I tested the Oura Ring 4 for weeks – here’s why it’s the best health tracker right now

Oura has been quiet in recent years, but during the release of Ring 3 in 2021 and its development. Ring 4 (currently available)competitors have released their own smart rings, ranging from big brands like Samsung to independent startups like Ultrahuman.

ALSO: Oura Ring 4 has 4 features I’m particularly excited about

The smart ring space is heating up, and health technology wearables have officially reached their peak. Over the past few years, Oura has been hard at work developing smart rings that are smarter and more powerful than others. It was recently announced that oura ring 4. I tested this device for 10 days and it beat the competition by a mile. Read on to find out why.

Oura puts comfort at the forefront of Ring 4. It offers both functional comfort, comfort and expanded inclusive sizing. Oura’s Ring 3 is available in sizes 6 to 13 and Ring 4 is available in sizes 4 to 15.

I’ve been wearing the 3rd generation since January and have periodically noticed dry patches around my fingers that leave marks from the protruding sensor dome. This made the device irritating when worn for long periods of time. Ring 4 uses embedded smart sensors to keep the inside of the ring flat, making it easy to wear and creating the most comfortable and discreet generation of devices to date.

Although annoying, the protruding sensor dome on the Ring 3 had a tendency to grab onto my finger, making it easier to keep the ring securely in place while I slept and position the indentation on the inside of my finger. . , where we collected the most accurate data. Without the dome, Ring 4 would be slippery. The second night I went to bed with the ring on my index finger, but it fell off while I was sleeping. This never happened in my 9 months with Ring 3.

Also: The best smart rings you can buy

The main selling point of the Oura Ring 4 is its extended battery life, which is very competitive at 8 days. I’ve never seen a competitive smart ring with such a long battery life, so I was looking forward to seeing how long this device would last. I put the ring on at 9am on Friday morning, and between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the ring reached 0% and died on me.

Battery life was about 5 days, 3 days less than advertised. Most batteries don’t last as long as advertised under normal use. For example, Samsung’s Galaxy Ring advertises a 7-day battery life, but it typically lasts 4-5 days. Nevertheless, I hoped the Oura Ring 4’s battery life would last a few more nights of sleep before dying.

The good thing is that the ring doesn’t take long to recharge and went from 0% to 30% battery within 20 minutes.

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Another big selling point of the Oura Ring 4 is its smart sensor that maintains a comfortable build and long battery life. Oura added 10 additional signal paths, for a total of 18, to collect health data and adjust for the natural movement of the ring that occurs during daily wear. Smart sensors are supposed to make the data collection process more accurate and continuous, but we cannot confirm their functionality at this time. We’ll be comparing this smart ring to other favorites in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for those posts.

Hardware aside, the software within the app is just as interesting and updated as the physical ring itself. Some of my favorite features that Oura has improved with the 4th generation device include automatic heart rate monitoring through workout detection, and a food log feature that accurately catalogs your breakfast intake (more on that later). there is. A daytime stress feature that provides more context than ever before.

Also: Oura Ring 3 vs. Apple Watch: Which one should you buy?

Let’s start with heart rate monitoring. Before the Ring 4 upgrade, if you wanted to get heart rate data while exercising, you had to go into the app and press record for that feature. The upgraded app is available to all Oura users, regardless of smart ring generation, and automatically captures this data when it detects movement. One night while I was dancing at a concert, the device automatically tracked my activity and recorded my heart rate. I love feature upgrades that do the busy work for me. So you can spend less time thinking about recording the activity and more time performing the activity itself (and reviewing the data later).

The second software feature that surprised me was the food tracking. The first morning I tried this feature, available for testing through Oura Labs, I was halfway through my yogurt, chia seeds, banana, and raspberries. Halfway through I realized I wanted to log my meals, so I chose breakfast. To my complete surprise and disbelief, the AI ​​camera detected almost every ingredient in my bowl, and this decision was fine. This feature cannot calculate calories. Instead, it’s a way to track your meal timing and understand how your regular routine impacts your daily vitals. Food logging is an experimental feature that may be phased out over time, but it’s a useful and impressive tool that cleverly and amazingly leverages AI.

Also: Oura outperforms Apple Watch and Fitbit in sleep accuracy in recent study

Finally, Oura has upgraded its intraday stress feature by including tags that users add throughout the day and exercises that are automatically detected and overlaid on the intraday stress timeline. An overlaid timeline clarifies and differentiates between physical stress caused by a hard workout and stress caused by a day at work or a late night social outing.

With the launch of Ring 4, the design of the Oura app has also changed. Given that the smart ring is screenless, the user experience relies on an effective app with good data illustrations. Oura redesigned the interface to create three core tabs: Today, Vitals, and My Health.[今日]The tab shows your daily score and a snapshot of your health data, including readiness, sleep, activity, heart rate, and stress duration. The Vitals tab shows a historical view of those scores.[私の健康状態]The tabs show trends that don’t change over a week or two, such as your resilience level, cardiovascular age, and sleep health.

This layout is a thoughtful way to break down the many datasets Oura records into relevant daily, weekly, and longitudinal pictures. Some metrics are harder to find than others through this reorganization. Reddit users have already shared criticism Many people oppose these changes (it’s a universal tech truth that users rarely welcome app redesigns). With curiosity and patience, you can find the data you are looking for on the app. Please believe me.

Related article: How to test smart rings on ZDNET in 2024

As always, you can learn a lot about your body just by wrapping this around your finger. For example, how well you sleep if you don’t drink alcohol or eat late at night, or how your body responds to daily stress. human. Its functionality has remained unchanged throughout the generations of the ring.

Another thing that hasn’t changed, unfortunately, is that the device still costs a lot of money and you have to pay a monthly subscription (Smart Ring’s competitors are doing away with their own subscriptions) in spite of). Pricing for the Oura Ring 4 starts at $350 and increases depending on the desired finish. If you want access to all the data Ring collects, you’ll pay $6 a month.

ZDNET purchase advice

So should you buy it? Most of the hardware upgrades prioritize comfort, so if you already own an Oura Ring 3, oura ring 4 If you can’t stand the annoying protruding dome sensor of the previous generation, lots of great software is available for both models through the app. Another reason to buy a new ring is to extend the battery life (to some extent) if your Ring 3’s battery is depleted, and to increase the size if you can’t find a smart ring that fits your finger. is.

If you haven’t purchased a smart ring yet, ring 4. Even though competitors are vying for attention, there’s no question which company is the winner in the smart ring race. oura ring 4. No other smart ring is more innovative, feature-rich, available in a variety of sizes, or more thoughtful in design and deployment.