Oura Ring 3 Vs Motiv Ring | Will Motiv Survive in 2024?

Motiv was one of the first smart rings I tried out. It was back in 2018 when smart rings had just become a concept, and I wanted a new method of tracking my steps and activity. Fast forward to 2024, the smart rings market has many strong contenders, such as Oura Ring 3. But which of these two rings is the better one today?

Yes, comparing a ring released in 2017 (Motiv) to the one released in 2021 (Oura Gen 3) may sound slightly unfair, given that there might be major differences between them. But hey, I did have great fun comparing the two rings!

And, let’s face it. Not everyone may want to get the Oura Ring 3 in 2024, but some people may still prefer the Motiv Ring. But should they really get it this year? Well, my experience with both the rings, which I have kindly shared in this article below, can be used to see what can be done here.

Comparison Between Oura Ring 3 & Motiv Ring

One would expect comparing two rings as different as the Oura Ring 3 and Motiv Ring would be easy. Given that Oura Ring 3 is one of the latest rings in the market, and Oura has had a lot of time to work on its features, I’d have no trouble declaring Oura to be the winner.

But, no. I didn’t want to give my Oura the benefit of the doubt. Since I already had my Motiv Ring, even after all these years, I decided to take it out of the cupboard and wear both it and the Oura Ring together for around three weeks.

My investigation compared the two rings based on several metrics, such as their design, colors, and materials, battery life and charging, the kind of sensors they use, the accuracy of their data, and more.

The results of my investigation conducted over the course of these weeks are not just interesting but also quite insightful. To know more about what I found, make sure you scroll this article till the end— or at least until the Final Verdict part.

Design, Colors & Material

The Oura Ring 3 comes in two different models: Heritage and Horizon. Both these models are made of durable titanium, but the Heritage model has a flat top, and the Horizon one is completely circular. I chose Horizon in silver since I preferred the complete circle, minimalistic, and sleek look.

Similarly, the Motiv ring is circular as well (there’s no other variant available, by the way), and I have it in black. What surprised me the most was that, even though Oura is considered to be something that you wear once and then forget, Motiv (2.5 grams) felt even lighter on my finger than Oura (4-6 grams).

And not just that, I found Oura to be more prone to scratches than Motiv! After a bit of an intense gardening session, Oura showed me a few scratches while Motiv still remained as good as new.

However, given that Motiv is made of lightweight titanium and plastic, it shouldn’t be surprising. So, with Oura on one finger and Motiv on the other, I found Oura to be bulkier.

Furthermore, I also found Motiv to be slightly more classy in looks in comparison to the Oura. If not for the LED light that flashes on the outside, you would never know that Motiv is a smart ring. It is so lightweight that it’s almost impossible for me to believe that it has any sensors or a battery— but it does.

Battery Life & Charging

Although appearances are important, they are (sadly) not everything. While the Motiv Ring looked and felt better to me, its battery life was nowhere in comparison to that of Oura.

Charging Details	Oura Ring	Motiv Ring
Official Ring Charging Time	Up to 80 minutes	90 minutes
My Ring’s Charging Time	80-100 minutes	90-100 minutes
Official Battery Durability	7 days	3 days
My Ring’s Battery Durability	4-6 days	2- 2 ½ days

Oura gave me around 4-6 days of battery life (with the advertised claim being 7 days), and when I had the continuous SpO2 checking feature enabled, the battery life was only 3-4 days. Since I don’t need my blood oxygen to be monitored continuously (not at the cost of battery life, at least), I turned that feature off and enjoyed a longer time without charging.

As you can tell, I prefer that my smart wearables come with a longer battery life so that I don’t have to put them on charge again and again. Motiv disappointed me a bit on this front.

Motiv comes with a battery life of just 3 days. And again, that’s the advertised claim. As per my experience, a full charge of my Motiv ring lasted around two to two and a half days only. So I had to charge it more frequently— which I absolutely disliked.

When it comes to charging, I have found that putting the Oura Ring to charge is literally one the simplest things to do. The Oura comes with a charging dock and a USB cable that is used to connect the dock to a power source.

I only have to put the ring on the plastic charging dock and leave it like that for 80 minutes. In that time, my ring is completely charged and ready to be put on.

Charging the Motiv is pretty simple, too. In fact, I liked the charging options that Motiv gives. My ring came with two chargers: a regular one and a keychain version so that I can charge the ring on the go.

To do that, I have to connect the USB drive charger and the ring together in a way that the lower inside part of the ring is in contact with the USB device. Then, I connect the USB drive to a power source like a laptop or wall adapter. In under 90 minutes, my ring is completely charged.

