I’ll be honest: When I first tested the Oura Ring, I wasn’t impressed, though in retrospect, I didn’t give it a fair shot—my initial experience was clouded by my search for a fitness tracker, where it simply fell short. But after reading dozens of positive testimonials (and realizing that if all else fails, it makes for a chic accessory), I decided to give the Oura Ring 4 a go, having previously tested the Ring 3. This time, I tested it for what it’s advertised as: not a fitness tracker per se, but a personalized wellness tool. My verdict after six weeks of wear? If you want to learn more about your body and finally see if those habits you’re implementing are actually moving the needle, it’s worth the investment.
After wearing this ring all day, every day for over a month, I learned the Oura Ring isn’t really designed to be a fitness tracker. Instead, it takes a more holistic approach to health tracking by analyzing my routines, sleep habits and overall lifestyle, which extends far beyond what I do in the gym or a single workout. I genuinely love it and have no intentions of taking it off anytime soon; in fact, the thought of going without it gives me a bit of anxiety. Ahead, my full Oura Ring 4 review.
Material: Lightweight titanium with non-allergenic, non-metallic inner molding | Colors: Gold, rose gold, brushed silver, stealth, black, silver | Battery life: 5 to 8 days | Full charge: 80 minutes | Compatibility: iOS and Android | Water resistance: Up to 328 feet | Sizing: 6 to 13
What I love:
- More discreet design compared to traditional wearables; blends in with my existing jewelry
- Comprehensive approach to health tracking with detailed, accurate insights
- Breaks down metrics into easy-to-follow tips
- Variety of colors to choose from
- Easy to set up
- Insights become increasingly more personalized as the device collects more data
- Unique features for women, including cycle tracking and pregnancy
Keep in mind:
- So-so battery life that lasts longer than the Apple Watch but not as long as most Garmins
- Activity tracking is less comprehensive than other wearables
- Scratches easily (I wore it while lifting weights, which likely caused more wear and tear)
- Bulkier fit for a ring; chunkier aesthetic may make it less wearable to some
- Higher price point, plus an annual $70 subscription fee
Getting Started With The Oura Ring 4
Sizing
Before I could actually get my hands on the Oura Ring 4, I had to first figure out what size would fit me best. Oura offers a complimentary sizing kit with 3D-printed rings to help you do just this; the kit comes with eight ring sizers, ranging from size 6 to 13. I found a size 7 fit my pointer finger on my non-dominant hand best, which is the finger Oura recommends wearing your ring on for the most accurate results. (I have since switched to my middle finger, and so far it doesn’t seem to have affected the ring’s accuracy.) As a general rule of thumb, you want the ring to fit securely enough so it can’t slide off, but not so tight that it’s a struggle to remove.
After you determine your size, the next step is picking a color. I chose gold because I wear mostly gold or mixed metal jewelry and figured it would blend in with my existing stack.
Setup
Once my ring arrived in the mail, I downloaded the Oura app and synced everything to my iPhone. I’m notoriously impatient when it comes to anything that requires more than two steps, so I was relieved when the setup process required only a few clicks and took all of about five minutes. It doesn’t get much easier than that.
How The Oura Ring 4 Works
Sensors
The Ring 4 uses discreet, flat-pressed sensors located inside the band (a step up from the Ring 3, which used three small domes) to track a variety of health data—50 different metrics, according to Oura.
Though it sounds a bit overwhelming, data points are grouped into six categories to make things more digestible: heart health, activity and movement, sleep and rest, stress, metabolic and women’s health. All of this technology is packed into the sleek metal band that feels light and comfortable. The band itself is certainly thick, but compared to the average smartwatch, it’s definitely more discreet.
Daily Readiness Score, Sleep Score And Activity Score
The app provides three scores each morning that outline your current physical state and, more importantly, how prepared your body is for activity. Every day, I woke up to a Sleep Score, an Activity Score and a Readiness Score, all of which are intertwined.
My Sleep Score, for example, had a major impact on my Readiness Score, as did my Activity Score from the previous day. Some mornings, I woke up to a high Sleep Score, but my Readiness Score was lower because of a higher-than-average Activity Score from the previous day, which placed excess strain on my body.
In these instances, the Oura app recommended I take it easy to allow my body time to fully rest and recover. Unlike other wearables that provide a wealth of data without explaining what it means, Oura connected the dots by showing how these measurements impact daily performance.
Sleep Tracking
A Clinical Approach
Unsurprisingly, the Oura Ring takes a well-rounded approach to tracking sleep; in fact, it’s widely considered one of the best and most accurate consumer-grade sleep trackers available. Despite my hangups with the Ring 3, I found its sleep tracking features both accurate and more detailed than other fitness trackers I’ve tried.
