Oura Ring Gen3 health tracker review: It’s a complicated relationship

The market is totally flooded with units designed to trace your well being, most of which reside on the wearer’s wrist. Comparatively newer to the health-tracking recreation, although, are good rings. The Oura Ring was first launched in 2015 however didn’t achieve widespread recognition and recognition till roughly 2020. Its predominant perform on the time was sleep monitoring, nevertheless it has since broadened its purposes, providing normal well being and health information for many who don’t desire a display screen on their wrist.  

I used to be not precisely bought once I first heard of the Oura Ring. I didn’t perceive the advantage of a sensible ring when you possibly can simply put on a watch. When Oura reached out to see if I might be excited by testing one, nevertheless, I made a decision to see what all of the hype was about. I’ve been sporting it because the finish of August 2023, giving me simply over eight months of time residing with it. And I’ve developed an advanced relationship with it. 

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Overview

• Although cumbersome for a hoop, the Oura Ring affords a extra discreet profile than smartwatches.
• The Oura Ring tracks a variety of well being metrics, together with coronary heart price, temperature, sleep, and extra.
• The sturdy and waterproof design means it may possibly stand as much as the pains of day by day life. 

Execs

• Collects a lot of information
• Principally correct sleep data
• App is filled with useful insights and instruments
• Sturdy and waterproof
• Options particular to girls’s well being
• Frequent updates and new options
• Could also be eligible for FSA/HSA funds

Cons

• Must be eliminated steadily
• Pretty cumbersome
• Tethered GPS is kind of inaccurate
• Requires a month-to-month subscription to entry all options

Verdict: The Oura Ring is a minimalistic well being tracker that helps you higher perceive your sleep and total well being.  

The Oura Ring’s design & construct

The Oura ring is available in a number of completely different finishes and two completely different designs. The Heritage, the unique Oura Ring, encompasses a rectangular plateaued high. For a further $50, you possibly can go for the Horizon version, which affords a typical, totally spherical ring. The entire rings, no matter end, are made with titanium on the skin, which is robust, non-allergenic, and lighter than most different metals. On the within is a medical-grade, BPA-free molding. I’ve been sporting the Horizon in rose gold, which is manufactured utilizing a vapor deposition (PVD) coating for added sturdiness. 

The ring looks like, properly, a hoop, albeit fairly cumbersome in comparison with rings that I put on. It’s 2.55mm thick (the Heritage might be barely thicker on the highest), roughly the thickness of most marriage ceremony bands. It’s price stating that I’ve tiny palms, so all however essentially the most dainty rings really feel cumbersome on me. The band is 7.9mm extensive and, relying on the scale, weighs 0.14 to 0.21 ounces. 

There’s a refined notch on the skin that signifies the orientation of the ring, because the sensors must be on the palm aspect of your finger. There are additionally three little bumps on the within of the ring that sit in opposition to the finger, which aren’t noticeable in any respect throughout regular put on. 

The Oura ring is waterproof to 330 ft, so you possibly can put on it if you bathe, swim, and snorkel. Nonetheless, Oura says it doesn’t advocate the ring for scuba diving and that it shouldn’t be submerged for greater than 12 hours. Though it’s waterproof, I usually take away the ring if I’m washing a lot of dishes or cleansing, principally as a result of water tends to get trapped underneath the band. 

The rose gold end has noticeable scratches and a few patina as of late, however I haven’t been tremendous valuable with it. I take it off once I’m lifting weights, on the seashore, or throughout another exercise that requires utilizing my palms due to the bulkiness, however in any other case stay my regular life with it on. A lot of the scratches are on the palm aspect of the ring, which is sensible as that’s the realm that makes contact with issues almost consistently all through the day. The highest of the ring nonetheless appears moderately shiny and easy regardless of eight months of damage. 

Sensors 

Naturally, as a sensible ring, the Oura Ring is constructed with just a few sensors. The infrared photoplethysmography sensors (PPG) use LED mild to measure coronary heart price and respiration. In the event you sleep with the ring, don’t be alarmed if you see your finger glowing in the course of the night time. Oura says this sensor samples 250 instances per second and is 99.9% dependable in comparison with a medical-grade electrocardiogram (ECG). It makes use of the guts price information additionally to inform you your resting coronary heart price, coronary heart price variability, and respiration. 

There’s additionally a adverse temperature coefficient (NTC) sensor that measures your nighttime temperature. It gained’t inform you what your precise temperature is, however will inform you how a lot your temperature adjustments in a single day. It’s delicate sufficient to select up adjustments of simply 0.1° Celsius. The temperature information is beneficial in case you are sick, nevertheless it additionally helps these with cycles observe what part of their cycle they’re in, as there are predictable rises and falls in temperature for every part. 

