Oura Ring Review
Table of Contents
About Oura Ring
To provide you with a clear picture of what is happening inside of you, several biohacking tools on the market track your sleep, physical performance, heart rate and so much more.
Oura Ring is a new generation of tracking devices that is wearable, tiny, convenient, and accurate.
Oura Health Ltd. was founded in Finland in 2013 by Petteri Lahtela, Kari Kivelä, and Markku Koskela. It’s a health technology company with a singular focus to help people become more conscious about their livelihood and excel in the way they live.
Oura is headquartered in Oulu, Finland, and has other locations in Helsinki and San Francisco. From 2018 to 2021, Harpreet Singh Rai was the CEO who was replaced by Michael Chapp.
The brand believes that everyone is better off trusting and understanding their own body to guide them towards health rather than relying on broken health care systems.
As part of their innovative movement in the direction of creating and living a high-quality life, Oura empowers people to be more mindful of their well-being, understand the significance of a healthy lifestyle, and build a different future for their kind.
In this Oura Ring review, I will take an in-depth look at the brand’s new Oura Ring Generation 3, its customer ratings, promotions, customer feedback, and more to help you decide if this device is for you.
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Pros and Cons
First, let’s start off with some of the key advantages and criticisms of the Oura Ring:
Pros
- Accurate sleep tracking: The Oura Ring is designed to accurately track your sleep, including how long you sleep, how long you spend in each stage of sleep, and how restful your sleep is. This information can be valuable for improving your sleep quality and overall health.
- Heart rate variability tracking: The Oura Ring also tracks heart rate variability (HRV), which is a measure of the variability between heartbeats. HRV is an important indicator of overall health, and tracking it can help you monitor your stress levels and recovery from exercise.
- Discreet design: The Oura Ring has a discreet design that looks like a regular ring. This means you can wear it all day without it being too noticeable, and it won’t interfere with your daily activities.
- Long battery life: The Oura Ring has a battery life of up to 7 days, which means you don’t have to charge it every day.
Cons
- Expensive: The Oura Ring is more expensive than other wearable health trackers, which may be a barrier for some people.
- Limited features: While the Oura Ring is designed to track sleep and HRV, it doesn’t have as many features as some other wearable health trackers. For example, it doesn’t have GPS tracking, so you can’t use it to track your outdoor runs.
- Requires a smartphone: The Oura Ring requires a smartphone to sync and view your data, which may be inconvenient for some people who prefer standalone devices.
- Not waterproof: The Oura Ring is not waterproof, so you have to take it off before swimming or showering.
Features
The Oura Ring is a powerful health tracker that provides a range of features to help you monitor and improve your health. Its sleep tracking and HRV monitoring capabilities are particularly notable, making it a great choice for anyone looking to improve their sleep quality and overall health.
Here’s a complete breakdown of its features:
- Sleep tracking: The Oura Ring tracks your sleep patterns, including how long you sleep, how long you spend in each stage of sleep, and how restful your sleep is. It also provides a “sleep score” that rates the quality of your sleep.
- Activity tracking: The Oura Ring tracks your daily activity, including steps taken, calories burned, and active time. It also provides a “activity goal” based on your daily habits.
- Heart rate variability (HRV) tracking: The Oura Ring measures the variability between heartbeats, which is an important indicator of overall health. It tracks your HRV during sleep and throughout the day, and provides insights on your stress levels and recovery from exercise.
- Body temperature monitoring: The Oura Ring tracks your body temperature throughout the day and during sleep, which can provide insights into your circadian rhythms and overall health.
- Guided breathing exercises: The Oura Ring provides guided breathing exercises to help you manage stress and improve your HRV.
- Personalized insights: The Oura Ring provides personalized insights based on your sleep and activity data, including recommendations for improving your sleep quality and activity level.
- Long battery life: The Oura Ring has a battery life of up to 7 days, which means you don’t have to charge it every day.
- Discreet design: The Oura Ring has a discreet design that looks like a regular ring, which means you can wear it all day without it being too noticeable.
How To Wear Oura Ring
The Oura Ring is designed to be worn on your finger, just like a regular ring. Here are some tips for wearing yours:
- Choose the right size: The Oura Ring comes in several sizes to fit different fingers. Make sure you choose the right size for your finger to ensure a comfortable fit.
- Wear it on your dominant hand: The Oura Ring is designed to be worn on your dominant hand, which is the hand you use most often for daily activities.
