22-03-2025
I Was Skeptical Of The Oura Ring At First. Now That I've Worn It For Months, I Completely Understand The Hype.
If you're anything like me, you've seen the Oura Ring device on social media in the last few months. The Oura Ring is a "smart ring" that, according to the company's website, is continually collecting data on over 20 biometrics that directly impact a person's well-being during both day and night.
Jeremy Moeller / Getty Images, Lara Parker / BuzzFeed
The Oura Ring is said to be capable of tracking your heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), sleep, activity (steps, calories), body temperature, blood oxygen, menstrual cycle, and breathing. And it does all of this by using infrared and red and green LED light beams to measure your biometrics. The thing about this tech is that the more you wear the ring, the more personalized your insights become.
The company started in Finland, which is famously renowned as the happiest country in the world. And their mission is relatively simple: Learn more about your body and your health with a small device you can comfortably wear every day.
Sounds pretty great, right? But, again, if you're anything like me, you might have thought, "just another tech gadget that people will move on from in 12-16 months." I lived through the Apple Watch phase, the Fitbit, and even the Garmin smartwatches. While I recognize that the Oura Ring is, in fact, not a watch, the premise of having a pricey tech device that allegedly helps you be more in tune with your body and overall health is not new. And while many people love this tech, I never understood the hype. So I hope you understand why I approached the Oura Ring with a healthy dose of skepticism.
And at $349+ for the Oura Ring 4 or $249+ for the Oura Ring 3 —depending on which finish you choose — plus a subscription cost of $5.99/monthly or $69.99/annually, skepticism is needed.
So, because I work at BuzzFeed and thought you, our dear readers, might be curious too, I did what I do best: I got my hands on my own Oura Ring last year and have been wearing it and studying its capabilities ever since. I wanted to see for myself if this device lived up to the hype.
And while I did receive this ring as a press sample, I was under no obligation to review it at all or review it positively.
And, one more thing before we dive in: while I will do my best to review my entire experience with the Oura Ring, I do have to note that I chose not to explore any capabilities around my menstrual cycle due to complications with endometriosis and adenomyosis. So, while I will do my best to offer you a comprehensive review, I do apologize that I won't be speaking directly to the ring's capabilities when it comes to insights into my menstrual cycle.
The Oura Ring 4 was released on October 15, 2024, and pledged a few upgrades from the previous models — like improved battery life and a sleeker design. For the purpose of this review, I received the most recent model and chose to go with a finish of Rose Gold in the Horizon style.
As you can see, the different finishes have different price tags. Truthfully, I wasn't sure what finish to go with. I liked the idea of silver, but I had also seen one of my fave influencers — Morgan Riddle, shout out to tennis! — in the gold. Ultimately, it was a game-time decision to go with Rose Gold because I felt like it matched the vibe of my daily outfits and other jewelry, and the "gold" option looked a And while I am not unhappy with this choice, sometimes I do wonder about the Gold and Silver options and what could have been...
After deciding on a finish, it was time to figure out sizing. This is one of my biggest complaints about my Oura Ring. As you can see in the photos below, when you order an Oura Ring, you receive a special Oura Ring sizing kit. I really wanted to wear my ring on my pointer finger, so I selected the size that seemed to fit that finger perfectly (which was a size 7.) This is my standard size across rings, and generally fits.
Lara Parker
A week or so later, when I received my ring, I was thrilled at first. I couldn't wait to get this ring on and start figuring out what it might be able to tell me about my body and lifestyle habits. But I was quickly left disappointed when I tried the ring on my pointer finger. It was way too tight and honestly super uncomfortable. I have since realized that wearing it on my pointer finger is not happening, so it's been on my middle finger from the start. And while it mostly fits my middle finger, if I get hot, it does swell and isn't what I would refer to as "easy" to remove. It's never gotten stuck! But I would say that this was one of the most disappointing experiences with the Oura Ring thus far; I followed the instructions for sizing, and yet it simply did not fit.
And yeah I guess my hand is weird for the fact that my pointer finger is bigger than my middle, but I can't help how my hands are! More on this later, but SIZE UP.
Anyway, after getting over my initial disappointment about the size, I opened the box and started my journey. Each Oura Ring comes with a little charger stand, a cord, and the ring (duh, lol).
I actually love the little charging station; I find it relatively handy and easier than trying to plug a cord into the ring. And after several months of daily wear, I can tell you that the battery life of the Oura Ring 4 is incredible.
When I first began wearing my Oura Ring daily, it was a transition for me. I am used to taking my jewelry off when I sleep, shower, wash my hands, etc. But it turns out that Oura Ring is actually water-resistant up to 100 meters (330 feet). It took me weeks of wearing it to realize that the Oura Ring app actually mentions the ring being water-resistant, but to this day, I still don't wear it in the just feels wrong.
I generally charge my ring when I am showering, which takes about 10 minutes on average, and my ring is fully charged within that time frame. Granted, I generally shower once a day, so I charge my ring, on average, around 10 minutes a day. But the battery has yet to drop below 85%, even wearing it constantly throughout my day and night. The battery life is good. I will be curious to see how this lasts a year from now, but truly, if my iPhone battery were like that, life would be good.
