For the greater part of this past summer, I wore six smart rings at once. I wanted to see which was best, and the Oura Ring Gen 3 was the clear winner. Well, it’s been about two weeks since my experiment ended, and there’s now a new winner: the Oura Ring 4.

"The Oura Ring 4 is available in six finishes: silver, black, brushed silver, stealth, gold and rose gold. But some finishes cost more than others. While silver and black are available at the $349 (£349, AU$569) starting price, brushed silver and stealth cost $399, and gold and rose gold are $499."

The actual Oura Ring is only half of the Oura experience. The companion app, which underwent it's biggest refresh in years as of October 2024, is your dashboard for all the information your ring and behaviors can imply about your health. It costs $5.99 / £5.99 per month or $72 / £72 per year, which is important to know up front.

Its best new features — including, finally, workable automatic activity detection — are coming to the last-gen Oura Ring, too, via software updates. But that Oura Ring Gen 3 owners won't feel pressured to upgrade hardly seems like a downside to me.

The Oura Ring 4 is great, but if you've already got an Oura Ring Gen 3, you're probably safe to sit this upgrade out