Similar to other wearables, the Ring 4 tracks time spent in REM, deep sleep and light sleep, as well as the number and duration of times you’ve woken up throughout the night. It records your performance across all of these metrics and more in a breakdown of what it calls ‘sleep contributors’, which all add up to your final Sleep Score.
Where Oura sets itself apart from the competition is in its clinically-based approach to sleep tracking. It measures changes in body temperature while you rest, as well as average blood oxygen saturation (determined by your breathing regularity) and heart rate. Notably, even though I didn’t have the cycle tracking feature toggled on, I found a correlation between when the ring reported increases in my body temperature at night and changes in my menstrual cycle.
Emphasis On Sleep Efficiency And Restfulness
While I find all of Oura’s ‘sleep contributors’ fascinating—and its morning sleep reports seem accurate, from what I can tell—two factors in particular stood out as especially useful: Sleep Efficiency and Restfulness.
Together, these measurements gather the amount of time you spent asleep versus the amount of time in bed, as well as the number of times you woke up throughout the night or exhibited excessive movement. There are plenty of nights where I’ve gone to bed at a reasonable hour and woken up early, only to find I don’t feel very well-rested, and in some cases, a bit fatigued.
Fortunately, the ring helped me establish a connection between moments of daytime sleepiness and a low Restfulness and Sleep Efficiency score. A low Sleep Efficiency score can actually bring down your total Sleep Score, even if all other ‘sleep contributors’ fall within an optimal range. While it was validating for me to identify the culprit of my sleepiness, more importantly, these weren’t just numbers on a screen—they came with actionable insights, including tips to improve my energy the following day.
After several nights of poor sleep, my ring recommended that I wind down one to two hours before bedtime, avoid eating late meals and remove disturbances from the bedroom (namely, my smartphone). When put into practice, these tips proved useful: I was able to fall asleep quicker with fewer awakenings through the night.
If you’re generally aware of basic sleep health guidelines, these tips aren’t groundbreaking. However, Oura’s ability to pinpoint exactly when you need to lean in to these habits is what makes it a genuinely helpful tool in bettering your day-to-day life.
Activity Tracking
Activity Score
The Oura Ring 4 automatically detects and logs over 40 different types of activities, including everything from focused workouts like running and yoga to daily movement like housework and walking the dog—also known as NEAT (non-exercise activity thermogenesis). Basically, any type of movement can get you closer to hitting your daily Activity Score, a measure of multiple metrics, like steps taken and calories burned.
I’m not totally sure how I feel about the Activity Score; it almost seemed too easy to hit, but maybe that’s the point. I am a fairly active individual—I work out five days a week and aim for at least 10,000 steps a day beyond the gym—but even on days when I didn’t work out, I hit my Activity Score with minimal effort.
Not As Thorough As a True Fitness Tracker
While the Oura Ring 4 more accurately captures your heart rate and movements compared to the Ring 3, I still found activity tracking to be its weakest feature. That’s not to say it’s inaccurate—I noticed improvements from the Ring 3 in its ability to accurately detect types of workouts—but its activity tracking insights are less comprehensive than those I would get from a true fitness tracker, like the Garmin Venu (my top overall pick among fitness trackers).
In my experience, this ring works best as more of a retroactive activity tracker; it didn’t spit out accurate insights moment by moment, and typically took several minutes to register the type of activity I was performing and my heart rate. However, I found the workout summary to be fairly accurate, often correctly suggesting the exact type of exercise I had performed (walking, HIIT, even pickleball), and its estimated calorie burn and heart rate range were on par with my control, the Polar H10 Chest Strap.
Better For Cardio Than Strength Workouts
As capable as it is for being such a small device, it’s not a perfect tool. There were times when it thought I was doing housework even though I was really strength training. But all in all, I find its activity tracking to be more accurate for cardio-based exercise when my heart rate stays consistently high, compared to strength training when my heart rate peaks somewhere in Zone 3, then drops between sets.
Pregnancy And Cycle Tracking
A feature that sets the Oura Ring 4 apart from other wellness trackers is its ability to track women’s menstrual cycles and pregnancy. I’ve only tested one other wearable that can track menstrual cycles, the Garmin Lily, though it’s slowly rolling out to more of the latest wearables over time.
You do have to manually turn both features on by going into Oura’s app settings, navigating to “Women’s Health” and toggling on “Cycle Insights” and “Pregnancy Insights”. I can’t personally speak to the accuracy of the cycle tracking feature as I just discovered this capability within the last week and haven’t had a chance to test it yet. But I intend to continue wearing and testing it over time and will update this review accordingly.
