Thi i a mart ring for new u er . Everyone el e hould wait until their current ring die .
If you buy omething from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commi ion. See our ethic tatement.
Thi i a mart ring for new u er . Everyone el e hould wait until their current ring die .
If you buy omething from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commi ion. See our ethic tatement.
If you’re reading an Oura Ring 5 review at The Verge, you likely fall into one of two camp : newcomer looking for a martwatch alternative, or Oura u er pondering an upgrade. In the ca e of the former, thi i a great ca ual health tracker and the be t mart ring on the market — but not your be t choice if you really weat the fitne detail . If you fall into the latter, you don’t need to upgrade.
I ay thi becau e the Oura Ring 4 came out le than two year ago. The ceramic ver ion, of which I am a big fan, came out le than a year ago. The e were major update over the Oura Ring Gen 3, both in term of oftware and in term of en or . Meanwhile, the Ring 5 i mo tly an ae thetic update. You can think of thi a a maller and lighter Oura Ring 4. The en or are the ame, the battery life i roughly the ame, and none of the oftware feature are gatekept to the Ring 5. The maller de ign i an engineering feat, but from a con umer per pective? It i n’t uch a noticeable improvement that I’d advocate helling out an extra $399 minimum if your current Oura Ring i working ju t fine. (And that’ on top of the $6 monthly ub cription you’re already paying.)
Still not convinced? Here are more rea on why you don’t need to upgrade. Unle the bigger ring i uncomfortable to wear becau e your finger are particularly petite, the difference i n’t that noticeable. If the fini h on your ring i bla ted to hell, I’d actually recommend the ceramic Oura Ring 4. While my Oura Ring 5 i much more durable than the non-ceramic Ring 4, it till got a few nick in about a month and a half of wear. (Note: I’m rough on ring , o if you take greater care, thi might not apply to you.) That aid, hould you have the fund in your FSA/HSA, or are ble ed enough to not weat the price, do what make you happy. Now that the Oura app upport pairing multiple ring , I can confirm that you can ea ily wap between multiple ring , o your older Oura doe n’t have to become e-wa te.
My main hardware gripe with the Oura Ring 5 i izing. At my initial hand -on, Oura told me that the Ring 5 will have a narrower ize range than it predece or. Size 4, 5, 14, and 15 aren’t available. I wa told thi i becau e Oura i till a e ing the demand, given the Oura Ring 4’ expanded range i till relatively new. That’ di appointing for acce ibility rea on . However, in my mind, thi i al o further proof that functionally, there’ not much difference between the 4 and 5 for con umer . (Either that, or Oura found it particularly difficult on the maller ize to fit in all the component .) Likewi e, I’m di appointed to ee that there’ no ceramic option for the 5.
I’ll acknowledge that izing i tough with mart ring . Finger well, and if you lo e or gain weight, that can affect izing a well. For that rea on, you hould till try out the late t izing kit. Ca e in point, I’ve lo t a good chunk of weight and while a ize 9 fit me perfectly in the Ring 5, my ize 9 Ring 4 fit more loo ely.
My other quibble i Oura’ deci ion to make the charging ca e a $99 acce ory in tead of the default charger. Ca e are ju t better than dock , e pecially if you have a naughty cat that like to knock the dock off your night tand. Al o, it tink that if you already bought a charging ca e for the Ring 4, you’ll have to buy another one for the Ring 5 becau e they’re not forward- or backward-compatible due to the izing difference between generation .
But enough about hardware. Oura tend to bundle new ring with a bunch of new oftware update , and there’ no exception here. Thi time around, Oura’ launched:
Thi i n’t gatekept to the Ring 5, and mo t of the e are optional. And while I don’t object to the individual feature , they had the overall effect of making the Oura app feel a lot more cluttered.
I fir t began long-term te ting the Oura Ring in 2019. It u ed to be a relatively imple app experience where I could log in and check three main core : activity, readine , and leep. Several app rede ign and feature launche later, the Oura app i verging on too much data. One new-i h metric, for in tance, i nighttime breathing. While Oura ha long mea ured your nighttime breathing di turbance , it now give in ight into your “prevailing pattern” over a 30-day period and a ociated factor like demographic , weight, activity level , leep regularity, and average leep duration. It’ll tell you which of tho e factor ha room for improvement, and which one you’re doing well with. That ound fine in a vacuum, but finding thi metric i confu ing and i buried in everal other creen .
Health Radar mo tly work in the background and only urface in ight to your Today tab — which I appreciate. That aid, I haven’t had any ignificant change to my health in the la t ix week , o I can’t really ay if it accurately detect anything yet.
The mo t u eful update for me, per onally, ha been GLP-1 In ight , though it’ll be more u eful if you’re newer to the medication. I get do e reminder every week, and I can pecify where I’ve decided to inject (e.g., which arm, which leg, or which part of the abdomen). I can al o tag ymptom and an AI ummary will provide context a to whether what I’m experiencing i normal. My main gripe i that to get the be t experience, you’ve got to track and tag ymptom daily. That’ not a helpful even month into my journey. It’ al o le u eful if you have ome more unu ual ide effect from the drug. (For example, Oura’ AI in ight had no advice for my ear popping — which i not a direct ide effect of a GLP-1 but one that many u er experience.)
I’ve pilled a ton of ink on my feeling about AI chatbot in fitne tracking app . My keptici m and le -than-impre ed feeling haven’t changed. However, I appreciate that connecting to an actual doctor i a bit ea ier in the Oura app. (Note: The medical AI chatbot i included in your ub cription, but any con ultation or re ulting pre cription will co t you extra.) That aid, I found thi mo tly appropriate for quick que tion that didn’t warrant a doctor vi it but need better reliability than Dr. Google. For more eriou care, I till recommend finding a primary care phy ician you actually like.
Ultimately, I keep thinking “le i more” with Oura. Thi wa already the be t mart ring, and it till i . E pecially in term of hardware. But the main rea on people flock to mart ring over martwatche i they offer a impler experience. Zero notification , ba ic metric , and a more treamlined health tracking approach. Many of the new feature are optional, but the clutter i n’t. I can appreciate that Oura might be trying to deliver more value to it ub criber by loading the ring up with health tracking feature . I imply que tion if that’ nece ary. People flocked to Oura becau e it wa n’t a maximali t device. But a it tand right now? I’m tarting to get data fatigue from the wearable I u ed to turn to feel le overwhelmed.
Every mart device now require you to agree to a erie of term and condition before you can u e it — contract that no one actually read . It’ impo ible for u to read and analyze every ingle one of the e agreement . But we tarted counting exactly how many time you have to hit “agree” to u e device when we review them ince the e are agreement mo t people don’t read and definitely can’t negotiate.
To u e an Oura Ring, you mu t pair it with an iOS / Android martphone. That include the phone’ term of ervice, privacy policy, and any other permi ion you grant. You may al o be a ked to hare permi ion for location data, Bluetooth, etc.
By u ing the Oura Ring 5, you’re agreeing to the e mandatory agreement :
There are everal optional agreement for health haring:
Final tally: whatever your phone require , three mandatory Oura policie , and at lea t four optional agreement for health haring.
