The Whoop 5.0 is here to make fitness bands cool again

The Whoop 5.0 is here to make fitness bands cool again. Unlike the best smartwatches, the Whoop does not have a screen and doesn’t mirror anything from your phone, so it’s distraction-free. While smart rings have taken a lot of fitness band functionality and put it on your finger, Whoop feels there’s still plenty of life left in a primarily wrist-worn health tracker. With new hardware, new features, and a new subscription package, there’s a lot to understand, so lets go through the Whoop 5.0. 

Whoop 5.0 hardware

There are two versions of the new Whoop: the Whoop 5.0 and the Whoop MG. The Whoop MG has a medical-grade, Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved electrocardiogram (ECG) feature which is missing from the Whoop 5.0. Otherwise, the two appear to be identical. The case is seven percent smaller than the Whoop 4.0, but retains the same unusual strap system, which clips around the main body. 

The body contains a set of enhanced sensors, an upgraded haptic engine, improved accelerometer and gyroscope, and a redesigned processor that’s 10 times more efficient than the previous model. This has enabled a 14 day battery life, plus another 14 days from the Wireless PowerPack. This is another idiosyncrasy carried over from the last Whoop, where the battery pack is required to charge the main body, and also acts as a battery pack for recharging on the move. 

While the Whoop 5.0 is made for the wrist and you can get a variety of different straps for it, what makes it even more unusual is the range of sports clothing with special pockets for the Whoop 5.0. These include compression shirts, bralettes, briefs, and bike shorts. Other “Pods” are available so you can wear the Whoop in other ways. 

A brief hands-on with the Whoop MG better shows the reduction in size, as it feels lighter and less pronounced on your wrist. The clasp and strap is still a bit of a pain to adjust, and it’s often a bit too tight or a bit too loose, but the strap is elasticated so it should gradually stretch to the correct size. The most premium fabric strap is attached to the Whoop MG and mine comes in black with a silver clasp, and it looks modern and cool. As before though, the Whoop takes up wrist space without providing the time or any other information, so you may choose to wear it opposite a watch. 

Whoop 5.0 new features

Wear the Whoop 5.0 to track more than 145 different activities, count your daily steps, and measure specific data points like V02 Max and muscular strain during strength training workouts, plus overnight to measure sleep and receive a Sleep Score based on a revised algorithm to better reflect sleep quality. The Whoop 5.0 also has cycle tracking with insights into hormonal shifts and how they affect sleep, stress, and recovery. 

Beyond these basics, the Whoop 5.0 will show a new data set called Healthspan. It’s geared more towards long-term health, and examines nine different metrics to calculate your Whoop Age and Pace of Aging. Whoop claims it goes further than any estimates of your cardiovascular age, and comes with its own personalized advice to help you improve long-term health.

Using a new technology, the Whoop 5.0 will be able to estimate your blood pressure too, after calibrating the band using a traditional blood pressure monitor. Finally, the ECG feature looks for irregular heart rhythms and will alert the wearer if any abnormalities are noticed. In the future there will also be the option to book blood tests and have the results directly integrate into the Whoop app. 

Whoop price tiers

If all this sounds good, now we get to the part where some confusion and frustration may set in, because Whoop is introducing a new subscription system with the band, and it’s based on the features you require. There are three price tiers — Whoop One, Whoop Peak, and Whoop Life — and access to features differ depending on the one you choose. The Whoop band is included in the price, and there’s a lifetime warranty for it with all three plans. It’s easier to show the differences in a table. For reference, an O indicates the feature is included, while an X indicates it is not available on that plan.

What it means is, if you want the full Whoop experience with the ECG monitoring, blood pressure, and the rather nebulous Advanced Health Sensing you have to select the top package. It’s also worth noting if you’re interested in the blood test feature, it will be an additional cost regardless of which tier you select, but it will be available on all of them. Some features, such as the ECG Heart Screener and blood test results are region specific. Whoop 5.0 is available to buy from Whoop’s website, Amazon, and retailers including Best Buy.