Oura Ring 5 Review: Better Than Ring 4?

Quick Verdict

Wearing Oura Ring 4 for around a year before buying an Oura Ring 5 just two months back. The Oura Ring 5 is thin in size but same in thickness from Oura Ring 4 which make it more comfortable and quality built. 

Oura’s software enhancements actually bring something new but battery life didn’t quite live up to the marketing promise and the app still relies too heavily on the paid $5.99/m subscription to get the most out of it. The majority of the Oura Ring 5 reviews you’ll find on the web today are unboxing videos from the first week, here’s a proper review after using it for two months, in contrast with my year of the Oura Ring 4. 

Quick Specs table:

What’s New Compared to Oura Ring 4?

Coming from Ring 4, here are the changes that actually took place in Ring 5. It’s now a flat band rather than a device, and is smaller, from 7.9mm wide to 6.1mm and from 2.8mm thick to 2.28mm. The Ring 4 weighs 3.3-5.2 grams, which is about 2 grams less than the weight of the Ring 4.The weight of the Ring 4 is about 2 grams less than the weight of the Ring 4, particularly when holding a barbell or typing. 

While the number of Oura’s light paths in the sensor array has reduced from 18 to 12, each of these light paths has been made much stronger, according to Oura, which it says has the positive effect of improving the accuracy. While Oura says that its battery life is 6-9 days, and the Ring 4 is 5-8 days, my experience is different. 

New additions to the software are Health Radar, Blood Pressure Signals, Nighttime Breathing and GLP-1 Insights, while AI assistance is provided by Oura’s Counsel Health partnership. Pricing starts at $399, a $50 jump over the Ring 4’s $349, while membership stays at $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year. 

One flag before purchasing: the size range is narrower, going from 6 to 13 as opposed to 4 to 15, meaning that a few people on the extremes won’t fit the size. The size and weight shifting is the big news, everything else is a refinement, not a reinvention.

Design of Oura Ring 5: Does the Thinner Body Actually Matter?

It is here that the experience of two months of wearing the Oura Ring 5 becomes important. There is a slight device present where you could feel its edges against other fingers when you made a fist, you could feel its edge against one of the other fingers. The Ring 5 doesn’t do that. It’s low and rounded, more like a wedding ring than a tracker, and for the most part, I didn’t notice it was there after the first week.

The downside is that it’s thinner, making it also slightly less stiff than the Ring 4,  but watch it over a longer time frame if you’re rough on jewelry. This problem is worth mentioning since it often arises during client discussions. It is safe to use for people with sensitive skin since I didn’t experience redness, rashes, or any irritation because of perspiration or humid climate.

This material can be used by eczema patients or people with nickel allergy because it doesn’t usually cause allergic reactions but it is recommended to consult your dermatologist, if you have any metal sensitivities to jewelry. My biggest concern about this product was sleeping in the summer season because this ring had a more comfortable design and didn’t cause any indentation or heat buildup which I had with Ring 4.

Temperature fluctuations have a significant impact on performance as well as comfort, not just the former. During colder months, due to the reduced blood flow to the extremities, morning readings of temperature and heart rate may be a little more variable, particularly if the hands are cold.

In summer, the sweat clears the signal away from the optical sensors somewhat but I could see a little bit more power consumption in summer as I sampled the signal more often during exercise. Both the effects didn’t affect my day to day confidence in the data, just a slight drop of accuracy during the winter is normal, not a malfunction.

Setup and Sizing

The setup was simple and similar to the Ring 4, pair via Bluetooth and receive a readiness check in the same day. Oura also sends a sizing kit to verify fit before the actual ring arrives. The size range of the Ring 5 is more restricted, so it’s worth actually re-sizing it, rather than making the assumption that your old size will fit into the new one. 

Oura Ring recommends the Index finger for consistent readings but it also suggests putting anywhere doesn’t matter. I prefer wearing it on my ring finger because I’m not comfortable with putting a ring on my index finger. It gets fit on my finger and doesn’t rotate as constant swirling around reduces accuracy.

It has a small notch sensor and it must always be resting on the same place under the finger. For my ring finger, it doesn’t rotate or leave gaps and my data has been more consistent. If your ring spins on any finger, try a size that stops the spinning prior to chasing Oura’s ideal finger.

Sleep Tracking Performance

Sleep tracking performance remains Oura’s top strength and its quality is pretty much the same as with Ring 4. All sleep stage breakdown, sleep latency and the nightly Readiness Score were somewhat consistent with how I slept. My Sleep Score has been between 71 and 94, averaging in the low 80’s over 30 nights and it has not shown any signs of inconsistency, it has just been mostly dependent on late workouts or travel. The score changes as I felt it would, which is the true litmus test of whether or not a sleep score is useful, if it changes randomly, it isn’t useful.