In this section of Oura’s settings, there’s also a space to fill out background information on hormones, where you can tell Oura if you’re on fertility treatments or using a form of hormonal contraception. For women trying to conceive, this information allows Oura to provide even more personalized insights.
Long-Term Health Trends
Perhaps one of my favorite things about the Ring 4 is its ability to deliver more personalized insights the longer you wear it. In other words, as Oura learns more about your routines and daily habits, its findings gradually become more tailored to you.
This personalized data comes in the form of three long-term metrics: a Resilience Score, Heart Health Score and Sleep Health Score, all found under the 'My Health’ tab in the Oura app. For example, if your Resilience Score falls below the average (measured over the last 14 days), the app will alert you and offer suggestions for getting back on track.
What I find most valuable about these long-term metrics is the ability to connect daily habits to positive or negative trends. After a rough week of not-so-great rest, my resilience trend decreased from 'strong’ to 'good’; after about five nights in a row of solid sleep, my resilience trend increased from 'good’ to 'strong,’ before reaching 'exceptional’ after three more consecutive nights of quality rest. I’m still waiting to see what my Chronotype is, a trend filed under sleep health, which needs to collect at least 90 days of data before churning out a result.
Price
The Oura Ring 4 is a bit pricey in my opinion, coming it at $499 for the gold band, though the exact price varies depending on the metal you choose, with gold and rose gold being the most expensive. That base price, when combined with the $70 annual subscription fee (or approximately $6/month), places it in the highest tier of fitness and health trackers I’ve tested. And while there are plenty of other smart rings on the market nowadays, very few offer the same degree of accuracy, tracking and insights.
Is The Oura Ring 4 Worth It?
After testing the Oura Ring 4 for six weeks, I can confidently say it has earned a permanent place on my finger. I find its daily feedback trustworthy and useful, and it has ultimately helped me understand my body better. It paints a comprehensive and personalized picture of my overall wellbeing, and I like that it translates advanced health metrics into actionable advice. That advice, when followed, made a noticeable difference in how rested, restored and relaxed I felt.
Who I Don’t Recommend The Oura Ring To
The Oura Ring isn’t for everyone. While it provides a lot of day-to-day insights, that type of information may be overkill or unhelpful if you’re primarily interested in activity tracking. If anything, I found the activity tracking to be its weakest point. If you want in-depth activity insights, a wearable like the Garmin Venu or Fitbit Charge 6 may be a better option.
How I Tested The Oura Ring 4
The Oura Ring 4 is designed to be worn 24/7, so that’s exactly how I tested it: I wore it day and night for six straight weeks, including during workouts, while sleeping and every moment in between. I only took it off when doing the dishes, cooking and taking a shower.
Occasionally, I removed it when lifting heavier weights, though this impacted its ability to accurately summarize a full workout. Keeping it on while lifting may have resulted in more scratches to the ring’s surface, so if you’re concerned about keeping your ring pristine, you may want to remove it during intense exercise.
Activity Tracking
I didn’t do anything outside of my normal routine to test my Oura Ring’s activity tracking. I typically lift weights four days a week and mix in incline walking, HIIT-style workouts and the occasional hike or pickleball game. This helped me get a feel for how the ring detects physical activity, and the types of insights it provides.
To test the ring’s accuracy in terms of heart rate tracking and estimated calorie burn, I wore a Polar heart rate strap during my daily gym workouts. While I noticed the ring was slow to pick up on my heart rate during the actual workout compared to the Polar, it was fairly accurate in terms of my estimated heart rate range and specific peaks.
Sleep Tracking
To test the ring’s sleep tracking features, I wore it to bed every night. In the morning, I refreshed the app to check my Sleep Score and review the in-depth analysis. Though I didn’t use any specific sleep tool that would serve as a control to test the accuracy of this feature, I did note when I fell asleep and woke up each night, as well as any periods throughout the night when I felt restless or awake, to compare against the ring’s recordings.
Why Trust Us
We take wearables and personal health seriously at Forbes Vetted. We’ve thoroughly researched, tested and published a range of gear stories, including related guides tha cover the best GPS watches and best adjustable dumbbells.
- The author of this review and senior strategy editor, Katie Simpson, is an ACE-certified personal trainer who’s tested dozens of health and wellness products. She has also produced a variety of fitness and sleep guides, including a roundup of the best fitness trackers.
- This story was assigned and edited by gear editor Cam Vigliotta. An avid runner and fitness guru, he reviews and recommends dozens of products in the consumer fitness space every year. With a background in kinesiology, he understands the value of fitness wearables and the role they can play in our personal lives.