Oura Ring 5 Review: Hands-On Data, New Features and Whether to Upgrade

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Updated 6/24/2026

Oura announced the Ring 5 on May 28, 2026 and put it up for preorder the same day, with shipping starting June 4. I have worn an Oura ring daily for more than three years, across the Gen 3 and the Ring 4, alongside my Whoop and my Hume Band, so I can give you a straight read on what is new, what is mostly marketing and whether it is worth your money. I have now worn the Ring 5 since June 6 against my Ring 4 on the same nights, on the same hand, so this is a hands-on review with my own data, not a spec sheet.

This review combines that same-night testing, my long history on the Oura platform and the published research on how accurate Oura actually is. My sizing kit arrived first (more on that below), then the ring itself. If you want my full three-year history with the current ring, my Oura Ring 4 review has all of my own sleep and recovery data in it.

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What Is New in the Oura Ring 5

The headline is size. Oura is calling the Ring 5 the smallest smart ring in the world, and says it is about 40 percent smaller than the Ring 4. It measures 6.09 millimeters wide and 2.28 millimeters thick and weighs from about 2 grams, down from the Ring 4 at 7.99 millimeters wide, 2.88 millimeters thick and a minimum of 3.3 grams. Oura got there by redesigning the battery, sensors and internal architecture. For a category where the most common complaint I hear from women is that the ring feels chunky (and that's my own compliant as well), that matters more than any single new metric.

Durability got attention too, which I am glad to see. The Ring 4 was easy to scratch, especially during weight training and it is the reason Oura released the pricier Ceramic edition. The Ring 5 keeps the aerospace-grade titanium construction but adds a new physical vapor deposition coating that Oura says improves scratch resistance, though as my own ring shows just below, scratch resistant is not the same as scratch proof. It carries an IP68 rating and is water resistant to 100 meters, so showering, swimming and washing dishes are all fine.

I can speak to this from my own wear. After just 18 days, worn through five day a week strength training, my Ring 5 has picked up visible scratches on the titanium, as you can see here. Several early reviews that had the ring only a few days reported no marks at all, so consider this the honest counterpoint. If scratching is your main concern, the new coating seems to hold up a little better than my Ring 4 did at the same point, but it is certainly not scratch proof, and I would not upgrade for the durability alone.

The sensing system is where the engineering gets interesting. Battery life moves to six to nine days, up from five to eight on the Ring 4. Oura says the Ring 5's LEDs are about four times more powerful than the Ring 4's, paired with low-profile sensor domes that sit closer to the skin. Here is the counterintuitive part that other reviewers have flagged: the number of signal pathways actually dropped from 18 on the Ring 4 to 12 on the Ring 5. Oura's argument is that the stronger LEDs and the repositioned sensors more than make up for it, improving accuracy across a wider range of finger sizes and skin tones. That last point is genuinely useful for a female audience, since optical sensors have historically struggled with smaller fingers and a broader range of skin tones. Whether fewer pathways really do deliver better accuracy is something I want to see tested, not just asserted.

The bigger story, in my opinion, is the software. Oura is launching a feature set it calls Health Radar, and it is rolling those features out not just to the Ring 5 but to the Gen 3 and later, on both iOS and Android. I will come back to why that detail changes the whole upgrade math.

Oura Ring 5 vs Ring 4: Specs Compared

Here is how the two generations line up on the specs that actually change. I am building a full standalone Oura Ring 5 vs Ring 4 comparison with persona-based buying advice, and I will link it here as soon as it is live.

The Health Features That Actually Matter for Women

Most launch coverage will run through the new features as a checklist. I want to focus on the two that I think are genuinely meaningful for women in the menopause transition, because they target things that are both common and easy to miss.

Blood pressure: a study, not a feature yet

This is the one I most want to set straight, because a lot of the launch coverage is calling it a blood pressure feature and that is not what it is. What Oura actually shipped is the Blood Pressure Profile Study, an opt-in research study inside Oura Labs. Oura is clear that it is investigational, not a diagnostic tool and not meant to detect, treat or monitor any illness. The point of it is to help Oura build a future feature that can flag possible signs of hypertension from your ring data.

A few things to know before you get excited. You have to opt in, and it is limited to people in the United States on the English app who are 22 or older and on a Gen 3 ring or newer. It is not open to you if you have a cardiac implant or are pregnant or within 12 weeks postpartum. It uses no cuff. It reads your heart rate, heart rate variability, sleep, activity and the shape of your pulse waves, pairs that with a short health questionnaire and after about four weeks of consistent wear it gives you an estimate every 12 weeks of whether you show no, moderate or strong signs of hypertension.

