Full transcript of “6 Months with the Oura Ring 4. Is it worth it?”. Click a timestamp to open the video at that moment. Need another video? Use the YouTube transcript generator.
0:00 - After six months of wearing the Oura Ring 4, is this thing worth it and is it actually accurate? I've been wearing Oura Rings for about five years now from the two, the three. I've been wearing the WHOOP 4.0 for five years and a whole bunch of other wearables and trackers. I test them for a living. I'm personally trying to grow my business so I'm always trying to optimize my sleep, my recovery, and I'm training for marathons so I need to be athletically able to perform, and I wanna see if this Oura Ring is actually worth it to help me be faster for running and be better at my job. So today I'm gonna share my thoughts and opinions, the things I don't like about it, the things I do like about it, and if this thing is actually worth it. Let's get to it. (tense upbeat music) This is my probably like seventh Oura Ring. I have a whole bunch of them.
0:45 This is the Oura Ring 4, I have the three, the two. And the reason that I initially got the Oura Ring, I remember seeing like at Kickstarter was the CEO at the company that I was working at, said he got the Oura Ring and helped him fix his sleep, so he was able to focus better at work and I was hoping that if I got this ring I would be able to do that too. And that was my initial inspiration. Now having had it for so many years and finally recently upgrading to the four, which came out October 15th, 2024. Is this one actually worth upgrading to you? Because I have the three. If you don't have a ring, that's a different question. Maybe you do want an Oura Ring. But the things that I personally found, there's three main life lessons that I've learned from wearing this ring and that is not drinking alcohol before bed. If I drink during the day, my sleep will actually be a little bit better than if I drink at night. The second one is eating food close to bedtime. I know it's fun and easy.
1:31 Sometimes you're so busy or you're hanging out with friends and dinner's late. But if I eat food close to bedtime, my resting heart rate is higher at night and so my sleep is ruined, and it's very subtle where I might not notice it but I see it in the data. And then the third one is caffeine. I have a rule now where I don't drink caffeine after 2:00 p.m., so about eight hours before I go to bed, and I metabolize caffeine pretty quickly. So I've found that that also helps because if I drink caffeine a little too late, four or 5:00 p.m., even like a boba milk tea that has a little bit of caffeine, some dark chocolates have caffeine. A lot of things do have caffeine, it's not just coffee. Not having those later in the day can also be helpful. So, those are the three major things that I can notice instantly on the ring. And once you learn that, it's good, it's like okay, I don't need the ring. But the second valuable piece is that it keeps me accountable. So when I wear the ring,
2:17 it makes sure that I don't do those three behaviors and any other drastic negative behavior changes. So those are the biggest value pieces that I found and we'll get more into how this ring is different than the three and the two, if you have one of those, if it's even worth upgrading, or if you are thinking about getting a ring, if this one is actually the best one to get or not. Now one of the biggest pros of the Oura Ring, I think the Oura Ring 4 specifically, they offer bigger sizes. So, I think my fingers got thicker and fatter, so I got a size 14. I think previously it was six to 13 and now it's four to 15. So the range of ring sizes went from this to this. So now this just fits better on more of my fingers. I can wear it on my index finger on this side and this side, whereas before I could only wear it on my ring finger on my right hand. So that's one factor, bigger ring sizes.
3:03 The second is there's new sensing technology where if you don't wear it perfectly, it'll be a little bit better at getting more accurate data. It just knows if how you're wearing the ring, in the direction, everything. So I do appreciate that. And the third piece is that it's small and discreet. So with any smart ring versus like a watch, like people that I know, a lot of friends don't like sleeping with their Apple watch or their Garmin, whatever it is. So the ring just makes it easier. You could wear a WHOOP as well, but that still has a bump on your wrist. But when you're wearing a ring, it's more discreet. I can close my fist. I almost feel like it's not there, whereas a watch it kinda protrudes. It's just a lot chunkier and it's harder to sleep with, especially like let's say on your side, it could get in the way, it could be on your pillow. So the design, the comfort of the ring is just more discreet, subtle and no one really knows that you're wearing something smart on your finger. So I love that about the Oura Ring 4 and it has a slightly better battery life,
3:49 which the Oura Ring 3 I think was seven days, this is reported eight days. I do notice a little bit better of a difference if I'm traveling for the weekend. As long as I charge it before I go, I'm usually fine for that entire week. So that's a nice benefit to have. Is it life-changing? No. But it's nice to have because over time the battery will degrade and after about one to two years, depending on your battery charging behaviors, the battery can drop much faster than if you are actually good in terms of keeping the percentage between 20 and 80%. That'll help expand the lifetime of your battery charge. So those are the things I love about the Oura Ring 4. Now if you do plan to buy any of these rings, I will have an affiliate link down below, Amazon link, and an Oura Ring discount code. Potentially there's any left, I think I get like five a year. So if you click one of those, help support the channel,
4:36 and hopefully gets you a discount. Now back to the video. Now let's talk about the biggest cons and why maybe I don't like the Oura Ring 4. So when I bought the Gen2 there was no subscription. Now there is a subscription. It's 5.99 I think or 6 US dollars a month, which is not ideal because you're already paying for the ring. Whereas like things like the WHOOP strap, it's a subscription model, but when you stop using the device and you cancel it, you never paid upfront for the device itself. So you're really only paying for when you're using it. And then when they upgrade to a new device, they will give you that new device included in your subscription, which I do like. Whereas the Oura Ring you're kinda just paying $6 a month for the rest of your life as long as you wanna use it and the ring works. So that's a big frustrating point. I have the lifetime subscription so I don't have to worry about that. But if I were to buy it today, would I pay the $6 a month?
