Since I am not a big fan of wearing bulky fitness gadgets, I found the Oura Ring more suitable for my needs. However, it couldn’t keep me from checking out dedicated fitness trackers. While I am quite satisfied with my Oura Ring for tracking my health and sleep, the Fitbit Charge 5 is a worthy opponent.
My experience with the Oura Gen3 Ring and Fitbit Charge 5 was interesting. While the Oura Ring remains the worthy winner, the Fitbit Charge 5 has also nailed its stress analysis, workout sessions, and blood glucose tracking.
Colors & Design
I had two design options for the Oura Ring. The first one was the Oura Gen3 Horizon, which was quite simple—a round ring available in Brushed Titanium, Rose Gold, Gold, Stealth, Silver, and Black.
The other design was the Oura Gen3 Heritage- a round ring with a flat-top design (plateau design). It was available in Gold, Stealth, Silver, and Black only.
I wanted a rose-gold ring, but the Gen3 Horizon design didn’t appeal to me much. Since black accessories go with every outfit, I finally chose the Black Gen3 Heritage.
In terms of design and colors, I was more impressed with the Fitbit Charge 5 tracker as it gave plenty of color options in bands.
| Design & Colors | Oura Ring | Fitbit Charge 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Colors Available | – Oura Ring Gen3 Horizon: Brushed titanium, Rose Gold, Gold, Stealth, Silver, Black – Oura Ring Gen3 Heritage: Gold, Stealth, Silver, Black | Steel Blue/Platinum-Black/Graphite Lunar White/Soft Gold |
| Design | -Oura Ring Gen3 Horizon: Round-shaped ring-Oura Ring Gen3 Heritage: Round ring with a flat-top design (plateau design) | Elegant band with curved stainless steel and Aluminium housing with brilliant color AMOLED display |
The Fitbit Charge 5 tracker has a curved stainless steel AMOLED display and a bold-colored band. Officially, it has three color combinations: Steel Blue/Platinum, Black/Graphite, and Lunar White/Soft Gold.
I wanted to have a Lunar White/Soft Gold tracker, but it was out of stock at that time. So, I opted for the Black/Graphite Fitbit tracker.
Material, Comfort & Durability
I find the Oura ring quite sturdy because it is made of Titanium and has a PVD coating. Though it is not scratch-resistant, it can withstand normal pressure. So, I avoid wearing it while doing intense weight-lifting exercises or working with sharp tools to prevent direct contact with the object.
The Oura Ring is comfortable to wear and fits perfectly on my index finger. Sometimes, I switch the ring to the other hand’s finger to avoid sweat marks, but it’s negligible. The ring is so lightweight that I sometimes forget that I am wearing it 24×7. So, I don’t have any problem wearing it during the day or at night.
| Specifications | Oura Ring Gen3 | Fitbit Charge 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Material | Durable titanium, PVD coating | Stainless steel, Aluminium, glass, and resin housing with smooth silicone band |
| Weight | 4-6 grams | 28 grams |
| Dimension | Thickness- 2.55mmWidth-7.9mm | Viewing area: 1.04″ Diagonal Screen Screen Height: 0.86″ Screen width 0.58″ |
| Size | Eight sizes (6 to 13) | Small: Fits wrist 5.1″ – 6.7″ in circumferenceLarge: Fits wrist 6.7″ – 8.3″ in circumference |
The Fitbit Charge 5 is a bulkier gadget than the Oura Ring. Its housing is made of aluminum, glass, and resin, and the band is silicone. You can also buy woven, hook-and-loop, sports leather, premium Horween leather, or infinity bands! The bands are affordable, so you can buy an extra.
While I appreciate its bright screen, which increases readability, and improved touchscreen navigation, I find wearing it during sleep uncomfortable. Moreover, after wearing it for a long day, sweaty marks appear around my wrist.
Though the Fitbit Charge 5 features are quite impressive, I don’t like wearing the bulky gadget during my sleep. So, for me, the Oura Ring is a better option.
