Oura has long been topping the charts when it comes to the best smart rings – its first ring launched in 2015 – and its 4th-generation model has now launched. If you’re after a complete guide to the Oura Ring 4 and everything it offers, you’ve come to the right place.
Check out our Oura Ring 3 review and you’ll see that this 2024 model had a lot to live up to: we awarded the 3rd-gen edition four stars out of five, praising its advanced sensor setup and the significant improvements that it offered across the board over its predecessor.
Now the Oura Ring 4 is here, ready to take on the Samsung Galaxy Ring and the other smart rings on the market (and maybe the Apple Ring, one day). Read on for a full rundown of this wearable, including its price, features, and key specs.
Oura Ring 4: cut to the chase
- What is it? Oura’s 4th-gen smart ring
- When is it on sale? October 15, 2024
- How much will it cost? $349 / £349
- What will it feature? Improved design, better battery life, larger sizes
Oura Ring 4: specifications
Oura Ring 4: price and release date
Oura announced its 4th-generation smart ring on October 3, 2024, and opened preorders for the device on the same date. Shipping and a full on-sale date are scheduled for October 15 in the US and the UK. Like the Oura Ring 3, the Oura Ring 4 isn’t available to buy directly in Australia.
The starting price for the Oura Ring 4 is $349 / £349, but certain sizes and finishes will cost you more. On top of that there’s the $5.99 / £5.99 per month (or $69.99 / £69.99 per year) price of Oura Ring Membership, which you really need in order to use it properly.
Without the subscription add-on you’ll only see three daily scores, for activity, sleep, and readiness, with no detailed stats at all – so you’re missing out on most of the ring’s features. You do get a free one-month trial of an Oura Ring Membership when you buy an Oura Ring 4, so you can see everything it has to offer before committing.
Oura Ring 4: design
The Oura Ring 4 looks similar to its predecessor, but there are some important tweaks to the design that are worth talking about. First up, the ring is available in six finishes: Silver, Black, Brushed Silver, Stealth, Gold, and Rose Gold. That’s the same as the Oura Ring 3, except Brushed Titanium is now Brushed Silver.
That name change isn’t because there’s no titanium – it’s because all these finishes are fully titanium for the first time, with no plastic on the inside, so there’s no need to specify it. Meanwhile, size options go all the way from 4 to 15 (the previous model started at 6 and stopped at 13), with the weight ranging from 3.3 grams to 5.2 grams (0.12 ounces to 0.18 ounces) depending on size.
With a width of 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) and a thickness of 2.88 mm (0.11 inches), it’s a close match to the ring its replacing (which was available in two slightly different form factors of varying dimensions – something that isn’t available this time around).
Perhaps most significantly, Oura has managed to fit the sensor nodes inside the shell of the ring, rather than having them protrude slightly. That should mean a more comfortable fit on the finger, and it gives the ring a slimmer profile overall.
Oura Ring 4: sensors and hardware
The “research-grade sensors” that Oura has fitted into its 4th-gen smart ring match up with the ones on the Oura Ring 3: you’ve got sensors for blood oxygen levels, heart rate, heart-rate variability, respiration rate, and skin temperature, as well as movement and activity monitoring, and sleep tracking.
New this time around is what Oura is calling Smart Sensing: with some help from new algorithms, these sensors are now better at detecting signals in any position on your finger. The ring can twist 30 degrees in either direction (which tends to happen as you wear it), and the data collection won’t be interrupted.
According to Oura’s own research, that leads to big boosts in blood oxygen sensing accuracy, as well as fewer gaps in daytime and nighttime heart-rate tracking. The sensors should also learn how to best take readings based on your own finger physiology (including finger shape and skin tone).
Another improvement is in the area of automatic workout detection. There are now over 40 different types supported – up from just a handful previously – so most of the time the Oura Ring 4 should be able to figure out what you’re doing, whether it’s jogging or rowing for example, without you specifically having to tell it.
Even with these changes, Oura has managed to boost the battery life on the Oura Ring 4: it should now last for up to eight days between charges, which is a day longer than you could expect with the Oura Ring 3. The charger gets a bit of a redesign too – it’s now more of a squarer shape, but still has rounded edges.
Oura Ring 4: app and features
Alongside the launch of the Oura Ring 4, Oura has revamped its companion app for Android and iOS, and Oura Ring 3 owners can take advantage of the new-look app too. The interface is simpler than before, with three main sections – Today, Vitals, and My Health – and a rotating series of summary cards presenting your stats to you.
You can of course dig deeper into these stats at any point, and Oura says it’s made some minor improvements to the way data is presented and linked together. For example, you can now get physical activity and stress logged together on the same graph, giving you a better idea of how they interact with each other.
One small but notable change is that Oura Labs has now arrived on the Android version of the app, whereas it was previously exclusive to iOS. That means everyone can experiment with the newest Oura app features ahead of time (such as Symptom Radar, which suggests when you might be getting sick), no matter what type of phone they’re using.
For Oura Ring 4 owners who are trying to conceive, the Oura Cycle section of the app has been improved as well: there’s now a new Fertile Window section in addition to the existing features, designed to help you identify fertile days and showing estimates for a daily chance of conception and ovulation timings.
There is, of course, some artificial intelligence here too: Oura Advisor is a new AI chatbot that will essentially talk to you about the data you’ve collected in the app. If you don’t want to review the charts and graphs yourself, you can ask the Oura Advisor about them, and get personalized feedback on your health and fitness goals.