Save up to £200 on the celeb-favourite Oura Ring 3 this Black Friday
The world of wearable tech is booming, with the global market predicted to reach a mega $419.4 billion by 2028. From Apple Watches and Fitbits to Garmins and Whoops, there are a dizzying number of trackers to choose from these days. One that stands out from the crowd, though, is the Oura Ring.
First launched back in 2015, Oura is now on its fourth iteration and has amassed a cult following, with A-list celebrities including Jennifer Aniston, Gwyneth Paltrow, Will Smith and Price Harry reported to be fans. More recently, England manager Gareth Southgate and his players have been spotted wearing the titanium rings during training sessions at the Euros.
According to Oura, the minuscule gadget gathers a vast array of health data and provides actionable insights to help you improve your sleep quality, activity levels, stress management and overall wellbeing.
At the Good Housekeeping Institute, our team of wellness experts put the Oura Ring 3 through rigorous testing to find out whether it’s worth the hype – and the price tag. If it’s a quick answer you’re after, then it’s a resounding “yes” from us. The Oura Ring was a huge hit with our panel and scored a best-in-class 93/100 overall.
We're currently putting the new Oura Ring 4 (which boasts a lengthier battery life, improved sensor accuracy and a new all-titanium design) through its paces right now, with our full review coming soon.
Oura Ring 3 Black Friday sale
You can currently enjoy huge savings on the Oura Ring Gen 3 as part of the 2024 Black Friday sales, with up to £200 on certain designs via Oura, Amazon and John Lewis. If you've been eyeing one up for a while but haven't been able to justify the splurge, now is the perfect time to shop – Oura Rings do not go on sale very often! Here are our top picks:
Shop the Oura Black Friday sale now
What is the Oura Ring?
Although the Oura Ring looks like a piece of jewellery, don’t be fooled by its discreet design. The sleek, subtle band tracks your sleep, skin temperature, heart rate variability (HRV) and activity levels, and provides loads of data to help you reach your personal health goals – whether you’re looking to improve the quality of your kip, manage your stress levels or learn more about your menstrual cycle.
As Oura gathers more data about you and establishes your baseline habits, temperature and heart rate, it can highlight any deviations from the norm and identify areas in your sleep and overall health that could improve.
As it’s a ring, it doesn’t have a screen. Instead, you can access all your stats via the accompanying Oura app on your phone.
What does the Oura Ring measure?
The Oura Ring has three built-in medical grade sensors and measures directly from the arteries in your finger. According to the brand, this provides a stronger heart rate signal and is more accurate than most wrist sensors, which are positioned further away from the arteries on the underside of your wrist.
Firstly, there’s a PPG (infrared photoplethysmography) sensor, which uses LED lights to measure your heart rate and respiratory rate. If you wake up in the middle of the night, you may notice a green glow coming from your ring, but don’t worry, it’s subtle and won’t keep you up.
Then, there’s an NTC (negative temperature coefficient) sensor that measures your body temperature and can alert you when you’re coming down with an illness, identify hormonal changes that are affecting your sleep and help track your menstrual cycle (more on that later). Finally, there’s a 3D accelerometer for logging daily movement.
The ring also uses infrared LEDs to measure overall blood oxygen saturation levels (SpO2) during your sleep. It uses this information to determine how efficiently your body circulates and absorbs oxygen and identify any breathing irregularities.
What are the three Oura Ring scores?
Oura gathers all this data and uses it to give you three easy-to-interpret daily scores: readiness, sleep and activity. The readiness score tells you how well recovered you are and how to use your energy during the day ahead; the sleep score lets you know how well you slept last night; and the activity score is designed to help you balance exercise and rest.
Each score is rated on a scale of 0 to 100. A score of 85 or higher is considered optimal, a score between 74 and 84 is good, and a score under 70 means you need to pay attention and there’s room for improvement.
How we tested the Oura Ring
Three of the Good Housekeeping Institute’s in-house experts (me included) trialled the Oura Ring over a few weeks, wearing it 24/7, during work, exercise and sleep. We judged the smart ring on the following criteria.
Set up and ease of use: We assessed how easy the ring was to set up and personalise, and looked at how intuitive the app was to use. We also noted its battery life and recharge time.
Design and comfort: Panellists examined the overall design of the product, considering how comfortable it was, whether it interfered with daily activity and how aesthetically pleasing it was.
Performance: Scores were awarded based on the ring’s sleep, health, activity and menstrual cycle tracking capabilities, as well as how easy the information was to interpret. We also analysed the data to check for accuracy in terms of sleep, activity and readiness scores.
The Good Housekeeping Institute’s Oura Ring review
Scoring an impressive 93/100 overall, here’s how the Oura Ring performed during testing.
