The Oura Ring 4
It looks nice but is it a major upgrade?
I've been wearing an Oura Ring on my finger for over five years.
It started out as some product research with the potential of doing marketing work for the company in their early years. While that never panned out, I've loved the product from day one and written about it here before.
As each new model of ring came out, I didn't hesitate to upgrade. There have been a slew of improvements that made the Oura Ring an indispensable part of my "quantified self" journey.
My lifetime subscription to the service makes it appealing to stay on board. I wouldn't be as enthusiastic if I had to pay the monthly membership fee, but I can still see the value that it brings. Did I even sleep last night if the Oura Ring didn't track it? I don't want to find out.
But over the past few weeks, my Gen 3 Ring finally gave up on me. The battery life was abysmal. I could barely get through a day of activities without it dying before I woke up the next morning. The advertised 7-day battery life was long gone.
So without much hesitation, I went ahead and ordered a new ring. I'm a fairly loyal customer and while I'd heard mixed reviews on the new model, I thought I'd give it a shot. After much deliberation, I went with the Brushed Silver model of the Gen 4 ring. I even ordered the sizing kit just to confirm that I'd still be a size 10 as I was in the previous ring.
I do appreciate that the Oura Ring can now be purchased using Health FSA funds that I had saved up. It makes sense. It really has become my first line of defense against all health issues. The Oura Ring often knows that I'm sick before I know that I'm sick. So after a few receipt submissions, my FSA money was approved to cover the cost of the product.
While I waited for the new ring to arrive, I still used my old ring, charging it on a daily basis. On a lark, I had gone searching for people with similar battery issues on the Oura Subreddit. It turns out that I wasn't the only one who had seen their Gen 3 battery go kaput.
Apparently, you only had to chat with the automated assistant within the Oura app to be approved for a replacement ring. It took me all of 30 seconds to explain my battery issue to the bot, it ran some "diagnostics" and then said I was entitled to a new ring and it would be shipped out right away. It was honestly some of the best customer service I've ever received and it was apparently done without any human involvement.
My wonky ring was getting replaced and I had ordered the next generation of ring as well. So much data was going to be tracked!
Well, my Gen 4 ring arrived first and I've been wearing it for the past few days. So far it has been a mostly positive experience. I do like the look of the brushed silver. It's a nice change of pace since I've been wearing black Oura Rings since 2020. It certainly does reflect the light a bit more than I was expecting, but it's not a bad thing. You can tell it's brushed rather than metallic or matte, it's a unique visual look. And I imagine it will hold up better to scratches than the other colors.
But is the Gen 4 ring doing anything special that the Gen 3 ring couldn't do? It's hard to tell. I'm going to give it a few weeks to see if any new data emerges. Visually, it looks nice but I sorta miss the "Heritage" style of my old ring. That essentially just means that the top of it is flat rather than a perfect circle. Fiddling with a piece of jewelry that you wear everyday is part of the fun. I was always adjusting the ring and feeling the flat top throughout the day. A perfectly round ring just feels more boring in my mind.
And it's a small thing, but the red and green sensor lights on the inside of the ring seem to be far more visible in complete darkness than they were in previous generations. It could be because the sensors themselves are brighter and more powerful. Or it could just be that the placement of the ring is a little loose on my finger allowing more light to escape. Either way, it seems to really light up a room when you don't want it to.
I have to say, I’m a bit nervous for the future of the Oura Ring. I know a lot of folks (myself included) were really excited about the Gen 4 model. There is competition coming from the likes of Samsung and others and the upgrade to the new generation feels fairly minimal. Sure, they’re releasing plenty of software updates to keep things fresh, but I’m not sure what more can be done with the existing hardware.
I’m certainly in the habit of wearing it and will continue to do so for at least a few months. But check back with me next year and we’ll see if I still consider it to be an essential piece of my daily tech routine.
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