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You might have caught friends, celebs, and athletes like Cristiano Ronaldo and even Prince Harry sporting a sleek piece of hardware on their fingers and there’s a good chance it’s an Oura Ring.
Sleep tracker. Stress monitor. Fertility Tool. Early illness detector. The Oura Ring 4 is all of this and looks good doing it too.
Being in the thick of caring for two demanding littles myself, with inconsistent sleep (at best), I dig the idea of being able to quantify why Monday was so hard and Wednesday was a breeze.
Armed with data and insight, I want to know what little tweaks I can make to my routine to help me make the best of my day. I was also excited at the prospect of gaining some fresh insight on stress and fast research-backed tips on how to manage it. I’m no stranger to fitness and sleep tracking devices, so I jumped at the chance to see for myself whether Oura’s latest Ring 4 stacks up.
After wearing it for nearly a month, I’m convinced it’s the most detailed and insightful health tracker out there.
Also available in silver.
What does the Oura Ring do?
The Oura Ring shines infrared, red and green LED light through your skin to measure your vitals (along with other pieces of physiological data).
These vitals include:
- Sleep: How long you slept, the phases of sleep and overall efficiency
- Activity: How active you were throughout your day, including a step count
- Body heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV): Possible indicators of stress
- Respiratory rate and blood oxygen levels: Reveals possible sleep and breathing disturbances
- Temperature: An indicator of possible oncoming illness or even fertility windows
- Stress: Moments when you go from restored and relaxed to engaged and stressed
- Resilience: Your ability to withstand and recover from physiological stress
The Oura app then combines these metrics to assess your overall readiness score (how prepared you are to take on the day ahead based on a cumulative score of prior day and night’s metrics – activity and sleep). These fall on a range from 0 (least prepared) to 100 (most prepared).
One key differentiator worth calling out is that most smartwatches and wearables give you real-time metrics whereas the Oura ring goes further by gathering data in the background and providing actionable insights.
What’s new with Oura Ring 4?
Oura Ring 4 now includes more sensor pathways in the ring (18 compared to Generation 3’s eight). And these pathways now combine toward its new “smart sensing” technology, which tells the ring which sensor to activate to offer best insights into your health, based on your unique physiology.
It also now has a longer battery life, with a single charge lasting up to eight days, depending on the ring size. And speaking of size, Oura prides itself on inclusive ring sizing, now featuring sizes 4 to 15 – more than Gen 3 had.
You can even access an AI Advisor to help you tackle your personal health goals, such as how to find your optimal sleep schedule or improve your resilience. And you can zero in on reproductive health insights with the upgraded app, tracking your cycle and fertility window.
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What’s it like to actually wear the ring?
The Oura ring seamlessly incorporates into your wardrobe and beyond being comfortable, it’s also indistinguishable from a regular ring.
It is the least obtrusive piece of fitness and sleep tracking I have ever worn. You can forget it’s there and go about your day, while the smart sensors do their thing in the background.
To find the right ring fit, you’ll want to either order the sizing kit or try it in-store, as Oura has its own proprietary sizing and you want the ring to sit snugly on your finger of choice to ensure optimal tracking and accuracy. In my case, I had to size up from my typical ring size.
I’m in the habit of checking in on the app several times a day to see my data and, for the most part, do find it accurately reflecting my overall sense of well-being. I also liked that the Oura Ring 4 recognizes the unique health needs women can experience and that I was able to provide further detail to help “train” my ring (i.e. specifying my activities, if they weren’t represented in the preloaded options).
There is a slight discrepancy with how long my ring assumes I sleep (longer than I actually do, because it seems to mistake my resting next to my young child at bedtime for my own sleep). I’m still in the calibration phase, as the ring learns more about my patterns, so the ring will only get more accurate the longer you wear it, so with time, the sleep latency will more accurately reflect when I actually fall asleep.
I did appreciate having quick access to mindfulness resources, such as guided meditations via the Headspace app and even personalized advice via the app’s AI Advisor function (you can select the level of directness you prefer, along with how frequently you get your check-ins). If you know others with the Oura ring, you can also add them to your network for some friendly competition.
The Oura App is available for Apple and Android devices (which can also integrate with your Apple Health, if you already use that).
The app is free for basic information (your activity, sleep and readiness score), and their a paid subscription offers a more robust and detailed breakdown, including AI Advisor for $7.99 month-to-month or $89.99 annually, for a discount). With it, you can also integrate with other health apps, such as Strava, Peanut, Headspace and so much more. In short: If you’re looking for a single app “control centre” for all your health-related needs – this is it.
I got the gold finish (a bit yellower than 14K gold) to match the tone of jewellery I often wear, for options as versatile as your wardrobe.I also love the look of the silver and the new ceramic finishes. Beyond that, the ring is water resistant and hypoallergenic and overall comfortable to wear. And it’s easy to dress up for that fancy dinner, without the bulk of other trackers. This also means you’re more likely to wear it consistently and glean better and deeper insights into your health.
Is the Oura Ring 4 worth the price tag?
At $649 plus tax and the app membership, the Oura Ring 4 is an investment – but it’s also the most useful health device I have ever owned. And if you prioritize your health, are diligent with checking your biometric data and have the capacity to take constructive action on some of the insights that data yields, the Oura Ring 4 is an absolute must-have.
It requires no effort to use because it works in the background, seamlessly tracking your sleep, activity, workouts and generally integrates with how you normally live your day. The battery life makes it an excellent option for collecting well-rounded data – day and night, because you don’t have to charge it often. Similarly, because the ring’s accuracy improves the more you wear it, it is a tool that only gets better and more insightful with time.
It allows you to take a proactive approach with your health and goes well beyond merely counting steps, to drill more deeply into your habits and proactively suggests opportunities for improvement.
At the end of the day, it helped me identify moments in our hectic schedule where I could intentionally slow my breath and take pauses so I’m better-equipped to deal with any challenges.
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