Oura - Oura Ring 4

I also wear the Oura ring (gen 4, on right ring finger). Mine seems fine, I don’t bring my phone on the bench though so it’s all in device tracked and I know that can cause some gaps in tracking but it seems to get everything pretty well

it’s literally so bad, when i’m doing HIIT workouts/completely out of breath/can’t speak it always says I either spent a majority of the time in zone zero (which is supposedly “at rest or moving very slowly”!!) or it “fails to detect HR data” even though i click record workout. and i have gen 4! i put in a support request a few times and they are supposed to send a free replacement but i feel like it’s just an inherent issue

The whoop subscription is so expensive, that was what sold me on the Oura. I’ve had my Oura 4 for eight months and love it so much.

I wear both my Garmin Fenix 7S and Oura 4 24/7, but I only track runs with the Garmin and only care about the sleep/cycle/wellness metrics from my Oura. They each serve their purpose, and I like having both of them.

Edit to add that I have the gen 4. I’ve never had any other version. It is okay. Not great, not bad. I’ve had mine since December. I also have an Apple Watch so I use both. Pros: I do like the sleep information. I feel like it tracks my sleep better than my Apple watch. The battery life is impressive. I usually charge mine when I shower, but I went on a week long cruise a few weeks ago and I didn’t bring my charger. It didn’t die. I do think the data overall is good - I like seeing the trends and seeing how my day to day activity affects my health. I’ve learned a lot about my habits (I’m very data-driven). Similarly, the cycle tracking is really nice. We are TTC and having data to help us with that is also helpful. Even if I wasn’t trying to get pregnant, I would appreciate cycle details. Cons- The wear and tear on my gold ring is pretty significant. I know it’s a wearable tech piece and not actual jewelry, but mine is pretty dinged up for only a few months’ use. I do wear it on my right hand (middle finger) but it looked really silly on my left with my wedding ring and I already have small hands so two rings like that on one hand was not a good look overall. The gold color overall is very yellow. It has faded but is still not really close to my actual gold rings, and I don’t love that. Obviously if you don’t choose gold this won’t affect you. The activity monitoring/step counter is garbage. I just don’t use it and instead import my data from my watch. The fact that there’s a subscription to utilize many aspects really turns me off. If I didn’t have it paid for through my HSA I wouldn’t have it at all. Other notes: I don’t really understand the tagging system or utilize it fully so I may be missing value there. I feel like it’s pretty bulky for my hand, but I understand that tech has to fit somewhere. It took me a bit to get used to it on my hand, and sometimes when I drive and there’s more pressure on it, it can bother me. I don’t know how much stock I put into the “my health” area - things like sleep chronotype resilience - but it is still neat to see. Overall I give the ring 7/10. It has features I like, but if I had to stop wearing it for whatever reason not much would really change. I do like having more data, but the things I actively seek in wearable tech is more related to activity tracking. For the price I do think the quality is not great. If you have any specific questions I’m happy to try to help!

I went with an Oura 4 ring. Looks decent and still can wear whatever watch.

Love mine, had it for 3.5 years. Will upgrade to the 4 now. I also wear a Samsung ring, Samsung Galaxy Watch 8, and Whoop band. Oura has been my longest worn device and has provided tremendous insights as it's gotten to know me and my routines/cycles over the years.

Left garmin for my AW Ultra 3, no regrets here. When I run, I train with Runna, so I don’t need Garmin Coach. I use WorkOutDoors if I need routes/maps. And I sleep with an Oura Ring, so I don’t care about Garmin’s training load, stress, body battery, or even Apple’s version of that plus any sleep tracking that either of those do. Don’t care about the 2 day battery, I just chuck it on charge before bed because I don’t sleep with it, but then I wear it all day. Easy and works for me. Garmin’s interface and user experience (on the watch and especially the app) is poor. Their software is often buggy. Their support isn’t always the best, and their update support isn’t great either. The new Fenix 8’s are also super overpriced. For much cheaper the AW also offers cellular, plus a better user experience and can do *mostly* everything a Garmin does. Heart rate monitoring is also more accurate on AW. So for the price of a Fenix 8, I got an AW Ultra 3 and Oura Ring 4. Superior sleep tracking capabilities, cellular and data, and great fitness tracking.

I’m actually going the other way: Fenix 6X Pro Solar to Apple Watch Ultra 3. I’ve always disliked the Garmin connect app interface, it’s just gross to navigate and use. There’s been a ton of bugs I’ve experienced with my 6X both on the watch itself and with the connection to the Garmin Connect app. In general the software experience with Garmin feels clunky and buggy. Most people don’t care I suppose since it (usually) works for just tracking workouts. The new Fenix line is way overpriced in my opinion, where the AWU is looking much more appealing. For the same price as a Fenix 8, I’m rocking an Oura Ring 4 for sleep tracking and AW Ultra 3 for everything else. It is far nicer to track your sleep with an unobtrusive ring rather than a bulky and uncomfortable sports watch (whether Garmin or Apple Watch). The AW also has satellite and cellular, which is even more expensive with the Fenix 8 Pro. It’s a goodbye to Garmin for me. I’ll keep my Fenix 6X if I ever need to do a super long gps recording, still works.