Now, for the things I really love about the Oura Ring. First, I found myself genuinely impressed by its capabilities when it comes to noticing symptoms of body strain before I even do. About three weeks ago, I got this notification in the Oura Ring app. And by that night, I was feeling off. The next day I woke up with a cold.
Even though this is exactly what the ring is supposed to do, I still found it a bit surprising that it actually recognized symptoms in my body before they fully materialized into a cold. And I am not alone. On a recent TikTok scroll I came across two different people sharing their stories of how the Oura Ring knew they had medical issues before they did.
I also posted on my Instagram story one day about getting the Oura Ring and noticing that it picked up on my cold before I did. And I received more than one message from random people sharing their own experiences with this tech. While I can't independently verify these stories, based on my own experience with this tech, I believe it.
Another thing I love about the Oura Ring is the information accessible through the app. Honestly, I was annoyed at first upon realizing that I needed a subscription to go along with my ring. The ring itself is not cheap, but now you need a subscription, too?! Everything is a subscription these days... but in this case, this is one subscription I now happily pay each month. Being sick for as long as I have, I feel I am always seeking out more information about my body and how it works. And I truly feel like the Oura Ring has unlocked information about my body that I didn't have access to before. Their app is full of all kinds of metrics; but they don't just tell you "Hey, your resting heart hate is 61 bpm," they also offer information about what the hell that even means. And I honestly love that.
When it comes to tracking sleep, I had no idea how into this I would be. I have never used anything to track my sleep in the past. I pretty much thought well, I will go to bed, and then I will wake up, and whatever happens in between that is none of my business. But now that I have more information about my sleep patterns — which, you guessed it, only improve the more you wear your ring — I am addicted. I check the app every single morning to get an idea of my sleep score, and adjust my day as needed. You might be reading this and thinking, "I simply would not be interested in that." And maybe that's true! But I also thought that once, and now I regularly pester my boyfriend in the morning with updates about my latency and REM sleep.
Now, another thing I absolutely love about the Oura Ring is its adaptability and personalization. Each day, you have an activity goal. But the activity goal is not the same every day; it's catered specifically to your needs based on your own biometrics, your sleep score, your readiness, etc. Some days, you are going to wake up more tired than usual, and some days, you are going to deal with more stress. And in my experience, the Oura Ring not only picks up on this but automatically adjusts to fit your needs.
Perhaps I am a bit dramatic, but I always found the idea of "activity goals" to be unhelpful in the past and, honestly, a bit stressful. I've been chronically ill with endometriosis since my early 20s. Just because I could walk two miles one day did not mean I could do this every day. And this was an adjustment that my ring made automatically. And if the adjustments made automatically don't fit your needs; you can adjust further in the app easily.
Typing this out, it feels slightly unhinged to say that I have felt shamed by tech in the past for not moving enough, but I have. And I can truthfully say that I have not felt shame with my Oura Ring. It feels like a supportive piece of tech that just wants me to do my best. Am I losing my mind and adding a personality to a piece of tech and leaning into the movie Her territory??? Time will tell.
Speaking of activity goals, I got to visit Saguaro National Park near Tucson, Arizona, earlier this year — around six months after I had major abdominal surgery. This trip entailed the most activity I'd had in a long time, and I was curious to see how my Oura Ring would respond.
Along with the sizing issue mentioned before on my Oura Ring, my other complaint (thus far) would be that I am not sure the ring is always correct for measuring fitness activity, at least in my experience. On more than one occasion, I found that it didn't seem to accurately measure distance.
Much of my activity is walking, not running, so it may just be that the natural pauses of walking confuse the data. Still, it was frustrating to feel as if my ring wasn't measuring my activity as well as it measured my rest.
As you can see below, on this particular day, I had a big hike in Saguaro National Park. While I felt like it picked up on the fact that I was moving for most of the day, I couldn't believe that it calculated just around 2 miles. Did two miles of hiking really take me over two and a half hours?! But, when I compared the data from my Oura Ring to that of an Apple Watch, it was similar.
On other walks just around my neighborhood in Los Angeles, it will track that I have walked for an hour but say that I only made it .9 miles. I'm admittedly not amazing at math or calculating distance, but it doesn't feel completely accurate to me just yet. However, I will say this has gotten more accurate with continued wear.
Other than that, however, I have honestly been more than pleased with my experience wearing the Oura Ring so far. From getting insights into my daily stress...
...to being able to see my own progress with activity in my body after a major surgery, I feel satisfied with my experience in a way I didn't imagine. This tech may not be for everyone, but I can honestly say that it is for me.
After months of wearing and getting to know my new Oura Ring, I feel confident that this is tech I will continue to use for the foreseeable future. While I did not purchase the ring, I pay for the membership every month and will continue to do so. As with any wearable tech, The Oura Ring isn't it's almost perfect for me. I wanted to learn more about my body, gain new insights, and have wearable tech that inspired me to be more in tune with my body and be more active without shame. And that's exactly what I found with Oura Ring.
Do you have an Oura Ring? Do you prefer some other tech? Or perhaps you think I'm a big dummy who wastes my money on tech you would never use?! I look forward to finding out in the comments.
And if you're interested in purchasing your own Oura Ring, you can do so here!
