Oura Ring 4 review: Impressive health tech, but not for everyone

Review - Oura Ring 4

Oura Ring 4 is the latest version of a popular smart ring that collects data on your fitness, sleep and stress. For reasons that will become clear, this is not a full review. Think of it as a snapshot.

There is no doubt that many of you reading this post will love the Oura Ring. While the idea is appealing, I couldn’t cope with the reality. In testing it didn’t even last 24 hours on my finger. I’ll explain why later. First, some background.

Oura Ring 4 is a feat of engineering. It weighs around five or six grams and sits on you finger quietly going about its business monitoring your vital signs.

The Oura phone app

You can’t put a display on something this size, so it uses a phone app to present the health data. Bluetooth connects the ring to your phone. The app is well organised and easy to navigate, sometimes you have to dig down to find specifics, but it’s done well.

Some information, such as your heart rate, shows up immediately. It’s real time. You can get a sleep score the morning after you first wake up after a night wearing the ring.

Other measurements and health recommendations only become available after you’ve built up a backlog of data.

Sizing kit before you buy

Physically the ring is about the size of a man’s large wedding ring. Before you take delivery, Oura sends a sizing kit to help you get one that’s the right size. There are 12 possible sizes.

Rings can come in a variety of colours and formats. If you buy direct from Oura, prices start at US$350 for a basic silver ring. There are four styles of ceramic ring and six metallic colours. Most cost US$500. Depending on the exchange rate that works out at between NZ$850 and $900. There will be GST on top of these prices.

Alternatively you can buy some ring models from retailers like JB Hi-Fi. At the time of writing JB Hi-Fi sells a gold Oura 4 for NZ$979. While it’s hard to imagine that any retail outlet would maintain stocks of all styles and sizes, this is a product that you might want a closer look at before committing.

As smart rings go, Oura is expensive. Prices are typically $200 to $300 higher than the cost of a Samsung smart ring. You could buy a high end Apple Watch for the same money.

Even basic functionality requires a subscription

At this point we need to discuss a potentially controversial aspect of the Oura Ring. The ring is effectively useless without a subscription plan on top of the ring purchase. When you register a ring, you’ll get email correspondence. Eventually you’ll see a message that says:

Please note that you must complete this account setup process in order to fully activate the Oura experience.

Part of that process is handing over your card details.

Although the subscription fee won’t break the bank, US$6 a month or US$70 a year, it feels wrong being asked for so much money up front and a regular payment just to use the device.

To put this in context, there’s no charge to use the app that works with Samsung’s rival smart ring. While Apple doesn’t charge users of the Apple Watch health features at the moment, there are reports a premium subscription service is in the pipeline.

There’s a clear trend from device companies to attach subscriptions to hardware products. Not everyone likes this approach.

Without a subscription — Oura calls this membership — you’ll be able to see readiness, sleep and activity as well as get battery notifications, but that’s it.

Battery life

Earlier there was a mention that the ring is too small to include a display. It turns out this is a positive. Displays can be power-sapping. Not having a screen means you can expect to get eight days of use on a single charge. You’ll get a phone app notification when the ring needs charging.

Eight days is what Oura’s marketing material says. It’s a plausible claim, but it’s not one I could check. I didn’t get to eight days, so I can’t confirm that. Which brings us to the main problem I found with Oura Ring 4.

Why I had to send the Oura Ring 4 back

In practice I found the Oura Ring 4 to be less comfortable than a smart watch. It only weighs five or six grams, which doesn’t sound much. If you’ve not worn rings in the past, you may notice it.

Perhaps over time it becomes background. I will never know because my ring experience most certainly did not merge into the background - quite the reverse.

Ten years ago I had a serious allergic reaction to the first Apple Watch.

While at a skin specialist being treated for something else, the surgeon noticed my swollen blotchy wrist and told me to take the Watch off immediately. You can read the gory details in my first Apple Watch review.

I was conscious of this when testing the Oura Ring 4. At first the ring was fine although a little uncomfortable. My finger was a little itchy, but that could be unfamiliarity. At bedtime the finger was a little red... almost imperceptible. It didn’t seem worrying despite the experience with the Apple Watch.

Then at around 1:30AM I woke up in pain, my finger was throbbing and swollen. So swollen that taking the ring off was difficult. If I had left it on for another hour or two, I may not have been able to remove it.

Eventually I went back to sleep. When I woke the next morning, the finger and part of my hand was still blotchy. For obvious reasons given the earlier medical advice, I did not put the ring on again.

Oura is aware of the problem. A note on the product safety page says:

If you experience redness or skin irritation on your finger while wearing your Oura Ring, remove it immediately. If symptoms persist longer than 2-3 days, please contact a dermatologist.

Verdict - Oura Ring 4

It’s unusual to write a verdict after minimal contact with a product, but here goes. Oura has found a way to measure health data that can be unobtrusive and minimally disruptive for most people. It can alert you to health issues before they become major problems, that alone is worth the expense.