• 2 days ago
Tom's Guide's Katie reviews the Oura Ring 4 review and addresses the smart ring's early criticism and the state of the so-called 'smart ring revolution' as a whole. When you look at the Oura Ring's design, charging, and everything you get from the app, it's no wonder the Oura Ring is becoming more and more popular in the fitness tracker market by the day. But comparing Oura Ring vs. Samsung Galaxy Ring that doesn't have a membership fee, and even the Apple Watch,
Let's break down where we're at now by going through the Oura Ring 4 features, including how to use the Oura Ring with the redesigned Oura app experience.
Transcript
00:00I see you!
00:02Ring down!
00:04Aura Ring 4.
00:06A lot of people were excited in the rumors leading up to this, so I was surprised to see some not so excited comments on Aura's announcement video.
00:13The one that stood out to me said that this should have been called the Aura Ring 3.5 instead of 4 because there aren't enough changes compared to the Aura Ring 3.
00:22So, let's talk about it.
00:24Is this really the best thing we could get while we're supposed to be in the middle of a smart ring revolution?
00:28Or is the revolution over?
00:30I think it's important to start by looking at the Aura Ring 4 next to the Aura Ring 3.
00:37The design now has an all titanium frame that's basically completely leveled on the inside thanks to new recessed health tracking sensors.
00:45You can very clearly see. Bumps, no bumps. Bumps, no bumps.
00:50The titanium design is also meant to make the Aura Ring 4 more accurate because the epoxy layer right here,
00:56it can cause a little bit of diffraction for the infrared and other sensor lights that are reading your finger.
01:01I actually did a video a little while back testing the Aura Ring 3 against heart rate and SpO2 equipment at a sports lab,
01:07and I found that it was already very, very accurate.
01:10But the Aura Ring 4 has what Aura is calling smart sensing,
01:13where there are 18 up from just 8 sensing paths before that go across your finger,
01:18and in real time, the ring determines which path is the most accurate, most unimpeded,
01:22and then uses that measurement to inform all your data.
01:25Smart sensing should also help limit the number of data gaps.
01:29I definitely used to get more gaps in my sleep and stress data just from the Aura Ring 3 twisting or whatever.
01:34I just haven't seen that as much since using the newer ring.
01:38But honestly, for me, looking at the design change overall comes down to the Aura Ring 4 feeling more comfortable to wear 24-7, including during sleep.
01:47That's huge. I also just love how it looks.
01:50This is rose gold, if you couldn't tell, but I really like how it feels super discreet.
01:54I even forget I have it on.
01:56And thinking not just about me, the fact that the size range is now 4 through 15, before it was 6 through 13, I believe,
02:03that means the Aura Ring 4 is more inclusive.
02:06Samsung's Galaxy Ring had an edge for, like, maybe just six months, less than six months,
02:10with the one extra size than the Gen 3.
02:13But this feels a little bit like Aura reminding Samsung that they're the ones that made smart rings mainstream.
02:19Now, question. I've also seen some people on TikTok talking about the Ultra Human Ring.
02:23I haven't personally tried it, but I know that it only comes in sizes 6 through 12.
02:27Let me know if you've also been seeing more buzz lately about the Ultra Human Ring and if I should try it out for a future video.
02:33Now, back to the Aura Ring.
02:35The other half of the hardware upgrades that you should know applies to battery life.
02:39The Aura Ring 4 can apparently get up to eight days of battery life.
02:43Now, I'll tell you, that has not been my experience.
02:46But my experience actually has been better than it was on the Aura Ring 3.
02:50On a full charge, I've gone six days before wanting to charge it before bed just so that I wouldn't die overnight.
02:56I was barely making five days on my Aura Ring 3, so that is definitely an improvement.
03:02The batteries in these rings do seem to deteriorate over time, so I will be paying attention.
03:08But for now, I'm really content to not have to worry about charging for several days at a time.
03:13It's a very different experience than using, say, an Apple Watch.
03:17That's how I feel. You tell me how long you would need a smart ring to last.
03:21For me, I would be absolutely blown away if a smart ring lasted any longer at this point, honestly.
03:26Just think about how tiny the batteries are in something like this.
03:29I wouldn't want the ring to be any thicker just to have more batteries.
03:33So, in terms of design, check from me.
03:36And now, battery life, another check.
03:38That's before even mentioning that the charging base is now square and silver, which, thank God,
03:44because I was always losing the Aura Ring 3 base.
03:47I have it right here.
03:51The Aura Ring 4 base is at home on my nightstand, but here's the Aura Ring 3 base.
03:55It would just fall to the bottom of bags, never to be seen again, and replacing it is like 50 bucks.
04:00So, it was just bad.
04:01That said, I do wish that Aura maybe copied Samsung.
04:05I love, love, love this little ring box.
04:09I could, like, propose to someone with this.
04:11What are our thoughts on using smart rings as, like, wedding rings?
04:14I feel like I'm not opposed.
04:16Is that, like, crazy to say?
04:18Let's cut the hardware conversation and move over to software,
04:22because as of October 2024, the Aura app has undergone its biggest refresh in years.
04:28I'll try to break it down as simple as possible.
04:31It's reorganized into three new tabs, Today, Vitals, and My Health.
04:36Today is effectively the homepage with changing information
04:40based on what might be relevant to the user at any given point at the day.
