Oura Ring 5 (top) and Oura Ring 4 (bottom). You can see the small but distinct size difference between the rose gold smart rings.
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
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ZDNET’s key takeaways
- I wore the Oura Ring 5 for a day.
- It’s more comfortable and smaller on my finger.
- Sometimes the best upgrades are the ones you can’t see.
When you got a chunky smart ring around your finger, size matters. Oura unveiled its super-slim Oura Ring 5 in late May, and it’s visibly smaller and lighter than the Oura Ring 4 the smart ring company unveiled two years ago.
Also: Oura Ring 5 vs. Oura Ring 4: I compared the smart rings for health tracking – and it’s very close
The Oura Ring 5 not only arrives with a 40% smaller, thinner design. Oura also adds one extra day of battery to the ring for maximum wear. To accomplish this, Oura had to redesign its smart ring completely, changing the battery, refining the algorithm, and inserting more powerful LEDs for health tracking.
This is Oura’s most substantial update across generations, because much of the software that arrives on Oura Ring 5 also arrives on Oura Ring 4.
Oura Ring 4 on the left and Oura Ring 5 on the right.
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
I’ve been using the ring for a day, and my favorite part about the health tracker is, unsurprisingly, its small size.
A lot more comfortable
Ironically, the most noticeable difference between wearing the Oura Ring 5 and Oura Ring 4 is how little I notice the Oura Ring 5 around my finger. The miniaturization of Oura’s fifth-generation ring makes it a lot more comfortable to do simple stuff, like grip a heavy object or do the Girl Scout hand sign (stick your index, middle, and ring fingers together with no gap).
Also: I replaced my Apple Watch with the Oura Ring 4 for sleep tracking (and it did some things better)
While wearing the Oura Ring 4, I could never fully squeeze my fingers against each other without the ring producing a small gap of space between them. This wasn’t a massive problem with the Oura Ring 4 – in fact, most people would say the fourth-generation ring’s declining battery life over time was a much greater issue. However, it was marginal enough to be kind of annoying, especially because I was wearing the ring almost 24/7.
Oura Ring 5 on hand. I can squeeze my fingers together easily. The ring is not thick enough to produce a substantial gap.
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
The Oura Ring 4 is too thick to easily squeeze your fingers together. A gap between my ring and middle finger emerges.
Nina Raemont/ZDNET
This issue has all but disappeared with the Oura Ring 5. A teensy bit of space surrounds the ring when I squeeze my fingers together, and the ring’s reduced size helps it assimilate to other actual analog accessories. It looks — and I can’t emphasize this enough — like the jewelry I wear every day.
Also: The best smart rings you can buy
In fact, when I compared the Oura Ring 5 to ZDNET’s Kerry Wan’s wedding band, I found the two rings to be practically the same thickness and width. That may not sound like a big deal, but it’s a great advancement in sensor technology, battery, and hardware — and it’s the first mainstream example of wearable tech becoming even more comfortable and, as the name suggests, wearable.
Excited for Oura’s future
Yes, the Oura Ring 5 gets me excited for Oura’s future, but the newest smart ring also makes me excited for all the small pieces of technology that will be just as — if not more — capable than the Oura Ring 5, now that we know these devices don’t have to be chunky and overbearing to work.
Also: The best early Prime Day smartwatch and smart ring deals I’d recommend
Because I’ve only worn the ring for a day, I can’t vouch for its extended battery life. I’ll be updating this review, however, with that information in a week, once I’ve put those battery claims to the test. The same goes for the bulk of the software updates arriving through the Oura Ring 5, including Health Radar, live activity tracking, blood pressure signals, and more.
