Ring in your main character era of health with Oura
Staff Review: The Oura Ring keeps tabs on your daily activity, sleep, stress, and recovery through an advanced sensor array.
Note: BodyStack does not accept affiliate marketing commissions on any product. We believe in this product, and this recommendation comes from a good place.
The Oura Ring is the go-to smart ring. Heck, it might be the most important ring you ever buy (note, if you have a spouse, don't phrase it like that). Oura tracks many of the same metrics your average wearable does, without the need for a bulky, futuristic-looking gadget strapped to your wrist. If you're ring shopping for your health, and want the very best, Oura is the way to go. But which ring to choose?
Pros:
- Multiple styles and finishes
- Excellent battery life
- Quality app experience
Cons:
- Membership required for quality experience
- Some finishes show wear easier
- No on-device display
There are a lot of different and valuable metrics you can track with an Oura Ring including sleep, stress, and various activities. The ring is equipped with advanced sensors for tracking heart rate, heart rate variability (fluctuation between heart beats) body temperature, blood oxygen levels (Sp02) and activity levels.
Oura's rings come in two different styles. The Heritage, which has a slightly flattened area on the top of the ring. And the Horizon, which is a perfect circle. There are four finish options for the Heritage and six for the Horizon. Quick note though, the Stealth finish, which is a matte black, shows more signs of wear (small scratches) compared to the non-brushed finishes.
Oura Rings track activity levels, sleep, stress, and recovery
Product Specs
In The Box: You'll receive an Oura Ring, a charging stand, a USB C cable, and a user manual.
Ring Size: The Oura Ring comes in many sizes. If this is your first Oura Ring, before you order, you can receive a box of plastic sample rings of all available sizes to ensure the one you order is the right fit.
Sensors: The ring is equipped with advanced sensors that track various health metrics, including heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), body temperature, and activity levels.
Style: The Oura Ring comes in two styles and depending on the style you can choose from the following finishes: Silver, black, stealth, brushed titanium, gold, and rose gold.
What we like about the Oura Ring
Sleep Tracking: The Oura Ring tracks your sleep patterns, including the duration and quality of your sleep, providing you with valuable insights into your sleep health.
Activity Tracking: The ring monitors your daily activity levels, including steps taken, calories burned, and active minutes, helping you stay active and achieve your fitness goals.
Recovery Tracking: The Oura Ring measures your HRV and body temperature to assess your body's recovery status, helping you optimize your recovery and prevent overtraining.
Personalized Health Insights: The ring provides you with personalized insights and recommendations based on your health data, helping you make informed decisions about your health and wellness.
Style: If you're looking for a health wearable that doesn't look like a health wearable, this is it!
What might deter you from the Oura Ring
Subscription Required: While Oura says you can use the ring without a subscription, it tracks almost no valuable metrics without one. You get one free month of the app with your ring, but from that point on you're buying the $5.99 per month membership or paying $70 for the annual subscription.
Signs of Wear: Certain finishes show wear more prominently.We've used the Heritage in the silver finish for years and it looks brand new. But after only a few month the Horizon with the stealth finish has notable signs of wear.
No Display: If you've worn other fitness trackers before and got used to a quick glance at the display to view your health data in the moment (particularly heart rate for exercise) this isn't an option with Oura. You need to open the app on your phone, since the device doesn't have a display. However, lack of display for some could be a selling feature.
The Thought Behind The Product
There is a lot of power within this small ring. Frodo and the gang would be impressed.
Through the unique combination of sensors, you can get some really insightful health information that you can't find with other fitness trackers.
By measuring heart rate, heart rate variability, body temperature, Sp02 levels, and activity, Oura provides valuable health insights
For example, stress monitoring. While the selling features of Oura may be sleep tracking or activity tracking, stress (whether good or bad) can affect a lot of other aspects of your overall wellness from your sleep habits, to your nutrition plan, to your overall mood.
Oura measures stress through heart rate variability, motion throughout the day and regular temperature checks. About two hours after you wake up, you can look in the app to start keeping tabs on your stress and reflect over time how many minutes per day you were in a relaxed state, engaged (signs of stress, but could be from productive things), or stressed (highest level it tracks, indicative that restorative time is needed).
Adding "tags" throughout your day allows for more granular metric tracking within the Oura app
Many metrics are tracked automatically from wearing the ring. You can add further detail and context by adding tags throughout your day. For example, your ring might show a spike in stress, but you can tag that it happened during a period of exercise so you know it's not a concern, or if you have the flu, therefore are exercising less, you can add a tag to denote that day's low activity as a one-off, not part of a trend.
Check your daily readiness score
Each day the Oura app provides you a readiness score for the day ahead. This is based on all the data points collected in your recent history. This can be really helpful in case you're not recognizing that your body may need more rest before tackling a particularly difficult workout allowing you to make more thoughtful choices for your day ahead.
The Bottom Line:
The Oura Ring has rightfully become the go-to in the smart ring market. There are new challenges emerging each year, but Oura continues to dominate for the quality of the hardware and the ease-of-use of the app-based software.
The initial cost is fair for the quality of the device, however, you absolutely must have an active membership, otherwise you won't be able to pull any meaningful data from the ring to inform your daily choices. So make sure to budget for that $70 per year membership in addition to the ring.
Whether you're looking to improve your sleep, track your activity, or optimize your recovery, the Oura Ring has you covered.