Design
One of the Oura Ring’s main USPs is its discreet design. Although it is larger and chunkier than a standard ring (more like a band), it only took a few days to get used to. After a while, I forgot I even had it on and it didn’t bother me when I was sleeping, either. My fellow tester, however, found it a little tight when their finger was swollen in the mornings, but they simply popped the ring on one of their other fingers when this happened.
To ensure maximum comfort and accurate tracking, it’s important to get the right size. It should be snug and secure around your finger, without feeling uncomfortably tight. Before purchasing, the brand sends you a free sizing kit with eight plastic rings. They recommend you try out your preferred sizing ring for at least 24 hours to help you find the perfect fit.
Once you’ve chosen your size, it’s time to select a style – there’s Horizon, which is smooth and rounded, or Heritage, which has a flat top – and choose from one of six colours, including silver, black, matte black, gold and rose gold.
The ring is made from lightweight titanium, which is ultra durable. We love that it’s totally waterproof (up to 100m underwater), so you can keep it on while you’re in the bath, shower or swimming pool. It can also handle extreme heat and cold, so you can happily wear it in a hot tub, sauna, steam rice or even an ice bath.
The only downside is that it’s susceptible to small scratches from consistent use. They’re not super noticeable, but we’d recommend taking it off when cleaning or in the gym to keep it in as pristine condition as possible.
Battery life
One of the major benefits of no screen is the lengthy battery life. The brand claims the smart ring can last up to seven days on one single charge. During testing, we found it held up for around three to four days. I’m not complaining, though – this is still significantly longer than my Apple watch, which needs charging every single day.
The ring takes between 20 and 80 minutes to replenish its battery, so you can easily pop it on its sleek charging dock before bed if you notice it’s running out of juice. The app will also alert you when it’s running low.
Set up and ease of use
It's a breeze to set up – you simply download the accompanying app, pair the device with Bluetooth, fill in your metrics and you’re good to go. There are handy step-by-step instructions to guide you and according to panellists, the entire process took around 10 minutes.
The app itself was extremely intuitive and a pleasure to use. Although there’s an enormous amount of data, Oura presents it clearly, with colour-coded graphs, charts, scores and summary reports. In the mornings, I could take a glance at my readings and instantly know how I was set up for the day and whether I should push myself hard or take it easy.
If you're a dedicated Samsung user, it's worth considering the Samsung Galaxy Ring for a seamless experience. Read our full review.
Sleep tracking
Oura’s advanced sleep tracking capabilities is what really sets it apart from its competitors. Each morning, you’re presented with a sleep score, which is based on seven different elements. These include total sleep time, sleep efficiency (how much time you spent in bed asleep) and restlessness (how often you were tossing and turning). Time spent in REM and deep sleep (crucial for physical and emotional recovery) and sleep latency (how long it takes you to fall asleep) are also considered.
Additionally, after 90 days of use, Oura will assign you a chronotype, essentially letting you know if you’re an early bird or a night owl. It will also tell you how well your current patterns align with your optimal sleep window. Apparently I'm an early bird and should be getting into bed much earlier than I do.
My fellow testers and I were highly impressed with the sleep insights, which were far more detailed than other trackers we’ve tried. I’ve found it particularly interesting to see how various lifestyle factors affect my sleep. Unsurprisingly, alcohol, stress and large meals at 10pm seem to have a major impact on my ability to get a decent night’s rest. This has encouraged me to follow a proper wind-down routine before bed, which includes using the app’s meditations to soothe my mind. After a session, you can see how it’s affected your heart rate, HRV and skim temperature – it's truly fascinating!
Readiness score
We were also big fans of the readiness score, which combines several metrics including your sleep score, activity score, resting heart rate, HRV, body temperature and more, to let you know how well recovered you are and how much you can take on during the day.
Like the sleep score, I found my own impression of my readiness matched the score it gave me. When my energy levels were high, my readiness score was also high, and when I didn’t feel so great, the app suggested I give myself a break and stick to gentle activity.
I love Oura’s more holistic approach to health and fitness. While many fitness trackers push you to hit arbitrary step, calorie and exercise targets, regardless of how you’re feeling, Oura encourages you to listen to your body. I'm often guilty of pushing myself too hard and squeezing in as many workouts as I can during the week, so I've found the readiness score has helped me prioritise recovery.
Activity tracking
Your activity score is based on how much you moved the previous day and is designed to help you balance activity, inactivity and rest. A high score indicates you’ve met your movement goals, while a lower score lets you know the balance is off and you may need to make some lifestyle tweaks.
The Oura Ring tracks all the basics including steps and calories burned (you can input your goals), and autodetects over 30 activities, from running to gardening. It can also import data from apps including Apple Health, Strava and Google Fit to provide a more accurate score. If you don’t have a fitness tracker, panic not, as it will ask you if you’re working out at various points during the day or you can manually add workouts via the app.
While I did like the activity score, I found that the activity detection feature was a tad hit and miss. It didn’t recognise all my workouts correctly. For instance, it once logged my Pilates workout as a 45-minute walk and on another occasion, it suggested I had done a workout when I was just pottering around the house.
