Oura Ring Review: Why You Need This Game-Changing Smart Ring

I bought my first Oura Ring almost a year ago—and it’s been a game-changing piece of technology for me. After getting off of birth control for nearly a decade, I didn't know what to expect. The Oura Ring was recommended to me by my OB-GYN for its temperature-tracking capabilities and its ability to sync with the Natural Cycles app, the first direct-to-consumer birth control app. After a year, I can tell you that the Oura ring has given me much more.

It's easy to get this smart ring confused with a piece of high-end jewelry, but it's a technologically advanced smart ring that allows you to fine-tune your fitness regimen, manage stress better, and be in tune with your body in ways you never considered.

Pros and cons of the Oura Ring

Pros

• Tracks many key metrics like activity, sleep, heart rate, body temperature, and heart rate variability (HRV)
• Provides personal insight such as overall trends across metrics and recommendations on sleep time
• Stylish design can pass for a regular ring, instead of a fitness tracker
• Charges quickly and holds a charge for up to seven days
• Integrates with popular health and fitness apps like Natural Cycles, Strava, and Apple Health

Cons

• The Oura Ring is at a higher price point than other smart rings and requires a monthly subscription for full access
• Finding the right size can be difficult and make it hard to wear the ring on different fingers
• On small hands, it can look bulky
• Activity tracking is not as detailed as some fitness trackers or smart watches
• Requires a smartphone to access data
• It scratches easily and can’t be worn during some activities, like weight lifting

How does the Oura Ring work?

The Oura Ring works through sensors embedded inside the ring to monitor physiological signals from your body, like heart rate and temperature. It uses those metrics to provide you with information on your overall health.

Sleep tracking

The Oura Ring uses infrared LEDs, accelerometers, and gyroscopes to track your sleep stages, duration, and overall quality. Your heart rate and body temperature are leveraged to provide additional insights into the quality of your sleep.

Heart rate monitoring

Your heart is continuously tracked through photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors that measure the blood volume changes in your finger to determine heart rate, HRV, and respiratory rate.

Temperature monitoring

Sensors within the ring track fluctuations in your body temperature 24/7 to help predict and monitor menstrual cycles and show early signs of illness.

SpO2 monitoring

These sensors measure the oxygen saturation levels in your blood to assess your respiratory function and detect changes in levels.

Activity tracking

Using motion sensors, the ring can track physical activity like steps, calories burned, and total active time. The ring syncs with its proprietary app to display data, provide recommendations, and determine trends.

Oura Ring price

The Oura Ring starts at $299 for the classic Heritage-style and $349 for the sleeker Horizon-style ring. You will incur an additional fee if you’d like to upgrade your finish from silver or black to matte black (called Stealth), Brushed Titanium, Gold, or Rose Gold. The ring also requires a $5.99/month subscription to its proprietary app to access the data collected.

Key features of the Oura Ring

• Weight: 4-6 grams (dependent on size)
• Width: 7.9 mm
• Thickness: 2.55 mm
• Colors: Silver, Black, Stealth, Brushed Titanium, Gold, or Rose Gold
• Subscription: $5.99/month
• Sizes: 6-13 (not traditional ring sizing)

Performance

Sleep tracking

Oura Ring's sleep tracking may be my favorite part. I can't wait to wake up and have my Oura Ring tell me how well I slept. The app generates a sleep score each morning that is an overall summary derived from your total sleep time, efficiency, REM sleep, deep sleep, latency (the time it took you to fall asleep), and the consistency of your sleep schedule. I've used it to help determine what kind of exercise I should undertake on a specific day, decide whether I am tired because I didn’t sleep well, or if other factors may be at play, and even determine the appropriate bedtime for myself each night.

Health tracking

I somehow managed to avoid getting COVID for three years, and I thought I was in the clear. Still, my Oura ring flagged that I had an elevated heart rate and temperature, decreased sleep quality and readiness score, and alerted me that I might be getting sick. It pivoted me into "rest mode", so I wasn't focused on the metrics but more on getting the rest and recovery I needed—I didn't believe it until I lost my sense of taste and smell. Then I knew my Oura Ring called my illness before myself.

In May 2024, Oura rolled out two new heart-health features to help people better understand how their behaviors can positively impact overall health. One of the features is a cardiovascular age, which calibrates your cardiovascular age with your chronological age and can help identify behaviors that positively impact that number. A cardio capacity metric reflects the body's efficiency in supplying oxygen to the muscles and can help users better understand their overall health.

I've touted this throughout the review, but I can't speak more highly about the Oura Ring's menstrual insights and partnership with Natural Cycles. Oura Ring has expanded its women's health features, including pregnancy and cycle information that leverage the data collected to provide insights into what phase of your cycle you are in, typical cycle length, typical period length, and more.

Fitness tracking

Oura Ring is great for day-to-day fitness tracking. It accurately depicts calories burned and steps taken, but I recommend a different solution for more intense fitness tracking. The ring scratches easily, making it not great for lifting weights. I prefer a fitness watch or cycling computer with a screen and mapping abilities for activities like running and cycling. You can upload those activities from Strava into your Oura Ring data to add the statistics to your overall activity score. Its reminders to get up and stretch your legs have made a huge difference, and I have seen my inactive time decrease and my steps increase because of it.