I need my wearables to support a longer battery life so that I don’t have to put them to charge frequently. This is why I would still choose the Oura Ring when it comes to a longer battery life and convenient charging.

Sensors

Sensors	Oura Ring	Motiv Ring
PPG Sensor
Temperature Sensor
Accelerometer
Infrared LED
Red LED
Green LED

Given the number and advancement of sensors, the Oura Ring is able to track and measure various kinds of health metrics like heart rate, skin temperature, sleep stages, stress & recovery, and more.

The Motiv Ring isn’t this advanced on the sensor part. Advanced tracking features like SpO2 monitoring or fertility and ovulation prediction are lacking in the Motiv Ring. Given that these are some things that I do give importance to, not having them is quite problematic to me.

This is why Oura will always be my top choice when it comes to choosing a wearable based on the sensors involved. Oura, with its various sophisticated sensors, is going to be much more helpful to me in collecting all the kinds of data I need.

Accuracy

When it comes to accuracy, I want to declare Oura a clear winner of the two already. Oura’s sensors are much more advanced in comparison to those of Motiv, which is why the data that it gathers is more comprehensive and accurate.

For example, when it comes to measuring heart rate, Oura uses infrared photoplethysmography (PPG), which gives a more precise reading than the green light LED sensors that Motiv uses.

When it comes to sleep, Motiv only tracks the duration and interruptions, but Oura goes beyond that and presents me with a detailed analysis of how well I slept. Furthermore, the data that Oura has presented me with has always been in accordance with how I have felt.

I can count on my Motiv ring to measure three things, mainly— steps, heart rate, and sleep. However, the way my Motiv ring counts steps is a little different from how other fitness trackers do it. Although I can still have a step count, it isn’t the central focus. Because the ring would rather show me my “active minutes” and not a total of all the random steps I get up from my desk to take during work breaks.

Whereas Oura will again present me with a more detailed analysis of my activity. It counts every single step I take, my active time, my standing time, and more. So, all the steps that I take during mini work breaks to complete my daily step count get counted, too.

This is why, being a fitness enthusiast, I have found Oura’s analysis to not only be detailed but also more accurate.

Because of all this, I think that the Motiv ring is a basic fitness tracker, but Oura is so much more. Not only does Oura track more metrics, but its tracking is also more accurate than that of Motiv.

Specifications

Specifications	Oura Ring 3	Motiv Ring
Material	Durable titanium, PVD coating	Lightweight titanium
Weight	4-6 grams	2.5 grams
Thickness	2.55mm	N/A
Width	7.9mm	8 mm
Size	6 to 13	6 to 12
Colors available	Brushed titanium, Rose Gold, Gold, Stealth, Silver, Black	Silver, Rose Gold, Black.
Charger	Charging dock	USB Magnetic Charging dock
Battery Life	7 days	3 days
Charging Time	Up to 80 minutes	90 minutes
Connectivity	Bluetooth Low-Energy (Bluetooth Smart®)	Bluetooth
Compatible With Other Apps	With various apps	• Apple Health • Google Fit
Water Resistance	Upto 100m/ 328 ft.	165 feet/ 50.292m
EMF- safe	Yes	No
Airplane mode	Yes	No
Free Sizing kit	Yes	Yes
FSA/ HSA eligibility	Yes	No
Price	$299 – $549	$199.99
Subscription	Yes	N/A
Memory	7 days of data (also depends on the frequency of use)	Up to 2 days of data
Compatibility	• iOS devices running on iOS 15 or above • Android devices running on Android 8.0 or higher	• iOS 9.0 or later • Android 6.0 Marshmallow or Later • iPhone 5s or later
Warranty	One year from the date of purchase	1-year warranty, 45-day guarantee
Operating Temperature	-10–52°C / 14–125°F.	N/A

Features

Features	Oura Ring 3	Motiv Ring
Heart Rate	Yes	Yes
Heart Rate Variability (HRV)	Yes	No
Resting Heart Rate (RHR)	Yes	Yes
Workout heart rate	Yes	No
Blood oxygen levels (SpO2)	Yes	No
Sleep tracking	Yes	Yes
Detailed sleep analysis	Yes	No
Nap detection	Yes	No
Bedtime Guidance	Yes	No
Respiration Rate	Yes	No
Skin Temperature	Yes	No
Steps	Yes	Yes
Calories	Yes	Yes
Active Minutes	Yes	Yes
Distance Traveled	Yes	Yes
Activity Tracking	Yes	Yes
Automatic activity detection	Yes	No
Manually add activities	Yes	Yes
Activity intensity	Yes	No
Workouts	Yes	No
Cycle Insights	Yes	No
Period Prediction	Yes	No
Pregnancy tracking	Yes	No
Fertility & Ovulation Prediction	Yes	No
Illness Detection	Yes	No
Health Reports	Yes	No
Set Personalized Goals	Yes	No
Guided Sessions	Yes	No
Stress	Yes	No
Recovery	Yes	No
Chronotype	Yes	No
VO2 Max	Yes	No
Cardiovascular Age (CVA)	Yes	No
Body Clock	Yes	No
Find my iPhone	No	Yes (only with iPhone)
Readiness Score	Yes	No
Rest Mode	Yes	No