Due to the lack of screen, it’s hard to compare to smartwatches, which have built-in GPS and can provide live running splits or heart rate data on the move. If advanced fitness tracking is your priority, then you’re better off with a dedicated fitness watch or using one alongside the Oura Ring.
Stress monitoring
Rolled out in January, Oura now also offers a daytime stress feature. This measures your heart rate, HRV, motion and temperature changes throughout the day to shed some light on your physiological stress levels.
On the app’s homepage, you’ll find a graph that’s updated in real time, with four zones: stressed, engaged, relaxed and restored. I found it extremely useful, not only to identify the activities that made me feel stressed and those that helped me decompress, but when I noticed my stress levels were particularly high, it gave me a prompt to take a time out.
To this end, there’s also Reflections – Oura’s AI-powered journalling tool – which lets you record short entries about what’s stressing you out, and a new Resilience feature that highlights your ability to bounce back from stress and provides tips for how you can manage it better.
I particularly loved the journalling feature. I have plenty of physical diaries lying around at home, but never find the time to actually fill them in. With Reflections, you can get all your thoughts and feelings out using voice record, and AI suggests tags to “connect the dots between the mind and body”.
Women’s health data
Based on fluctuations in your body temperature, along with your HRV, respiratory rate and sleep, the ring can predict your period start date and whether you’re in the follicular or luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. While most trackers assume your cycle is the same each month, Oura’s period predictions adapt as your cycle changes after wearing it for 60 days. I've found these to be accurate and it has been fascinating to see my temperature fluctuate over the course of my cycle.
For those who use non-hormonal birth control or are interested in tracking their ovulation, the ring can be paired with the FDA-approved Natural Cycles app. It pulls your temperature statistics at the same time each morning for accuracy and lets you know your fertility status. Two of our testers, who both use Natural Cycles, thought it was game-changing. “I found it a hassle remembering to take my temperature with a thermometer at the same time every day, so having the ring do it for me has made life so much easier,” said one.
Oura now also offers pregnancy insights, designed to empower mothers-to-be through each trimester, tracking gestational age (how far along you are) and providing weekly updates about physiological changes that may occur.
Heart health
In May, the brand announced two new heart health features – cardio age and cardio capacity – to provide a picture of your long-term heart health, along with guidance on how to improve it and avoid issues later down the line.
The cardio age metric tells you whether your cardiovascular age is older or younger than your actual age. To do this, the clever contraption uses PPG sensors to gather information about arterial stiffness and pulse wave velocity. Put simply, stiffer blood vessels mean a less efficient vascular system.
After at least 14 days of wearing your Oura Ring, it will give you an estimate of your trending age via a simple, easy-to-read graph. I was pleased to discover my cardiovascular age is aligned with my actual age but according to my ring, managing my stress levels could bring it down even more.
The cardio capacity feature, on the other hand, is based on an estimate of your VO2 max. This is a measure of your cardio-respiratory fitness and reveals how well your heart, lungs, blood vessels and nervous system work together. A higher VO2 max generally means better athletic performance and is likely to correlate with an aligned or lower cardiovascular age.
To get my cardio capacity estimate, I had to do a walking test, striding out as quickly as possible for six minutes straight. Again, I was delighted to find that my VO2 max of 40 was high for my age group. It seems my consistent exercise routine is paying off...
Final verdict: Is the Oura Ring worth it?
As a health and wellness writer, I’ve tried a lot of wearables over the years, but the Oura ring is undoubtedly my favourite. At the time of writing, I’ve been wearing it for over ten months now and don’t plan on taking it off anytime soon. It has become an integral part of my health and wellbeing routine.
Although I wouldn’t use it solely as an activity tracker, it has provided me with lots of valuable data and helped me identify areas in my sleep and overall health that I can improve. I’ve already started forming healthier habits, including reducing my alcohol intake, eating dinner earlier and managing my stress levels so I can sleep better and giving my body the chance to rest when needed.
I also find that the recommendations are much more personalised than other trackers I’ve tested. Instead of telling me to go to bed at 10pm and get eight hours’ sleep each night or burn a certain number of calories every day, I like how Oura adapts to my habits and my body and gives me realistic targets based on my individual needs. For instance, Oura recognised when I was unwell due to temperature and heart rate data and suggested I enter “rest mode”, turning off my activity goals and advising me to slow down.
There’s no getting away from the hefty price tag (and the ongoing subscription), but if you want to understand your body better and you can afford it, I'd say it’s most definitely worth it. It’s also a great choice if you don’t enjoy wearing chunky fitness watches or want a screen constantly bombarding you with notifications. Accurate, easy to use and unobtrusive, it really does live up to the hype.
The Oura Ring is available to buy directly from the Oura website, John Lewis and Amazon. Shop now to make the most of the Black Friday deals.
You Might Also Like
