I became a Whoop devotee last year after I swapped my Oura ring for the Whoop 4.0. Yet, despite the incredible accuracy of the data and the boost to my sleep and recovery, there were a few things about the fitness tracker that bothered me. The device felt a little distracting on my wrist, the knit strap wasn’t waterproof and didn’t really match my style and there was no step counter in the app.
These things might not have bothered you — your wrists might be bigger than mine, you might have opted for a chunkier silicone strap, and hitting 10,000 steps a day might not be your goal. You might also not be a total fashion victim. These were my gripes with an otherwise brilliant product.
To my delight, all my complaints have been addressed with the Whoop 5.0, and a ton of new features have been rolled out. The new band is smaller, lighter, holds its charge for two weeks, and comes with a range of new straps and accessories. The band I tested was part of the leatherluxe range and the tan and gold finish blended seamlessly with my entire wardrobe — and it was showerproof.
While not strictly a brand-new feature, the step counter is also a welcome addition many users were calling for (myself included). As far as actual updates go, there are plenty. The app has a new interface with fresh features, including the daily outlook (your AI assistant), healthspan (your longevity calculator,) and blood pressure insights.
Longevity is the wellness buzzword of the year and I am one of many perhaps slightly fanatical people attempting to halt or reverse their biological age. The 5.0 seeks to help users understand the markers of aging and the pace at which their body is aging by providing a “Whoop age” and actionable advice on rest and recovery to manage and reverse said age.
Similarly to its predecessor, the 5.0 relies on metrics like HRV and VO2 max to determine your physiological age and place you in a percentile for your actual age group. It uses these data points to feed you helpful information and tips daily.
Developed with Dr Eric Verdin, CEO of the Buck Institute for Research, on aging, the new healthspan feature takes a few wears of the device to unlock but what it shows you after that time is fascinating. The product lead for Whoop tells me she’s actually gotten younger while working on this feature.
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Another new feature I actually really enjoyed was the AI assistant. Whoop is the first wearable with this feature and if you’re a first-time user, having all the data broken down can help to make sense of it all and motivate you. I’ll admit that when I first started using Whoop, I wasn’t sure what my scores really meant. The new daily outlook tool explains exactly what the numbers mean and what you might try to focus on that day.
The tech pulls in your scores and exercise recommendations and integrates the weather, your performance goals, and healthspan insights to answer questions and give you prompts throughout the day. I woke up one morning to see that my blood oxygen was out of the normal range, so I asked the AI why this might be. It offered a few ideas and solutions, including a breathing exercise, which I was prompted to log in my daily journal.
The journal isn’t new but it’s a great way to track your habits. It offers a customizable checklist that you can tick off with options like, “took a multivitamin”, “slept with a weighted blanket” and “consumed caffeine”. This encourages you to build healthy habits and keep your streak going.
In the app, personalized plans have also been moved to the home screen so making a plan with advice from the AI coach, filling out your journal, and checking your scores is a more seamless experience.
The Whoop scores are still based on strain, recovery, and sleep but the app now offers even more granular insights, especially where sleep and stress are concerned. Sleep performance now has four parts and there are new ways to log data. There’s also a new stress monitor which uses a variety of metrics to assess stress levels.
You’ve got a heart screener that offers an ECG reading and generates a PDF report and blood pressure insights — a totally new addition for fitness trackers and likely one that other brands will copy. You need to calibrate your first reading with a blood pressure cuff which you can do at your doctor’s office or with a smart cuff at home and the band’s sensors take care of the rest.
Both features were pretty easy to set up and use which is incredible considering the size of the Whoop. Everything is smaller and stronger so the 5.0 offers a better processor, a smaller battery charging pack with 30 days of charge on top of your two weeks with a fully-charged band. Personally, I was amazed at the battery life considering my phone can barely make it through a day and the Oura ring only lasts a few.
Other new features include membership tiers, of which there are three. At present, your subscription gets you a band and access to the app for a year. The new tiers offer different in-app experiences with the band.
A Whoop one subscription is the most basic — at $199 a year it’s ideal for first-timers. Whoop peak has also been introduced with the healthspan stress monitor features — great for those interested in longevity and biohacking it costs $239 a year. Existing users will automatically be upgraded to peak. Whoop life is the top-tier option and costs $359 a year, you’ll get medical-grade insights, such as blood pressure.
The 5.0 is a whole lifestyle experience with the band sensors able to automatically detect whatever exercise you’re doing, measure biological age, and prevent health issues with medical-grade insights. It’s a futuristic experience that caters to anyone with what Ahmed describes as an aspirational approach to their health.
