Oura Ring 5 review: A slimmer smart ring

Mobile | WearablesOura Ring 5 review: A slimmer smart ringThe Ring 5 is more comfortable to wear and lasts longer between charges, but its $599 starting price is harder to justify over its predecessor.

Photo: HWZThere’s always been something oddly counterintuitive about a smart ring. If I wanted health tracking, I’d usually go with a smartwatch, as it has more sensors and features. But after trying a few smart rings, including the Oura Ring 4, I can see the appeal. They’re easy to wear throughout the day and at night, and many look good as accessories too.

So when Oura offered me the Ring 5 to review, I wondered what more it could pack into a ring that’s 40% smaller by volume than its predecessor. It has a narrower, thinner titanium body and weighs from 2g, depending on size. What I found was a mix of hardware refinements and new app features, although some of those are also coming to older Oura rings too.

The Oura Ring 5 is probably the slimmest and smallest smart ring available now

The smaller size is the most obvious change with the Ring 5. It measures 6.09mm wide and just 2.28mm thick, compared with the Ring 4’s 7.9mm width and 2.88mm thickness. In my experience with it over the past few weeks, I found that the slimmer profile makes the ring feel less intrusive, particularly when I’m wearing it for long stretches or sleeping. The low-profile sensor domes also sit closer to the skin, while Oura says its redesigned sensing system uses 12 signal pathways to deliver more consistent readings across different finger shapes and skin tones.

Its low-profile design also makes the ring feel less intrustive, especially when sleeping.

Oura has resisted bundling a charging case with the Ring 5; instead we have the standard dock.

Aesthetically, the Ring 5 is very good-looking (especially the Black version that I received) and comes in six finishes. What’s more, Oura has added a more scratch-resistant coating too, and my ring stayed in good condition after several weeks of use, Mind you, I’m not even babysitting it. That’s reassuring and all, but it is still a ring you wear on your hand every day, so I’d expect it to pick up some signs of use over time.

What about the health tracking features? If you’re already a Ring 4 owner, then everything on the app feels familiar. You still get the Sleep, Readiness and Activity scores, along with data such as heart rate, temperature and blood oxygen. Sleep tracking remains the feature I find most useful, as it gives me a clear summary of my night rest and helps me spot issues that may be affecting my sleep. My time with the Ring 5 pretty much mirrors what I experienced with the Ring 4; I won’t go too in-depth but check out my Ring 4 review to find out more.

Oura’s app has one of the best interface and design, but unfortunately a lot of the deeper analysis reports are kept behind a subscription.

But there are some new highlights here, including Live Activity Tracking. This lets me start a workout in the Oura app and keep an eye on my pace, distance and heart rate through a lock-screen widget. Oura has also improved its automatic activity detection, which now covers more than 40 activities, including lower-motion exercises such as yoga and Pilates. Then there is Health Radar, which looks for longer-term patterns in cardiovascular and breathing data, including signals that may point to blood pressure changes or breathing disruptions during sleep. It doesn’t measure blood pressure directly or diagnose a condition, and I couldn’t test it on my Singapore account because the feature isn’t currently listed as available here. The other thing to keep in mind is that these software features aren’t exclusive to the Ring 5. Oura says many of them are also coming to Ring 3 and Ring 4 soon, which is fantastic news.

Battery life is improved too, with Oura rating the Ring 5 for six to nine days depending on the size – my size 9 got me just about eight days. Meanwhile, the same size 9 on the Ring 4 lasted up to six days in my review. That’s a pretty good improvement overall.

The Ring 5 is remarkably slimmer than the Ring 4 (left).

The Ring 5 builds on what I liked about the Ring 4. In that review, I found the sleep tracking useful, the app easy to understand and the ring comfortable to wear. Those qualities are still here, albeit in a slimmer design with longer battery life. But the core tracking experience hasn’t changed enough to make the Ring 5 feel like a must-have upgrade for every Ring 4 owner. Several of its new app features are also coming to older rings, and some aren’t available in Singapore yet.

The price here makes that decision harder. The Oura Ring 5 starts at $599 for Silver and Black, while the other finishes (Brushed Silver, Sealth, Gold and Deep Gold) cost $749. Oura’s membership is also still required for detailed insights, at US$5.99 a month or US$69.99 a year. I found that subscription difficult to swallow with the Ring 4, and the Ring 5 hasn’t changed my mind.

It’s noticeably slimmer too, compared to the Ring 4

For someone buying their first smart ring, the Ring 5 is a more comfortable, more refined version of a product I already enjoy using. But if you own the Ring 4, the smaller profile and improved battery life may not be enough to justify spending at least $599, especially when many of the software updates are heading to older models too. My Ring 4 review left me impressed by how useful the ring could be, but also frustrated by the subscription. After testing the Ring 5, I’m pretty much in the same place: I like wearing it and checking its sleep data, but I’d think carefully about the price before making the switch.

The Oura Ring 5 is now available at Weareready.sg, as well as at Takashimaya, Tangs, Courts, Harvey Norman and Metapod at Changi Airport.