Smart rings are a fast-growing faction of the fitness tracker industry, and one company can be largely credited with putting these discreet wearables on the map: Oura. So, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the brand's Oura Ring 4 is the best smart ring you can buy.
Starting at $349 and available in six different jewelry-like finishes, the Oura Ring 4 is the first hardware refresh since the Oura Ring product line gained sizable popularity. These days, it seems I can't scroll on TikTok or Instagram for any extended period of time without seeing someone rave about their smart ring.
As for me, having worn the previous-generation Oura Ring 3 for over a year (closer to two, in fact), I suspected the changes between the Oura Ring 4 vs. Oura Ring 3 could only make smart rings more attractive.
With an all-titanium design, recessed sensors, and a greater selection of size options, the Oura Ring 4 prioritizes comfort. But not for the sake of accuracy — "smart sensing" in the ring determines which of the 18 total data collection paths through your finger is the most reliable in real-time, resulting in greater accuracy with fewer gaps.
Data collected by the Oura Ring then informs a refreshed Oura app experience, complete with micro and macro wellness trends that might tell you things about your overall health you never suspected. That's certainly been the case for me, at least.
That said, is the Oura Ring 4 the best fitness tracker for you? And is it worth upgrading from the Oura Ring Gen 3? Read my full Oura Ring 4 review below to find out.
Oura Ring 4 review: cheat sheet
- What is the Oura Ring 4? The Oura Ring 4 is a smart ring packed with small health-tracking sensors and an accelerometer. It can count steps, read your heart rate, track your sleep, predict your cycle, gauge your stress, and offer actionable insights based on your body's readiness and resilience.
- When is the Oura Ring 4 release date? The Oura Ring 4 is available as of October 15, 2024.
- Who is the Oura Ring 4 for? The Oura Ring 4 is for people who want to be better informed about their health and wellness, but don't necessarily want to wear a traditional smartwatch or activity band. It's screen-free and discreet.
- What is the difference between Oura Ring 3 and 4? The Oura Ring 4 is different than the Oura Ring 3 because it has an all-titanium design, recessed sensors, more size options, and an extra full day of battery life. The Oura Ring 4 is up to 120% more accurate in certain respects than the Oura Ring 3 as well.
- How much does the Oura Ring 4 cost? The Oura Ring 4 starts at $349 / £349, but can cost as much as $499 / £499 depending on the material.
- Is there a subscription fee for the Oura app? Yes, the Oura membership costs $5.99 / £5.99 per month or $72 / £72 per year.
Oura Ring 4 specs
Oura Ring 4 review: design
The Oura Ring 4 design migrated to an all-titanium frame that’s almost completely leveled on the inside thanks to new recessed health-tracking sensors. If you look at the Oura Ring 4 next to the Oura Ring 3, you can clearly see (and feel) the difference a lack of bumps on the inside now makes.
The titanium material is also meant to make the Oura Ring 4 more accurate than before, ditching the epoxy layer that may have caused a bit of diffraction for the infrared and other sensor lights that read your finger.
Oura has introduced what it calls "smart sensing," where there are 18 sensing paths (up from just 8 before) that intersect across your finger. In real-time, the ring determines which path is the most accurate or most unimpeded and then uses that measurement to inform data.
Since using the Oura Ring 4, I also noticed fewer gaps in my sleep and stress data that were previously caused by the Oura Ring 3 twisting too far off from the ring's proper orientation. But most importantly, for me, I've found the new design makes the Oura Ring 4 more comfortable to wear 24/7.
That includes sleep, as well as gym workouts, errands, and other activities that require active us of my hands. I even forget I have it on sometimes. It doesn't hurt that the Rose Gold finish of my ring looks great and matches well with my mixed-metal jewelry collection, either.
More people can wear an Oura Ring going forward than before, too. Although you'll still need to request a sizing kit to determine your proper fit, the size range is 4 through 15, up from 6 through 13 previously.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring had an edge in this respect with one extra size than the Oura Ring Gen 3, but that only lasted a few months now the Oura Ring 4 comes in a broader collection of sizes.
While I'm referencing Oura Ring alternatives, I’ve also seen an uptick in people online talking about the Ultrahuman Ring lately since it doesn't have a subscription fee. I haven’t personally tried it, but I know that it only comes in sizes 6 through 12, which seems a bit limiting.
Oura Ring 4 review: Oura app
The actual Oura Ring is only half of the Oura experience. The companion app, which underwent it's biggest refresh in years as of October 2024, is your dashboard for all the information your ring and behaviors can imply about your health. It costs $5.99 / £5.99 per month or $72 / £72 per year, which is important to know up front.
