ever fully depleting. That said, you are also free to wear the ring in the shower as it’s water-resistant to 100m. The device comes with a proprietary charging puck specified to your ring size with a USB-C cable.

Price and color options

• Oura Ring 3 (Heritage, Silver or Black): $299
• Oura Ring 3 (Heritage, Stealth): $399
• Oura Ring 3 (Heritage, Gold): $449
• Oura Ring 3 (Horizon, Silver or Black): $349
• Oura Ring 3 (Horizon, Stealth): $449
• Oura Ring 3 (Horizon, Gold): $499
• Oura Ring 3 (Horizon, Rose Gold): $549

Assuming you want the newest generation available, pricing for the Oura Ring 3 starts at $299. This climbs rapidly depending on what color and style ring you want, though all models offer the same internal specs and features. In the Heritage design, which features a flat top, the ring is available in silver, black, stealth (matte dark gray), and gold. In the perfectly round Horizon design, the ring is available in the same colors as well as Rose Gold.

However, once you have the ring in your hand, there’s still money to fork over. In order to tap into the complete feature set of the Oura Ring 3, users are required to pay a membership fee. This subscription costs $5.99 per month, which is no small fee on top of an already pricey device. You can use the ring without the membership, but you will only have access to basic scores for sleep, activity, and readiness. You have to buy in if you want access to your SpO2 and heart rate data, as well as your trends, analysis, and predictions.

Subscription fees aren’t foreign to the world of wearables but that doesn’t make them any less frustrating. When opting out significantly degrades the value of a device, it’s hard to swallow an initial cost as high as $299. It’s also an important factor to consider when comparing the Oura Ring vs the Apple Watch.

• Apple Watch Series 8 (41mm, aluminum, BT): $399
• Apple Watch Series 8 (45mm, aluminum, BT): $429
• Apple Watch Series 8 (41mm, aluminum, LTE): $499
• Apple Watch Series 8 (45mm, aluminum, LTE): $529
• Apple Watch Series 8 (41mm, stainless steel, LTE): $699
• Apple Watch Series 8 (45mm, stainless steel, LTE): $749

On the other hand, the Apple Watch Series 8 offers a one-time purchase for full use of your device and all its bells and whistles. While the company does have a subscription service for Apple Fitness Plus, this membership is for extra workout resources, not access to your own data. Series 8 devices start at $399 for a 41mm case and $429 for a 45mm device. Adding LTE capabilities pops a $100 surcharge. Upgrading to stainless steel will cost you even more, reaching as high as $749.

If you want an Apple Watch that’s more affordable, the Apple Watch SE 2 ($269.99 at Amazon) offers an almost identical user experience to the flagship device but at a fraction of the cost. At the other end of the spectrum, Apple’s premium Ultra model ($799 at Amazon) costs more than the most expensive Series 8.

Right off the bat, Apple Watches are only compatible with iPhones, so if you’re an Android user the choice is made for you. Barring that limitation, the choice is still pretty straightforward. Both the Oura Ring 3 and Apple Watch Series 8 are accurate, powerful wearables worthy of consideration. Choosing the right one simply comes down to your needs.

Highly-active users looking for precise exercise tracking should look to the Apple Watch. Throughout our testing, we’ve found its heart rate monitor and GPS each highly reliable. The onscreen workout metrics and onboard fitness tools are also great for improving performance and pursuing training goals. Likewise, anyone hoping for an extension of their smartphone should also opt for the Apple Watch. The smart features on the device are unmatched and its integration with the iPhone is seamless.

On the other hand, the Oura Ring 3 is the right pick for anyone who wants a fitness tracker that will blend right into their day-to-day. The device is stylish and subtle and packs an impressive toolkit into a very small space. It also provides holistic health and wellness insights and adapts to each individual user. Plus, it’s a great overnight companion.

That isn’t to say that these devices aren’t without their flaws. The Apple Watch still suffers dismal battery life and the Oura Ring will chain you to a nearly-mandatory subscription fee. However, if you can overlook these drawbacks, either device is a great buy.