Oura unveiled the fifth generation of its popular smart ring on Thursday, starting at $399. Ring 5, which Oura describes as the world’s smallest smart ring, comes a year and a half after the company launched Ring 4 and seven months after Ring 4 Ceramic. Ring 5 is 40% smaller than its predecessor and offers more accurate detection and improved battery life.
Ring 5 is launching with a new software update that includes blood pressure signals, real-time activity tracking, on-demand management, and other features that will also be released in Oura Ring Gen3 and later.
The new smart ring is available for pre-order starting today and will begin shipping on June 4th. Available in sizes 6-13 and available in six finishes: Gold, redesigned for a truer gold tone, Deep Rose, updated for a copper-like appearance, Silver, Brushed Silver, Black, and Stealth. Retail price for the black and silver is $399, while the others are $499. For comparison, the Ring 4 started at $349.
Maz Brumand, Oura’s vice president of products, told TechCrunch that the company reduced the ring’s width by about 2 mm and its thickness by about 30 percent. Brumand noted that Oura members have been asking the company to make smaller, thinner rings, which prompted the shift to slimmer designs. Oura achieved its new size by redesigning its mechanical, electrical, optical, battery and sensing architecture, Brumand explained.
The new rings are designed to be desirable to a wider audience, especially those who thought smart rings were too bulky in the past. Oura says its latest model is designed to look and feel similar to other rings.
Previously, Oura was the dominant player in the smart ring market, allowing it to shy away from larger designs, but new products from subscription-free competitors like RingConn and Ultrahuman have increased the pressure to innovate. Increasing competition may also explain why Oura is launching a new ring just a year and a half after Ring 4, compared to the roughly three-year gap between Ring 3 and Ring 4. It’s also worth noting that Ring 5’s announcement arrives just a day before RingConn’s Gen 3 begins shipping.
In terms of improved battery life, the Ring 5 lasts for 6-9 days compared to the 5-8 days of the Ring 4.
Oura also said it redesigned the sensor for better skin contact and added more powerful LEDs to increase accuracy across a wider range of finger sizes and skin tones.
software update
In conjunction with the software update, Oura is launching “Health Radar,” designed to monitor key vital signs in the background for surface patterns that members should pay attention to. Health Radar was launched with two basic features: blood pressure signal and night breathing.
Oura says it will continuously detect changes and patterns that could indicate cardiovascular strain, alerting members to signs of elevated blood pressure through biometrics. Through blood pressure signals, Oura tracks blood pressure patterns during sleep, when the body’s cardiovascular patterns are most stable. This is because blood pressure naturally drops overnight. Otherwise, it could signal potential cardiovascular risk that could be missed in weekly readings, Oura says.
Members can also record actual blood pressure readings from the cuff directly from the Oura app.
With Night Breathing, Oura hopes to give users a better understanding of how their sleep and breathing patterns can affect their health. Members will get a 30-day continuous view of their sleep-related breathing patterns and disorders and expand on the insight into their nocturnal breathing regularity they have already received.
Oura is also moving beyond insight into providing actual care. The company is partnering with Counsel Health, an on-demand platform that combines AI and licensed physicians to deliver care directly into the Oura app. Members can ask health questions, receive personalized medical advice, and connect with licensed doctors in the United States. To access this, members will have to pay extra on top of the standard $5.99 monthly subscription, but Oura hasn’t revealed how much the additional service will cost.
US members can also import diagnosed conditions, medications, lab results and allergies into the app to get a full picture of their health. Some people may be understandably wary of uploading their health data to an app, but the company promises it will take a privacy-first approach to its records.
Oura is also adding a new real-time activity tracking experience that allows members to start exercising and see key metrics like speed and distance during activities like running and cycling in real time on their phones. The company has also updated its “automatic activity detection” to be more accurate for low-movement activities like Pilates. Members can also connect a third-party heart rate monitor to check their heart rate in real time.
Oura is also adding GLP-1 Insights, which gives members a longitudinal view of their medication journey and allows them to track their weight and body changes in one place.
Oura is also attempting research into brain health for the first time. Eligible members can enroll in a brain health study that seeks to match short-term in-app actions with long-term physiological trends. Oura believes we will eventually be able to map how our daily choices and recovery affect mental acuity and long-term brain health.
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