As humans become more obsessed with quantified self-tracking, fitness wearables have carved out a spot on millions of wrists and fingers. From footsteps to sleep tracking, these devices empower users with insights about their health.
Today, I am presenting you a detailed comparison of Oura ring with Biostrap fitness band. Both pack advanced sensors into slick designs to keep tabs on your body day and night. Let’s explore how these gadgets compare for unlocking your optimum performance.
Overview Of Oura Ring
The Oura ring was launched in 2018 by the company Oura Health. Based in Finland, Oura took the wearable scene by storm with its sleek, screenless ring design. The minimalist ring packs in sensors to track sleep, activity, heart rate and temperature. It’s designed to be worn 24/7 without any irritation or disruption to daily life. The ring is smooth, lightweight titanium with a removable battery for easy charging.
RELATED: Oura Ring Charging Time And How To Charge Guide
Data collected by the Oura ring’s sensors is synced to the Oura app on your smartphone. In the app, you can view detailed breakdowns of your sleep stages, activity scores, resting heart rate, temperature fluctuations and more. The app also generates a daily readiness score, which condenses all this data into a simple metric. It indicates whether your body is prepared for challenging activity that day, or needs additional rest and recovery.
Beyond the readiness score, standout features of the Oura ring include:
Sleep Tracking: Uses heart rate and temperature data to detect light, deep and REM sleep stages. Provides sleep timing, efficiency, latency, resting heart rate and respiration rate.
Activity Tracking: Counts steps, track calories burned, activity types and inactive vs. active time. Motivates you to move when idle.
24/7 Heart Rate: Continuous heart rate monitoring gives insights on health, fitness and reactions to lifestyle factors.
Temperature: Nighttime temperature data improves sleep analysis and readiness scores.
Design: Smooth, lightweight ring worn on finger is comfortable for 24/7 wear. Water resistant up to 100 meters.
You may also like to learn: Does Oura Ring Work With Fitbit
Overview Of Biostrap
The Biostrap fitness band hit the market in 2016, created by Biostrap Technologies based in Northern Ireland. As a wrist-worn band, it resembles popular fitness trackers like Fitbit in basic functionality and design. However, the Biostrap places extra emphasis on using biometrics to optimize recovery.
It tracks foundational metrics like activity, sleep and heart rate variability (HRV). But it synthesizes the interplay between these three factors into an overall daily recovery score. The recovery score indicates whether your body is in an optimal state for intense training, or needs rest to rebuild fitness. Low recovery suggests taking a light training day or rest day. High recovery gives the green light to push your limits.
Beyond the recovery score, other key features of the Biostrap include:
Activity Tracking: Step count, distance, calories burned and active vs. inactive reminders.
Sleep Tracking: Total sleep time, efficiency, restless motion and sleep regularity.
Heart Rate Variability: Measures HRV for insight on cardiovascular health and stress.
Screen Display: Touch screen shows daily metrics, notifications and training guidance.
Battery Life: Up to 7 days per charge. Water resistant up to 50 meters.
Oura Ring VS Biostrap Which Is Accurate In Tracking?
Now let’s dive deeper to see how the Oura ring and Biostrap stack up against each other feature by feature:
Sleep Tracking Comparison
Both devices provide sleep duration and quality measurements, but they use slightly different metrics for analysis. The Oura ring excels at detecting sleep stages, dividing your night into light, deep and REM sleep. It uses the changes in your heart rate and temperature to identify different sleep cycles. The Biostrap focuses more simply on differentiating between sound sleep and restless awake time. It lacks the sensors needed for sleep stage detection.
Activity Tracking
When it comes to counting steps and active time, the Oura ring and Biostrap are evenly matched. They provide the standard fitness tracker metrics like step count, distance covered, calories burned and active minutes. Both also track the balance between inactive and active time, nudging you to get moving when you’ve been idle for too long.
Learn More About: Oura Ring Steps Tracking Accuracy
Heart Rate Tracking
For heart rate monitoring, the Oura ring pulls ahead by offering continuous, 24/7 tracking. This gives you an always-on look at your heart rate trends and how your heart reacts to exercise, sleep, stress and more. The Biostrap records heart rate sporadically, without continuous monitoring. However, it puts greater emphasis on heart rate variability (HRV). HRV measures the time intervals between each heartbeat. Higher HRV indicates good cardiovascular fitness and resilience.
Additional Sensors
The Oura ring’s temperature sensor gives it a unique edge for sleep tracking. By monitoring changes in your temperature pattern at night, it can better analyze sleep cycles and readiness the next day. Biostrap lacks a temperature sensor, but provides a recovery metric you won’t find from Oura. Its recovery score ties together your sleep, activity and HRV data for an overall analysis of your body’s recovery status.
Tracking Accuracy
In terms of accuracy, both Oura and Biostrap provide reasonably reliable data, based on validation studies. Research has shown the Oura ring accurately measures sleep staging and heart rate compared to medical devices. Biostrap has less third party accuracy testing available. But its readings align with clinical-level heart rate variability measurements. More corroborating studies are still needed for both products however.
Design Comparison
The design philosophy differs quite a bit between these two wearables. The Oura ring is a masterclass in elegant, minimalist design. The smooth, metallic ring looks like jewelry and is easy to wear 24/7 with barely any notice. However, the lack of a screen means you need to check the app to view your actual metrics and data.
The Biostrap follows a more classic fitness tracker design. It has a sporty wristband look with a touch screen display. This lets you quickly check your daily data and training guidance on the device itself. However, some users may not love wearing a chunky tracker band all day and night. It comes down to personal preferences.
Cost Comparison
When it comes to cost, the Oura ring has a higher upfront price tag, while the Biostrap spreads costs over time with a subscription. The Oura ring costs $299, which grants lifetime access to the device and app. The Biostrap device itself costs $250. But you also pay an ongoing $6 per month subscription fee to use the Oura app and $22/mo for Biostrap app. So with Oura you pay more initially but have no recurring fees. Biostrap splits costs into smaller monthly payments.
Final Words
At the end of the day, is Oura or Biostrap better? The verdict comes down to personal priorities. If having the most comfortable, detailed sleep and readiness data is essential, Oura is likely the winner. But if you prefer wrist-based wearables and care about recvery metrics, Biostrap takes the cake. Both devices provide actionable insights to optimize your health, fitness and performance. You really can’t go wrong with either option. The best choice depends on your preferences for style, features and budget. Wearables like these make accessing your personal biometrics easier than ever. And the competition breeds innovation that benefits consumers.