Features
| Features | Oura Ring Gen3 | Fitbit Charge 5 |
|---|---|---|
| HR, HRV & RHR | Yes | Yes |
| Workout Heart Rate | Yes | Yes |
| High & Low HR Notification | No | Yes |
| Irregular Heart Rhythm Notifications (AFib) | No | Yes |
| Blood Oxygen Levels (SpO2) | Yes | Yes |
| Sleep Tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Nap Detection | Yes | No |
| Detailed Sleep Analysis | Yes | No |
| Smart Wake Alarm | No | Yes |
| Bedtime Guidance | Yes | No |
| Respiration Rate/Breathing Rate | Yes | Yes |
| Skin Temperature | Yes | Yes |
| Steps | Yes | Yes |
| Equivalent Distance/ Distance Traveled | Yes | Yes |
| Calories | Yes | Yes |
| Active Minutes | Yes | Yes |
| Activity Tracking | Yes | Yes |
| Automatic Activity Detection | Yes | Yes |
| Workouts | Yes | Yes |
| Average Pace | Yes | Yes |
| Workout Intensity Map | No | Yes |
| Cycle Insights | Yes | Yes |
| Period, Ovulation, & Fertility Prediction | Yes | Yes |
| Pregnancy Insights | Yes | No |
| Mood/Reflections | No | Yes |
| Symptoms Tracking | No | Yes |
| Illness Detection | Yes | No |
| Health Reports/Wellness Report | Yes | Yes |
| Set Personalized Goals | Yes | Yes |
| Personalized Wellness Assistance | Yes (on the basis of scores) | No |
| Insights Feature | Yes (on the basis of scores) | Yes |
| Trends | Yes | Yes |
| Meal and Water Logs | No | Yes |
| Recipe and Meal hacks | No | Yes |
| Guided Sessions/ Mindfulness Sessions | Yes | Yes |
| Weight Tracking | No | Yes |
| Blood Glucose Tracking | No | Yes |
| Stress | Yes | Yes |
| EDA scan | No | Yes |
| Recovery | Yes | No |
| Rest Mode | Yes | No |
| Readiness Score/Wellness Score | Yes | Yes |
| Cardiovascular Age (CVA) | Yes | No |
| VO2 Max | Yes | Yes |
| Body Clock | Yes | No |
| Chronotype | Yes | No |
| Daily Summary | Yes | No |
| Sedentary Reminders | Yes | Yes |
| Breathing Exercise | Yes | Yes |
| Find My Phone | No | Yes |
| Mobile Payment Mode | No | Yes (using Fitbit Pay) |
| Call, Text, and App Notifications | No | Yes |
While the Oura Gen3 has many impressive features for tracking health and fitness, the Fitbit Charge 5 also includes several smart features unavailable in the Oura Ring. Apart from using it as a fitness tracker, I have used it to receive call and text notifications, phone app notifications, WhatsApp and Gmail notifications, and calendar notifications on my wrist.
While I do appreciate that the Fitbit Charge 5 has smart features, I would rather stick to Oura Ring because it covers all the necessary metrics like SpO2, skin temperature, HR variations, calories, workouts, stress, etc., that are essential for tracking my overall health.
While Fitbit Charge 5 also tracks these metrics, it has a few restrictions. For example, some of its health metrics, like Skin temperature tracking and SpO2 reading, are not available in all countries.
While Fitbit Charge 5 tracks sleep similar to the Oura Ring, the latter has a better sleep tracking feature. Apart from tracking sleep and its stages, Oura Ring also provides bedtime guidance and detailed sleep analysis.
I liked Fitbit’s stress tracking better, which was quite interesting and actually more detailed than Oura Ring’s stress analysis. With Fitbit’s EDA scan app, stress tracking and mood logging becomes truly meaningful; which is unlike what Oura offers.
Battery & Charging
In terms of charging, my Oura Ring is far better than the Fitbit Charge 5 tracker. Be it the charging time or battery drainage; the Oura Ring exceeds the Fitbit tracker.
I charge my Oura smart ring in an hour, whereas the Fitbit Charge 5 takes almost 2.5 hours to charge fully. As you can see, it’s a very long charging duration, and anyone would find it frustrating. So, my vote goes to Oura Ring here!
| Charging Details | Oura Gen3 Ring | Fitbit Charge 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Official Ring Charging Time | Up to 80 minutes | 2 hours |
| My Ring’s Charging Time | 80-100 minutes | 2-2.5 hours |
| Official Battery Durability | Up to 7 days | Up to 7 days |
| My Ring’s Battery Durability | 4-6 days | Up to 6 days; Up to 5 hours with continuous GPS |
Though my Oura ring’s battery lasts for 4-6 days, depending on the usage, the Fitbit Charge 5 battery drains within 4.5-5 hours with continuous GPS activation. Otherwise, it lasts up to 6 days without GPS mode.
