Oura Ring 4 review: The best smart ring, but you’ll have to pay

Oura Ring 4 Review

Rating: 4 Stars

The Oura Ring 4 is the most impressive smart ring out there, offering excellent analytics and a stylish design.

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Pros

• Sleek design
• Excellent analytics
• Great tracking
• Long battery life

Cons

• Subscription almost required
• Gets pricey

	$349	$349	See It

Smart rings have grown in popularity as a way for users to get high-end fitness tracking in a subtle and sleek device. Oura, in particular, has long been a go-to, but over the past few years, a number of alternatives have popped up from the likes of Ultrahuman and even Samsung. Oura’s answer to that? The new Oura Ring 4 — Oura’s fourth-generation ring that adds extra fitness tracking features and switches up the design a little.

There are also some things that Oura hasn’t changed for this model, like the need for a subscription for some of its advanced features. In a world where competitors don’t require a subscription, is it worth paying extra for the Oura Ring 4?

Oura Ring 4 specs

Oura Ring 4 review: Design

The Oura Ring 4 is obviously shaped like a ring, but its overall design is a little different from the previous generation Oura Ring 3. The exterior of the ring is completely round with no flat edge like the Oura Ring 3 had. That makes it look a little more natural and a little more like a traditional piece of jewelry.

The only interruption on the outside of the ring is a small etched line. This line helps with ring placement when you put it on, as it’s meant to be on the inside of your hand. It also helps line the ring up when you go to charge it — the line goes at the front.

The interior of the Oura Ring 4 is flatter too. The ring does away with the small bumps on the inside, which held protruding sensors for things like heart rate. The Oura Ring 4 has a new sensor design that maintains accuracy without these bumps.

The Oura Ring 4 comes in a range of different colors, but they’re not all the same price. For the base $349 price, you can get the ring in silver or black. Pay $50 extra, and you’ll be able to choose from brushed silver or stealth. Pay $500, and you’ll get gold or rose gold. My review model is the $399 Stealth model. I like the look of it, but over the month or so that I’ve been wearing it, it has gotten a decent number of scratches. Part of that has to do with the fact that I happened to move while testing the ring, so it’s entirely possible that if I hadn’t moved, these scratches wouldn’t have shown up. That said, expect the ring to get its fair share of scratches and marks over a few years of usage.

The Oura Ring 4 also comes in a range of sizes. If you don’t know your ring size, when you go to order the ring, you’ll be able to get a sizing kit sent to you first. You’ll need to choose a ring size that remains relatively snug on your finger. Unfortunately, there are no half sizes. So if you find that one size is too small but the other too big, you may have to compromise. Oura recommends going for the smaller model so that the sensors remain tighter on your finger, but it’s worth wearing the sizing ring for a few days to ensure that it’s not too snug, especially considering the fact that your finger can grow and shrink depending on things like temperature.

That said, while the Oura Ring 4 does look more like a traditional ring, it doesn’t necessarily feel like one. It’s still much thicker than my wedding band, and while I originally intended to wear it on my ring finger, I found it too uncomfortable and had to swap it out for one the size of my pointer. Even then, it’s noticeable when I wear it.

Oura Ring 4 review: Features

Oura has long been a leader in fitness tracking, and while others have been catching up, the Oura Ring 4 still offers excellent tracking overall. It has all the basics, like heart rate monitoring and blood oxygen sensing. Along with the ability to track things like heart rate variability and respiratory rate, it can also track skin temperature and activity through a built-in accelerometer.

It’s what it can do with all of this raw data that sets Oura apart from some of the competition. The ring can track 40 different types of exercises, offers excellent sleep tracking, and can even supposedly track things like stress levels. Oura has also improved its cycle tracking features, though obviously I wasn’t able to test this.

I’ll get into how that data is presented in the next section, but regardless, don’t assume that just because this is a ring-sized device and not a watch-sized device, it’s limited in what it can track.

One of the best things about a device like the Oura Ring compared to a typical smartwatch is its battery life. The Oura Ring 4 can last up to 8 days on a single charge, though that will vary dramatically depending on the types of activity that you do. I indeed found that the battery lasted almost a week and that simply popping it on the charger every day when I shower meant that it was always topped up. I got into this habit and didn’t mind doing so. Even if you don’t, you’ll get plenty of usage out of it before you get the low battery notification from the app on your phone.

Oura Ring 4 review: App

The Aura app presents all of the data in a way that’s relatively easy to understand, with a main screen that shows you all of your information from the day and gives you the ability to jump deeper into data if you want to.

The app is split into three main tabs: Today, Vitals, and My Health. Today basically gives you scores for things like Readiness, Sleep, and Activity, along with information like how much you’ve been stressed throughout the day and your heart rate. Scrolling down will give you a progress report on your activity based on your goals and more information about your stress throughout the day, heart rate, and timeline of activity.

Jump into any of those scores, however, and you’ll get much more in-depth information. For example, tapping on the readiness score will give you information like your heart rate variability, resting heart rate, recovery index, sleep, and so on. Tap on any of those, and you’ll get an explanation of what the metric means and how it impacts that overall score.

Some information takes a while to calculate, though. This has to do with the fact that the app needs to determine what your average heart rate, blood oxygen, and so on are so that it can detect changes over time. This makes sense, and it’s a good thing that the ring isn’t attempting to show information that might not be all that helpful to you right away.

All of this information is meant to be presented in ways that are helpful rather than simply as data readings. In fact, you have to dive into settings to actually find a simple overview of things like your heart rate variability. That’s a good thing, too, as most people don’t really know what to do with their heart rate variability, and basic readings probably won’t impact day-to-day life all that much.

Unfortunately, much of that information is locked behind an Oura subscription, which costs $5.99 per month or $69.99 per year. Without the subscription, you’ll really only get a daily score for sleep activity and readiness, and you won’t be able to dive much deeper into how those scores are calculated or what you can do to improve them.

I will say that the data wasn’t always completely in line with that collected by my Apple Watch Ultra 2. For example, the Oura Ring tracked a heart rate variability average over a month as being eight BPM lower than my Apple Watch. This, of course, highlights the importance of taking consumer-grade fitness trackers with a grain of salt and looking more at trends than the actual numbers.

Conclusions

The Oura Ring 4 is an excellent fitness tracker, especially for those who prefer the ring form factor over a smartwatch. If you already have a device like an Apple Watch and want to keep wearing it, then it’s worth thinking twice about whether a smart ring makes sense for you or not. That said, even with a smartwatch, Oura’s health analytics tools are unmatched. Again, though, you’ll have to be willing to pay a subscription to get the most out of the Oura Ring 4, and frankly, if you’re not willing to get a subscription, you should buy a different device instead. I wish Oura scrapped the subscription, especially considering the fact that competitors don’t have one. But the fact is that the Oura Ring 4 is the best smart ring out there right now, with the most comprehensive set of health-tracking features.

The competition

The Oura Ring 4 is the best smart ring out there right now, thanks largely to its excellent analytics and wide range of fitness tracking features. Oura is also pretty good at offering a high level of accuracy, thanks to the fact that it tracks trends over time rather than looking at single data points. That said, if you’re not interested in a subscription, then it’s worth looking at the Ultrahuman Ring Air, though its tracking features aren’t quite as advanced.

Should I buy the Oura Ring 4?

Yes, if you’re willing to subscribe.

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