#1. Oura Ring

• Great brand reputation
• Recommended and used by Dr. Peter Attia & elite athletes
• Light and discreet design
• 4-7 days battery life 
• Apple Health & Google Fit compatible 
• Water resistant to 100m 
• Constructed of durable titanium 

If you’ve been a fan of the biohacking world for a while then you’ve likely come across Dr. Peter Attia. For those of you who aren’t yet familiar, Peter holds an M.D from Stanford and worked as an oncology surgeon at Johns Hopkins before going on to pursue research in the fields of nutrition, exercise physiology, sleep physiology, and longevity. 

What does this have to do with biometric trackers? Nothing in itself.

But what it means is that when Peter recommends a piece of health-related gear, we tend to take his advice. 

And in the case of wearable trackers, far and away his most talked-about piece of gear is the Oura Ring. 

The Oura Ring was originally created back in 2013 and is now currently on it’s third generation iteration. The smart ring was included as one of the TIME Magazine 100 Best Inventions of 2022 after it gained media attention from being used by players in the NBA.

And on top of Peter Attia, it’s had some other big names recommend it like NFL receive Odell Beckham Jr., CrossFit champ and Olympian Tia-Clair Toomey, and gold-medal swimmer Katie Ledecky.  The list goes on.

So what does it actually do? Well, it’s metrics are broken out into three main “scores” which are connected and influence each other: readiness, activity, and sleep.

As you can see in the image above, the ring gives comprehensive analysis and feedback on the wearers sleep quality. While some trackers only measure your sleep based on movement, the Oura Ring uses body temperature, heart rate variability, and blood pressure sensors to monitor actual sleep quality and give you a nightly score based on key metrics:

• Total Sleep: “Did you get enough sleep?”
• Efficiency: “How much of your time in bed did you actually spend sleeping?”
• Restfulness: “Did you toss and turn?”
• REM Sleep: “Did you get enough REM sleep?”
• Deep Sleep: “Did you get enough deep sleep?”
• Latency: “How quickly did you fall asleep?”
• Timing: “When are you getting to sleep? Are you going to bed according to your body’s natural circadian rhythm?”

Your activity score is then calculated based on total activity amount, inactivity, and recovery levels. The ring measures things like daily movement, calories burned, number of steps in the day, and other key activity factors which come together in recommendations for how to improve your overall fitness.

This could be that you need to be more active, and it could also be that you need to slow down and spend more time focusing on recovery activities.

Finally, your readiness score acts as a combination of everything together: sleep and sleep balance, activity balance, resting heart rate, heart rate variability, body temperature, etc.

These contributors are entirely personal and are designed to help you spot signs of strain from stress, illness, injury, or another shift in your health — before you even feel anything in some cases.

From a technical standpoint, the Oura Ring is made out of lightweight but durable titanium and offers a battery life that they list as 4-10 days (with charging taking less than an hour). After a few days of regular use you honestly start to forget it’s there.

We wear the ring in the shower, when sleeping, working out, at work. Everywhere.

It’s the one biometric tracking tool that looks good and doesn’t get in the way, while still offering the comprehensive metric tracking necessary to fully optimize you body.

You can learn more about the Oura Ring and purchase through their site here.

#2. Fitbit Sense Advanced

• Integrated ECG monitor with compatible app
• Easy-to-use health metrics dashboard
• Recommendations for daily readiness and stress management
• Google Assistant and Alexa voice command compatible
• 6+ day battery life

While most of our team prefer the more discreet and out-of-the-way nature of the Oura Ring, a great runner up to it is the Sense Advanced from Fitbit.

This smartwatch is arguably the most advanced model currently on the market, with sensors that track key health metrics such as:

• SpO2 (aka blood oxygen saturation)
• Breathing rate
• Skin temperature
• Breathing rate
• Heart rate and heart rate variability
• Heart rhythm irregularity (through an integrated ECG app)

That last item is particularly interesting and something that’s fairly unique. The Sense has a built-in ECG monitor to assess your heart for atrial fibrillation and other irregularities and gives you comprehensive data that you can share with your doctor.

And like the Oura Ring, the Sense also provides you with daily scores that cover sleep quality, readiness (whether to prioritize activity or recovery), and stress management.

From a technical standpoint, the smartwatch offers a 6+ day battery life with quick charging, it allows you to take Bluetooth calls from integration with your phone, and can be controlled through voice commands with Alexa or Google Assistant.

Overall, if you’re looking for more of a comprehensive smartwatch versus simply a biometric tracker, then the Fitbit Sense Advanced is your best option.

And yes, it’s better than the Apple watch.

#3. Fitbit Inspire 2

• 24/7 heart rate monitoring
• Activity tracking
• Easy-to-use UI and app
• 10+ day battery life 
• Daily readiness scores 

Last but not least on our list is a great budget-friendly option that doesn’t quite have the same capabilities as our first two, but still offers a great entry point into the biometric tracker market.

The Fitbit Inspire 2 is the company’s slimmed-down version of it’s flagship smartwatch and still offers tons of capabilities from the smaller packages.

Key metrics include:

•  Daily readiness scores (like the Sense Advanced)
• 24/7 heart rate
• Breathing rate
• Heart rate variability (HRV)
• All-day calories burned
• Sleep stages and quality

From a technical side of things the watch is completely waterproof actually offers a longer battery life than the Sense at 10+ days.

To be honest, while we listed this as our third option, if you’re looking for more of a simple biometric tracker and less of a smartwatch, but not quite ready to shell out the cash for the Oura Ring, then the Fitbit Inspire 2 is your best bet overall. It has most of the biometric-related functionality of the Sense at only half the price.