If you’re not a huge watch person but you want to get daily analytics about all of your activities, what do you do? You get a smart ring. Yes, smart rings are a thing now.
It’s pretty impressive how such a technology can be extremely small scale and still outperform many smart watch competitors on the market. But there is no shortage of brands that manufacture smart rings, so it might be overwhelming for many trying to find the perfect match.
Two of the leading smart ring brands are definitely Motiv and Oura. They’re often reviewed and compared side-by-side in order to see which is the most superior ring.
We did just that. We reviewed both and compared them to see which watch is better in certain scenarios than the other.
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Overview Of What The Motiv & Oura Ring Do
Think of these smart watches as an alternative to regular smart watches. Basically, the technology put in smart watches is shrank and put in a small factor or in this case, a ring.
There’s a common misconception that these two rings are sleep activity tracking rings. That’s party true, but they also have a lot of other features or other data collection features. They track physical activity, calories burned, steps, sleep, heart rate, pulse, temperature, and more.
They don’t have a screen like your usual smart watch obviously, so in both cases, customers will have to connect the corresponding app for the ring. In some cases, customers can also connect their own personal favorite health tracking apps but of course, the rings are optimized for their own platform.
So, these do everything that a smart watch can do and their main purpose is to give you data about your overall well-being and in some cases, recommendations to improve it.
These rings are intended for those that aren’t to keen on wearing watches.
Side-By-Side Comparison
To get a clear picture of just how different the two rings are, we put them side-by-side and went over their specs and some other important variables.
Here’s the analysis of Motiv and Oura:
| Motiv VS Oura: Smart Rings |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Big Selling Point | 2FA – Two Factor Authentication Security Feature | Performance & State Of The Art Sleep Analysis |
| Battery Life | 72 hours | 7 days |
| Charging Time | 90 minutes | 20 – 80 minutes |
| Onboard Storage | 3-days’ worth | 6 weeks |
| Design | Impressive 5/5 | Very Good 4/5 |
| Warranty | 1-year warranty | 1-year warranty – US 2-year warranty – EU |
| Recommendation Score | Recommended 4/5 | Very Recommended 5/5 |
| Get A Smart Ring: |
There are some huge performance differences with both brands. Oura is very impressive in terms of battery life, charge time, and onboard storage. Furthermore, if you’re a citizen of a European Union country, you get a two-year warranty mainly because the company was founded in Finland.
We’ll also go through the individual rings’ tracking methods and quality of data in the individual reviews, but as you might’ve expected Oura is more impressive in this regard.
However, they come at a big price difference which might explain the huge difference in performance. Motiv is much cheaper than Oura.
Motiv Review
The absolute biggest selling point for this ring is a Two-Factor Authentication security feature. Not many actually know this when choosing to go with Motiv, but all things considered it’s an impressive feature.
What it does is it adds another layer of security over payments, ecommerce, email, passwords, and basically everything that can have like a fingerprint authentication thingy. In fact, it’s just like a fingerprint, but instead of using a unique finger pattern, users choose a unique hand gesture which they can later use to authenticate their online identity. It’s pretty neat.
NOTE: This feature, at the time of writing, is still in beta and it’s only available for iOS users with face and touch ID.
Some like it, some don’t, but it’s definitely a step in the right direction in terms of what smart rings are capable of security-wise.
In terms of actual data you’re getting, it’s the industry standard quantity. You get all of your sleep data like duration, restlessness, and resting heart rate.
The Motiv ring is also capable of tracking walking, running, standing, and even things like: showering or toothbrushing. Of course, you also get heart rate data, steps, and more. All of this data gets collected throughout the day and its presented in a digestible form on the app.
The application is available for both iOS and Android users.
Motiv’s ring battery life is alright, nothing too crazy. It lasts 72 on a single charge and it takes about an hour and a half to charge it to full. In those 72 hours it can go without syncing data to your mobile, which means that it can store three-days’ worth of data before it’ll need to be synced.
Here are the pros and cons for the Motiv Ring:
PROS
- Great security features
- Amazing design
- Data is easy to understand
- Unique data about daily activities
CONS
- Battery life
- 2FA only available on iOS
Oura Review
Now, if we’re being honest, the Oura ring is the “PERFORMANCE” ring in the industry. It isn’t at all flashy or has some big selling points like an online security feature, but what it does in terms of data collection and overview of data is amazing.
I said that it hasn’t got an online security feature as a selling point, but it has another selling point – sleep technology. It is by-far the most impressive in terms of tracking your sleep schedule on a daily basis and it gives you averages across the way. Things like weekly or monthly averages to be exact.
It will give a score to the user for the sleep quality they have. And it’s not like it’s based on an average taken from other subjects. It’s partly that, but it’s also based on your activity levels, readiness, and biometrics.
It will also track when you go into different phases of sleep and for how long.
A big thing with this ring is that it gives users personalized recommendations to improve their activity, readiness, or sleep.
In fact, those three are the scores which Oura gives users: Activity, sleep, and readiness. Activity scores are based on activity goal progress, steps, activity, active and total burn. Sleep scores are based on sleep efficiency, sleep duration, time which the user sleeps, REM sleep, quality of each sleep phase, and more. Readiness scores are based on resting heart rate, average heart rate, temperature, respiratory rate, and more.
All of these things combined are the reason why this ring is the performance ring, but also, it’s battery and data storage. The battery lasts up to 7 days on a single charge and memory storage is six weeks! It takes only 20-80 minutes to fully charge.
Here are the pros and cons for the Oura Ring:
PROS
- Amazing data collection
- Personal recommendations
- Unique way of presenting user-collected data
- 7 days on a single charge
- 6 weeks of data storage
- Great sleep tracking technology
CONS
- No security feature
Which Is Better? – Motiv VS Oura
I want to be clear on this… There is no definitive winner.
I mean, there is, obviously, performance-wise, which is Oura, but things like budget and what sort of features you’re looking for in a smart ring are very important aspects if you are choosing between the two.
If you want the best budget ring there is, it’s Motiv, simple as that. It’s two thirds of the price of an Oura ring and for most people a three-day battery life is enough for it to still feel convenient. Plus, Motiv will give you reliable data, at least data which might be all you need without any recommendations.
If you’re also an iOS user with touch ID and fingerprint, you’ll also have access to the beta 2FA feature.
In any other case though, it really make sense to go with the Oura ring. Things it does better are:
- Overview of the data in a more digestible way
- Advanced sleep tracking capabilities
- Personalized recommendations
- Long battery life
- 6 weeks of data storage
- Impeccable quality
- 2-year warranty if you’re from the EU
The ring’s design also became very popular in recent years due to the overwhelmingly larger number of new customers. Nowadays, the Oura ring is not just a ring, but a status symbol. For reference, it’s round like a normal ring, with a flat top, sort of like the ring’s top was machined off.
Verdict: Smart Ring Trackers
If you’re not a watch person but you want to track all of your important wellness data, smart rings are the way to go. Oura and Motiv aren’t the only brands occupying the market space, but they’re definitely among the leading ones.
Motiv has a substantial performance deficit compared to the Oura, but it does the job well enough for it to be a viable option for a lot of people. Especially considering the more digestible price tag.
Oura is the absolute leading smart ring in terms of performance. Frankly the battery life and the data storage capabilities are mind-blowing. But the perks don’t stop there. Users also get personalized recommendations on improving all three scores: Readiness, sleep, and activity scores.
Its price point is more in the smart watch price range, but it’s performance is also relatively close to pretty good smart watches out there. The point is, you’re getting a heck of a lot of performance, in a really small form factor.
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