I Tested 3 Popular Smart Rings to Find Which Deserves a Place on Your Finger

Pros

• Stylish ring
• App is easy to understand and read
• Auto-tracks movement
• Can detect the onset of illness
• Sets a bedtime window based on your chronotype
• Water-resistant

Cons

• Exterior material can be at risk of scratches and scuff marks
• Not the best fitness tracker
• Could use more app integrations
• Expensive

The Oura ring was my favorite smart ring because its app was easy to understand and I liked some of the newer features from its latest software update. At the steep price of $299, this smart ring is made up of aerospace-grade titanium – one of the strongest materials on earth -- according to the site. Before I received my Oura ring, I was sent a ring sizer to figure out my ring size. Other smart rings did the same since sizing varies per brand. 

Once I received the Oura ring, I downloaded the Oura app (available for iOS and Android). The interface of the app shows you your latest sleep data, your readiness (or how recharged you are), heart rate, cycle insights if you menstruate and stress levels. There is also a timeline for when you went to bed, woke up and did any physical activity in the past 24 hours. Oura uses scores out of 100 to determine where you are under the different categories they look at daily. 

You can also see your ring’s battery life based on a circle icon in the top right corner. The ring is easily rechargeable with its own ring holder that you can keep on your nightstand. Overall, you can expect to recharge this ring about every three days.

To get the most accurate insights and recommendations from the smart ring, you're advised to wear it for at least a month so it can gather data on your habits. To get more out of the ring, you have to sign up for the Oura membership, which costs $6 a month. As I mentioned, one of my goals was to improve my sleep or at least get on a sleep schedule that could work, even with a baby interrupting my rest through the night. I preferred wearing a smart ring over a smartwatch to track this because I barely feel it on. 

The Oura ring determined that my ideal bedtime window meant being in bed between 9:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. The ring knew that I generally wake up around 6 a.m., so it aimed to help me get 8 hours of sleep. I did a decent job of following the ring’s recommendations for at least the first couple of months, but then I was in the process of moving and the holidays hit, so I was experiencing extra stress. I could tell I felt more tired and less energetic on the days I went to bed later than the suggested time presented by Oura. It would also give me a lower readiness score on the days it could tell my sleep and stress levels were affected.

Once I moved, I was able to return to my recommended sleep schedule. I have never felt better rested. During a briefing with Oura, I was told that the brand never wants to make users feel guilty for not being well-recovered or sleeping enough. Instead, the brand wants to let you know what you can do to improve these factors. For example, if the Oura senses you’ve been under additional stress, it may tell you to take it easy for that day.

An interesting feature of the Oura ring that makes it stand out from other wearables is that it can detect signs of sickness. So far, I haven’t fallen sick since using the Oura, but other CNET staffers have said it could tell when they were under the weather. Oura recently launched the Oura Ring 4 and along with that, the software got updated to have more advanced functions using AI to detect even more information about your habits. 

Although I personally wasn’t a fan of the fitness recording option on any of the smart rings I tested, I did like that with its latest update, the Oura can detect when you’re active. For example, if it senses you’re doing housework or walking, it will record the timeframe that it assumes you’re doing that activity for and count it towards your activity score. You can confirm it through the app or change it to the correct form of activity. I think this is key to eventually creating a better fitness tracking feature. If you’re familiar with wearables to track your workouts, you know it’s sometimes easy to forget to hit record before a workout. I like that the Oura ring acknowledges that a formal workout isn’t the only activity that counts as movement and that your everyday behaviors, like cleaning your home or taking the dog for a walk, also matter. 

With the new update, I can also see my cardiovascular age, which Oura estimates in relation to your age. Apparently, my cardiovascular system is 8 years younger than my age, so it's good to know that my healthy habits have been working. If you want to really dial into your cardiovascular capacity, you can take a walking test that Oura offers. Oura can also tell you your chronotype based on your natural circadian rhythms and determines if you are a morning or night person. I’m not surprised that it detects me as a morning person since I've always been early to rise. 

Another important feature that I find important to note is stress. Oura can track your daytime stress levels and can tell when you’re stressed, engaged, relaxed or restored. This data tells Oura if you need to focus on your recovery more based on your stress levels. I had several days (mainly moving days!) when the Oura ring noticed I was more stressed than usual compared to other days. 

I appreciated Oura's holistic approach to looking at my health data as a whole instead of fixating on one feature as most wearables do. Oura has an Oura Advisor that offers personalized advice based on your data to help you improve your lifestyle. If you menstruate and want to track your cycle, the Oura tracks this information. It also provides a period prediction window for when you may expect your next period. This has been accurate for me so far -- even with some missed periods. If you’re pregnant, it also provides pregnancy insights. 

