Eight weeks ago, I replaced my wedding ring with an Oura Ring. The funny thing is, you can hardly tell the difference.
That wasn’t always the case. I reviewed an Oura Ring several years ago and decided it wasn’t for me. It felt bulky, I was already wearing a smartwatch, and I found myself paying way too much attention to my sleep and readiness scores. A bad score could practically ruin my morning.
The new Oura Ring 5 changed my mind.
The biggest improvement is simple: it’s smaller. Oura says the Ring 5 is 40 percent smaller than the previous generation, and after wearing it day and night for eight weeks, I regularly forget it’s there. I’ve slept with it, worked out with it and gone about my normal routine without it getting in the way. Battery life is up to a week, and mine has held up well with no major scratches.
Despite its size, it tracks a lot. That includes sleep, activity, heart rate, stress, blood oxygen and temperature. Oura also looks for changes in your body that could indicate you’re getting sick and can monitor blood pressure signals while you sleep.
The experience isn’t perfect. Activity tracking is still the weak spot for me. The app occasionally decides I’m doing an activity that I’m definitely not doing. On the other hand, I’ve been impressed with the AI-powered meal logging, and I’ll admit I enjoy seeing Oura tell me my cardiovascular age is younger than my actual age.
What I like most, though, is what the Oura Ring doesn’t do. There’s no screen, no buzzing and no constant demand for my attention. It collects health information quietly in the background, and I can look at it when I want.
That’s a big reason I can’t really imagine giving it up now.
The Oura Ring 5 starts at $400, with membership costing $6 a month or $70 a year. Oura was also recently sued over its sleep-tracking technology, and the company says it plans to defend its technology in court.
For me, the Ring 5 has finally reached the point where the health tracking feels useful without the gadget itself getting in the way.
