Despite being tempted by deals left, right and centre, I firmly decided that there was only one thing worth splurging for this Black Friday season, and that was an Oura Ring.
At a starting price of £349/$349 plus an Oura subscription, the new Gen 4 was just far too expensive for me to consider. However, the smart ring company is phasing out its Gen 3 model, and as such the price has dropped significantly.
Oura
While my job as a tech journalist would seem to suggest otherwise, I often find smartwatches and fitness trackers with displays too distracting, with the constant buzzes of notifications and shaming reminders to stand up driving me slightly insane.
As someone with small wrists, many models are also far too big and rugged to wear all the time. Smart rings omit all that, blending in more seamlessly with outfits while tracking all your vitals in the accompanying app.
The Oura Ring Gen 3 does what I need it to by tracking my steps, exercise, heart rate and sleep. Plus, it has a battery life of up to seven days – much higher than many leading smartwatches from Apple, Google and Samsung.
My TikTok feed has been full of praise for the Oura Ring thanks to its cycle tracking features – it’s the only smart ring on the market to be compatible with Natural Cycles, an FDA-approved app.
Dominik Tomaszewski / Foundry
It does this by continuously monitoring your heart rate and temperature – many users have also found out that they are sick from wearing the Oura Ring, with the app notifying them of temperature spikes or breathing irregularities.
I bought it from Oura directly, though shipping has taken a little while as it comes from Europe, so if you don’t want to wait, I’d suggest looking at a store based in your local country.
Just make sure you order the sizing kit first and wear different options for at least 24 hours, as your finger size can fluctuate depending on the time of day and temperature – as I discovered first-hand.
While this isn’t the newest Oura Ring, the upgrades on the Gen 4 weren’t enough to deter me from saving money. These include a slightly longer battery life, a lighter and more comfortable fit and a higher number of sensors that allegedly provide more accurate tracking – though some reviews and Reddit users suggest they haven’t seen massive differences in their data when comparing the two models.
Of course, we haven’t been able to put the two Oura Rings head-to-head yet, so we don’t know these claims first-hand. Nonetheless, there are enough positive experiences out there about the Gen 3 that made me snap up this deal.
Author: Hannah Cowton-Barnes, Entertainment Editor, Tech Advisor
As Tech Advisor’s Entertainment Editor, Hannah is the resident expert in all things streaming, film and TV. Before joining Tech Advisor in 2019, she studied Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds and created a website dedicated to geek culture and lifestyle. She’s also reviewed a whole range of gadgets including flagship smartphones, wearables and styling tools. Outside of Foundry, she’s written freelance pieces for Polygon, Metro and Den of Geek, and is proud to be a Women Techmakers Ambassador for Google.
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