Is the Oura Ring 5 worth it?

The Oura Ring 5 is the best smart ring you can buy. Full stop. Just like the Oura Ring 4 before it, it marries a great design, an intuitive app and accurate data in a small package. But that doesn’t mean it’s automatically the best fitness tracker for you. There are dozens of excellent alternatives, including smart rings like the RingConn Gen 3 and screen-free trackers like the Whoop 5.0 and Google Fitbit Air. With more competition than ever on the market you may be asking, is the Oura Ring 5 worth it? I’ve been testing the Oura Ring for years, starting with the Oura Ring Gen 3. Now that I’ve spent more than a month using the Oura Ring 5, I can confidently say that it is the best smart ring the brand’s ever made: here’s everything you should know if you’re thinking about buying one. Want more from NBC Selected? Sign up for our newsletter, The Selection, and shop smarter. What is the Oura Ring 5? The Oura Ring 5 is the brand’s newest smart ring. It tracks a plethora of health metrics, including heart rate, body temperature, respiratory rate, blood oxygen and more. It automatically detects and logs some exercise (mostly walks and runs), and lets you manually start and stop any workout through the Oura app, where you can view all of your data. The Oura Ring 5 is 40 percent smaller than the Oura Ring 4 — it’s a significant difference that’s quite noticeable to the wearer. It also gets slightly better battery life: six to nine days per charge (up from five to eight). It comes in six finishes and sizes range from six to 13 (the Oura Ring 4 comes in sizes four to 15). The ring basically requires an Oura membership subscription ($5.99 per month or $69.99 per year), otherwise you’ll be limited to solely tracking the current day. My experience with the Oura Ring 5 NBC Selected associate social media editor Caitlin Cusack and I wore the Oura Ring 5 for more than a month after receiving early samples from the brand to try out. I compared data from the Oura Ring 5 to other wearables like the Google Fitbit Air, Whoop 5.0 and Garmin watches. Cusack, who was trying the Oura Ring for the first time, focused on first impression and usability. What we like Much smaller and slimmer than past Oura Rings I am not much of a ring person — I generally prefer watches and smartwatches to smart rings. The Oura Ring 4 didn’t change that, but the Oura Ring 5 came close. It’s significantly smaller and slimmer than the previous version, which made it much more comfortable to wear on a daily basis. I didn’t feel it clashing against everything I touched, squeezing against my adjacent fingers while washing my hands, or pushing against weights during strength straining nearly as much as previous iterations. That added comfort made wearing the ring much more enjoyable — most of the time, I forgot I even had it on. Accurate sleep tracking Oura Ring continues to have some of the best sleep tracking in a wearable. Like the Oura Ring 4 before it, it tracked my sleep more accurately than other options like my Apple Watch Series 11 and Google Fitbit Air. More often than not, it correctly logged sleep interruptions — I woke up a few times in the middle of the night to take care of my toddler during the test period, and the Oura Ring 5 usually logged these small wake windows accurately. Accurate illness tracking (Symptom Radar) Both Cusack and I fell sick during our testing period of the Oura Ring 5, and both of our rings confirmed illness through the symptom radar feature. Both of our symptom radars reported “Major signs of strain,” with elevated resting heart rate, body temperature and respiratory rates. This isn’t unique to the Oura Ring 5, but it continues to be a useful feature that can help remind you to take time to rest and recover when needed. Cusack did find this interesting, but felt it was a bit stressful to see, especially the red color shift that goes along with the major signs text. I didn’t mind it so much, probably because I’ve tested so many fitness trackers. Potential drawbacks to keep in mind It’s still not the best option for athletes The Oura Ring 5 automatically tracks most health and sleep data very well. It isn’t so great at automatically tracking exercise, though. This isn’t unique to Oura, but it’s worth mentioning for anyone thinking the Oura Ring 5 will magically track any and all of your physical activity perfectly. It won’t. Outdoor cycling is a prime example: With automatic tracking, it botched all GPS-related data (distance, speed and mapping), but manually starting and stopping led to much more acceptable data. It’s starting to feel like too much information I’ve been testing the Oura Ring since the Oura Ring Gen3 launched in 2021. The ring’s capabilities, and the information the Oura Ring app shows you, have changed a lot in those few years. Things like sleep debt, symptom radar, heart health, metabolic health, health panels, glucose tracking and GLP-1 insights are all interesting features, but the more data, insights and capabilities Oura adds, the harder it becomes to make everything feel useful and holistic without being overwhelmed. I still feel that Oura does this well, especially compared to other brands. But it’s a tension I am starting to become more and more aware of, especially compared to simpler (past) iterations. Who is the Oura Ring 5 for? The Oura Ring 5 is the best smart ring you can buy. The smaller size compared to the Oura Ring 4 is a big deal, and it’s much more comfortable to wear. The app provides useful, accurate health and sleep insights, organized in a mostly approachable way. It’s still not the best option for athletes or anyone doing outdoor fitness regularly — its data isn’t as accurate or useful as that of smartwatches or fitness trackers like the Apple Watch or Garmin Forerunner series. Overall, I think anyone wearing an Oura Ring 4 shouldn’t feel the need to upgrade right away. While the smaller size is nice, the data and app experience is largely the same — I’d wait until you start having issues with (or lose) your existing ring, or it gets marked down during a major sale. Why trust NBC Selected? I’m a reporter at NBC Selected who covers technology, fitness and outdoors, including stories on running shoes and wireless earbuds. For this piece, NBC Selected associate social media editor Caitlin Cusack and I wore the Oura Ring 5 for more than a month after the brand sent them to us to try. I tracked my daily stats, sleep and exercise and compared the data and fit and feel to previous Oura Rings and other wearables on the market. Catch up on NBC Selected in-depth coverage of tech and tools, wellness and more, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok to stay up to date.