I Replaced My Apple Watch With The Oura Ring 4 For Sleep Tracking (and It Did Some Things Better)

ZDNET's cardinal takeaways

• The Oura Ring 4 is Oura's latest procreation smart ring, pinch a starting value of $350
• The ringing emphasizes a comfortable build pinch flatter and smarter sensors, much sizes, upgraded software, and an alleged eight-day artillery life.
• The eight-day artillery life is really much for illustration 5 and a half days.

While Oura was quiet these past fewer years, successful betwixt nan merchandise of its Ring 3 successful 2021 and nan improvement of its Ring 4 (now available), a groundswell of competitors released smart rings of their own, from big-name brands for illustration Samsung to indie upstarts for illustration Ultrahuman and RingConn. 

Also: Oura's CEO wants its smart ringing to beryllium nan expert successful your pocket

The smart ringing abstraction is heating up, and we person officially reached highest wellness tracker. During nan past fewer years, Oura has been engaged processing a smart ringing that's smarter and stronger than nan rest: nan precocious unveiled Oura Ring 4. I've tested nan instrumentality for months now, and it surpasses nan title by a mile. Here's how.

Oura puts comfortableness astatine nan forefront of its Ring 4 -- some functional comfort, being awesome to wear, and via extended and inclusive sizing. Oura's Ring 3 offers sizes six done 13, and nan Ring 4 offers sizes 4 done 15. Out of each nan smart rings I've tested connected nan market, this sizing scope is nan astir expansive and will fresh digit sizes mini and large. 

I wore nan Gen 3 for astir of past year, and I regularly noticed barren spots astir my digit wherever nan protruded sensor domes near impressions. This made nan instrumentality irritating to deterioration for longer periods. The Ring 4 uses recessed smart sensors to support nan wrong of nan ringing level and easy to wear, creating nan astir comfortable and unnoticeable procreation of nan instrumentality yet.

The Oura Ring 4 (left) has receded sensors that make it much comfortable to deterioration compared to Oura Ring 3 (right). 

Nina Raemont/ZDNET

As annoying arsenic they were, nan Ring 3's protruded sensor domes did thin to grip your finger, which made it easier for nan ringing to enactment unafraid while you were asleep, and for nan position of nan dimple to enactment group connected nan wrong of your finger, wherever it collected nan astir meticulous data. Without nan domes, nan Ring 4 becomes slippery: nan 2nd nighttime I wore nan ringing connected my pointer digit to bed, it fell disconnected while I was asleep, thing that ne'er happened during my 9 months pinch nan Ring 3. 

Also: The champion smart rings you tin buy

A awesome trading constituent that intrigued maine pinch nan Oura Ring 4 is nan extended and uber-competitive eight-day artillery life. I hadn't seen immoderate competing smart rings pinch specified a agelong artillery life, truthful I was eager to spot really agelong nan instrumentality would last. I put nan ringing connected astatine 9 americium connected a Friday morning, and location betwixt Wednesday nighttime and Thursday morning, nan ringing deed 0% and died connected me. 

That artillery life clocked successful astatine astir 5 days, 3 days little than advertised. An Oura spokesperson recommended disabling nan humor oxygen sensing characteristic and updating to nan latest package to amended artillery life, and this gave maine an other fewer days pinch nan ringing earlier recharging. Most batteries don't past arsenic agelong arsenic advertised for regular wear. For example, Samsung's Galaxy Ring advertises a seven-day artillery life but regularly lasts 4 to 5 days, tops. On nan agleam side, recharging nan ringing took nary clip and boosted nan artillery from 0% to 30% successful little than 20 minutes.

Also: Oura Ring 3 vs Oura Ring 4: Should you bargain nan discounted smart ringing aliases nan brand's newest?

Another awesome trading constituent of nan Oura Ring 4 is its smart sensors, which support nan build comfortable and its artillery life long. Oura adds 10 other awesome pathways, making 18 successful full to stitchery wellness information and set for nan earthy movements of nan ringing that hap during regular wear.  

Hardware aside, nan package wrong nan app is arsenic intriguing and updated arsenic nan beingness ringing itself. Some of my favourite features Oura improves upon successful its fourth-generation instrumentality see nan automatic bosom complaint monitoring that takes spot done its workout discovery feature, nan meal-logging functionality that correctly cataloged my slop of a meal (more connected that later), and nan daytime accent characteristic that offers much discourse than ever. 

Also: Your adjacent Oura Ring aliases Apple watch could person a characteristic that transforms healthcare

Let's commencement pinch bosom complaint monitoring. Before nan Ring 4 upgrade, if you wanted to seizure information connected your bosom complaint while exercising, you'd person to spell into nan app to deed grounds connected that function. The upgraded app -- disposable to each Oura users, sloppy of smart ringing procreation -- takes this information automatically erstwhile it detects movement. When dancing astatine a performance 1 night, nan instrumentality automatically clocked nan activity and recorded my bosom rate. I emotion immoderate characteristic upgrade that does nan engaged activity for me, truthful I tin walk little clip reasoning astir signaling my activities and much clip doing nan activity itself (and reviewing nan information later).  