I opted in more than two weeks ago, and mine still says calibrating. It needs most nights across a four week window before it will say anything, so even now I cannot tell you how it reads against an actual cuff yet. I will report back once it produces a profile. The underlying idea is sound, since a 2023 review in Current Hypertension Reports describes how overnight blood pressure patterns are linked to cardiovascular risk, and that risk climbs through the menopause transition. I just want to be honest that this is a research study in its early days, not a blood pressure monitor on your finger.

Nighttime breathing

The nighttime breathing feature gives you a 30-day rolling view of sleep-related breathing patterns and disturbances. I think this is the most underrated addition, because sleep-disordered breathing is badly underdiagnosed in women, and it gets more common after menopause.

The data here is striking. A study of 277 perimenopausal women published in Chest found that obstructive sleep apnea was common, independently associated with high blood pressure and arterial stiffness and that not one of the women with it had been previously diagnosed. A review in Maturitas similarly notes that the prevalence and severity of sleep apnea in women rise across menopause. A ring will not diagnose apnea, but a 30-day breathing trend that prompts you to ask your doctor for a proper sleep study is a meaningful first step. If your sleep is already rocky in perimenopause, it is also worth getting the basics right first, which is why I wrote about magnesium for sleep.

GLP-1 insights, Oura Advisor and the rest

Oura also added GLP-1 insights that track weight and body changes alongside a medication timeline, which is timely given how many women in my audience are on these medications. The Ring 5 leans harder on AI too, with the Oura Advisor coaching feature and Oura's women's health insights front and center. There is also new live activity tracking with real-time pace and distance, better detection of low-motion activities like pilates, the option to connect a third-party heart rate monitor and an on-demand care feature that connects you with licensed physicians for an extra fee. Some of these newer features are rolling out by region, and as a US user I have access to them, though availability elsewhere can lag. Live activity tracking is handy for a walk, but it is still not a substitute for a chest strap or a sports watch on harder strength or interval days. I will keep reporting on what proves genuinely useful versus what is a tab you open once and forget.

Is the Oura Ring Accurate? What the Research Shows

The Ring 5's central claim is better accuracy from the redesigned sensors and stronger LEDs. I have now worn it for two weeks against my Ring 4, and I show you that head to head data further down. First, here is what independent research has found about the Oura platform, since that track record is what the new sensors build on and the bar they have to clear.

For heart rate and heart rate variability, a study comparing the Oura against a medical-grade ECG in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found that Oura accurately measured nocturnal heart rate and RMSSD, the most commonly used HRV metric, while some frequency-domain measures like the low-frequency to high-frequency ratio were less reliable. A more recent analysis in Sensors found that accurate HRV can be pulled from Oura's signal when data quality is high, which is exactly what the Ring 5's reengineered sensors are meant to improve.

For resting heart rate, a validation study in JMIR Formative Research found the Oura correlated very strongly with a reference monitor and underreported by only about one beat per minute, and it tracked sleep duration well. On sleep staging, a large validation of 440 nights against in-lab polysomnography published in Sensors reported about 96 percent accuracy for telling sleep from wake and about 79 percent for distinguishing light, deep and REM sleep. I will note that this last study was authored by Oura's own researchers, so I weight it alongside the independent work rather than on its own.

The honest read is that Oura is strong for resting and overnight heart rate and for sleep duration, solid for sleep staging and RMSSD and weaker for some advanced HRV measures (Elonga is better for that). None of this is a medical device. The nighttime breathing feature shows trends to watch rather than diagnoses, and the blood pressure work is still an opt-in research study, not a reading. Whether the Ring 5's sensors actually narrow these gaps is one of the first things I tested once I was wearing it against my other devices, and you can see how that turned out in the two-week update below.

Update: My First Two Weeks With the Oura Ring 5

The ring has been on my finger for just over two weeks now, worn right alongside my Oura Ring 4 on the same nights, so I can tell you how the two actually line up over real data instead of a single night. One note on method before the numbers: I wore the Ring 4 on my ring finger and the Ring 5 on my index finger on the same hand, which is the finger Oura recommended for years. Different fingers can read slightly differently, so keep that in mind on the small gaps below.

