With the 40% Smaller Ring 5, Oura Succeeds Where Smartwatch Makers Have Failed

My Oura Ring 4 is the smallest, most discreet piece of technology I own, and yet sometimes I still find it too big.

My preference is for dainty, rather than chunky jewelry – pretty things that will adorn my fingers, ears, wrist and neck. It’s an aesthetic choice, but I also value the comfort and practicality of smaller trinkets. The size of my current Oura Ring means that I need to remove it when lifting weights in order to get good grip. It’s a shame, because I’d really prefer to keep my wearable technology on my body when I’m working out.

But maybe I’ll find this problem remedied with the newly announced Oura Ring 5, which I was thrilled to hear is a whopping 40% smaller than its predecessor. We’re talking about a matter of millimeters here, but this is a huge overall reduction in size that will likely result in a very different experience of wearing a smart ring.

Our tech often requires compromises from us, and some of these compromises are easier to make than others. I prefer a larger phone for the size of its screen, for example, even though I sometimes struggle to use it with one hand or to fit it in my pockets. Such a compromise on size is much harder for me to justify with wearable tech, when I can physically feel it against my body every moment of every day. 

Not only is Oura’s success in drastically reducing the size of its ring a feat of engineering, but it also shows the company is doing something that many wearables makers have failed at for years. It’s actively listening to feedback from its customers, especially its female customers, and prioritizing that feedback to make big changes when designing the next iteration of the product.

Smartwatch makers, learn from Oura

Take smartwatches, for instance. We’re well over a decade into the smartwatch boom, and yet many companies are still making watches that are far too big for women’s wrists and often feel deeply impractical for everyday wear. Asking for smaller devices seems to only result in marginally diminished sizes.

That’s because many tech companies are reluctant to go back to the drawing board in the way Oura has done for the Ring 5. Reducing its size by 40% wasn’t simply a matter of shrinking it – the device needed to be reengineered from the ground up, without making any trade-offs to its battery life or sensing capability.

In a briefing with Oura ahead of launch, I learned that it had rebuilt the sensing architecture inside the ring with fewer but more powerful and sensing pathways. The sensing architecture was also rotated 180 degrees in places for fit. The company redesigned the battery to make it smaller while offering a week’s worth of charge and used more powerful LEDs designed to collect more accurate and consistent data, even though the ring is thinner.

From the outside, the Ring 5 might just look like a shrunk-down Oura Ring. Inside, it’s a completely reimagined product.

I’m really looking forward to seeing if the Ring 5 is small enough that I don’t feel the need to remove it when I’m lifting heavy weights or doing other manual tasks. I’d also love smartwatch makers to take their cue from Oura here. It’s time for wearable tech that truly prioritizes our all-day comfort, no matter how small our wrists are.