Given the battery charging time, I find Oura Ring’s battery duration much better than the Fitbit Charge 5. Moreover, I don’t want to charge my Fitbit Charge 5 for long hours just to get it drained within 5 hours! If I turn off the GPS, it doesn’t serve its purpose to the fullest. So, again, I am in favor of the Oura Ring.
Sensors
| Sensors | Oura Gen3 Ring | Fitbit Charge 5 |
|---|---|---|
| PPG Sensors/Optical HR Monitor |  | |
| Skin temperature Sensor | | |
| Photodiodes | |  |
| 3D Accelerometer | | |
| Infrared LED | | |
| Green LEDs | | |
| Red LEDs | | |
| Vibration Motor | | |
| Ambient Light Sensor | | |
| Built-in GPS + GLONASS | | |
| Multipurpose electrical sensors (including EDA Sensor) | | |
The Fitbit Charge 5 doesn’t have photodiodes, green LEDs, and PPG sensors like the Oura Ring. Similarly, the Oura Ring doesn’t have built-in GPS, ambient light sensor, electrical sensors that are compatible with ECG & EDA scan apps, and vibration sensor like the Fitbit Charge 5 tracker.
Though the Fitbit Charge 5 has more sensors than the Oura Ring, it doesn’t make it better than Oura. In fact, the missing sensors are useless in the ring because the ring doesn’t have associated features. The existing sensors in the smart ring are enough and far more accurate.
Accuracy
While I appreciate Fitbit Charge 5 for tracking stress, sleep, and other health-related metrics, I found my Oura Ring more consistent and accurate with readings.
When I wore my Fitbit in the initial days, it took almost two weeks to fine-tune the scores. However, no such thing happened with the Oura Ring.
Measurements from under the finger and over the wrist do impact the accuracy of your data, so this is a consideration here.
Here are my observations about their accuracies to give you a detailed picture.
Sleep Tracking
Given its reputation as a recovery and sleep tracker, I have always trusted Oura to provide me with near-accurate sleep tracking. When I compared Oura’s sleep-tracking capabilities with that of Charge 5, I discovered that Oura was still more accurate!
Oura always got my total duration of sleep time right, but Charge 5 often overestimated the amount of sleep I had. Plus, when it comes to deep sleep tracking, I noticed that Fitbit sometimes underestimated it in comparison to the numbers that Oura showed me.
Next, I trust Oura to record not just my night time sleep but also the occasional naps I take whenever I am lucky enough to make time for that. True to its sleep-tracking nature, Oura would always track my naps effectively.
While Fitbit Charge 5 also comes with a nap detection feature, it can only record naps that are at least an hour long. This is honestly a bummer for me because my naps are never that long. I could manually log my naps in, but that would beat the entire purpose of nap detection.
This is why I blindly trust the Oura ring over Fitbit Charge for anything related to sleep tracking.
Health, Fitness, And Activity Tracking
It’s hard to beat something like a Fitbit at fitness tracking. So, I naturally went into testing Fitbit’s fitness and activity tracking with high expectations.
Upon comparing my experience with Oura, I can satisfactorily conclude that Fitbit indeed does a better job at tracking my activity in comparison to Oura.
When it comes to something as simple as step-tracking, I have noticed glaring accuracies in Oura’s data. For example, Oura routinely counted the steps I hadn’t even walked.
Even if I spend my time doing nothing but household chores, Oura would still manage to show me around 3k steps, which Fitbit never does. Charge 5 doesn’t count my steps when I am sitting at my desk working like Oura ends up doing at times.
When it comes to exercise/ workout tracking, both the wearables offer me similar features. Both of them can track plenty of workouts, active minutes, offer automatic activity detection, and more.
However, I noticed that Charge 5 was better at tracking my runs and biking in comparison to the Oura ring. It gives me the option to map my route using GPS while I am out. While Oura also has this feature, it’s not been super convenient for me to actually use it on the Oura app. This feature has been a game changer for me since it lets me take the same route again without having to remember it.
Fitbit Charge 5 can also detect my heart rate zones during exercises and not just that but also present me with more accurate and detailed data post-workout in comparison to what Oura shows.
