Oura Ring 4 vs Gen 3: Upgrades Galore

The Oura Ring 4 is official and arrives at a time when Oura is no longer the only smart ring player on the scene. 

Despite the growing competition, Oura’s Ring Gen 3 has managed to stave off the competition to remain a standout smart ring. So how will the Oura Ring 4 become the ultimate ring to put on your finger and what’s new from Gen 3?

I’ll break down the key differences between the new Oura Ring 4 and the Gen 3 and tell you about one thing they share, that will help you decide whether you’re going to need to rush to make that upgrade when it goes on sale soon.

All titanium and comes in more sizes

The Oura Ring 4 is still a titanium-based smart ring like Gen 3, but now there’s more of it, with the inner now wrapped in the high-grade yet pleasingly light metal instead of the plastic used on the Gen 3.

The new model is also lighter, at 3.3-5.2g depending on size compared to 4-6g.

It comes in more sizes. You can pick up the Ring 4 in US sizes 4-15 compared to 6-13, so that means you’re getting both larger and smaller size options to make the Ring 4 a better fit for more finger sizes.

It does also still come with a sizing kit and sizing for Gen 3 won’t necessarily match the Ring 4 and I’ll get into why that might be the case below.

The black Oura Ring 4 is now darker and tougher

Like Gen 3, Oura is offering the Ring 4 in six different colours. There’s gold, rose gold, brushed silver, stealth, silver and black.

The black Oura Ring 4 now uses a tungsten carbide PVD coating as opposed to the diamond-like carbon coating on the Gen 3 version. That should give it a darker look overall and also make it a more durable ring to wear as well too.

New sensors are more discreetly

While both Oura Rings promise to deliver similar metrics and insights, the Ring 4 is doing that from an improved sensor platform that now sits more flush with the ring interior to offer a more comfortable and less intrusive fit (as you can see above).

This is a key reason why sizing for Gen 3 won’t necessarily match the Ring 4.

The new setup Oura calls ‘Smart Sensing’ is made up of similar sensors included in Gen 3. There’s red, green and infrared LEDs for capturing information like blood oxygen levels and heart rate. That’s joined by a digital temperature sensor and an accelerometer motion sensor to track movement and activity. 

There’s two big changes here though. The first is that those sensors now have more signal pathways (18 instead of eight) to help capture more accurate data.

There’s also a new algorithm to help optimise monitoring for different skin tones, BMI, finger shape and anatomy. It can also factor in when the ring rotates on your finger to make sure you’re still getting that good data if the ring moves on your finger.

A boost to battery life

That new smart sensing platform also has a positive impact on the battery life you’ll enjoy on the Ring 4 compared to Gen 3.

Now that the Ring 4 has the ability to dynamically adjust the brightness of the LEDs used to track your biometric data, it frees up resources to powering other features like battery life, which is up to 8 days. Gen 3 promised up to 7 days, so that’s in theory an extra day of tracking.

Though, as we found in our testing with the previous Oura, battery was typically closer to 3-4 days. So that might mean getting more like 4-5 days on the Ring 4 but hopefully, it can hit its advertised amount.

Both get the new, re-designed app

The other good news is that you’ll get access to Oura’s revamped companion app, where its simplified the number of tabs to navigate and includes a new Vitals section for a snapshot look at your key metrics.

There’s also access to new features like automatic heart rate detection and heart rate zones for training with Oura, new daytime stress insights, and improved women’s health features with new pregnancy and cycle insights now added.

Android users will now join iOS users in getting access to Oura Labs, which is the section in the app where you’ll find Oura’s experimental features like the AI-powered Advisor it’s been testing out and new experimental features like the ability to track meals.

When can you buy one?

The Oura Ring 4 pricing starts from £349/$349 and like its predecessor requires a £5.99/$5.99 a month or £69.99$69.99 annual Oura Membership to unlock all of its features and insights.

You can pre-order the Ring 4 now ahead of its 15 October release date.

For context, the Oura Ring Gen 3 launch price was £299/$299 and also requires the same-priced membership for the full Oura experience. That means the starting price for the Ring 4 is £50/$50 more than its predecessor, though is still cheaper than rival rings like the £399/$399 Samsung Galaxy Ring although that has no subscription element.

Oura says the arrival of the Ring 4 doesn’t mean the Gen 3 is simply disappearing and will remain on sale until inventory is gone. That’s good news if you’re thinking the new Oura is a bit too pricey for you.