AndrewPlease take a look at the full review, but know I have added an update to the bottom of the post with some new details.
What Is The Oura Ring Gen 3
The TLDR version of what is the Oura Ring Gen 3, it’s a health and wellness tracker (fitness tracker). A compact ring-sized fitness tracker that does nearly everything you can get out of an Apple Watch or Fitbit, without the screen and on your finger. This is the 3rd generation of the device so they have had time to improve its features, size, and design.
The device tracks three areas each day: Sleep, Activity, and Readiness. Under each of those, the data gets more granular to form overall daily scores.
Features
This little device is packed full of features and due to it being without a screen it all gets exposed on the companion app. Below are features worth noting:
- Daytime Heart Rate Tracking
- Guided Audio, Video Interactions (via App)
- Period Prediction Tracking
- Workout HR Tracking
- Sleep Algorithm Tracking
- Temperature Tracking
- SpO2 (Blood Ox Levels) Sensing (coming in 2022)
- SUPER Light Weight: 4-6 Grams
- 4-7 Days Of Battery Life (I see around 5-6)
- Apple Health & Google Fit Integration
- Water Resistant (100m or 328ft+)
- Titanium Shell
- Available In Four Colors/Finishes
*It’s worth noting, I have not utilized their workout tracker within the app, I use Apple Fitness + so it all comes from my watch. That said, it does a really great job collecting nearly identical data to what the Watch sees in the same time period as my workouts, so I’d imagine their workout tracking is great.
What I Like About The Oura Ring Gen 3
I have a good number of things I like about the Oura Ring Gen 3. First off, it’s just so “out of sight out of mind” in the fact that it’s a ring. I’ve been an Apple Watch user since the first generation and was a Fitbit user prior. Oura wins the battle of set it and forget it.
The fit and finish are great, because the exterior is titanium it feels solid, and I don’t worry about it breaking. I keep it on when doing yard work or working in the garage, it only ever comes off to charge. I got the “Heritage Black” finish, a piano black high gloss. It does scratch, but not much, as you can see in the photo.
The app is pretty well put together and functions well most of the time. It’s full of features and content. Sleep tracking is the item I think I spend the most time on. I admittedly have not taken advantage of the content with the app around meditation, sleep, etc.
From a feature level, I do enjoy sleep tracking, I was using my Apple Watch for this and it is possible but the whole charging situation often came up given the Apple Watch on its best day will give you 36 hours of battery life. But a feature that isn’t a top-level feature that I truly appreciate is temperature tracking. It notices small adjustments in your temp and when it sees a pattern, so will you, such as an oncoming cold or illness.
What I Don’t Like About The Oura Ring Gen 3
So far, and it’s been about four months now, one of my biggest dislikes is the size options. I have (since high school) had large hands and fingers. My ring finger size comes in at a solid size 13. I understand that most standard ring sizes go up to about a 13, so anything larger is a custom order type situation, but still. Oura suggests that you utilize your pointer finger for best results but your ring finger can be a second option. I did know prior to my order that I would need to have it on my ring finger because Oura will send out a free sizing kit (it’s really great).
As for the price (I’ll cover the cost in a section below), I don’t love that you will need to pay for a membership in order to get all of the features. You get six months free, but after that, it is a monthly cost, again I’ll go into detail below.
I know this is for the sake of battery life but I don’t love that I need to open the app to pull data. There is light at best data transfer if the app is backgrounded. So I’ve just formed a habit of in the morning, when drinking my coffee, I open the app so it can pull my data from the day before and my sleep data.
Alternatives
If you are looking at this post, you are most likely interested in wellness/fitness trackers. That said, you also know there are TONS of options out there. However, if you were to say, what’s a top-tier alternative to the Oura Ring, that would come down to two. One the Apple Watch, you see them everywhere, and they do far more than that of fitness and wellness tracking. The second, is Fitbit, much like the Apple Watch you are getting a device that does so much more than just tracking. With both of these, you get a tight connection to your phone and things such as notifications, messaging, phone calls, etc.
For both of them, if you want to spend similar money to that of the Oura, you will be getting a very robust watch and tracker such as the Fitbit Sense or the Apple Watch SE. Both are solid options and both have their own pros and cons compared to the Oura.
Costs & Final Thoughts
This “final thoughts” for me is a tough one, that’s why I wanted to give this a few months of use. That said, let’s first talk costs. The cost of the ring is $299 for the Silver and Heritage Black, it’s $399 for the Stealth Black and Heritage Gold (no matter the size of the ring). With that initial investment, you get the ring and 6 months of the Oura Membership included. You can utilize the ring without the membership after that 6 months, with that, you drop a number of features and the ability to share the data with third-party apps such as Apple Health. So if you want to keep that membership going, you spend another $5.99 per month.
If I think about the cost and continued cost to have the membership, I struggle with this one compared to my Apple Watch. You can get an Apple Watch SE for under $300 that has no continued costs and allows for a wide amount of third-party integrations. While also getting a BUNCH of additional features, head over to Apple so you can dig into that.
That all said, my final thoughts. I do enjoy it, for the time being, the additional features it has that my Watch does not, are great, such as the temperature tracking. If Apple adds in temp tracking on the next watch it will make it tough to beat, however you still deal with lackluster battery and it’s a watch where as the Oura has a great battery and is tiny. So, if you are on the market and don’t like the idea of your fitness tracker being this “big” thing on your wrist, this is a SOLID choice and one I can recommend.
UPDATE – December 2022
So I’ve had this product for about 10 months and I have a few new thoughts to add. First off, it’s holding up pretty well. There are a few scratches and markings on it, but that’s to be expected. Oura has done a nice job updating things and keeping it fresh. You can sync data WITHOUT opening the app, so thank goodness for the background syncing. However, I think this may be the reason for one of the big issues that I’m seeing now (and have been for a few months), battery life. The battery life on this that was once pretty darn good is going downhill. I was able to go over a week before needing a charge and now I charge once and sometimes twice a week.
