A wearable you pay for once is different from what Whoop offers, with its service approach to health insights now coming with better battery in a smaller design.
Technology to track your health is just a wrist movement away, with so many different devices available for you to pick from. That’s one if the reasons Pickr exists — to make it easier to pick from what’s out there — and one of those is getting an update of sorts.
Granted, it’s a little bit different from the standard assortment of smartwatches and smartbands, and not really like an Apple Watch or the Android equivalent. More of a smart band sans-screen, the new arrival (or updated model, even) is a fitness tracker designed to be worn and not checked while the app records your details and analysis is applied in the cloud, telling you more about yourself than a standard wearable normally would.
It’s also a fifth-generation device, as Whoop reveals the Whoop 5.0 and the Whoop MG, two almost identical variations on the screen-less wearable that is Whoop, using a combination of health sensors and tracking metrics with cloud analysis to refine your fitness performance.
A little smaller (by seven percent) and supporting up to two weeks of battery life, the new wearables capture data 26 times per second and work with Whoop’s clothing, which includes a little pouch for the Whoop activity tracker.
Features such as heart rate tracking are still there, as are steps and temperature tracking, the latter of which was used during covid to track whether athletes were sick.
“We’ve taken everything we’ve learned over the past decade and built a platform to help our members perform and live at their peak for longer,” said Will Ahmed, CEO and Founder of Whoop, noting that “we’ve held nothing back”.
That’s not entirely true, however, because there’s a serious difference between the Whoop 5.0 and Whoop MG: a sensor.
Aside for an extra band or two, the main difference between the Whoop 5 and the MG is actually the inclusion of an ECG sensor built in, something the rest of the range lacks.
You also technically don’t buy these devices, making their service model a little different from say owning an Apple Watch and just letting the insights come to your phone. Whoop instead uses annual pricing, much like a streaming service but for fitness, having its customers pay a subscription for the analytics and the hardware.
That makes the Whoop 5 and Whoop MG technically free, though you’re paying for the service.
In Australia, the Whoop 5.0 will come with the Whoop One costing $299 per year for the wearable and fitness insights, while the Whoop Peak plan costs $419 per year for advanced health, fitness, and longevity insights. In New Zealand, the price is $359 and $489 for the Whoop One and Whoop Peak plans, respectively.
Meanwhile, the ECG-equipped Whoop MG only comes with the Whoop Life, priced at $629 in Australia per year or $739 per year in New Zealand. Locally, the ECG hasn’t been activated yet in Australia, with the Therapeutic Goods Administration not having approved it yet, and the same true for the New Zealand equivalent. That will happen, we’re told, with a launch of the ECG in our regions later.
As for current subscribers, Whoop told Pickr that current subscribers will be rolled onto the Whoop Peak plan with the previous Whoop 4.0 device, but for the hardware, that costs extra. A representative for the company noted that it would be a one-time fee for the upgrade, costing $89 for the Whoop 5.0 or $139 for the Whoop MG.