App Interface

No smart ring can work without a companion app. So, while comparing the two rings, I just had to take their companion apps into consideration as well.

Given how much I prefer dark themes, I found the Oura app to be very comfortable. But not just that, the app comes with a sleek, modern design that feels highly polished and professional. Motiv, on the other hand, comes with a clean, dark pink, blue, and white design that, although feels very minimalistic, lacks the visual appeal that Oura offered to me.

Oura relies on color-coded graphs and charts to show me my health-related data. However, unlike the graphs I studied in college, these ones are way easier to interpret. So, I found myself understanding even the most complex stuff with surprising ease.

Motiv, on the other hand, is simple from the get-go. It shows me all my activities for the day in a card-like layout to deliver information. Some may call it a no-nonsense approach, but I call it the death of design. Although the information that Motiv presents to users is easy to understand as well, I’d still have preferred to have it in a more visually appealing way.

Oura app’s home screen has everything present on the dashboard, like the daily readiness score, sleep score, activity progress, and more. The layout is so intuitive that one look at the app tells me everything I need to know about my health and more. Furthermore, if I want to, I can do a detailed analysis, look at my body temperature trends, etc., in simple ways, as well.

Although the Motiv app does give me quick, digestible insights, I have seen that the information lacks the depth and presentation that Oura offers. The cards only show me a few things— active minutes tallied with their specific walks, sleep data, and resting heart rate.

Sure, the layout of both apps caters to different user preferences. But, I, being an aesthetic person who likes dark themes, color, and detailed analysis of everything in an easy-to-understand way, liked Oura better than Motiv.

Prices, Subscription & Availability

Pricing Details	Oura Ring 3	Motiv Ring
Official Price	$299-$549	$199.99
Discounted Price	N/A	N/A
Subscription	$5.99 a month/ $69.99 a year	N/A

Now, I’ll be upfront about this: Oura is one of the most expensive rings out there. I purchased the ring for $349, and this number could have gone up had I opted for a different color, like Rose Gold, which is $549, or Stealth, which costs $449. In comparison to this, priced at $199, Motiv was so much more affordable. I could have chosen any color and size, and the price would still have remained the same.

For example, I actually preferred the Stealth color over the silver one while purchasing an Oura ring. But this simple difference could have cost me around $100 more. So, I concluded that silver isn’t that bad of a choice itself.

Furthermore, it’s not like once you get an Oura ring, you’re free from spending any more money on the ring. Because Oura Ring’s companion app is subscription-based. This means that I had to get myself a membership to the app that cost me around $6 a month. There’s a yearly subscription as well, it costs around $72 a year.

The Motiv Ring app, on the other hand, is completely free to use. Quite affordable in comparison to the Oura Ring, isn’t it?

However, the Motiv Ring isn’t available for sale on the Motiv website; it is available only in select stores and online platforms.

But, what I also took into account while comparing their prices was that the Oura Ring 3 is much more advanced in comparison to the Motiv Ring. It has more sensors, offers more features, collects more accurate data, and basically fulfills most of my needs. With this in mind, I found the Oura Ring’s price to be slightly justifiable.

Final Verdict

As per my expectations and experiences, I found the Oura Ring 3 to be far better than the Motiv Ring. The latter is a fitness tracker in the form of a ring, but having experienced the Oura Ring, too, it’s hard to settle for less— even if the “less” comes in a little more than half the price.

Sure, the Motiv Ring is far cheaper than the Oura, but I found spending $349 on my Oura Ring to be rewarding in different ways. The data it collects and the insights it offers to me are quite valuable. And as a fitness enthusiast, my health has only improved ever since I got the ring. I have been sleeping better, spending my energy on things more wisely, etc.

And not just data collection and features, Oura proved to be better than Motiv in terms of data accuracy as well! Not to forget the visually appealing app that makes my eyes shine and twinkle every time I open it! This makes Oura a clear winner for me.

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