The experience revolves around three new tabs: Today, Vitals, and My Health. Today is effectively the home page, with changing information based on what might be relevant to the user at a given point in the day.
My favorite part are shortcut tiles up top for viewing metrics, which are followed by a list of spotlight cards that rotate throughout the times of day. I also really like the timeline that lets you see all the factors that may impact your health, with the option to add tags for workout types, recreational activities, nutrition, illness, and more.
Vitals is a more stable page with expanding and collapsing cards covering all your daily metrics, such as your sleep score, daily readiness score, activity progress, menstrual cycle status, and the new daytime stress chart.
This chart lets users see the fluctuation of their stress levels during the day. I was surprised to see my chart tell me that I’ve been really stressed lately — I didn’t think I'm a stressed person, but I'm going to work on prioritizing relaxation.
Otherwise, Oura Ring is always adding new features, including 24 in just the last year such as the Oura Advisor (part of the beta Oura Labs testing available to all users) that uses AI to contextualize your Oura data. When the Oura Advisor was first announced, it seemed to rival the Samsung AI features in the Galaxy Ring, namely Wellness Tips. Similarly, Oura Advisor makes suggestions on how to take action relative to your health trends.
Another recent upgrade announced alongside Oura Ring 4 is better automatic activity detection with heart-rate tracking and information on heart rate zones. I will say the step counts are still not as reliable compared to many of the best smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 10 (my numbers were up to 1,000 steps off depending on the day), but the ring sufficiently picks up on movement types and credits your calorie progress for the day accordingly. Of course, if you're feeling under the weather or simply need a break, the option to enable a 'Rest Day' to pause your activity goals is always available.
Finally, My Health is a zoomed out picture of your overall wellness, spanning longer-term insights like stress resilience, heart health, sleep chronotype, cardiovascular age, and more. This section is also where you can view your monthly and yearly reports, if you’re curious to see how your health is changing over time. At the end of the year, you can look forward to Oura's graphic-driven annual report that takes inspiration from Spotify Wrapped.
Oura Ring 4 review: battery life
According to Oura, the Our Ring 4 should be able to last for up to 8 days — I'll tell you, that has not been my experience. But my experience has been better than it was on Oura Ring 3. On a full charge, I went six days before needing to charge it before bed, to ensure that it wouldn’t die overnight. I was making less than 5 days on my Oura Ring 3 that's supposedly able to last up to 7 days, for comparison.
From what I've experienced, the batteries in these rings do seem to deteriorate over time, so I’ll be paying close attention. But for now, I’m very content to not have to worry about charging the Oura Ring 4 for several days at a time. It's a very different experience than using an Apple Watch or Samsung watch.
An additional, albeit minor, improvement is that the Oura Ring 4's charging base is square and silver. In case you didn't know, the Oura Ring 3 base is black and circular and I would lose it constantly in the bottom of my bags whenever I traveled. I kind of wish Oura copied Samsung with a portable charging case, tough.
Should you upgrade from Oura Ring 3?
What if you’re one of the 2.5 million people who already have an Oura Ring? Does it make sense for you to upgrade to the newer Oura Ring 4?
For starters, everything in the updated Oura app I described above is also available to you. You don’t need to purchase an Oura Ring 4 in order to take advantage of all the features I outlined, including additional features that may be coming in the future.
Truthfully, I don’t see much reason to upgrade unless you’ve had your Oura Ring 3 for several years already or you’re really enthusiastic about smart rings and want the latest technological offerings.
The major difference is that the Oura Ring now only comes in a circular design. So if you have the flat topped Horizon Ring 3 and would prefer a circular ring, the Ring 4 could be an option. That and the newly-recessed sensors, which could make it fit more comfortably on your finger.
Should you buy the Oura Ring 4?
The Oura Ring 4 is everything a smart ring should be: stylish, comfortable, accommodating, long-lasting, and capable of telling me things about my health that I didn’t even consider. If you ask me, it's the new blueprint for smart rings, and my list of additional 'wants' or things Oura could've done differently is very minor.
Everything Samsung, Ultrahuman or other emerging smart ring makers have released recently has been to catch up to where Oura Ring got to a few years ago. The Oura Ring 4 ups the ante once more.
I think we can all agree that the only thing Oura has to be worried about is the long-rumored Apple Ring, which I suspect would be another catch-up product in it’s first iteration. So Oura's chokehold on the smart ring market probably isn't changing anytime soon.
