The contenders
Six rings, two screens-on-the-wrist, and one we couldn’t get to pair reliably enough to score. The field has tightened in the last twelve months — most contenders now do basic sleep staging well. The question is what they do better than Oura.
What still wins
Oura’s sleep staging remains the most trustworthy in this category. The agreement with our polysomnography reference run was the closest we measured, and the readiness score is the least gameable. Everyone else is closer than they were last year.
The surprises
Two of the rings beat Oura on battery life — one of them by a wide margin. None matched Oura on app polish. One had a wonderful onboarding ruined by a $9/month paywall that doesn’t show up until you’ve already worn it for three days.
The pick depends on whether you’ll pay the subscription. If you’re paying a monthly fee anyway, Oura is still the buy. If you’d rather not, the runner-up gives up sleep accuracy for a much friendlier total cost of ownership.