Oura Ring 5 Water Resistant compatibility

The Oura Ring 5 survived my showers, hand washing, exercising, and even a couple of swims without any problem. I didn’t experience any connectivity or sensor malfunction after getting my ring wet. This is one of the wearables that you won’t even remember that you are wearing, but I would recommend avoiding any activity involving being submerged in deep water.

Oura Ring 5 Battery Life After 60 Days: Marketing vs Reality

On a spec sheet, Oura ranks the Ring 5 as lasting from 6 to 9 days, an improvement from 5 to 8 days on the Ring 4. In reality, I got 7 days in the first week and subsequently 6 days throughout weeks two through four. Thus, in actuality, I am able to get 6 to 7 days of battery life, which is good but still not that big an increase over the Ring 4, which I was getting roughly 5 to 6 days out of when I had the ring for one year. 

The discrepancy between the 6 to 9 days claimed by Oura and my actual 6 days probably comes down to the fact that the Ring 5 features constant background services such as Blood Pressure Signals and Health Radar, along with the fact that my comparison point with the Ring 4 has a year old battery against a new Ring 5.

The charging process is fast and easy. From 10 percent to 100 percent will take around 20 to 30 minutes. Moreover, the magnetic charging dock keeps the ring in place when accidentally knocked over in contrast to other third-party chargers I have used before. Charging does not heat up the ring at all. And the charging dock itself is small and truly pocketable.

What is the accuracy of Oura Ring 5?

The most frequent question I get asked is about the accuracy of the Ring 5 and I would like to address that issue in more detail than the vague pretty good, you’ll read in a lot of reviews. The key isn’t is it perfect but is it close enough to trust for everyday decisions for any consumer wearable to be considered a medical device. 

In the case of heart rate and HRV, I compared readings from the opposite wrist for two weeks using an Apple Watch during the period of the night while I was wearing it. The nightly results were within a typical range, except after extra workout or eating late meals, when Oura was slightly more conservative and the trend lines would align closely enough to give the devices within a reasonable margin of error. 

I’ve also compared resting heart rate to a Polar H10 chest strap during a training week, and found a very good correlation at rest, and a few seconds late during the periods of high intensity, as an optical sensor on the finger would have to react to a spike in heart rate. When it comes to serious interval training, second by second accuracy is crucial and for that, a chest strap and an ECG compatible watch is the only thing that can’t be fixed. 

Access to a sleep lab for sleep is not available for me to stage sleep independently against polysomnography. Oura has released validation studies with lab validated equipment, and my results were consistent with that. Scores indicated how I was feeling after 30 nights of sleep. I’m comparing Blood Pressure Signals with home cuffs, not lab cuffs because it’s not a replacement for the cuffs first of all, but over the course of the 2 months I didn’t get a flag when my BP was in a stable range, which is consistent, if not a rigorous validation.

Comparison Table  

As a whole, it’s a typical 2026 ring shaped wearable: strong for trends, sleep, and status, but not quite as strong as chest straps or ECG watches during heavy workouts, or as precise as lab or clinical equipment for accuracy.

What is Blood Pressure Trend Tracking?

The last thing I was not expecting to be excited about and have to be cautious of is what it does. The Ring 5 does not use mmHg to measure blood pressure, a way that a cuff would measure it. Not a monitor replacement, Blood Pressure Signals recognizes the pattern in the contents of your pulse wave and notifies you when the pattern is steady or shifting, so you can use a correct reading from your cuff. I have not received a flag in over two months and it’s not too bad or it’s just not a big change.

Activity & Workout Tracking

The number of steps taken and activity score per day is pretty much what I would expect from a normal week of walking, lifting and the occasional running. The ring underestimated slightly over a week of walking a known path by about 3 to 5 percent, which is typical of the accuracy of ring accelerometers. 

My Readiness score regularly dropped the next morning following a hard leg day, typically 8 to 15 points and rose again over the next 2 days, which was an invaluable indicator to evaluate how hard I had pushed a workout and whether I needed to push or back off, not the same day indicator though.

I pushed it through workouts other than the typical gym workout, which is where ring wearers get in trouble. This was the hardest one to test, as boxing and kettlebell work involve repeated gripping and impact, the things that make a ring want to spin or pinch. It didn’t rotate or pinch on my ring finger as it sized correctly, but did create pressure during cross fit pull up sessions, but not enough to be painful. Rowing is not a problem because of the motion being smooth. 

The only real hassle was chalk which would get between the ring and skin when lifting big weights and requires rinsing afterward, or it dries out. Nothing was reported to cause tracking issues, but if you do CrossFit or boxing regularly, you’ll find that you need to rinse it more often than a smartwatch.

The Ring 5’s size is most important everyday for typing comfort and lifting. When I was doing deadlifts or big rows on the Ring 4, I would have to hold my hands onto the barbell and it looked like it was putting tension on the edge and I would sometimes have to rotate it from the side before a set. Today, the low profile Ring 5 doesn’t even bother to register under a grip, and typing for extended periods of time is not exactly a deal breaker either.