Oura Ring 4 could accurately observe what was successful my hodge-podge of a yogurt bowl. 

Screenshot by Nina Raemont/ZDNET

The 2nd package characteristic that blew maine distant was repast logging. The first greeting I tried retired nan feature, disposable to trial retired done Oura Labs, I was half-finished pinch my yogurt, chia seeds, banana, and raspberries. I picked complete nan meal because I realized halfway done that I wanted to log nan meal. This determination was nary problem for nan AI camera, which detected almost each constituent successful my bowl, to my utter astonishment and disbelief. 

You can't count calories pinch this feature; instead, it's a measurement to log nan timing of your meals to understand really regularity impacts your vitals complete nan day. Meal logging is an experimental characteristic and could vanish successful time, but it's a adjuvant and awesome instrumentality that utilizes AI cleverly and surprisingly. 

Also: Oura surpasses Apple Watch and Fitbit's slumber accuracy successful caller study 

Lastly, Oura upgraded its daytime accent characteristic by including nan tags users adhd passim nan time and nan exercises it automatically detects and overlays connected nan daytime accent timeline. The overlaid timeline clarifies and distinguishes betwixt bodily accent caused by a difficult workout aliases accent caused by a time astatine activity aliases a societal outing precocious astatine night. 

You tin spot tags for erstwhile you acquisition physiological stress, specified arsenic activity overlaid connected nan daytime timeline. 

Screenshot by Nina Raemont/ZDNET

The October motorboat of nan Ring 4 besides brings nan Oura app redesign. Given nan smart ringing is screenless, nan personification acquisition relies connected an effective app pinch awesome information illustration. Oura has redesigned nan interface to create 3 halfway tabs: Today, Vitals, and My Health. The Today tab provides a snapshot of your regular scores and wellness data, for illustration readiness, sleep, activity, bosom rate, and accent duration. 

The Vitals tab shows you a humanities position of those scores. The My Health tab shows trends that don't alteration complete a week aliases two, for illustration your resilience level, cardiovascular age, and slumber health. 

The layout is simply a thoughtful measurement to abstracted nan galore datasets Oura records into relevant-by-day, relevant-by-week, and longitudinal illustrations. Some metrics are harder to find done this reorganization than others. Reddit users person already shared their critiques of nan redesign, pinch galore opposing these changes (it's a cosmopolitan tech truth that users seldom invited an app redesign). With immoderate curiosity and patience, you tin still find nan information you're looking for connected nan app -- spot me. 

Also: The Oura Ring 4 is ZDNET's champion merchandise of nan year

As usual, you study tons astir your assemblage simply by having this point astir your finger, specified arsenic really overmuch amended you slumber erstwhile you haven't drunk intoxicant aliases eaten precocious into nan night, and really your assemblage reacts to nan regular stresses of being a human. That capacity hasn't changed from ringing procreation to generation. 

Another point that, unfortunately, hasn't changed is that this instrumentality will still costs you a batch of money -- and you will still person to salary a monthly subscription (despite smart ringing competitors doing distant pinch subscriptions of their own). The Oura Ring 4 starts astatine $350 and rises depending connected your desired finish. You'll besides salary $6 monthly if you want entree to each nan information nan ringing gathers. 

ZDNET's buying advice

So, should you bargain it? If I were to create nan Oura Ring 4's perfect customer, it would beryllium personification who has nan money (or nan FSA/HSA funds, since nan smart ringing is FSA/HSA-eligible) and nan curiosity to dive into their wellness insights and make manner choices accordingly. 

This smart ringing provides data-driven recommendations connected sleep, activity, and accent to group who continually cheque nan app. It's helped maine get my slumber successful cheque and summation my activity, because I was incentivized to deterioration it and get my resilience and slumber regularity scores up. I tin without a uncertainty corroborate that it's made my habits healthier -- aliases brought my unhealthy habits to light, astatine nan very least. 

The smart ringing is perpetually innovating pinch experimental features for metabolic, heart, and slumber health, truthful Oura Ring 4's perfect customer would beryllium personification looking for groundbreaking features to usage and research with. 

That said, copycats ever travel nan innovators, and we're seeing immoderate competitors implementing Oura's features, for illustration its Cardiovascular Age and Daytime Stress features, into their ain products. The closest dupe is done subscription-free Ultrahuman Ring Air, and if you don't want to salary nan $6 a period subscription to person entree to extended wellness data, I'd urge nan Ring Air instead. 

Most of nan hardware upgrades prioritize comfort, truthful if you already person an Oura Ring 3, I'd only bargain nan Oura Ring 4 if you can't guidelines nan uncomfortable protruding dome sensors of nan earlier generation. The awesome package comes to some models done nan app. Another logic to bargain nan caller ringing could beryllium nan (somewhat) extended artillery life, if your Ring 3's artillery is withering away, and nan expanded sizing if you haven't recovered a smart ringing that fits your finger. 

If you haven't purchased a smart ringing yet, I'd urge nan Ring 4. Despite its competitors vying for attention, there's nary mobility which institution is winning nan smart-ring title -- and it's nan Oura Ring 4. No smart ringing is arsenic innovative, feature-rich, size-inclusive, and thoughtful successful its creation and rollout.