- Wear it snugly: The Oura Ring should be worn snugly on your finger, but not too tight. You should be able to slide a finger between the ring and your skin without too much resistance.
- Wear it all day: The Oura Ring is designed to be worn all day, including during sleep. Wear it as much as possible to get the most accurate data on your sleep, activity, and HRV.
- Take it off before water activities: The Oura Ring is not waterproof, so you should take it off before swimming, showering, or doing any other water activities.
- Clean it regularly: To keep your Oura Ring clean, wipe it down with a soft, damp cloth. Avoid using any harsh chemicals or abrasive materials that could damage the ring.
As you can see, wearing the Oura Ring is simple and straightforward. Just make sure you choose the right size, wear it snugly on your finger, and keep it clean and dry to get the most accurate data on your health.
Oura Ring 3
To find out if it’s all just hype or Oura Ring 3 is truly making health information accessible and personal for everyone, keep reading this Oura Ring review as I uncover some details about the new version’s features and perks.
Oura has been continuing to pursue its mission by partnering with leading scientific research institutions to run several clinical studies that back up Oura’s growing and advanced potential.
By measuring your body temperature and heart rate, the Oura Ring is designed to give you a precise idea of how your body is doing and what you need to do to support it better. This small titanium piece wrapped around your finger is a personal guide to awaken you to your inner potential.
It does so by analyzing three aspects of sleep quality and quantity, your body’s readiness and recovery state, and activeness and rest states 24/7. This way, you can schedule your day more wisely and get the maximum advantage from the hours you’ve got.
In October 2021, Oura announced the 3rd generation of its Oura Ring. Just like the older model, the new ring comes in silver, black, stealth (matte black), and gold finishes.
You have 8 sizes to choose from, from 6 to 13, inside the sizing kit that ships to you after you place your order.
Oura’s Generation 3 smart ring presents enticing and promising new features and upgrades to the previous features. This includes blood oxygen measuring, daytime and workout heart rate tracking, period prediction, video, and audio sessions, and more insights according to your location.
The new ring now has seven temperature sensors that can help you in detecting when you might be getting sick, and predict menstrual cycles[2] for women.
These are ambitious features that the brand believes to be the beginning stages of more women’s health-oriented aspects like pregnancy prediction[3].
My Oura Ring review will dive deeper into three of the new and versatile additions:
The blood oxygen monitoring feature that becomes available sometime this year estimates the oxygen saturation or SpO2 in your blood. A proper level of oxygen in the blood is essential for your body to function efficiently[4].
This innovative feature may not sound very exciting to many but it does give gym addicts an idea of when their bodies are ready to train more.
Thanks to daytime heart rate tracking, Oura now allows you at any given moment to measure your heart rate. At the end of each Oura cycle, from 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, you will have enough data to analyze the trendline of your heart rate value in beats per minute.
This feature’s insights help to understand how daily activities and rest influence your pulse and what to do to optimize this value.
The new workout heart rate tracking feature is another advantage scheduled to arrive in 2022. It is going to set Oura Ring 3 apart from other low-profile fitness trackers that can only count your steps.
This feature is unique because it looks into how your daily workout affects your sleep and other things such as your body’s adaptation to everyday stressors.
In addition to detecting daytime naps which was an old feature, one other useful advantage of wearing your Oura Ring around the clock is to know what days are better for you to challenge yourself based on the readiness scores and which days to dedicate to rest and recovery for peak performance.
If you are concerned about electromagnetic fields[5] and their effects on your sleep and general health, this ring is designed to allow you to completely disable the Bluetooth function. So you don’t have to worry about its constant signal transmission.
Besides, according to the FAQ section on the Oura website, it has one of the lowest EMF transmission profiles, even compared to smartphones. The Airplane mode also gives you the option of eliminating all EMF exposure if needed.
Before you decide if you want to pay for a health tracker device I would recommend that you check in with yourself to see if you are 100% willing and open to using the data and insights you collect to build healthier habits and change your lifestyle.
Otherwise, if the ring is simply going to make you feel stressed about your health or you only want to try it out of curiosity with no specific goal to achieve, then maybe fitness and health tracking apps on your phone are doing enough job.
The Oura Ring has a fixed price of $299, with a free one-year warranty. The monthly membership fee for its app is priced at $6 before tax in the US and $7 after tax in the rest of the world.
Users who upgrade from Ring 2 to the new Generation 3 model, get a free 6-month membership, paying $6 every month after that.
