The Oura Ring 5 is the first smart ring to truly fit my routine and feel like jewelry I'd buy

For the past few years, recommending a smart ring has been fairly easy. If someone asked me which one to buy, I almost always pointed them toward Oura. The only hiccup was deciding whether the ring’s premium price and ongoing subscription were worth it. In other words, some wearable lines need a reinvention to stay relevant, but the Oura Ring wasn’t one of them.

Rather than chasing a flashy new health metric or gimmicky feature, Oura spent this generation refining what already worked and delivered a dramatically smaller device without sacrificing accuracy or battery life. The story isn’t just about what the Oura Ring 5 ($399 at Oura) can do (which is a lot), but how much easier it is to wear around the clock.

It’s the little things

The biggest upgrade to the Oura Ring 5 is the exact one I’ve been wanting for years. Oura shrunk the Ring 5 by roughly 40%, and that’s not just a spec sheet note. It’s immediately noticeable the moment you put it on.

The new design feels noticeably less bulky. From typing to carrying groceries, getting dressed for a night out to climbing into bed, I constantly appreciated the sleeker build and more comfortable fit. More than once during testing, I caught myself checking whether I’d actually remembered to put it on that morning. That’s never happened with a previous Oura Ring.

I also have fairly small hands, so previous Oura Rings always felt more noticeable than I preferred. The Ring 5 is the first one that actually feels like a piece of jewelry I’d buy, and not me wearing my husband’s wedding band.

The redesign does come with one small catch: sizing has changed. Oura also dropped a few sizes this generation, including my usual size 5. That meant moving up to a size 6 and wearing the Ring 5 on my pointer finger instead. I expected to hate the change, but it’s actually very comfortable and meant I didn’t have to rearrange my staple jewelry.

The titanium build still feels every bit as premium as previous generations, and the finish held up well throughout testing. I even forgot to take it off during a hike that included a bit of scrambling, which says a lot about how comfortable the Ring 5 is and slightly overstates how adventurous I actually am. Despite bumping it against more than a few rocks, it still looks surprisingly good.

Oura updated its gold colorway this generation, and I absolutely love the more subdued hue. With that said, the Stealth, Brushed Silver, Gold, and Deep Rose options are considered premium finishes, so that aesthetic upgrade will unfortunately run an extra $100 compared to the basic Black or Silver model.

Battery life is another highlight, further helping the Ring 5 fade into the background. I charged the Ring 5 about once a week, usually while I was showering, and never had to think about it otherwise. This gives the device a very effective set-and-forget vibe that makes sense for the ring form factor.

The one lingering downside is the charging setup. Oura’s portable charging case (introduced last generation) is genuinely convenient for travel, but unlike competitors RingConn and Ultrahuman, it still isn’t included in the box. Considering the Ring 5 already costs a fistful of cash and still requires a subscription, dropping extra for the accessory feels hard to accept.

In that same vein, the inclusion of an ongoing subscription is a lingering disappointment. The monthly fee will run you $5.99 per month, or $69.99 for an annual membership. It’s not a exorbitant amount of money but it’s a definite drawback to the Oura platform. Unfortunately, its also a growing trend in wearables.

Accuracy in smaller packaging

The smaller hardware doesn’t come at the expense of accuracy. Overnight heart rate tracking was consistently excellent throughout my testing, lining up closely with my reference devices night after night. HRV trends were just as reliable, and both metrics gave me confidence in the Ring 5’s recovery insights.

As usual, sleep tracking is still where Oura shines, and not just because it’s the most comfortable and unobtrusive bedmate. Compared to trusted reference devices, my sleep stages were among the most accurate I’ve tested. Just as importantly, the app turns all of that data into something useful instead of simply overwhelming you with graphs.

Oura’s biggest software addition is Health Radar, which brings together several new proactive health features, including Blood Pressure Signals and Nighttime Breathing. Rather than giving you another number to obsess over, Health Radar looks for long-term patterns and nudges you when something seems off. I actually appreciate this approach. Most mornings, I don’t need another metric. I just want to know whether there’s anything I should be paying attention to.

For runs, walks, hikes, and everyday cardio workouts, heart rate tracking was also consistently reliable. If your workouts mostly look like that, you’ll probably be perfectly happy with the results. Things unravel slightly if your hands spend a lot of time gripping something. If you’ve read my wearable reviews before, you’ll know I have an unhealthy habit of using rowing workouts to humble optical heart rate sensors. The Ring 5 accuracy dipped while gripping the rowing handle, and I’d expect similar inconsistencies during outdoor cycling routes. That’s hardly unique to Oura, and plenty of wrist-based wearables struggle in the same scenarios.

But it’s still one reason I wouldn’t recommend relying on the Ring 5 alone if structured training is your priority. I’d honestly still hesitate to recommend the Ring 5 as an athlete’s primary fitness tracker. The Ring 5 is a wellness tracker first (not a workout one), and that’s exactly where it excels. The ability to start workouts from the app is a nice addition, but it doesn’t turn the ring into the best form factor for training.

Oura Ring 5 review verdict: Should you buy it?

The Oura Ring 5 doesn’t reinvent Oura’s formula. The dramatically smaller design makes a much bigger difference than shoppers might expect, and after a few weeks of testing, going back to the Ring 4 Ceramic feels noticeably chunky, even if it is a beaut.

If you already own the Ring 4 ($399 at Amazon) and you’re happy with it, I don’t think you need to rush out and upgrade. Beyond build, the overall experience is very similar, and many of Oura’s newest software features are already available on older hardware. If, however, you’ve been wishing your smart ring felt a little less techy, the new design makes a compelling case. The Ring 4 was already easy to recommend, and the Ring 5 gives me even fewer reasons to take it off.

If you’re buying your first smart ring, the recommendation is easy. The Oura Ring 5 is my favorite wellness-focused smart ring. For a subscription-free experience and even better battery life, the RingConn Gen 3 ($349 at Amazon) is another worthy buy. If you’re already tied to the Samsung ecosystem, the Galaxy Ring ($399.99 at Amazon) offers unique integration with the brand’s phones and watches, though it’s overdue for an upgrade at this point, so you might want to hold off for a second-gen version.