04:44My favorite part are these little shortcut tiles up here for viewing metrics,
04:48and then we see a list of spotlight cards that rotate throughout the times of the day.
04:52And then something I also really like is this new timeline feature, if you scroll down,
04:56that lets you see all of the factors that are impacting your health throughout the day.
05:00Here's where I can add tags.
05:02I'll add here, for example, that I had a coffee this morning.
05:07I also added that I had a flu shot this week.
05:10I add when I've had a little bit of alcohol.
05:13Done. So, tag entry added.
05:16Next, we have Vitals, which is more of a stable page
05:19with these expanding and collapsing cards that covers all of your daily metrics,
05:23such as your readiness, your sleep, activity goal, cycle day,
05:27even your daytime heart rate and daytime stress.
05:30Finally, we have My Health, which is more of a zoomed-out picture of your health,
05:34spanning things like resilience, your heart health, sleep chronotypes, cardiovascular age, and more.
05:41This section is where you can view your monthly and yearly reports
05:44if you're curious to see how your health is changing over time.
05:47Oura Ring is always adding new features.
05:50I think they've had something like 24 in just the last year alone.
05:53Most recently is better automatic activity detection
05:56with heart rate tracking and information on heart rate zones.
05:59It knows when I'm walking, doing a HIIT workout, even doing housework
06:03because I think we can all agree that that is definitely a workout.
06:06Okay, this one's really cool.
06:08If I go back to today, there's a new daytime stress chart
06:11that lets users see an overview of their stress levels throughout the day
06:15pitted against those lifestyle tags that I mentioned
06:18that might explain why you're having stress peaks.
06:21I think it's pretty clear that I've been very stressed lately
06:24and it's one of those things where, like, I didn't think I was a stressed person,
06:27just, like, a little tired or overworked lately, I'm not sure.
06:31But now I'm thinking that I really need to prioritize some relaxation.
06:35I wouldn't have considered this honestly, and I think just being aware
06:38that you need to think about your mental health is the first step towards taking action, right?
06:43Now, that's all great, but there's another comment-slash-complaint that I wanted to address
06:47and that's the fee for the Aura app membership.
06:50I think I saw more than one person say that if there wasn't the $5.99 a month membership fee,
06:55that they would buy the ring.
06:57And what I would say to that is, aren't features like the ones I've discussed worth paying for?
07:02In fact, there's dozens of other things, like third-party integrations I didn't mention,
07:06that I don't see the fee being a bad thing.
07:09Ask me again if the price were to go up, but for now, it's less than one Starbucks per month,
07:15girl math, and I'm willing to pay for an accurate health tool
07:18that's proven that it's consistently adopting new features.
07:22Yes, I know that the Galaxy Ring features are free,
07:25but there is a higher upfront cost and many of the insights are great,
07:29but having used both, I can say that Aura's is better.
07:32Do I think Aura might be able to get some more people in the door with a non-paid tier?
07:37Maybe.
07:38But that hasn't stopped over 2.5 million people from already buying these rings.
07:43So what if you're one of those people?
07:45What about if you already have an Aura Ring 3 or Gen 3?
07:49Well, I have good news, I think,
07:51and it's that everything in the new Aura app is also available to you.
07:55You don't need to get an Aura Ring 4 to take advantage of all of these, frankly, great features.
08:01Then the conversation becomes about whether you should upgrade based on the hardware changes.
08:07But honestly, for most people, I don't see much reason to upgrade
08:11unless you've had your Aura Ring 3 for several years already,
08:14you're really enthusiastic about smart rings, which is sick, same here,
08:18and want what is going to be my top pick, and I'm guessing a lot of other reviewers' top smart ring pick.
08:24Just know that the Aura Ring 4's starting price is $50 more than the Aura Ring 3's starting price,
08:30and that was for the Heritage model that had that little ridge or plateau on it.
08:34That's no more.
08:35For the Aura Ring 4, it only has the fully rounded model.
08:39Of course, the same as the Aura Ring 3, the price is going to depend ultimately on the material you choose.
08:45After looking at everything new, giving you my two cents on the differences,
08:50I'm again going to throw the question back to you.
08:53What would the Aura Ring need to have to go from feeling like a 3.5 or a half step up to a full next-gen?
09:00This is everything a smart ring should be.
09:03Stylish, comfortable, accommodating in terms of users and natural movements,
09:07several days of battery life, and capable of telling me things about my health that I didn't even consider.
09:13When I doubt the state of the smart ring revolution, it's that I think that this is peak.
09:18This is the smart ring that most people should get.
09:21Everything Samsung or Ultra Human have done recently have been to catch up to where Aura got to a few years ago,
09:27and this almost just like leapfrogged. I think that's the right term to use.
09:30If you ask me, the only thing that Aura has to be worried about is an Apple Ring,
09:34which honestly will probably be a lot of the same situation where it's a catch-up product in its first iteration.
09:40It's reached the point where I can see at least one Aura Ring every time I go out in public,
09:46and there's no reason to believe that that's going to change anytime soon.
09:50I have linked the Aura Ring 4 down in the description if you're interested,
09:53and I posted an unboxing on our TikTok that you should go check out.
09:57But more importantly, I want to know your impressions of the ring and where we stand with smart rings.
10:03Is there something, a feature, holding you back from getting one?
10:06Are you kind of with me in that we've hit peak? Let me know what you guys think.
10:10Anyway, that's it for me. Thanks for watching. I'll catch you next time.

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