WHOOP 4.0 Band Review: Is This Fitness Tracker Worth It in 2024?

Wearable fitness trackers are one of the biggest wellness trends in recent years. These compact devices take the guesswork out of tracking different physical metrics, helping you stay on track and reach your goals.

With so many different products out there, it can be difficult to decide which one to choose. That’s why we did the research for you by reviewing one of the top fitness trackers around – the WHOOP 4.0 band.

Our WHOOP review dives into the company's background and all the features and benefits that make this fitness tracker stand out from the rest!

How did we review WHOOP 4.0 band: our guidelines

We looked at a range of key factors to give you the most comprehensive WHOOP band review. Some of the most important aspects we looked at included performance, usability, features, battery life, value, and ease of use.

Performance	Usability	Features	Battery life	Value	Compatibility	Design
Efficiency across variables	Ease of use of device and app	Metrics tracked including heart rate, HRV, sleep etc.	Long-lasting	Price range for memberships	Compatibility with the operating system on your smartphone	Comfort and aesthetics

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• Performance. A wearable fitness tracker needs to perform well, whether you’re meditating or swimming. We took this into consideration when reviewing the WHOOP 4.0.
• Usability. Fitness trackers should be easy to use with a user-friendly interface. This also explores how the device interacts with the app.
• Features. With so many fitness trackers on the market, it’s important to go for one that has top-of-the-line, innovative features. We looked at WHOOP’s health tracking features along with their coaching and feedback features.
• Battery life. You need your fitness tracker to be able to last throughout the day without having to remember to charge it constantly. We checked out just how reliable WHOOP’s battery life is.
• Value. Is WHOOP worth it? We consider whether this fitness tracker’s features give enough value for your investment.
• Compatibility. We checked what smartphone operating systems WHOOP is compatible with.
• Design. You want a device that you wear every day to be comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.

What is WHOOP?

WHOOP is on a mission to help people optimize their health and fitness. Their innovative device monitors your strain and recovery, sleep, health, and much more. You can choose from over 140 behaviors and habits to track for a fully customizable experience.

The newest version of the WHOOP fitness tracker has a minimalist, screen-free design so that you can wear it 24/7. It’s geared toward people who want to optimize their health and fitness and is worn by doctors, elite athletes, and more.

WHOOP claims to give a more comprehensive look at your body’s key performance data than any other wearable fitness device. The device is designed to help you set and work toward specific goals with customized coaching tailored to your lifestyle.

About the company behind WHOOP

WHOOP is the namesake product made by WHOOP. The brand was founded by a collegiate athlete, Will Ahmed, who wanted to know how training was impacting his body. Even though he had top-tier coaching and guidance, he was still prone to overtraining, missing sleep, and not prioritizing recovery.

After diving into research, Ahmed said monitoring key physiological metrics could help him train, feel, and live better. He built a team obsessed with understanding human performance and created a device that reflects that.

Now in its fourth generation, WHOOP has been worn by top athletes like LeBron James and Michael Phelps.

Here's what you get with the WHOOP 4.0 band

In our WHOOP band review, we looked at the key features that give you a comprehensive look at your health and performance data and how the device works in your daily life.

Health tracking

One of the biggest things that sets WHOOP apart from other fitness trackers is the wide range of metrics that it tracks. These metrics fall into six main categories: sleep, strain, recovery, insights, stress monitoring, and health monitoring. Here’s a closer look at what each of these means and how they’re measured:

• Sleep: Sleep is vital for boosting your immune system and improving recovery and performance. WHOOP tracks all four sleep stages and trends and understands your rest needs to help you build your optimal sleep schedule.
• Strain: WHOOP measures all the physical and mental demands that are put on your body every day, giving you a strain score that shows your body’s total daily exertion. They gauge this by measuring cardiovascular and muscular load and giving you a score on a scale of 0 to 21.
• Recovery: Your recovery score is calculated by measuring how your body is adapting to the stress of training, illness, lack of sleep, or your menstrual cycle. This can help you know whether you’re ready to train harder or get some rest.
• Insights: One of WHOOP 4.0’s most innovative features is your ability to input over 140 behaviors that impact your health and wellness like morning sunlight, caffeine consumption, blue light glasses, or lactating.
• Stress monitor: This is the only fitness tracker that helps pinpoint your stressors with a real-time “Stress Score” calculated using your heart rate and HRV while taking into account movement versus other stressors.
• Health monitoring: The WHOOP 4.0 works like a wearable medical device by monitoring your key vitals like blood oxygen, skin temperature, heart rate, and more. You can then share this data with your healthcare team.