If you own an iPhone, you can allow the Oura to share data with other app integrations like Apple Health, Strava, Wild AI, Cronometer, Noom, Zero, Headspace, Natural Cycles, Clue and the Flo app. This is another area where I think Oura has the opportunity to expand on its integrations. It’s known that new parents tend to be the most sleep-deprived and with all the different Wi-Fi-powered baby monitors out there, it would be great for Oura to connect with them to target this demographic. It may provide parents with their own unique set of data and advice if the Oura can detect that their sleep was interrupted by a crying infant. 

You don’t want to handle the ring too roughly. Since the exterior is shiny, it’s easy to scratch or scuff up. As I've already mentioned, I wasn’t a fan of the fitness tracking aspect on any of the smart rings and this was part of the reason why. It would be good for the rings to have a protective covering in case someone wants to wear it while lifting weights. I had to take the ring off when I worked out because I didn’t want to scratch up the ring, plus, it wasn’t comfortable to wear while holding a dumbbell.  

My other issue with the fitness tracking is that the Oura is only able to detect cardio-based activities. You can log if you're running, cycling or walking in real time, but with other forms of activity, you have to log after the fact. This defeats the purpose of having a fitness tracking option, but I also acknowledge that it isn’t the main premise of the smart ring. 

In general, if you want an overview of your health data, Oura does a great job condensing it into an easy-to-read and follow app. I realize that at $300 (plus the $6 monthly membership), it isn’t the cheapest wearable,  but depending on what insight you want into your health, it may be worth it. 

Pros

• Can record a live workout and various activities
• Can connect to Ultrahuman glucose monitor for additional data
• Tracks sleep, caffeine intake, stress levels, heart rate
• Water resistant

Cons

• Ring is thick, so it may not be right for you if you prefer a thinner band
• Could use some software updating when it comes to collecting running data
• App interface could be designed more simply

The Ultrahuman Ring Air first came out in June 2023 and teamed up with Verizon to be the first carrier to sell a smart ring. The light ring, which costs $349, is available for iOS and Android and uses infrared photoplethysmography, or PPG, sensors to track sleep, recovery, stress levels, caffeine intake, calories burned, steps and even women’s health (cycle, ovulation and pregnancy insights). There is no additional subscription fee to use the Ultrahuman ring, so that’s a plus. Unlike the Oura and Evie ring, the Ultrahuman Ring Air has more of a masculine look and a thicker band. So, if you like more dainty jewelry, this may not be the smart ring for you. 

I wasn’t a fan of the app layout for this ring because it looks busy, which makes it difficult to read. Between the dark backdrop of the app and each data marker being a different background color, it’s displayed in a way where there’s too much information to take in at once. The key data markers are also not always in the same order. For example, at points when I open the app, the caffeine permissible window is shown as a line graph at the top, depicting the window that it’s okay to drink caffeine. Right after that is the dynamic recovery data, then sleep and sleep debt, followed by data on your light exposure window as a countdown, and that’s just the first half of the page. Perhaps the app would benefit from a more consistent and simplistic approach when showing all this data. However, someone who loves data may like this, but I thought it could be presented in a more digestible manner.

I was also reminded that wearables can be inaccurate: When I compared the sleep data and other data markers across the rings, they were never the same. In some cases, the readings were close, and in others they were off by a lot. 

One of the features that stood out to me was this smart ring's ability to record different types of workouts. Unlike the other smart rings I tested, the Ultrahuman Ring Air seemed to have a better version of workout tracking, but it can still use some improvement. I think it could benefit from the auto-detection feature that the Oura ring has for movement, and even take it a step further so that it can accurately detect the type of workout you’re doing based on your exercise habits. The Ultrahuman Ring Air also lets you create zones, which you can share with other friends who own the ring. The zones are meant to share your movement stats for the day as a way to connect. If you own the Ultrahuman M1 Live Glucose Monitoring patch, you can even connect your data to the ring, which would probably give you a more detailed reading.

I mainly used this ring to record some of my strength training workouts. As I mentioned, the Ultrahuman ring has a long list of workouts you can choose from to record, ranging from outdoor running, functional strength training, outdoor walking, household chores, cross-training, hiking, Pilates and tons more. The Ultrahuman ring’s data mainly looks at your average heart rate, heart rate recovery, calories burned and the heart rate zone you’re in (zone 1 to 5). This can be helpful in some circumstances, like if you’re pregnant and don’t want to overexert yourself or keep track of your training zone.

