Look, I can admit I was wrong. When I first wrote my review of the Oura Ring Gen3 (6/10, WIRED review) in 2021, I found the company’s subscription model to be a little appalling. It’s one thing to charge $10 a month for a Fitbit Premium subscription when a Fitbit costs $100 and you can use it without the subscription. It’s quite another to charge a monthly subscription fee on top of an already expensive wearable, especially when Apple and Garmin watches cost a comparable amount and have no subscription fee at all.
Yet even as smart rings have become more common, the Oura Ring remains in a class of its own. It’s the best ring-shaped fitness tracker, and the best sleep tracker. It’s attractive, comfortable to wear, and surprisingly accurate — it’s still the only fitness tracker I’ve tested that can reliably determine when my body temperature drops each month and when my period is about to start (ahem). So if you’ve been considering buying an Oura, today is probably your lucky day.
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The Oura Ring is on sale
For such a small device, the Oura packs a surprising number of sensors. It has three: infrared photoplethysmography sensors for heart rate and respiration, a negative temperature coefficient (NTC) sensor for body temperature, and a 3D accelerometer for motion. I don’t feel them at all when I’m wearing it.
Since I first complained that Oura was going to charge me for features that weren’t even coming out for a year, most of the Membership Features They have been unlocked. The app in particular is one of the easiest to use – I check it every morning to see how I’ve slept and how that affects my readiness score. It also automatically detects naps and adds them to your readiness score, which is great. The company also releases new features regularly like Resilienceto see how well you are managing to balance stress and recovery.
Since I wrote this, several of my coworkers have purchased their own rings with their own money. My colleague Simon Hill warns against the black finish, as he says his has started to lose its coating. However, I have worn mine, which also has the black finish, since 2021, and it is still fine.
More deals on smartwatches and fitness trackers
We found a few more deals. You can read more about these devices in our guides Best smartwatches and Best fitness trackers.