Note that without buying the membership, the Oura Ring is still usable but you only have access to basic information and three daily Oura Scores: Readiness, Sleep, and Activity.
Who Is Oura Ring For?
Whether you are a poor sleeper or a professional athlete looking for new biohacking tools, Oura Ring is a comprehensive health tracker with an emphasis on improving the quality of your sleep cycles.
Everyone needs to pay attention to the quality of their sleep as it plays a significant role in overall health.
The Oura Ring is best for anyone who is eager to get equipped with real-time analysis of their health.
By tracking heart rate variability, sleep, steps taken, respiration, calories burned, perspiration, and skin temperature, you can monitor specific patterns around your health to actively take measures to improve your daily lifestyle choices.
What Are The Benefits of Oura Ring?
Without a screen and taking up too much space, Oura Ring helps you understand how you can strengthen your immunity[6], become more active, listen to your body, improve memory[7], concentration and productivity, build muscle faster, lose weight, boost your heart health[8], and so much more.
Your body temperature drops[9] when you go to bed, helping you fall and stay asleep and upon waking, your temperature starts to rise. Your Oura Ring is there to monitor your body temperature regulation and give you hints on what to do to get the best restful sleep and reap all the benefits that come with a fully recharged mind and body.
The other positive aspect of Oura Ring is that rather than providing generalized information and recommendations around sleep habits, it motivates each user with tailored advice to help them achieve their realistic goals.
Educating users on the effects of blue light exposure from phones or eating heavy meals close to bedtime[11] on sleep are examples of personalized suggestions by Oura.
These are for people who have problems with the quantity of their sleep or a circadian rhythm that is out of balance.
How Does Oura Ring Work?
Oura Ring’s advanced design identifies deep sleep, REM sleep, and periods of wakefulness. This could be the most popular reason why the ring attracted thousands of fans around the world.
The idea of receiving accurate data about your health based on your movement, body temperature, and heart rate is filling more gaps in the healthcare system.
This little device provides you with so much information beyond the number of calories you burn or the steps you take. It is constantly evolving into a more complete computer.
Oura Ring Reviews: What Do Customers Think?
While writing this Oura Ring review, I’m convinced that Oura analyzes all of your body’s data to help you live your healthiest life. Just to be sure, I looked into several customer reviews to help you make an informed decision about whether this portable tracker device is worth a try.
Unfortunately, I found no reviews on the Oura website. I did find some reviews on Trustpilot, where the brand has an overall average rating of 1.6/5stars after 599 reviews.
A happy customer said: “As a long-time (almost 4 years) Oura customer, I’m very happy with the service. The ring works like a Swiss train and the app is continuously updated and never misses a beat. I recently updated to Gen 3 and I must say paying for the ring on the launch day was difficult, but otherwise, everything was smooth.”
“The ring was swiftly delivered like was my wife’s ring (she ordered a month later). With the gen2 I got battery issues, but the ring was replaced under warranty by a simple exchange of messages within the app. For me and people I know using Oura, the customer service has been really responsive contrary to some news I’ve seen recently.”
Another positive review said: “I use the ring every day. Great concept, works well, I don’t take it off even for sauna or for washing dishes. Thumbs up and looking forward to new innovations as well! I’ve had a gen 2 ring before, and now using gen 3.”
On Oura’s website, a triathlete raved: “I’m excited to start listening and looking at my stats, like Readiness, Sleep, and HRV. Being receptive to, or even conveniently having, data like this was not something I had in my arsenal in the past, and I’m ready for it to make the difference.”
I found a couple of negative Oura Ring reviews as well, given the low average rating of the company on Trustpilot. The main complaints were about some inaccuracy of tracking data, unease around data security, and unresponsive customer service.
Is Oura Ring Worth It?
When it comes to accessibility and price, Oura Ring may not be the best health tracker on the market. While early adopters may have a free lifetime membership, giving them access to every single feature and insight, doesn’t come at a cheap price for new users.
Smart wristbands and other health tracking apps may still be good enough for giving the average person the information they need.
However, all the science-backed new features used in Oura’s upgrade may be worth the hype, and perfect for those health and wellness enthusiasts who wish to take their personal health one step further.
Alternatives
If Oura Ring isn’t accessible to you, there are many alternatives for people looking for wearable health trackers. Consider your needs and budget when choosing a device, and look for one that offers the features and insights that are most important to you.