I compared the Apple Watch Ultra 2, Oura Gen 4 and RingConn Gen 2 over a 20 day period very recently. Assuming the watch is the best at tracking sleep I compared both rings to the watch. Averaging the data I found the following: RingConn: Differences more (less) REM 26 minutes Deep 71 minutes Light (163) minutes Total (66) minutes Oura: Differences more (less) REM 4 minutes Deep 1 minute Light (50) minutes Total (45) minutes I really wanted the RingConn but sleep tracking is my priority. I use the watch for everything else. I returned the ring. These are my results and nothing more. Hopefully the patent issue will get resolved and next year I’ll look at RingConn again.

I also wear an Apple Watch Ultra 2 and I wouldn’t say a smart ring adds very much over what the AWU already provides, in terms of data. It’s more about how it aggregates and displays the data that’s more helpful. I really wanted to get better about tracking my sleep and wearing my giant Ultra watch to bed wasn’t comfortable so I decided to get a smart ring. I got the UltraHuman ring which is priced similarly to Oura 4 but with no subscription and I can tell you I wore it for 2 months and had nothing but issues. Looking deeper into Reddit, I found I was not alone by any means, in fact, it seems that the majority of users have reliability and connectivity issues. I finally had enough and threw the ring away and got an Oura 4 and it’s so much better, not only in terms of reliability / build quality, but in how it displays data and sets goals based on your data. I can’t speak for RingConn but UltraHuman sets impossible goals and activity metrics that do not move on a sliding scale. As an example, I slept poorly the other night and Oura recognized my recovery was low and lowered my activity goal to align with what’s realistic when you’re overtired and you didn’t have time to recover. It’s encouraging that even on bad days, goals can be reached by making them realistic. I’d much rather pay a subscription for something that works well than try to save $70 a year by getting something that won’t work half the time anyway. Buy nice or buy twice (like I did). Worth noting is both UltraHuman and RingConn were just banned from selling their rings in the US after October 21st in an ITC ruling that found they had infringed on Oura’s patent.

A few weeks ago I mentioned I’d be racing an olympic distance triathlon with a stack of wearables strapped to me. Well, I did it, and here are the (raw) results. **TL;DR:** Raced a tri with WHOOP, Polar360, Helio strap, Garmin Instinct 3, and Oura Ring 4. Polar was the most reliable, WHOOP decent but spiky in swim, Helio finicky about placement, Garmin surprisingly messy, Oura useless for sport. For anyone not familiar, Olympic distance triathlon is: 1. 1.5km swim 2. 40km bike 3. 10km run On the right arm I had the (from top) **WHOOP MG, Polar360, and Helio strap** stacked up. On the left, the **Garmin Instinct 3** and **Oura Ring 4**. I looked ridiculous (but not more than everyday since I wear them all constantly), but I was curious to see how they’d compare across swim, bike, and run in real race conditions. [Hybrid athlete xD](https://preview.redd.it/9cm22jzi1rmf1.jpg?width=2784&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=1612dd2a8e3c8635dce07ca55eebcdae111b9dc5) Here’s how it went: * **Swim:** I got both legs cramped at 1km mark. Thoughts of DNF were running through my head, but I really wanted to see the comparison (:P), so I prevailed and swam the last 500m with my arms only, dragging my uselessly cramped legs behind me. * WHOOP thought I was hitting 200 bpm most of the time (I wasn’t). * Polar, Helio, Garmin seem all decent, in similar range, although knowing my HR from many other swims, I'd say that Polar was the most accurate. * Oura basically zoned out for the full race. * **Bike:** When I finally got my legs moving again, the bike leg went smoothly. Hit a steady 34km/h avg pace. I could've pushed more, as my HR was between 150-160, but I was afraid of losing my legs again. * Helio struggled at first, underreporting HR badly (I noticed on my bike computer that it was connected to), until I moved it higher up my arm mid-ride. After that it snapped back in line. * Polar and WHOOP held strong. * Garmin was all over the place with noisy spikes. . * **Run:** This was actually the easiest leg for all wearables, and myself. By the end of the run the different devices were surprisingly aligned, except Oura that was again useless. https://preview.redd.it/ksy9407u2rmf1.png?width=1041&format=png&auto=webp&s=1166550aacc3f9fa1a3ef6103ac11df633f907f9 https://preview.redd.it/fb61lg483rmf1.png?width=1054&format=png&auto=webp&s=a5c716a5d4c68f3b38dffa08797792eac9cd2045 Overall impressions: * **Polar360** was the most reliable of the bunch. I was definitely not expecting that! * **WHOOP** is decent but not flawless, especially in water. It had the best arm placement of all the wearables, so there should be no excuses (I know some people will find many). * **Amazfit Helio** started with a disadvantage of being the lowest on the wrist, when moved up, was decent. In my opinion better than WHOOP, worse than Polar360. * **Garmin Instinct 3** really surprised me with how messy the HR data was. I am very negatively surprised with these results.  * **Oura Ring 4** confirmed what most of us already know: great for sleep and recovery, not for sport. My current band rating: 1. Polar360 2. Helio strap 3. WHOOP 4. Garmin 5. Oura Why did I do this? Mostly curiosity — and partly because I’m working on a side project (reThrive) where we’re digging into how different devices capture performance and recovery. I figured some of you here would appreciate raw, messy comparisons like this too. Next on my list is to look at how each of these devices calculates **recovery scores** over the last month and see if they align at all. If you’re interested, I’ll share those results too. I will also be racing a half-marathon later this month, also wearing them all. And will post the update here as well.