WHOOP app

The WHOOP app is available on Apple iOS 14 or higher and Android OS 10.0 or higher. You can see a breakdown of all your health tracking and performance metrics through WHOOP’s easy-to-use app. Your device calibrates to your unique baseline and calculates daily performance scores, stress levels, and health metrics.

In the app, you can seamlessly scroll between screens to see the six categories discussed in the previous section and look at your daily report and trends over time. Customize what you track in the app and see how your habits are impacting your life.

Community is an important component of wellness. You can create or join a WHOOP team in the app for extra motivation and to check out in-person events, workouts, and talks. You can also access their weekly podcast, where you can listen to insights from experts on human performance.

Coaching and feedback

Having extra support and guidance makes it easier to stay on track and reach your goals. The app also featured an AI-powered WHOOP Coach that uses your personal data to give you custom performance coaching.

The WHOOP 4.0 learns your body’s patterns and baselines, then gives customized recommendations to help you reach your goals while keeping your individual needs in mind. These recommendations can help you tailor your lifestyle, training programs, habits, and more so you can feel better and perform your best.

Diving deeper: the WHOOP experience

Our WHOOP 4.0 review also takes into account the day-to-day experience of using the device, how it fits into your lifestyle, as well as the science behind the device.

Interface and ease of use

Being able to track different health metrics is one thing, but it’s also important that the device is accessible and easy to use. WHOOP 4.0 is an accurate and durable device with a sleek, minimalist design.

The screen-free device minimizes distractions and makes it incredibly simple to use. There’s very little interaction with the device itself. Instead, all your information is displayed in the app.

WHOOP features a snug, quick-drying band that is comfortable enough to wear 24/7. While the normal band is for wristwear, their WHOOP body accessory allows you to wear the device on other parts of your body such as your waist or arm to accommodate different sports and activities.

Connectivity with the app

Just how well does the WHOOP 4.0 band sync to the device? After all, this data is only helpful if you’re able to easily use the app. While the brand claims that your vital metrics are instantly available on the app, some users report that data syncing can be slow. This possible delay may impact user experience by not having information as readily available as some users may want.

Having a data-rich app can be helpful for those wanting all this information, but for others, it may be difficult to navigate. That being said, the information relayed between the device and the app is accurate, reliable, and insightful.

Battery life

When using fitness trackers for heart health, you want a device that can continuously track your biometrics. The WHOOP 4.0 band is designed to be used for up to five days on a single charge. That’s a pretty impressive battery life!

Wondering how to charge WHOOP 4.0? With a wireless, waterproof battery pack that attaches to the device, you technically never need to remove your WHOOP band – even when you’re swimming or in the shower. This allows for constant tracking so that you never miss a data point.

Resistance to water

Since WHOOP is designed to be worn 24/7, it’s important for it to be water-resistant but also to withstand extensive water activities. WHOOP is water-resistant at depths up to 10 meters (approximately 32 feet) for up to two hours at a time.

This means it’s perfectly safe to wear your WHOOP while showering or in the bath. It’s safe to use WHOOP in both saltwater and chlorine water. You can wear WHOOP for all sorts of activities, from surfing to swimming to washing the dishes.

Science and research behind it

The WHOOP brand values innovation and ambition, which is reflected in its research and engineering team. The device's accuracy and reliability have been supported in scientific studies.

WHOOP's reliability was shown in an independent, third-party study funded by the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS). This study found that WHOOP is 99% accurate in measuring heart rate variability and 99.7% in measuring heart rate. They also found that WHOOP excelled in identifying sleep and outperformed other devices in calculating total sleep time.

How to get started with WHOOP?

The WHOOP 4.0 band is easy to set up and get synced with the app on your phone. You’ll first want to comfortably fit the band to your wrist by:

• Open the clasp with the WHOOP logo facing you
• Remove the protective film
• Slide your band on
• Adjust the band so it fits snugly on your wrist about an inch above your wrist bone
• The strap should be tight enough that you can’t slide a finger underneath to get the most accurate data

Be sure to download the WHOOP app and create an account, then take the device off your wrist to pair it using the pairing mode button in the top center. Once in pairing mode, you’ll pair your device in the app and start to personalize your settings.

How much does WHOOP 4.0 band cost?

Investing in a fitness band can be expensive, here’s the cost breakdown of the WHOOP 4.0.