If you're trying to improve your overall fitness habits, Oura Ring is a great solution, but if you're looking for one device to do everything, you may want to consider more robust options.

Oura Ring app

To fully take advantage of the Oura Ring, you need to subscribe to its app for a $5.99 monthly fee. This will only break the bank for some people, but it is an additional cost for an already expensive product. My two favorite app parts are the personalized recommendations and trend analysis.

The app will use the data collected across the sensors to suggest ways to improve your sleep, activity, and overall health. Whether that's telling you to rest, focus on moderate activity, or go to bed earlier, the app creates custom recommendations for you each day.

The trend analysis satisfies my competitive streak—when I get a notification that my activity score trend is dipping, I am out there getting in all my steps and finding ways to fit in more activity. Its sleep score helped me pinpoint difficulty sleeping and attribute it to when I started on a new medication. The trends allow me to understand better how my actions impact my body and performance.

Ease of use/user friendliness

I can't think of a more user-friendly device than the Oura Ring. Pairing it was incredibly simple and only required that I download the app, charge the ring, and enter some information about myself. The app has an incredibly easy-to-use interface and delivers the information you need to know on the first page. If you're looking for an easy way to gain immediate access to a snapshot of your health, this Oura Ring is perfect for you.

What’s new compared to the previous model?

The Oura Ring 3, which launched in 2021, offers significant improvements over the Oura Ring 2. The newest edition of the Oura Ring has increased battery life, lasting up to seven days on a single charge, and improved memory from just 0.5 MB on the Oura Ring 2 to 16 MB on the third generation. Style-wise, the 3 offers a sleeker, less intrusive design.

At the same time, it still accommodates additional sensors for measuring temperature to provide information regarding menstrual cycles, Spo2 sensors for training blood oxygen saturation, and improved heart rate monitoring. The Oura Ring 3 also supplies a daily readiness score, optimal bedtimes based on your sleep patterns, cycle insights, and a cardiovascular age calculator. You do not need to pay for the app to access all the features of the 2nd generation Oura Ring, as opposed to the Oura Ring 3, which requires the app. The Oura Ring 2 is difficult to find as it is no longer in production or stocked by the manufacturer.

Is the Oura Ring accurate?

Oura Ring is incredibly accurate, performing on par with advanced medical technologies.

• Oura Ring measures heart rate at 99.9% reliability and heart rate variability at 98.4% reliability compared to an electrocardiogram.
• Oura Ring’s temperature sensors match the performance of research-grade sensors at a rate of more than 99% and can detect deviations as small as 0.13 degrees Celsius.
• The sleep staging algorithm, which determines the deepness of your sleep, achieves 79% agreement with the gold standard PSG for four-stage sleep classification.

On top of these studies, Oura Ring has the strongest intellectual property portfolio, with hundreds of granted patents and pending patents for their cutting-edge technology.

Oura Ring design

If you're looking for a fitness tracker that seamlessly blends into everyday life, Oura Ring is precisely what you're looking for. Coming in two versions, the Horizon and Heritage, each style features the sleek, minimalist, lightweight design it’s known for. The Heritage features a subtle peak at the top, while the Horizon is rounder. Despite the advanced technology in each of these rings, they have a comfortable design and transition from workout to work to a night out.

Is the Oura Ring for you?

The Oura Ring is a unique health tracker that is an excellent fit for someone looking for a sleek, unobtrusive way to track their general fitness metrics. However, it's important to note that if you're looking for something to do rigorous activity tracking for running, swimming, or cycling, you may want to consider alternatives that have screens to display real-time data.

Additionally, I found that the metal of the Oura Ring scratches easily, so if you do a lot of weight lifting or crossfit, you may want to look at other options or a protective cover for your Oura Ring. Despite these limitations, if you're looking to optimize sleep, better understand and track your menstrual cycle, or track your overall movement, the Oura Ring is an excellent choice. It's your everyday fitness tracker, helping you better understand your body, how it works, and how to improve your overall health.

Alternatives to the Oura Ring

SLEEPON Go2Sleep 3

If the most important metric to you is sleep, you can cut straight to the chase with the Go2Sleep 3. It will provide minute-by-minute sleep reporting, HRV, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels. As a bonus, this ring only needs to be worn at night.

Ultrahuman Ring AIR

This option is the closest competitor to Oura Ring and offers advanced data tracking, personalized coaching, and a user-friendly app.

Femometer Smart Ring

The Fememoter is optimized to track your fertility cycle and sleep by measuring skin temperature, heart rate, and blood oxygen levels to help determine the phase of your cycle.

Final verdict: Is the Oura Ring worth it?

The final answer is it depends. I love the Oura Ring, and it was a great investment. It's helped me learn how to manage my menstrual cycle with the help of the Natural Cycles app. I've found that it's a constant reminder to move and has helped me become more active during long days at the office. I prefer to wear it over a smartwatch because it's less obvious that I’m tracking my steps, which makes me feel more comfortable. It does come at a premium price, so if you're only going to buy one device to do it all, it might not be this—but this should be your second purchase to optimize the data and improve your overall health.