5:24 I don't know. I'd look at the alternatives. Like there's Ultrahuman, there's RingConn, there's Circular. There's so many rings nowadays that don't have subscription models and they're trying to build the same technology. The only issue is like are they as accurate? Are they as well-built? Are their apps as easy to use as the Oura Ring app? And I think that's the biggest contender point. I think Ultrahuman is probably the closest in terms of the Oura Ring and I do have a comparison of the two. I can make an updated video if you wanna see that. That's a big pain point and I'm not sure. Like you could be wearing your watch, your Garmin, wear the WHOOP 4.0 to get the same data and not have to pay an upfront and a subscription. Now how much does the ring cost? They're about $300 but then they go up depending on the color and the finish that you want to get. So, they can get pretty expensive. And in comparison to some of these other rings you can get for $200. I think Renpho is now introducing a ring as well
6:11 that's even cheaper at 199. So, the ring market is expanding, there's gonna be more competitors. So from a price perspective, Oura is the most expensive, although they are the biggest player in the game. So the price is the biggest challenge and the second one is the activity tracking is not that good. So if you want to use this for like walks or runs, depending on how well the ring fits your finger on that day, on that time, it can give you different kinds of data. Like right now my ring fits really well, but there are other days where my rings will be more or less swollen and the ring will slide around pretty easily, and the heart rate data when I'm doing an activity won't be as accurate. And then there's the question of does Oura share my health data with third parties? So, that's a concern I think with any wearable and knowing that they store my data in the cloud, I'm not fully sure if it's encrypted, if they're selling that information. Like that's a big key point where you wanna make sure that you own your own data,
6:56 especially when you're paying a subscription fee for it. I think that one of the biggest cons for me is that it's really small. Although it is nice that it's small, it's also bad that it's small. I've left this ring at the gym. I've almost thrown it in a trash, I take it off and I wash my hands when I work out and I leave it there. And then sometimes I leave it by my backpack and I leave it on top of the shampoo bottle. So because of that small factor, because I take it off when my hands get wet or I'm eating, there's a higher probability that I'm going to lose it or forget to put it back on. So I'm not in love with that. I wish there was an easy way to wear this ring and not have to worry about it getting wet or dirty because I just feel uncomfortable when I eat with it on or it gets wet. I don't know, I don't like that sensation personally. Now, the big question is, is the Oura Ring 4 accurate? And I wear the WHOOP, I wear the Apple Watch, I wear the Oura Ring, I wear a Garmin almost every single night
7:42 and the Eight Sleep. I have some videos which I'll link at the end of the video where I test the sleep accuracy against the sleep lab with all these wearables. And the biggest thing that I've found is some of them can be close, I think the start and end time for your sleep. So that's the thing I look at, that I get X hours of sleep every night. And is my start, end time relatively close, like within an hour of the past seven nights? I don't look at sleep stages because I've found they'll change the algorithm and all of a sudden I'm going from 75 minutes of deep sleep to 25 minutes of deep sleep. So, I don't wanna change my lifestyle behaviors based on sleep stages, so I don't look at that as much. And then the next piece is steps, like how accurate are the steps? I was just checking my Oura Ring and my Apple Watch, they're about a hundred steps off and I've been wearing them since I woke up this morning. So, your steps aren't gonna be perfect.
