Oura on Thursday unveiled the fifth generation of its popular smart ring, starting at $399. The Ring 5, which Oura describes as the world’s smallest smart ring, arrives just a year and a half after the company launched the Ring 4 and seven months after the Ring 4 Ceramic. The Ring 5 is 40% smaller than its predecessor and comes with more accurate sensing and enhanced battery life.
The Ring 5 is launching alongside new software updates that include blood pressure signals, live activity tracking, on-demand care, and other features that will also roll out to the Oura Ring Gen3 and later.
The new smart ring is available for pre-order starting today and will start shipping on June 4. It’s available in sizes 6 to 13 and comes in six finishes, including a redesigned Gold with a truer gold tone, an updated Deep Rose with a copper-like look, plus Silver, Brushed Silver, Black, and Stealth. The Black and Silver retail for $399, while the rest cost $499. For comparison, the Ring 4 started at $349.
Maz Brumand, VP of Product at Oura, told TechCrunch that the company reduced the ring’s width by about two millimeters and its thickness by roughly 30%. Brumand noted that Oura members had been asking the company to make a ring that was smaller and thinner, prompting the shift toward a slimmer design. Oura achieved the new size by redesigning the mechanical, electrical, optical, battery, and sensing architectures, Brumand explained.
Image Credits:Oura
The new ring is designed to be desirable to a broader audience, especially people who have found smart rings too bulky in the past. Oura says the latest model is designed to look and feel like any other ring.
While Oura could previously get away with a bulkier design as the dominant player in the smart ring market, new products from subscription-free rivals like RingConn and Ultrahuman have increased the pressure to innovate. Increased competition also likely explains why Oura is launching a new ring just a year and a half after the Ring 4, compared with the roughly three-year gap between the Ring 3 and Ring 4. It’s also worth noting that the announcement of the Ring 5 arrives a day before RingConn’s Gen 3 is set to start shipping.
In terms of the enhanced battery life, the Ring 5 can last between six to nine days, compared to the five to eight days on the Ring 4.
Oura also says it has reengineered its sensors for better skin contact and added more powerful LEDs in an effort to increase accuracy across a wider range of finger sizes and skin tones.
Software updates
As for the software updates, Oura is launching “Health Radar,” which is designed to monitor key biometric signals in the background to surface patterns members should pay attention to. Health Radar is launching with two foundational capabilities: Blood Pressure Signals and Nighttime Breathing.
Oura says it will continuously detect shifts and patterns that may indicate cardiovascular strain, alerting members when their biometrics suggest signs of increasing blood pressure. With Blood Pressure Signals, Oura tracks blood pressure patterns during sleep when the body’s cardiovascular patterns are most stable, since blood pressure should naturally dip overnight. When it doesn’t, it can signal potential cardiovascular risk that daytime readings may miss, Oura notes.
Image Credits:Oura
Members will also be able to log actual blood pressure readings from cuffs directly in the Oura app.
With Nighttime Breathing, Oura wants to give users a better understanding of how sleep and breathing patterns may impact their health. Members will get a 30-day rolling view of sleep-related breathing patterns and disturbances, expanding on the nightly breathing regularity insights they already receive.
Oura is also moving beyond insights into offering actual care. The company is partnering with Counsel Health, an on-demand platform that combines AI with licensed physicians to bring care directly into the Oura app. Members will be able to ask health questions, receive personalized medical advice, and connect with licensed physicians in the U.S. To acc …