Ōura smart ring
 

  You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more

[Closed] Ōura smart ring

13 Posts
11 Users
0 Reactions
252 Views
Posts: 30093
Full Member
Topic starter
 

My other half is looking at one of these… is it a pseudo well-being gadget for the rich, or a genuine tool for tracking sleep and health patterns?


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 10:11 am
Posts: 8392
Full Member
 

At least when the fad passes it'll take up less space in that drawer with the Apple Watch, the Garmin Watch, the FitBit, the step tracking insoles...


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 10:47 am
Posts: 30093
Full Member
Topic starter
 

Neat little thing, isn’t it. We haven’t used any tracking devices at all yet. Not just for cost reasons, I’m inherently sceptical of gadgets with non-medical routes to market making health benefit claims.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 10:52 am
Posts: 9180
Full Member
 

My Garmin is actually a great health tool for me, I’m probably an outside case in terms of my health issues - but since understanding the mean difference between my medical devices and it, I can use it really proactively.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 10:54 am
Posts: 953
Free Member
 

Haven't tried the Oura, Kelvin. Tried Whoop for a year though and found it very unreliable. Other people swear by them.

I've since gone back to a Vivoactive which seems to provide sleep data that's more in line with how I feel.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 1:39 pm
Posts: 451
Free Member
 

Depends how seriously you take it I guess, I looked at Oura, seems like it gets mixed reviews. I wanted something consistent for training so I tend to use training peaks, all my workouts are in there TSS etc, plus info on my sleep from my Vivoactive and my daily HRV measurement via ithlete. Gives you a pretty accurate picture of your state of health & fitness.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 5:07 pm
Posts: 30093
Full Member
Topic starter
 

I shall pass on the positive Vivoactive comments. Thanks.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 5:24 pm
Posts: 13594
Free Member
 

Not tried the Oura but really impressed by Polar's sleep tracking in their watches.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 5:59 pm
Posts: 13554
Free Member
 

I have the Vivoactive 4 and the sleep data isn’t great. I have two kids who both wake a lot through the night. I’ll have massive bags under bloodshot eyes and the watch happily tells me I’ve had a solid seven or eight hours sleep. It’s more like four broken hours worth. Other health tracking is good.

Never seen a smart ring before. Neat idea and seems to pack a lot in.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 6:35 pm
Posts: 1617
Full Member
 

I have a vivoactive. I used the sleep function a few times out of curiosity. As Funkmasterp said it's a bit hit and miss. Am I fussed? Not in the slightest. If I wake up and feel good that's good enough for me. But with a 3 year old and 8 month old, neither who like to let us sleep, I'm not getting enough sleep


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 6:53 pm
Posts: 30093
Full Member
Topic starter
 

Damn, sleep tracking is the main thing she's interested in.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 7:01 pm
 grum
Posts: 4531
Free Member
 

Good for harvesting data to bring about the next stage of evolution into godlike hackable humans.

https://sociable.co/technology/hackable-humans-godlike-digital-dictators-data-colonies-wef/


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 7:06 pm
Posts: 33325
Full Member
 

Sleep tracking. I go to bed, go to sleep, alarm goes off, I wake up. There you go, sleep tracking made easy. And cheap.


 
Posted : 09/10/2021 8:41 pm
Posts: 54
Free Member
 

I've worn an Oura ring since June 2019.

Good: sleep tracking and reporting has been useful to me (insomia sufferer), it's a pretty friction-free activity / health tracker compared to some alternatives (you just stick it on your finger and forget about it - I even shower with mine), charge it every four days or so. App (iOS) is excellent. It 'spots' activity / workouts accurately. I don't know how good the quality of the heartrate measuring etc is - but for me it's less about medical grade precision, but about a consistent dataset (if that makes sense - problematic if comparing Apple watch data vs. Oura data over time, but as a single data source it's fine). Hardware is pretty reliable...

Bad:..but my first one was 'bricked' by a firmware update from their end which meant that battery drained very quickly. I don't think this is unusual - the ring still worked but it needed charging every day and a half - just gets 'noisy' (which is why I didn't really get on with the Apple watch). There is a weird flaw in the iOS app that means you can't log workouts etc historically which is a minor gripe that they just don't (oddly) seem inclined or able to fix.

Oh, and it's not cheap.


 
Posted : 10/10/2021 6:52 am

6 DAYS LEFT
We are currently at 95% of our target!