8:27 I think most devices are gonna be slightly off. So, it's just taking all this data and information with a grain of salt. I've just found it's mostly accurate, but it's not gonna be perfect. If you want to see me do extensive pedometer testing and test the steps of all these wearables, let me know in the comments down below. But you're gonna get good enough data where you can say, hey, did I get close to 10,000 steps? It might be a couple hundred steps off. And you have to be okay with that. You can look at the sleep stages and say, hey, I got eight hours of sleep last night versus the typical six hours of sleep. I think that's good because it can help drive behavior change but I'm not going to be like, oh, I got 50 minutes of deep sleep versus an hour and 10 minutes of deep sleep. I should probably do what I did last night versus tonight because those numbers aren't going to be as accurate. Now I'm gonna answer some questions that I've seen go unanswered
9:12 in a lot of comments on other videos. Biggest thing being, can the ring be worn on other fingers? Yes, I actually got the bigger ring because now I can easily take this ring, switch it to the other finger, it fits here. I can sometimes wear it on my ring finger, it's a little big, it barely fits on my middle finger if my hands are cold. Oh, now it's stuck. So for the most part, I keep it on my pointer fingers on both sides. And the size 13, I'd only wear it on my ring fingers and it looked like I was married, which I'm not, still single. So it can be worn on other fingers as long as your fingers are relatively close in size. Does it scratch or tarnish? Yes it does. I try not to do weightlifting or grab metal objects with it but it's already started to show signs of personality where there are scratches around the ring. I do have the silver, titanium silver I think it is, which is a bit more expensive so it just shows the scratches a little less,
9:58 but it's going to develop character over time. That's something you kinda have to let go of and give up. I've just been like, that's okay, I'm gonna be okay with it. It's going to have a personality. And when it came to sizing, the Oura Ring sizing, I made sure to get the rings that would fit on my pointer or middle finger. I prefer pointer just 'cause when you close your hands it doesn't hit your other fingers as much. If you do put on your middle finger, you're more likely to not be able to fully close your hands. And they've shown in their studies that it's going to be a little more accurate if it's on the pointer or middle finger. And then obviously you can still wear it on the other fingers, but they prefer you to wear it on these two. And the ring finger is possible, right? You can use it as a wedding band if you like. Even if you don't charge it. It is now thicker than most rings but I haven't done extensive testing where I check the sleep stats or data if I wear it on the other fingers. If you wanna see that, let me know, we can get all the sizes for every finger
10:43 and see how different the stats might be on each of my fingers every night. But for the most part, the Oura Ring 4 is an amazing sleep tracker. I would say the upgrades from the Oura Ring 3 aren't big enough to upgrade. I have purchased the ring for my entire family, they all wear it. They're all in the Oura Ring Gen3 still. None of them have upgraded to four because I was like, why do they need to upgrade? Do they need a new size? No. The size that they have fits really well. I need a new size, so I upgraded. Is their battery life degrading? No. So then they don't need a new ring. I think those are the main two reasons to upgrade if you have a previous ring. If you don't have a ring at all and if you're okay with the membership, the Oura Ring is just the most widely known app, it's the easiest to use app, and they integrate with a lot of other platforms like Strava or Natural Cycles, which is an FDA-cleared pregnancy planning and pregnancy prevention app,
11:29 which I can also talk about in a future video if you'd like. Whereas some of these other smart rings don't have that kind of level of integration. Which all comes down to is the Oura Ring 4 actually worth it? Let's answer that. Now, one of the biggest things my friend asked me is like, okay, you're the expert on these rings, which should I buy it? Which one, do I get the WHOOP or the Oura? And the biggest thing I tell them is pick the device that you think you're going to wear the most. So if you like wearing something on your wrist, then go with a watch, go with the WHOOP. If you prefer the ring and you don't like having something in the wrist, especially when you're sleeping, get the Oura Ring or the Eight Sleep, which you don't have to wear at all. So that's my biggest thing because all these devices are pretty good at sleep tracking, right? Getting your total sleep time, giving you data on your heart rate, your heart rate variability, how alcohol, food, and caffeine can impact your sleep. So you don't need the best of the best,
12:15 you just need a device that is good enough and that you're willing to wear. Because I have a lot of friends who will buy these things and they stop wearing them after a month. So, you don't wanna waste your money. Get the one that you know you will wear and if you don't, experiment, try them all, and see which ones you actually like wearing and not wearing because that's more important than the app and the data itself, is will you wear the device? The second thing is we are almost a 200,000 subscribers so one, I wanna thank you for watching and subscribing. It means a lot to me. Click the subscribe button. I'm gonna do a Q&A and if you want to ask me any kind of questions about my channel, comment it down below. We'll answer them In the next video, we'll do a 200K Q&A video and hang out and just share my thoughts, opinions. You can ask whatever you want. I'll try to answer as many as possible. Follow me on all the socials, @shervinshares, Instagram, X, whatever else is out there. And lastly, if you do plan to buy an Oura Ring,
13:02 I do have some videos where I bought every single Oura Ring 4 color. That'll be linked right here. I have comparisons of the Oura Ring, the WHOOP, and the Apple Watch, and a whole bunch of other contents. So go binge-watch all of that to help make your best purchasing decision. We'll see you in the next one. Shervin out.
