Review: Oura Ring 4

I’ve been wearing the Oura Ring 4 for three months now since it launched, and intentionally waited this long to share a review.

A smart wearable of this nature is all about the data, and I wanted to get a clear picture of what it gathered before I could decide how useful it is or not.

Discovery Vitality Exclusive

To get the most obvious thing out of the way, the Oura Ring 4 is the first model officially available in South Africa and you can only purchase it as a Discovery Vitality member with a qualifying Discovery Bank account. If you meet the requirements, you can get it on their website.

There are two pricing options, one outright purchase with immediate 25% discount and a R1399 annual cost to access your data on the app; and the other is the free option where you have to meet your weekly goals to keep it. It’s the same model as getting a smart watch through Vitality where you achieve weekly goals for it to be free.

And if it’s not obvious, this means Discovery has access to your data as well. Vitality Sleep Rewards go live on 1 April 2026, and customers who choose the free option need activate it for tracking to kick in.

One more thing to be aware of, there is a R999 activation fee for the benefit that’s non-refundable. There’s a bunch of rules about the product available on the Discovery website.

Oura Ring Sizing Kit

When you order the Oura Ring, a Ring Sizing Kit will be sent you before you make your final selection on your ring size. It is available from size 4 all the way up to size 15, so that’s at least 12 options to choose from.

You can also go into a Discovery Store or Vitality Wellness Centre to try it on. There are 11 listed on the Discovery website: 5 in Johannesburg; 2 in Pretoria; 2 in Cape Town; 1 in Durban and 1 in Gqeberha.

The Oura Ring 4 is available in 6 finishes: black, brush silver, silver, gold, rose gold and stealth.

I suggest you think carefully about which finger you want to wear it on, and which colour you want. They say it’s best to wear it on the index finger, but the middle and ring finger is just as fine.

After wearing mine since October, I now have two regrets. First is that I went for my index finger – in hindsight I should have gone for my ring finger on the right since I wear other rings on that finger and cannot always wear them anymore (I switch the Oura between right and left).

And my second regret is choosing the brush silver, I don’t like how ‘industrial’ it looks, which feels more masculine; I should have gone for regular shiny silver. It has a bit of boxy look on the edges, not rounded like what the silver appears to be in videos I’ve seen.

Separate to that, I’ve been on a fat loss journey and since getting the ring, I’m about 5kgs down, so the ring does not fit me like when I initially sized myself. I don’t know how long I can get away with wearing the ring.

Who is the Oura Ring aimed at?

The Oura Ring is aimed at those who’ve resisted wearing smartwatches; those who have worn them and given up on it because it’s too chunky; those who don’t want to sleep with them because of discomfort; and those who wear mechanical or luxury analogue watches but want other forms of health tracking.

If you’re into fitness and wear an Apple Watch, Garmin, Samsung Watch or any other specialised watch, you may find the Oura Ring lacking. Unless of course you’re the type who wears it for fitness and not for sleep, then you may want an Oura Ring 4 for specialised sleep insights. And based on it being a Discovery exclusive, it may appeal if you’re in the ecosystem and want it for the points.

What is unique about the Oura Ring?

The Oura Ring 4 is equipped with various sensors, like a Photoplethysmography sensor, which are the LEDs (green, red, infrared) photodetectors that measure heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), blood oxygen (Sp02), and respiration. It also has a medical-grade digital temperature sensor, and a 3D accelerometer for tracking movement, activity and steps.

Oura says it has 18 signal pathways to get the best reading regardless of how the ring rotates on your finger. All of the sensors sit flush and it’s comfortable to wear.

The Oura Ring provides a holistic wellness report and recovery, so if you want to track vitals in the long term and anything relating to your well-being and health, this is the device for it.

It provides a daily Readiness Score that’s based on your sleep and recovery; It shows in-depth Sleep data; and you can go deep into your Heart Rate and Stress metrics.

On your profile on the app, you also have access to Trends and Reports about your data like Readiness, Sleep, Activity, Stress. It also shows you things like Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Sleep efficiency, inactive time and any patterns detected.

The stats are very detailed. For example, in Readiness trends, you can get historic data for Body Temperature, HRV, Readiness Score, Respiratory Rate, Resting Heart Rate and Sleep Regularity.

Admittedly, I don’t look at my reports consistently, I use more for the daily updates to know I’m feeling and if I can manage my day.

How does it differ from a smartwatch?

This is a very important differentiator, a smartwatch is a different category device. It’s an extension of your smartphone, lets you access or screen calls, messages, emails, tracks fitness, offers passive health tracking and facilities contactless payments.

A fitness ring, like the Oura Ring 4, is a health and wellness tracker that focuses on your vitals. It helps you be more in tune with what your body is going through and will notify you of irregularities. It also tracks women’s monthly cycles and why it’s also popular among women.

If you’re at a certain age or have any health conditions where you need to monitor heart rate, temperature, breathing, etc then it makes sense.

It’s not a case of “should I get a smart watch or smart ring”; one is very health focused and the other is more of a smartphone extension.

Set-up and device compatibility 

The Oura Ring app is available in South Africa, and Discovery provides a leaflet on how to set it up. Once you follow the instructions, it’s easy to pair. I had no issues on my iPhone. I also managed to update the firmware since, and I also changed phones, which backed up the ring and pulled the data on the new device.

