The New Oura Ring 4 Will Be Thinner and More Capable Than Ever
In the years since Oura launched its first smart ring, the category has exploded. There is a huge appetite for a fitness tracker that is sensitive and accurate, doesn’t have a screen, and also lets you wear your inherited grandfather’s watch on your wrist, instead of something that will bang you in the schnoz while you sleep.
Still, even though companies as large as Samsung got in on the smart ring game, Oura has remained accurate and useful. And unlike many popular fitness trackers, you’re not locked into your iPhone, Samsung phone, or Google Pixel to use it. This year’s update, the Oura Ring 4, promises a lot of great upgrades, as well as some surprises. For the first time, more women wear an Oura ring than men.
Smart Sensing
Personally, I have never found the Oura Gen3 to be uncomfortable to wear, but my experience with Samsung’s smart ring shows that it’s possible to make an accurate ring that’s lighter and smaller. Perhaps it should be no surprise then that the Oura Ring 4 has a slimmer, all-titanium redesign. The sensors are now recessed, which means the interior is smooth, and you will no longer find yourself fiddling with the little bumps when you should be doing your work.
It is now available in an expanded size range, too, up from eight available sizes to 12, and in an expanded range of colors, which includes an updated black that has a more durable coating to address customer complaints. (I have the original Heritage Black that I have worn for several years now without any nicks, but my experience might be unusual.) The more inclusive size range now includes a size 4 to accommodate more of Oura’s female customer base (more on this later).
The ring now weighs between 3.3 and 5.2 grams, depending on the size. The charging base also has a cover, which will help me keep it on the charger and prevent me from carelessly knocking it off my desk.
Probably the most important upgrade is the new Smart Sensing platform. An algorithm works with the new sensors to adapt and find the best signal path, which is up from eight pathways to 18 in the new ring. What this means in practice is that you don’t have to have the ring perfectly placed on your finger at all times to collect continuous, accurate data. That’s great news for those of us who, you know, use our hands during the day, and whose fingers can swell or change with what we’re doing, the time of day, or the time of the month.
It also increases the battery life to eight days, which, if it works, is astounding. I consistently get around three days with the Gen3. Oura did conduct a very small external research study this past summer with just 60 participants, comparing results from the Gen3 to the Oura Ring 4, and found increases in accuracy and fewer gaps. Increased battery life also means fewer chances for gapping when the ring is charging.
App and Activity Additions
When the Gen3 debuted, Oura took around a year to roll out most of its new features, and it was impossible to counsel people to buy a subscription when you didn’t even know if it would be useful or not. Several years later, Oura has now unrolled a new app design that will be available to all Oura members in the coming weeks, not months.
Over the past few years, Oura has expanded its offerings to measure many different metrics, including stress, resilience, and cardio health. Today’s app redesign divides the data into three sections, putting daily metrics, like Readiness and Sleep, in the Today tab; showing more in-depth information in the Vitals tab; and moving long-term metrics like Cardiovascular Age and Stress Resilience to a tab called My Health.