At one point, I wanted to see how similarly the rings collected data during a run. I usually use my Apple Watch to record my runs, so I’m familiar with how it calculates my distance and pacing. I compared the results from the Oura and Ultrahuman Ring Air to my Apple Watch, since the Evie ring can’t record any workout in real time. The Oura and the Ultrahuman Ring Air captured similar data (heart rate, pace, distance), but it was surprising to see that even though each wearable provided its own estimates for these respective factors, the Ultrahuman ring was the most inaccurate. 

For example, the Apple Watch logged me at 10’25” minute/mile pace for the 30-minute run, but the Ultrahuman Ring AIR captured it at a 17’00 minute/mile pace. That’s a vast difference and makes me question its accuracy if I were to rely on it as a wearable. Whereas the Oura ring captured it as a 10'32" minute/pace, which is closer to the Apple Watch reading. If you don’t mind the ring not capturing the most accurate data when it comes to running and just want a basic reading, then you may not mind the Ultrahuman Ring Air. But if you're training for races and care about having accurate metrics, you’re better off using another type of wearable. 

As far as sleep tracking goes, I don’t think it captured my reading as accurately as the Oura ring. Similar to Oura, Ultrahuman Ring Air uses its own scores for sleep. The Ultrahuman ring seems to give me a more generous reading than the Oura. With the Oura ring, I can tell the difference if I’m not as well-rested. Besides the ease of recording a workout in real time, I liked that the Ultrahuman ring provides a caffeine window that’s easy to follow. I am sensitive to caffeine and I usually don’t drink a lot of coffee to begin with, but I have referred to Ultrahuman’s recommendations and tried to stick to that window. I have noticed when I drink caffeine outside of the window, it’s harder for me to wind down. 

Like other rings on this list, the Ultrahuman ring went through some updates during the testing period, but I didn’t notice anything significant from the data I received.

If you’re a fitness enthusiast, you may like the Ultrahuman Ring Air. But before I go smartwatch-free, I would like to see some improvement in a few of its wellness features.

Pros

• Designed for women
• Doesn’t require a subscription
• Is more affordable

Cons

• Software and features leave more to be desired

The Evie ring is the first smart ring on the market that was designed with women in mind to help them track their sleep and other wellness factors. The ring retails for $269 (the cheapest on this list), is iOS and Android compatible and comes in three colors: silver, rose gold and gold. No subscription is required to use this ring. The ring design is also a touch more stylish than the Oura and Ultrahuman rings, but that all depends on your personal preference. The charging case is ideal because you can take it anywhere, it has up to 10 additional charges before needing the charging cable and it’s a good way to store the ring when not in use. It has a four-day battery life, even though I would argue it’s more like three days, similar to the other rings.

What is supposed to make Evie unique is that it can track menstruation cycles and automatically track your sleep, heart rate, exercise and more. However, unlike Oura or Ultrahuman, where you are provided with suggestions to improve certain aspects of your health based on the data it collects, it seems that Evie is lacking in that department. While it can log your menstruation symptoms daily, whether you have a heavy or light flow, a workout or even read sleep data, Evie doesn’t make recommendations based on this information. It functions more like a health diary than an actionable piece of wearable tech.

I didn’t find Evie did anything different to make it stand out from the other two rings I tested – even with the various software updates it went through. The app itself is basic and easy to follow but lacks in its design. I will give them credit that one of the latest updates includes an AI chatbot, which asks you about any health goals you have in mind and offers recommendations based on your answers. I found it more generic than I would’ve liked since the ring should be familiar with your habits based on the data it’s collecting. You can easily lie to a chatbot, and this defeats the point of wearing a smart ring that observes your health habits. 

Like the other rings, I had to log a workout after the fact since it only records certain activities. It also tracks how active you are, your steps and the calories you burn throughout the day. This is fine, but I could just wear a smartwatch and get the same data. As far as the features being targeted toward menstruating people, I didn’t think it was anything revolutionary. I could easily use Apple Health to track when I’m ovulating or to log my period. I would’ve liked to see Evie take it a step further. For example, skin temperature readings could offer more information than just telling me my average at night. It left me wanting more since tracking body temperature is how some people can tell they’re ovulating or most fertile -- especially if they’re trying to get pregnant.

The Evie has potential, but until it revamps its software functions and readings, you’re better off with a different smart ring that's already ahead of the curve.