The Oura App in South Africa is supported by iOS devices running iOS 15 and upwards, so an iPhone or iPad; and Android 9 or higher. All devices must support Bluetooth 4.0 and upwards.

You fill out your profile as normal, providing your basic information.

Features I rely on

Readiness Score: Like everyone who wears an Oura Ring, the Readiness Score is the best part when you wake up to check. It gives an overview of well your body has rested and how prepared you are for the day. I find it to be accurate, like if I had a broken sleep or struggled to get back to sleep after my sleep broke, my score will be affected and I know I won’t be at my optimal that day.

I tend to use this data to help me manage my day. I’ve found over the years I can be hard on myself, so I use the score to help me be more lenient with myself, if that does not sound weird.

Sleep Score: I love checking my sleep score to see my grading. I almost know if I will get a score above or below 80 based on when I went to bed, if I was restless as night or woke up, and what time I wake up. And if my cat interrupts my sleep, I just know the score will be affected.

But more than just the numbers, you can see more details inside the tab, like the sleep breakdown (efficiency, restfulness, REM, deep sleep, latency, timing).

It shows you your body clock and for example, it tells me the midpoint of my last sleep was 45 minutes behind my chronotype – because I went to bed later than normal. I also learnt about “sleep debt”, when you get little sleep over time, it adds up.

Stress: I love this setting because it taught me about myself. I know I’m not a typically stressful person but certain situations can stress me out but what they could be surprised me.

Once I was at a restaurant and I was feeling cold, and didn’t want to walk outside in the mall to use the bathrooms, and my ring told me it caused physiological stress.

It’s also very telling when you have conversations with people or certain things you want to avoid but can’t and it is picked up as causing stress. And on the other hand, when I read books or relax on the couch, it’s a physiological recovery state. You can see the stages of stress and recovery:

Workouts: Because I us my Apple Watch for workouts, I don’t rely on the Oura Ring for activity, however it will pick up things I do, like if I’m walking in a mall, or cooking or something, it will ask me to record that. Which isn’t useful to me since I record my fitness on iOS. I have linked the Oura App to my Health App so there is no duplicate.

Symptoms Radar

This was one of the most fascinating things, when the ring picked up I was not feeling well/coming down with something. The first time I saw it last year, a Minor Signs warning, I listened to my body, and rested.

By day 2 when the symptoms radar got worse and became Major Signs, I cancelled an event I had to stay home and rest. Thankfully, the day after the notifications went away, which tells you how important rest is.

I also went for a small procedure last month and while I was not allowed to wear the ring in hospital, I put it on 2 days later and by the next morning, I got a “Major Signs” warning on the symptoms radar.

This is when I looked more into it and realised it already had my baseline data and knew when it was off, which is how it picked up that something was 100% with me.

Another interesting bit of info, I was on opioids for a bit, which slows your breathing, and the ring picked up on it, as did my Apple Watch.

Battery Life

The battery size on your ring depends on the size of your ring. The bigger the ring, the bigger the battery. I chose a size 7 for my index finger, which means if someone took a size 15, their battery will be a lot bigger than mine and last longer.

The ring comes with a USB-C cable and charging cradle, which stays at my bedside. My battery lasts me 7 days, which is fairly decent as I don’t need to travel with it for most work trips and quick getaways.

Charge time ranges between 20-80 minutes, depending on at what percentage you put it to charge and what size ring you have.

Oura Ring 4 vs Ultrahuman Ring vs Galaxy Ring

I’ve had a few questions on comparisons with the Oura Ring and Ultrahuman Ring Air being sold in South Africa for R7 999. I’ve seen a bunch of lifestyle influencers wearing it.

While the ring didn’t grab my attention the way Oura did, I saw a review that called it one of the biggest tech fails. This is because it is designed to handle around 500 charge cycles (1-2 years), thereafter the battery degrades considerably and it’s not replaceable. Whereas the Oura Ring claims to retain 80% of the battery after 500 cycles, but I cannot vouch for this after 3 months of usage.

I wore the Galaxy Ring, also priced R7999, initially to compare with the Oura Ring and the data was very off from each other. The calories burned and step count were similar on Apple Watch and Oura Ring, vs the Galaxy Ring, which was off by 25% less than the other two.

Each piece of hardware has their own proprietary algorithms to calculate metrics. I think it comes down to choosing one and sticking to it.

Final Thoughts

The Oura Ring 4 is a unique device that focuses on vitals and sleep data. It’s a great tool if you want to be more in tune with your body and get notified when things are off, so you can prioritise rest.

A lot of the features are duplicated on a smartwatch, which have more in-depth workout records, payment, and smart features that you won’t get on the ring. If you want those, the Oura Ring may not be for you.

But, if you want to know more about your health, sleep and stress levels, and if you are comfortable to use the women’s cycle tracking, this is the device to get. If this is your goal, then a smartwatch, for reasons I mentioned earlier (bulky/ugly/don’t want to sleep with) may not appeal.

And on the other hand (ha) if you love wearing luxury watches, or any mechanical or analogue watch, but crave some form of health tracking, the Oura Ring becomes a no brainer. It’s having the best of both worlds.

But ultimately, it’s also knowing Discovery has access to your data. If you’re already in the ecosystem and earning Vitality points, it’s just another device to add to that. But knowing all of this information upfront helps decide what’s most important to you.