Stress Tracking
As someone who’s actively trying to manage her stress levels, stress tracking accuracy is a big deal for me. I don’t want my smart wearables to get this part wrong as that could then cause me more stress.
And well, while both the Oura ring and Fitbit Charge 5 offer comprehensive stress tracking capabilities, Fitbit Charge 5 ended up being marginally better at it. This came as a surprise to me.
It shouldn’t be so, given that Fitbit Charge 5 relies on EDA scans to generate its stress management score. Furthermore, Charge 5 doesn’t just give me a score but also tells me how it arrived at it.
While Fitbit sounds great, Oura was no less. It, too, would present me with a stress graph, but I didn’t notice a big difference between the data that the two wearables presented.
Specifications
| Specifications | Oura Ring Gen3 | Fitbit Charge 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Material | Durable titanium, PVD coating | Stainless steel, Aluminium, glass, and resin housing with smooth silicone band |
| Weight | 4-6 grams | 28 grams |
| Dimension | -Thickness- 2.55mm-Width-7.9mm | -Viewing area: 1.04″-Diagonal Screen -Screen Height: 0.86″ -Screen width 0.58″ |
| Size | Eight sizes (6 to 13) | Small: Fits wrist 5.1″ – 6.7″ in circumference Large: Fits wrist 6.7″ – 8.3″ in circumference |
| Display | No | Yes |
| Connectivity | Bluetooth 4.0 | Bluetooth® Low-Energy |
| Battery Life | Up to 7 days | Up to 7 days |
| Charging Time | Up to 80 minutes | Up to 2 hours |
| Charger | Wireless Charging dock | Charging Cable |
| Water Resistance | -Upto 100m/ 328 ft. -IP54 | Up to 50m/164 ft |
| Dustproof | No | No |
| Compatibility | iOS devices running on iOS 15 or above or Android devices running on Android 9.0 or higher | iOS 15 and higher, Android 9 or higher |
| Operating Temperature Range | -10–52°C / 14–125°F. | 14° to 113°F |
| Free Sizing Kit | Yes | N/A |
| FSA / HSA Eligible | Yes | No |
| Memory | 7 days of data (also depends on the frequency of use) | 7 days of data |
| Warranty | One year from the date of purchase | One year from the date of purchase |
| Compatible With Other Apps | Yes | Yes |
| In-built GPS | No | Yes |
| NFC | No | Yes |
| EMF-Safe | Yes | Yes |
| Airplane Mode | Yes | Yes |
Prices, Subscription & Availability
The Oura Ring’s price ranges from $299 to $549, whereas the Fitbit Charge 5’s price is only $179.95. Moreover, Charge 5 prices vary in different countries, such as Australia (A$269.95) and the UK (£169.99). Though the Fitbit Charge 5 is more affordable than the Oura Ring, given its features and accuracy, Oura Ring is a better choice.
| Pricing Details | Oura Ring 3 | Fitbit Charge 5 |
|---|---|---|
| Official Price | $299-$549 | $149 to $189.99 |
| Discounted Price | N/A | N/A |
| Subscription | One month free trial; $5.99 a month/ or $69.99 a year | Six months free trial; $9.99/mo/ or $79.99/yr |
Both smart gadgets require a subscription plan to access their respective apps fully. While the Oura Ring subscription is $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year, the Fitbit Charge 5 subscription costs $9.99 a month/ or $79.99 a year. The good thing about the Fitbit Charge 5 is that it gives a free 6-month premium membership as opposed to Oura’s one month of free subscription. After that, you have to pay for it.
In terms of availability, the Oura Ring is only available in North America, Europe, Africa & the Middle East, Asia & Pacific, whereas the Fitbit Charge 5 has a wider reach, in more than 40 countries. If Oura wants to expand its base, it must consider launching the ring in other parts of the world.
Final Verdict
After trying both the Fitbit Charge 5 and the Oura Ring, I vote for the latter. Since I prefer wearing a lightweight smart gadget, especially while I sleep, the Oura Ring suits my needs here. Apart from physical features, I find Oura Ring’s tracking more accurate and consistent than the Fitbit Charge 5 band.
While the Oura Ring’s price is a bit high compared to the Fitbit Charge 5, the latter also requires a subscription plan, making it equally expensive. Oura Ring gives me all health and fitness information in a better-explained way than the Charge 5 tracker. So, I would go with the Oura Ring for now.