The two rings agree closely

This is the part that matters most if you are thinking about upgrading from an older ring. Across two weeks of the same nights, the two rings tracked remarkably close. On the night both captured fully they landed almost on top of each other, with total sleep within one minute, the sleep score within one point and resting heart rate within one beat. Here is that representative night in detail, and below it the resting heart rate and HRV across nine nights so you can see the pattern hold.

That single night is reassuring, but the fuller picture is what convinced me. Over nine overlapping nights, resting heart rate was nearly identical, exact on seven of them, while HRV ran a few milliseconds lower on the Ring 5 almost every night.

Resting heart rate in beats per minute, HRV in milliseconds, Ring 5 and Ring 4 on the same nights.

The averages tell the same story. Resting heart rate came out to the same 56 beats per minute on both rings, and HRV averaged about 18 on the Ring 5 against 21 on the Ring 4. So the small HRV gap I noticed on the very first night was not a fluke, it held for two weeks. For sleep and resting heart rate, the Ring 5 is giving me the same data I have trusted from the Ring 4 for years.

Sleep last night, Ring 5 on the left and Ring 4 on the right. Total sleep landed within a minute.

The overnight stage graphs, Ring 5 left and Ring 4 right, drew nearly the same shape.

Core metrics, Ring 5 left and Ring 4 right. The HRV gap is the one to watch.

Where they differ

Two small things stood out and neither is a dealbreaker. First, the HRV gap I just showed you. The Ring 5 read a few milliseconds lower than the Ring 4 on nearly every one of the two weeks, by about three on average. The direction was consistent and the size was small, and it could still be the finger difference since the two rings sat on different fingers, but it is real and worth knowing if HRV is a number you watch closely. Second, the sleep staging did not always match exactly. The Ring 5 tended to log a bit more deep sleep and slightly less REM on some nights. Staging is the least precise thing any of these rings does, so a little disagreement is normal and worth saying plainly.

The longer-horizon numbers are the one place the Ring 5 still lags, and it is worth setting expectations. More than two weeks in, the Ring 5 is just now showing a cardiovascular age, which differs from the Ring 4, just because of less data. My broken-in Ring 4, by contrast, shows Peak cardio capacity at 34 VO2 max, a cardiovascular age 7 years younger than my real age and a pulse wave velocity of 7.1. That is not the Ring 5 being wrong, it is the Ring 5 still building a baseline on a new finger. This is also because I had to create two different accounts on separate devices to run this experiment. If you upgrade, your old data will carry over seamlessly and avoid this disparity.

More than two weeks in, the Ring 5 (left) still has not populated cardiovascular age. My settled Ring 4 (right) shows the full picture.

Nighttime breathing has been solid

Unlike the blood pressure study, nighttime breathing is a real shipped feature, and it produced data right away. Across the two weeks it has stayed Steady with no significant disturbances, and average oxygen saturation has held around 95 percent. For women in the menopause transition, when sleep-disordered breathing becomes more common, this is one of the more useful additions.

The fit, with one honest reservation

The Ring 5 is clearly thinner and more comfortable than the Ring 4. You can see the difference next to each other on my hand. My one reservation, even after two weeks, is the index finger placement. It is the finger Oura recommended for years, but it catches on things more than I expected during the day. The Ring 5 can be worn on the index, middle or ring finger, so I may move it to my middle finger where I suspect it will catch less. The comfort of the thinner band is real, but I'm not sure so much so that it justifies the extra cost.

On battery, two weeks of wear lines up with Oura's six to nine day claim rather than beating it and the ring was still reading 69 percent when I checked it for this update. I will pin down an exact days per charge once I have timed a clean full cycle. Since they recommend charting more frequently without allowing the ring to get super lower, I have been charging every few days when I get in the shower. One things still open is the blood pressure profile, which is still calibrating.

The Honest Take: Should You Upgrade From the Ring 4?

The launch headline would have you believe the 5 is a significant upgrade with the marquee software features, Health Radar, nighttime breathing, GLP-1 insights and live activity, plus access to the opt-in blood pressure study. However, these updates are rolling out to the Gen 3 and later, not just the Ring 5. If you already own a Ring 4, you are getting almost everything new for free through a software update.

So the real upgrade question is narrow. Are the smaller body, the slightly longer battery, the tougher coating and the reengineered sensors worth $399 to $499 when the software is coming to your current ring anyway?