- Fitbit: Fitbit is a popular brand of wearable health trackers that offers a range of devices, including the Fitbit Sense, which tracks sleep, activity, and stress levels, and provides personalized insights to help you improve your health.
- Apple Watch: The Apple Watch is a smartwatch that offers a range of health tracking features, including heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and activity tracking. It also offers features like ECG monitoring and fall detection.
- Garmin: Garmin is a brand of wearable health trackers that offers a range of devices, including the Garmin Venu, which tracks sleep, activity, and stress levels, and provides personalized insights to help you improve your health.
- Biostrap: Biostrap is a wearable health tracker that tracks sleep, activity, and heart rate variability. It also provides guided breathing exercises and personalized insights to help you improve your health.
- Whoop: Whoop is a wearable health tracker that tracks sleep, activity, and heart rate variability, and provides personalized insights to help you improve your health. It also offers a membership program that provides additional features and insights.
Oura Ring Promotions & Discounts
In search of an Oura Ring discount, I found that 6 free months of membership for first-time users is the new perk of getting the ring on their website. The Oura app, which is constantly evolving, will be the member’s new home.
Through your membership, you can get access to a ton of features such as recommendations tailored to your specific needs, insights, and scientifically-proven informative material to make small changes happen.
Where to Buy Oura Ring
To avoid mistakenly buying knock off smart rings, it’s best to shop for the authentic product on the official website.
FAQ
What is Oura’s Shipping Policy?
After placing your order on the official website you will receive a sizing kit within two weeks. You can find tracking information and other details in the email you receive after ordering your product.
Oura Ring uses DHL, UPS Express Saver, and DHL Globalmail for shipment, shipping from the US or the Netherlands depending on your location.
Delivery times may be influenced by the availability of the item and your location. Regardless of your location worldwide, the shipping fees are $15 and orders arrive within 2-3 weeks after it has been shipped.
For a complete list of countries that Oura ships to, check the shipping FAQs.
What is Oura’s Return Policy?
If you are unsatisfied with your Oura Ring purchase, as long as the ring is undamaged and is in its original condition, you have 30 days to return it for a full refund minus the shipping costs.
To start a return, you will need to have your original order number provided to you at the time of purchase.
Returns usually take up to 10 days to be processed after Oura receives the product. Note that you can get a full refund, or change the color or size of your ring only once.
How to Contact Oura Ring
To find answers to any questions that I didn’t answer in this Oura Ring review, head over to their help center. You can also contact them by email and submit an online contact form for the customer support team to get back to you.
Oura’s Mailing address is: Elektroniikkatie 10, 90590 Oulu, Finland
For more smart tracking devices, check out these reviews:
Article Sources
- Kinnunen, H. O., & Koskimäki, H. The HRV of the Ring – Comparison of nocturnal HR and HRV between the ŌURA ring and ECG Sleep, 41(suppl_1)
- Maijala, A., Kinnunen, H., Koskimäki, H. et al. Nocturnal finger skin temperature in menstrual cycle tracking: ambulatory pilot study using a wearable Oura ring BMC Women's Health 19, 150
- Grant, A., & Smarr, B. Feasibility of Continuous Distal Body Temperature for Passive, Early Pregnancy Detection
- Hafen BB, Sharma S. Oxygen Saturation StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-
- Kaszuba-Zwoińska, J., Gremba, J., Gałdzińska-Calik, B., Wójcik-Piotrowicz, K., & Thor, P. J. Electromagnetic field induced biological effects in humans Przeglad lekarski, 72(11), 636–641
- Besedovsky, L., Lange, T., & Born, J. Sleep and immune function Pflugers Archiv : European journal of physiology, 463(1), 121–137
- Rasch, B., & Born, J. About Sleep's Role in Memory Physiological reviews, 93(2), 681–766
- Kinnunen, H., Rantanen, A., Kenttä, T., & Koskimäki, H. Feasible assessment of recovery and cardiovascular health: accuracy of nocturnal HR and HRV assessed via ring PPG in comparison to medical grade ECG Physiological Measurement, 41(4)
- Lack, L. C., Gradisar, M., Van Someren, E. J., Wright, H. R., & Lushington, K. The relationship between insomnia and body temperatures Sleep medicine reviews, 12(4), 307–317
- Manoogian, E., Chaix, A., & Panda, S. When to Eat: The Importance of Eating Patterns in Health and Disease Journal of biological rhythms, 34(6), 579–581
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