Lastly, a 3D accelerometer detects your exercise in the course of the day. Take note, although, that there is no such thing as a GPS within the Oura Ring. As an alternative, the ring depends on tethered GPS, which means it pulls location information out of your telephone. Past exercise, the accelerometer additionally tracks nighttime restlessness and helps establish your sleep phases. 

Sensor accuracy

My testing course of didn’t contain any lab time for testing the sensors, however I used to be in a position to examine them to the most effective health watches and coronary heart price displays I take advantage of. I discovered the guts price fairly spot on with what I get from my watches and even increased constancy chest-based displays. In actual fact, on a current run, each my Oura Ring and Garmin HRM-Match (chest-based strap) stated my common coronary heart price was 153. 

I wasn’t taking my temperature on daily basis to match what the Oura Ring was selecting up, however I are likely to get fairly sick from the COVID-19 vaccine and was sporting the ring once I acquired my final booster. The ring detected that my temperature was 2.3 levels increased than regular, and positive sufficient, I had a fever of 101 levels Fahrenheit. By way of accelerometer accuracy, it principally picks up once I’ve had a stressed night time, although not completely. 

Battery & connectivity

To make use of any of your information, the ring must sync to the telephone app utilizing a Bluetooth Low Power connection. This occurs steadily within the background, however you too can open the app and immediate it to sync with the ring. The app can be the way you’ll replace the firmware and see all of your information.

The ring makes use of an built-in 15mAh (US6) – 22mAh (US13) Lipo battery. Within the unique Heritage ring, the battery sits within the rectangular high, whereas the newer Horizon-style ring makes use of a versatile battery to keep up the totally rounded form. Oura guarantees a battery lifetime of seven days, although it does warn that having blood oxygen sensing turned on will deplete the battery sooner. I’ve Blood Oxygen Sensing turned on and usually get about 5 to 6 days on a single cost. The app will remind you to cost the ring earlier than mattress if the battery will get low, which is useful. 

Fortunately, charging is pretty fast. I seen the battery was at roughly 15% earlier than coming out for a run, so I tossed it on the charger to see if I might get sufficient energy to trace my exercise. I used to be in a position to stand up to 48% battery in 25 minutes of charging, which was loads for my 30-minute run. If the battery is totally useless, a full cost takes nearer to 2 hours. I are likely to put the ring on the proprietary charger once I’m having a shower or doing any form of exercise that isn’t conducive to sporting the ring to maintain it topped off so I can all the time put on it to mattress for sleep monitoring. 

The Oura Ring’s options

The Oura ring could look easy, nevertheless it affords fairly just a few options. Between the information it gathers and the app, Oura makes it fairly straightforward to get a snapshot of your well being and wellness.

Sleep monitoring

One of many major options of the Oura Ring is its sleep-tracking skills. The ring collects coronary heart price, respiration, coronary heart price variability, and motion information all through the night time after which offers a rating to let you realize the standard of your sleep. It will probably additionally choose up what time you go to mattress and get up and detect naps. I fell asleep on the sofa one night time whereas watching TV, and the app requested if I took a 20-minute nap from 10:20 to 10:40 pm, which was precisely once I was asleep. That nap was then added to my sleep rating because it was so near once I went to mattress. 

Past monitoring, there are another useful sleep instruments within the Oura app that I’ve loved. My favorites are the Physique Clock and chronotype instruments. To supply your chronotype (a elaborate method of claiming in case you are a morning or night time particular person), Oura appears at sleep, exercise, and physique temperature information over a three-month interval of constant use. It then offers you options on when the perfect time to work out or carry out sure kinds of duties could be primarily based in your chronotype. Whereas this data is extra attention-grabbing than earth-shattering when it comes to the way it impacts my life, it might make a distinction for some. 

Health monitoring

Calling the Oura Ring a health tracker is beneficiant, nevertheless it does have activity-tracking capabilities. It will probably routinely detect 40 actions, together with home tasks, however I discovered the automated detection to be very hit-and-miss. It nearly all the time thinks I used to be strolling as properly, regardless that there are different choices.  

Since there aren’t any buttons or interactive controls on the ring itself, you want the app to do any monitoring. As soon as within the app, you faucet the plus signal within the backside proper nook and choose “File exercise HR.” Then, you possibly can select between indoor or outside biking, indoor or outside working, or strolling. The file button begins monitoring, and also you’ll must open the app once more to finish monitoring. 