For most Ring 4 owners, my honest answer is no, not yet. If your ring is chunky and bothers you, if it has scratched up, if the battery life has degraded over years of use or if you have a smaller finger and the fit has never felt right, those are the legitimate reasons to upgrade now. If you are on a Gen 3 or older, the case is stronger because you get the smaller hardware, the better sensors and the new software all at once. And if you are a new buyer watching the budget, a discounted Ring 4 is a smart value play, since it runs the same new software and often sells for well under the Ring 5, especially around sale events.

This is the same lens I bring to every device. I wear NAD patches and tell you that I do not notice a subjective difference. The straight read here, now that I have worn the Ring 5 against my Ring 4 on the same nights for two weeks, is that the hardware is a genuinely nicer thing to wear and the data matches what I already trusted, while the software that makes the Ring 5 exciting is landing on the Ring 4 too.

Price, Sizing and Membership

The Ring 5 starts at $399 for Silver or Black and is $499 for Brushed Silver, Deep Rose, Gold and Stealth. That is a $50 jump over the Ring 4's $349 starting price (which has been showing up with a better discount on Amazon). The charging case is a separate $99 and holds multiple full charges, which is handy for travel. The membership has not changed at $5.99 a month or $69.99 a year and you do need it for the ring to be useful, which remains my biggest ongoing gripe with Oura compared to subscription-free rings like RingConn.

How Ring 5 sizing differs, and why to re-size

This is the step people may skip but then regret. Because the Ring 5 has a brand new, smaller body, your old Oura size does not always carry over. At least that's what they say. I found the new sizing kit to be comparable to my old one, but Oura is recommending the Ring 5 sizing kit even for existing members and early reviewers have already reported mixed results. Some stayed the same size and others needed to go up a size. My own sizing kit arrived ahead of the ring so I can speak to what I noticed.

I sized the Ring 5 on my index finger, and you can see in the photo below that I am wearing my Oura Ring 4 and my Whoop at the same time. That is not just for the photo. Those are the two devices I ran the Ring 5 against on the same nights, which is how I can tell you how the new sensors actually compare rather than how Oura says they compare.

Even though they seem very similar and that was my experience, do not assume your Ring 4 size carries over. Order the sizing kit, wear the plastic sizer for a full day that includes a workout and a night of sleep, since your fingers change size with activity and temperature and size to the finger you will actually wear it on. If you are shopping the premium finishes purely for looks, the $100 premium is real money over the life of the device once you add the membership. I lean toward the Silver or Black at $399 unless a specific finish makes you genuinely happier to wear it every day, because consistent wear is what makes any of this data useful.

How It Fits With My Other Wearables

I do not test devices in isolation. At various times I wear my Oura, my Whoop, my Hume Band and my Elonga at the same time, which is the only real way to see where they agree and where they drift.

I wore the Ring 5 against my Oura Ring 4 and my Whoop on the same nights, the same two devices you can see in the sizing photo above, which is how I can tell you whether the reengineered sensors actually change the sleep and heart rate numbers or just the marketing copy. Over two weeks the sleep and resting heart rate numbers matched the Ring 4 closely, with HRV reading slightly lower. If you want to see how I currently think about stacking these devices, my Whoop vs Oura comparison, my Elonga review and my best fitness tracker for women guide lay out the tradeoffs.

One practical note for anyone like me who is not on an iPhone. Oura works on both iOS and Android, and I have used it on Android the whole time, so the Ring 5 and the new software are not iPhone-only. I also track my actual biomarkers quarterly, so I can sanity check what the wearables suggest against real blood work. If you are curious how that works, I wrote about it in my Function Health review and Hundred Health review.

Who Should Buy the Oura Ring 5

My Verdict

With just over two weeks in, the Oura Ring 5 is a smart, focused update. The smaller body is the significant upgrade, the slight extra battery life is welcome and the new coating is tougher though, as my own ring shows, still not scratch proof and the new health features are well chosen for exactly the things women in midlife tend to overlook.

The data has reassured me too, since the Ring 5 matched my Ring 4 closely on sleep and resting heart rate, with HRV the one number reading slightly lower. The catch has not changed, the best of the software is coming to existing rings, so the hardware has to justify itself on fit, comfort and durability alone. For new buyers and people on older rings, it is an easy yes. For Ring 4 owners, I would still wait unless the smaller size or the comfort solves a real problem for you.

I will keep updating this review as the blood pressure profile and the Ring 5's cardiovascular age finish calibrating. You can order the Oura Ring 5 here if you decide it is for you.