There's a shiny new Oura Ring in town, and it's looking seriously svelte. The Oura Ring 5 checks off nearly every item on our smart ring wishlist with a thinner design, better scratch resistance and longer battery life. More importantly, it doubles down on what Oura has always done best, blending seamlessly into everyday life while tracking your health around the clock, camouflaged as jewelry.

The glow-up isn't just superficial. The new ring also has more accurate sensors and better workout detection -- maybe I can finally get some Pilates credits. There's also a more robust Health Radar that can now flag early signs of blood pressure changes and breathing patterns that may indicate more serious conditions. Battery life also gets a welcome bump despite the tighter quarters.

The catch, as with a lot of tech this year, is the price. The Oura Ring 5 starts at $399, $50 more than the base model Ring 4.

Oura once dominated the smart ring space, but rivals such as Ultrahuman and Circular have steadily gained traction, even after Oura's patent fight temporarily pushed Ultrahuman products out of the US market. The competition has also expanded beyond fingers entirely. Google's Fitbit Air brings the same stealth tracking and holistic health approach to the wrist at a lower $100 entry point. 

The Oura Ring 5 feels like a direct response to growing pressure from rivals. It offers better hardware, a deeper software ecosystem and a push into areas competitors still haven't quite reached. Whether it's worth the splurge will come down to hands-on testing, but on paper, it's a compelling case.

Design and fit

Thinner, slimmer, better fitting: At 6mm wide and 2mm thick, the Oura Ring 5 is 40% smaller than the Ring 4. We're talking millimeters here, but if you've ever tried lifting weights with a smart ring, you'll appreciate the difference.

New finishes include a lighter gold color, which Oura says is closer to true gold, alongside deep rose, a rich copper tone. Both join the existing silver, black, brushed silver and "stealth" color options across sizes 6 through 13.

Most importantly, Oura says it's less prone to scratches thanks to its aerospace-grade titanium coating. My gold Gen 4 looks like it got into a fight with a cat (and lost), so this is one of the first things I'll be putting to the test.

The ring is also still waterproof up to 100 meters (IP68), unchanged from previous generations.

Performance

Better fit means closer skin contact, which in turn should mean more accurate tracking. Oura recommends resizing even if you own a previous generation because the fit has changed enough that your old size may not apply. Oura also added new sensors with stronger LEDs that emit a stronger signal and will perform better during high-motion activity and across different skin tones -- a known weak spot for previous generations.

That pairs with improvements to its automatic activity detection, which should help the ring better recognize lower-impact workouts. The feature is also coming to older Oura models via software updates. Pilates was one workout the ring completely failed to track for me -- I'd get more activity credit from doing laundry than a 40-minute session. Either Oura read my review or this was a common complaint, because the company specifically calls out improvements to Pilates and similar workouts in its announcement. We'll see if that holds up in practice.

Battery and charging 

The Oura Ring 5 also addresses one of the bigger complaints about the Gen 4: battery life. Oura's claimed one-day gain is modest, but still welcome, and impressive considering the hardware now has to fit into an even smaller body. The company says you can expect between six and nine days depending on ring size, with larger rings naturally packing larger batteries.

There's also a $99 portable Charging Case debuting alongside the Oura Ring 5 that can hold up to five full charges, roughly a month of battery life on the go, and supports wireless charging. Each case is tied to a specific ring size, meaning it's not interchangeable between models. It seems like a worthy investment for frequent travelers or anyone who's ever gone digging through a hotel room for a proprietary charger.

The case also works with Oura's expanded Locate feature. Unlike the previous Find My Ring tool, which only showed the ring's last known location, the new system uses Bluetooth proximity guidance to help physically track it down when it's nearby. 

Software improvements across the board

Oura Rings have always excelled at overnight tracking, but they've traditionally fallen short as real-time workout companions. As someone who relies heavily on training metrics, the upgrades here are among the most compelling parts of the Ring 5. In addition to better automatic workout detection, Oura now has the option to view live stats when you start a workout in the app. This includes pace, distance, heart rate zones, and connected heart rate data from supported Bluetooth devices.

Oura is also leaning harder into one of its most popular features: Symptom Radar, the system that warns you when your body is showing signs of strain, aka you're about to get wrecked by some cold or virus. 

The expanded Health Radar now adds two new areas. Blood pressure is monitored for patterns associated with cardiovascular strain, surfacing long-term trends rather than exact readings and flagging when it may be worth talking to a doctor. Nighttime breathing adds a 30-day view of sleep-related breathing disturbances, with guidance on when changes could warrant evaluation for something like sleep apnea.

Since neither feature is approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, they're better understood as "wellness" indicators than true diagnostic tools for now. But that might not be too far off, considering devices like the Apple Watch already have FDA-cleared sleep apnea and hypertension notifications.

Oura is also tapping into the GLP-1 boom. People taking medications like Ozempic or Wegovy can now track how dosage changes may be affecting stress, activity, recovery and other long-term health trends inside the app.

And the company is now pushing deeper into health services through a partnership with Counsel Health, bringing optional telehealth visits into the app alongside medical record uploads and more personalized AI-driven guidance. At the same time, the company is expanding its research efforts with a new Brain Health Study in Oura Labs that combines cognitive testing with continuous physiological tracking to explore how daily habits may shape long-term brain health.

Sharing and privacy

With the Oura app now handling medical records and AI-driven analysis, the privacy stakes are getting much higher. Oura is addressing that with a new time-based data deletion feature that lets you erase information from a specific time window without wiping your entire health history. Members can also configure how their data is shared with third parties. Oura says it doesn't sell member data.

Whether sensitive health data is ever truly deleted comes down to trust. But selectively curating your health history without losing long-term trends is a more nuanced approach than most competitors offer, and the updated privacy policy suggests Oura is at least aware of what it's asking people to hand over.

Pricing and availability

The Oura Ring 5 is available for preorder now and starts shipping June 4. Pricing starts at $399 for Silver and Black finishes, while premium options, including gold, brushed silver, deep rose and stealth, start at $499. Oura Membership pricing remains unchanged at $6 a month or $70 a year. The Ring 5, Charging Case and membership are all HSA- and FSA-eligible. 

Most software updates, including Health Radar and GLP-1 Insights, are also coming to Gen 3 and later -- not just Oura Ring 5 owners. They'll begin rolling out to US members in early June, while Lab Uploads launches globally on June 30. 

We'll be putting the Oura Ring 5 through hands-on testing soon, so stay tuned for the full review.