Why the Oura Ring 5’s new charging case is a massive mistake

The Oura Ring 5 is finally official, and I couldn’t be any more excited about it. I’ve been a fan of the company’s smart rings since I tried the Ring 3 and wore it every day until the excellent Ring 4 launched, so I switched. I’ve had it on my finger since, and the Ring 5 has everything I wanted. A smaller profile, blood pressure signal monitoring, and a more resistant design to avoid all the scratches of the previous rings.

That is all excellent, but Oura is making one big mistake with its Ring 5, and it has nothing to do with the ring itself, but with the way we charge it.

When Oura launched its Oura Ring 4 charging case earlier this year, it was entirely justified to put a price tag on it. This was, after all, a new accessory being added to the portfolio that would be purchased by users as an extra on top of their existing Ring 4 and charging puck. The $99 price was a bit high, still, but it was almost justifiable for a first foray into charging cases.

However, Oura has gone with the same strategy with the Oura Ring 5 now. The new ring will ship with the default puck charger out of the box, despite its $399 price tag. To get the charging case, you need to pay an extra $99 once again. It’s an absolutely silly decision. Obviously, Oura stands to make more money if users decide to splurge on the case. But, marketing-wise, the comparison between Oura and its competitors is becoming increasingly absurd.

Here’s a rundown of what the competition is offering:

And here’s what Oura is offering:

• Oura Ring 5: $399 without a charging case
• $99 for the case if you want it
• Plus an almost-essential $69.99 yearly membership

Sure, the case promises more practical charging since you can do it in a pocket or a bag, without having to keep the ring on a flat surface on top of the puck. It has a built-in battery for one month of use, can be charged wirelessly, and offers a location and tracking feature to find a misplaced case. It’s an overall excellent addition to the Oura Ring 5, but $99 is a tall, tall ask on top of the starting price and required subscription.

Regardless of how much I personally love Oura and would always say the best things about it, its impressive app, its tight Finnish and European privacy policies, and all the evolution and excellent features the company has added in the last few years, I can’t justify the decision to still charge for the case separately on a second-gen case.

What makes this worse is that it surely won’t be compatible with the Oura Ring 6 in a couple of years, so this is an ephemeral product you need to buy once, and will have to recycle or throw away in a few years once you retire your Oura Ring 5. I don’t like this at all.

I completely understand that there’s a price to pay for all the features and improvements we’ve seen from Oura, for its continuous support, and for its steadfast privacy position, but I think if the company didn’t want to lose too much on the charging case, it could’ve taken a couple of steps to mitigate that.

One solution would’ve been to offer the case for free or at a reduced price for pre-orders. Want to be one of the first to own an Oura Ring 5? You get the charging case as a perk or as an upgrade!

Another would’ve been to offer users the option to buy the Oura Ring 5 with the puck or the case. The base variant could be $399, while the upgraded version with the charging case could be $449. At least that would reduce e-waste for those who just want the case and take a bit of money off the initial asking price.

Oura had choices to make this silly decision to go against all of its competitors less silly, but it stuck to its guns, and I think it’s the worst and most anti-consumer move the company has taken in the last four years.