Pricing and subscription options

WHOOP has an interesting pricing structure where you pay for a membership that includes the cost of the device. Each plan includes an onyx-colored band, but you can pay extra and choose from one of their many other color options.

Here are the WHOOP pricing options:

• 24-month membership with $399 upfront
• Annual membership with $239 upfront
• Monthly membership for $30 a month

Each membership automatically renews for $239 a year. Your membership also includes access to the WHOOP app with all its insights and features. You do save money with the 24-month and annual memberships, but you’re also locked into a plan even if you no longer want the device.

Cancellation policy

WHOOP offers a 30-day trial period where you can try the device at no cost. You’ll be charged an annual fee of $239 at the end of the trial period. If you’d like to cancel your membership after this window closes, you can do so at the end of the period that you paid for (12 months, 24 months, monthly).

If you’re done with your commitment period, you can take a break from your membership for a maximum of three months at a time every twelve months.

Warranty policy

The WHOOP band is designed to be worn 24/7, and their lifetime warranty policy reflects that. The warranty covers a defective sensor or battery pack or if the sensor has been damaged. The warranty does not cover lost or stolen devices, cosmetic damage, or devices that have been altered or modified.

What do customers say: WHOOP reviews

Amazon rating — 3.9 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Trustpilot rating — 3.1 ⭐⭐⭐

The WHOOP band has over 900 reviews on Amazon, with customers praising the amount of information the band allows to track and the detailed statistics. Most customers say WHOOP has helped them optimize their mental and athletic performance by tracking sleep, strain, stress, and recovery. Overall, most users say that the WHOOP 4.0 band offers a much more comprehensive look at their health and metrics than any other fitness tracker.

However, WHOOP gets some bad reps for being hard to cancel and for charging people for subscriptions they did not want to continue. Some customers also dislike that there is no screen on the band, requiring them to check their phones for data.

Also, the device is expensive, especially when you’re locked into a plan. Many users note that it’s not worth the price unless you’re a professional athlete, biohacker, or looking to optimize your performance. Of course, this depends on your budget and what you’re looking for in a device.

Reddit reviews

WHOOP band has numerous extensive reviews on Reddit. Customers love WHOOP for helping them establish healthy habits and notice things like stress, bad sleep, and poor recovery, prompting them to reevaluate their priorities. Athletes are saying they found these features particularly useful, helping them to avoid overtraining and over-exertion, ultimately leading to better performance.

There are a few users who also like the no-screen band, as it allows them to train without any distractions. Fitness enthusiasts also like the possibility of putting the band on different body parts, not just the wrist.

Users are unhappy about the basic band costing $20 and any other color costing an additional $40, on top of an already pricey subscription. However, subscriptions seem to be a part of most fitness trackers, and so it may be a general industry trend. Some users are also saying that despite seeing bad recovery scores suggesting you should rest, most still go on with their planned activities or workouts for the day, as most people do not have the luxury to take a rest day whenever they want. Several users also say that the tracked metrics are inaccurate.

Overall, some users find WHOOP unnecessary unless they are seeking peak performance and are willing to seriously change their lifestyle; some also say that all the scores can trigger obsessive behavior in some.

What we liked about WHOOP 4.0 band

In our WHOOP band review, we found the device to offer a comprehensive look at an individual’s daily performance and biometrics.

These are WHOOP 4.0’s biggest pros:

• Highly accurate biometric readings, including heart rate and HRV (heart rate variability).
• Sleek, comfortable, and minimalist design.
• Extensive battery life that lasts up to five days.
• In-app AI-powered coaching for personalized recommendations.
• The water-resistant design can be used in the shower, swimming, and more.
• You can share your data with your healthcare team.

What we didn't like about WHOOP 4.0 band

No device is perfect – although the WHOOP band certainly comes close to it!

Here are our biggest cons about the device:

• Some users may prefer having a fitness tracker with a screen so they don’t have to look at their phone to see feedback.
• The expensive price point may not be worth it for many customers.
• The calorie tracking and workout tracking may be better on other devices.
• The large amount of data displayed in the app may be overwhelming for some users.

Our conclusion — is WHOOP worth it?

Using a fitness tracker can be incredibly helpful for active people, as well as those looking to optimize their sleep, or who need to track biometrics for their health.

While it is a bit of an investment, overall, we believe that WHOOP 4.0 is worth it. If you’re looking for a device that offers the most comprehensive look at your health and performance that’s comfortable enough to wear all day – then you've found it!

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