Oura announced its latest smart ring, the Oura Ring 4, on October 3, 2024. It's the first update to the brand's smart ring since 2021, bringing battery life improvements, greater measurement accuracy, and an all-new circular titanium-based design.
Although it's taken a while to get here (three years), the Oura Ring Gen 3 has retained its spot as the best smart ring around, even while the new Samsung Galaxy Ring and several others jostled to take its place.
One of Oura's standout features has been the company's commitment to accuracy, putting the ring, sensors and data through rigorous testing and independent verification. And that's the primary focus of the upgrades on the Oura Ring 4.
But, launched alongside the new ring — which will retail from $349 and ship from October 15 — Oura debuted a newly redesigned app that'll make it easier to see actionable insights, short term trends and more comprehensive analysis.
The company has also gone all-in on the circular design, discontinuing the Gen 3's flat-topped Heritage version in favor of a single edition in five colors. So, before you start checking out the best Oura Ring alternatives, here's what you need to know about the Oura Ring 4.
Oura Ring Gen 4: price and availability
The Oura Ring 4 was announced on October 3, 2024 and is expected to ship on October 15. It's available in five colors (Rose Gold, Gold, Silver, Brushed Silver, Black, and Stealth) and comes in sizes 4-15, four more than the Oura Ring Gen 3.
Although the price varies between colors, you can pick up the Oura Ring 4 from $349, but you'll also need to factor in the $5.99 per month you need to pay for Oura membership to access the rings data. At launch, you can buy the Ring 4 directly from Oura's store or at Amazon.
This is a $50 increase in the base cost of the ring compared to the Gen 3, but the circular design of the older ring (which was called Horizon) was also available from $349, with the flat-topped Heritage model available for less. So, in some sense, there's no increase in price this time around — a rare feat for a wearable device.
Oura Ring Gen 4: Design
The Oura Ring 4 still looks functionally like a ring, but there are a few changes this time around that make quite a significant difference. There's the end of the flat-topped design in favor of a single circular model, but some other adjustments are less noticeable.
The Ring 4 has a fully titanium body, replacing the titanium exterior and epoxy (plastic) interior found on the Gen 3. This is partly as Oura has also managed to remove the sensor bump, recessing the tech into the ring so it sits flush against your finger.
That's also why you'll need a new sizing kit for the Oura Ring 4, even if you already have an earlier Oura Ring, as the flush sensors could leave the ring too loose on your finger if you rely on the older sizing.
You get five colors to choose from, including Rose Gold, Gold, Silver, Brushed Silver, Black, and Stealth. Pricing varies between them, but the Rose Gold is still the most expensive of the bunch, setting you back $499 — sometimes referred to as the 'pink tax.'
All versions of the ring use the same material (titanium with VPD [physical vapor deposition] coating), except the Stealth model, which has a diamond-like coating (DLD) instead. The Ring 4 is marginally (and we mean marginally) thinner than the Gen 3 — 2.8mm versus 2.9mm.
That said, during our own testing we found the Oura Ring Gen 3 was still far more comfortable to wear than the "slimmest" Circular Slim Ring on the market. So although many were hoping for a more slender design, the Ring 4 will likely still be comfortable enough to wear all day and through the night.
The most notable upgrade to the Ring 4 is completely hidden from sight though. The brand's latest smart ring comes with a Smart Sensing feature, which combines more accurate sensors with improved analysis algorithms.
The Gen 3 ring had eight signal pathways, while the Ring 4 has 18. This means that it should be better able to manage when the ring slides around your finger or changes position, leading to improved accuracy in the data.
According to Oura, the new Smart Sensing setup was put through an external study by a sleep clinic, which found that there was a 15% improvement in breathing disturbance accuracy, 7% reduction in heart rate gaps during the day and 31% reduction overnight.
You might worry that this would have a negative impact on battery life, but the new system is more efficient. The Ring 4 can last up to 8 days between charges, compared to the Gen 3's 7-day battery life.
In practice, we found that the Gen 3 would last around five days, so it'll be interesting to see whether Oura has been able to improve the real-world performance.
Oura Ring Gen 4: features
Smart rings are really just data collection devices. The way that you interact with that data is through the companion smartphone app. The Oura Ring 4 is no different in that respect — the hardware is better and will make measurements more accurate, but the new features are all found in the newly-updated Oura app.
Although it formed part of the Ring 4 announcement, the updated app will actually roll out to everyone, even if you plan to stick with a Gen-3 ring for the time being, so long as you pay the $5.99 per month subscription fee.
There's a redesigned interface to make it easier to pick out daily insights and longer-term trends, which is a useful addition, but there are three new features that'll roll out with the updated app; Automatic Activity Detection, Fertility Insights and Daytime Stress.
Oura has, to some degree, been able to work out when you're moving around and offers suggestions in the app for the activity it thinks you were doing. The Automatic Activity Detection improves on this, and can recognize up to 40 distinct activities.
Daytime Stress links your physical activity and stress levels, so you can see what impact your movement has on your stress levels, and how stress varies depending on the amount of activity. While Fertility Insights builds on Oura's impressive period tracking capabilities to offer ovulation predictions and more insights on your fertility window.
However, back in 2023, Oura acquired Proxy, a single sign-on "digital identity signal technology." There don't seem to be any features based on that tech, even though it was rumored that the acquisition may lead to contactless payments on the Oura Ring 4.
Oura Ring Gen 4: outlook
In a world where tech companies refresh of their products every year, the launch of the Oura Ring Gen 3 in 2021 feels like a long time ago. But, even though many competitors have sprung up to challenge them, the older Oura Ring has remained the most popular.
The Oura Ring 4 is more of a maintenance update, offering some technical, accuracy and battery life improvements, but whether that'll be enough to convince Gen 3 owners to upgrade remains to be seen, especially since all Oura owners will get the updated app and new features.
But for anyone considering a smart ring for the first time, the Ring 4 looks set to retain Oura's position as the most accessible, reliable and accurate option. And we're also impressed (and relieved) that there wasn't a significant price hike for the ring or the monthly membership.
For now, the main competition comes from Samsung's Galaxy Ring, launched earlier this year. But Oura is more flexible as it'll work with Android and iPhone. So, until Apple unveils the much-rumored Apple Ring, the Oura Ring 4 is likely to be the top choice for most people.
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