Oura Ring 4 review

After two weeks of wearing the Oura Ring 4, the smart ring gave me a greater understanding of how my sleep, stress and exercise influence how I feel in my day-to-day life. 

The Oura Ring 4 began shipping to customers and have become available in retail stores on Tuesday, and it’s a formidable option for those on the lookout for a sleek and cozy technique to learn more about their bodies and make healthier decisions. 

The smart ring offers more accurate sensors, a more comfortable design and longer battery life than its predecessor. The gadget is obtainable in 12 sizes and 6 colours, including a latest black finish, and it costs $349, although users must pay a $5.99 a month, or $69.99 a 12 months, subscription to make use of the entire accompanying app’s features. 

On the entire, the Oura Ring 4 is comfortable to wear and its app is simple to navigate. The ring was a bit more clunky and scratched more easily than I’d prefer, but after two weeks of testing it, the Oura Ring 4 did provide me useful details about my health. 

Getting arrange

I had never worn an Oura Ring before, so the complete experience was latest to me. 

The primary order of business was selecting a color and determining my ring size, which I did by utilizing the corporate’s sizing kit. Oura recommends customers latest and old should get sized for the reason that fit can change from one generation to the subsequent. The kits can be found online, and in-store sizing is obtainable at retailers similar to Goal and Best Buy, the corporate said.

Silver jewelry has at all times been my preferred style, so I picked the silver Oura Ring 4 to match my accessories. 

Getting sized proved tougher. I did my sizing in person with the Oura team, but I misjudged it barely. The ring I have been wearing is a little bit big, so there are sometimes gaps between my finger and the hardware. I never felt like my ring was going to fall off, but I might size down if I were to do it again.

The ring was delivered to my apartment in a small box that included a charger and a few basic instructions about the right way to clean and wear it. 

I charged the ring as I downloaded the Oura app and filled it out with biographical information similar to my birthday, height and weight. Pairing the ring with my iPhone was incredibly easy, and once the battery was topped off, it was time to slide the ring on. 

What’s good

As someone who has never liked the look of smartwatches, I used to be excited to check out the Oura Ring 4 and use it to trace my sleep. The wearable was so comfortable, I often forgot I had it on.

That is at the least partially resulting from the device’s latest sensors, that are significantly smaller than those of its predecessor. The third-generation Oura has sensors which might be raised and feel like little bumps, while those on the Ring 4 are mainly flat, giving it a smooth interior like every other ring. 

I purposely wore the ring on my right index finger. I still write loads of my stories by hand (old-fashioned, I do know), so I desired to see if it could hassle me while holding a pen or pencil. It didn’t. The ring can be designed to be worn 24/7 and is water-proof, and it didn’t give me any trouble once I washed my hands or showered with it.

One other highlight was the Oura app. The corporate began rolling out a redesign of the app to all its users earlier this month, and I believed the layout of the app was very intuitive. Data from the smart rings is presented in three tabs called Today, Vitals and My Health. 

The Today tab highlights information based on the time of day, and it includes shortcuts where I could quickly view the most recent readings for things similar to my sleep, activity, heart rate, stress or my readiness for the day. These at-a-glance metrics are easy to digest and helpful to have a look at once I had a fast minute throughout the day.   

I also enjoyed taking a look at my reading at a more granular level within the Vitals tab. There’s rather a lot to learn and decipher. Oura shows you almost 20 different data points about your sleep alone. Even so, the corporate does a pleasant job breaking down all of those concepts in easy language. I wasn’t accustomed to the term latency, for instance, however the app taught me that it is the period of time it takes to go to sleep. 

The My Health tab gives users access to longer-term insights similar to heart health, sleep health and resilience, a metric that measures your ability to recuperate from stress over time. These metrics are calibrated once Oura has recorded several weeks’ value of information, so I used to be unable to explore this feature in depth for this review. 

Before the review, I used to be concerned about whether Oura’s metrics would negatively affect my mood. For example, if Oura tells me that I slept poorly, would I feel less prepared to tackle my day?

I used to be pleasantly surprised by how the corporate approached this framing. I never felt like I used to be being reprimanded for getting a nasty night’s sleep, feeling stressed or missing a workout. As a substitute, Oura gave me tips on small changes I could make to feel higher throughout the day, similar to taking just a few minutes for a break or meditation. 

I also liked that the exercise goal within the app varied based on my readings. If there was a day where I used to be particularly drained or stressed, Oura lowered my activity goal. This helped me feel a way of accomplishment even once I wasn’t at my perfect. 

On its website, Oura says users can prevent scratches by wearing the ring on their nondominant hand, keeping it separated from other rings and taking it off in high-friction scenarios similar to weight lifting.

Despite this warning, I used to be surprised by how quickly the Ring 4 showed signs of wear and tear, especially given its price tag. And no, scratches should not covered by Oura’s warranty policy.  

One other let down was the ring’s battery life. It didn’t last so long as Oura said it could. 

The corporate touts eight days of battery life, but I used to be often prompted to charge my ring after about 5 – 6 days. The company said battery life is determined by users’ ring size, feature configuration, app settings, usage and other aspects, so it varies from individual to individual. 

Five to 6 days continues to be higher than an Apple Watch, which often needs each day charging, but I definitely wasn’t getting the eight days I used to be expecting.   

My last gripe was purely aesthetic. I even have small hands, so I believed the Ring 4 looked a little bit clunky as compared to the jewellery I normally wear. My friends said they didn’t notice this, however the Ring 4 will not be a method I might typically reach for, though admittedly, I’ve gotten more used to it with time.