Whereas Oura depends in your telephone’s GPS for something associated to distance and mapping, every firm handles tethered GPS in a different way, leading to numerous ranges of accuracy. Sadly, Oura’s tethered GPS is the worst I’ve come throughout. A 30-minute run with the Oura Ring and my Garmin epix Professional (which has multi-band GPS and is understood for accuracy) confirmed a distance of 0.3 miles for the ring and a pair of.6 miles for the watch. I do know I’m no velocity demon, however I undoubtedly did greater than 0.3 miles in 32 minutes whereas working.

Evaluating two tethered units, I wore the Oura ring together with my Garmin Lily 2, which additionally depends on tethered GPS. Each have been on the left hand. Oura had my distance at 0.7, whereas the Garmin was 1.67. This route is one I do some variation of a number of instances a day, and 1.67 is certainly very near the proper distance. 

Due to the GPS inaccuracy, I might not advocate the Oura for health monitoring. Distance and tempo information affect a handful of health and readiness-related instruments, so inaccurate information on these gadgets will throw a number of stuff off. Fortunately, you possibly can hook up with Strava and import that information so your Oura account can make the most of extra correct data for its well being and wellness options.  

Ladies’s well being

The ladies’s well being options appeared comparatively just lately within the Oura’s arsenal. The app affords the flexibility to trace cycles and now affords being pregnant insights as properly. For cycle monitoring, the Oura app will immediate you to to enter in case you use hormonal contraceptives or different hormones. In the event you use hormones of any sort, you gained’t have the ability to see your cycle phases. I actually needed to see my phases, so regardless of having a hormonal IUD, I chosen “none” for hormones. 

It’s been very attention-grabbing to observe my temperature shift nightly over the course of my cycle. Plus, even with my hormonal contraception, Oura has been fairly spot on at predicting when my interval will begin and the way lengthy it should final. This data is extra attention-grabbing for me than actionable, however I might see how it will be helpful if one thing odd began occurring or I had issues that I needed to indicate my physician. 

Oura app

The Oura Ring’s sensors gather information, which the app compiles right into a extra digestible, usable format. The app’s homepage has completely different sections displaying your sleep, exercise aim, stress ranges, coronary heart price, and extra. You may click on into the completely different sections to see graphs and observe traits over time. Alternatively, you possibly can open the Traits portion of the app for a fast look at sleep, readiness, exercise, and stress traits over time. 

On high of all of your information, the app offers options for exercise ranges primarily based in your data. There are guided meditations and respiration workouts, and loads of tips about enhancing sleep, time meals, and understanding your information. 

Sadly, a subscription is required to entry most options and insights within the app. You get one month free, however after that, it’s $5.99 a month. With out an Oura membership, you’ll solely have the ability to see Sleep, Readiness, and Exercise scores with none in-depth evaluation. 

Last ideas on my Oura Ring expertise

As a little bit of an information junky, I actually recognize the knowledge I get from the Oura Ring. It’s helped me perceive my physique a bit higher, particularly from a girls’s well being and sleep perspective. I additionally simply suppose it’s fascinating to see traits over time. Plus, Oura makes it straightforward to export the information must you wish to share one thing along with your physician, which is very nice. 

My predominant difficulty is with the expertise of truly sporting the ring, which is extra so a private desire. I discover myself taking the ring off fairly steadily. Water will get trapped beneath when washing my palms, so I a minimum of must take it off after to dry it. I don’t wish to put on it when cooking since elements can get underneath it, and I wash my palms steadily within the course of. Although it may be worn within the bathe, I don’t get pleasure from it, so it comes off. The identical goes for once I’m making use of lotion. It’s too cumbersome to put on whereas weight lifting or biking, so I take away it for these actions. You get the gist. Then, in all these instances of taking the ring off, I’m usually not the most effective about remembering to place it again on. 

Regardless of my frustrations with consistently needing to take away the ring, I nonetheless see its advantages. There’s no denying that the Oura Ring appears good, mixing into the day-to-day greater than an aggressive health watch. The smaller type issue can be extra comfy to sleep in, particularly in case you aren’t used to consistently sporting a watch. And typically, it’s good to separate from a display screen and smartwatch notifications whereas nonetheless amassing information. Plus, Oura is actively rolling out new options and researching new methods to make use of the ring, so investment-wise, you’ll proceed to get so much out of it.
General, like something, there are execs and cons. There are sufficient execs to maintain sporting the ring, and I’ll proceed to take action even after penning this evaluate. For my part, the advantages outweigh the occasional annoyance of sporting it. So, my sophisticated relationship with the Oura Ring will proceed for the foreseeable future.