Oura Ring Membership: Worth Paying For?

The membership for Oura Ring is worthy and I can’t think of any way to get around it. If you don’t pay the $5.99 per month (or $69.99 per year), you receive a very basic daily score, no additional breakdowns, trends, nor Health Radar features. The new $399 price tag, consider total cost of ownership rather than a one time payment. This is what you’ll get for your money.

Does the Oura Ring vibrate? 

Unlike all of the previous versions, the Oura Ring 5 has no haptic feedback or vibrating motor inside, a reason for why it is so thin. All alerts must be from your phone, the ring is not a notification device but a data collector. 

Can a Smart Ring replace a Smartwatch?

A smart ring can’t be a substitute for a smartwatch for someone who needs directions, text messages or calls on their wrist. Where it excels is on health and recovery aspects of smartwatches like sleep, readiness, heart rate trends and so on, without the need to pay attention to a screen throughout the day. Silence, if you wish to have that, it will be a feature. For a buzz on incoming text messages, check out a smartwatch.

Oura Ring 5 vs Samsung Galaxy Ring

The Galaxy Ring is the nearest competitor in the mainstream market, and the most significant practical difference is the subscription Samsung does not charge a recurring fee so this reduces the total cost difference after a year or two. The Ring 5 still has the edge when it comes to sleep stage detail and the range of health trend features. 

If you’re already entrenched in the Samsung ecosystem, the Galaxy Ring’s strength is found in its tighter integration. If you’re an Android only user and don’t want to sign up for a subscription, cross shop before you commit to the Ring 5.

Pros & Cons of Oura Ring 5

Oura Ring App: Usefulness of the AI?

The Oura Ring app layout is unchanged from the Ring 4 experience and in just two months new sections added such as Health Radar, GLP-1 Insights, and Counsel Health. They are genuinely useful and don’t clutter the daily scores, look great on their own tabs. 

I wanted to know if the AI features were helpful or simply a marketing tick to check. One pattern I hadn’t noticed before was unsurprisingly a set of poorer sleep scores that were linked to late caffeine and it was marked out clearly, not inside a chart. So far no false positives, although it’s still only 2 months. 

Its weaknesses are the lack of originality some of the same how much of a set is left? recommendations appeared more than once, in different words, and its status as a well organized template rather than a personalized coach, the try winding down earlier  suggestions came in more than one form. It can be handy in identifying patterns you may not have noticed, but should be used as a starting point rather than a replacement for a clinician, and to be honest, Oura doesn’t make it sound that way.

Which Smart Ring Should You Buy?

Who should buy the Oura Ring 5?

If you’re looking to purchase your first smart ring and the bulky older rings didn’t appeal to you as much, the Oura Ring 5 is the ideal choice for you since it does indeed feel like a regular ring rather than the Oura Ring 4. But, the upgrade is worth it if your current Ring 4 is loose or gets tangled up on gym equipment or spins throughout the day, as size and shape are really the entire tale of this release.

For those who would prefer not to have to use a separate medical device for blood pressure trend tracking or for gaining insights into night time breathing, Ring 5 is currently the best option (the Ring 3+ and later will have those features, too, says Oura).

Problems You Should Know Before Buying

The battery lasts for only 6 to 7 days but not 9 as advertised. This smaller size range from 6 to 13 might not leave enough room for very large or very small fingers. For more than the three basic daily scores, it’s a subscription fee that’s compulsory and the ring fee doesn’t compensate for it. Blood Pressure Signals is not a diagnostic tool, no cuff level numbers, it’s a trend tool. 

After two months of frequent gym use, there were only very light marks after close examination of the scratch resistance. Held up well in the water, lasting through daily showers and swimming in line with the 10 ATM rating, and no tracking around water related issues.

Who Should Skip It?

This is an expensive ring upgrade you don’t need if you are currently in Ring 4 and it is in good shape, doesn’t spin or catch during workouts. If you don’t want to continue paying for a subscription, a RingConn Gen 3 or the Galaxy Ring would be better. If they do not fall within the new window of sizes (6-13), they will not fit and blood pressure readings are not trends.

Scoreboard of Oura Ring 5

Final Verdict

I’ve been wearing it on the Ring 4 for a year and the Ring 5 for two months, and my verdict is simple. By all means it’s the most comfortable Oura ring ever, but the enhancements to the blood pressure trends and nighttime breathing have made it feel more like a health check-in than a sleep tracker. 

It’s an evolution, not a reinvention as battery life didn’t meet the expectations and if your existing ring doesn’t even show on your hand, you can wait to see the next generation. If you have any doubts about the Oura Ring as your first product, the Ring 5 is the simplest yes we’ve ever had from Oura.