Latest news with #OuraRing4
Tom's Guide
12 hours ago
- Health
- Tom's Guide
Forget stretching — ‘forest bathing' might be the best back pain relief, study reveals
Dealing with back pain can be exhausting. It can mess with your sleep, distract you at work and even make you think twice about leaving the house. If you've already tried the usual advice like stretching, taking painkillers and using a hot water bottle without much relief, new research suggests it might be time to try something different. And it's surprisingly simple. Have you ever heard of forest bathing? It's a Japanese practice known as Shinrin-yoku that involves slowing down and spending quiet, mindful time in nature. Despite the name, it doesn't mean soaking in a stream or hugging trees. It's about switching off, breathing deeply and taking in your surroundings. If you're curious to see how your body responds, using one of the best smart rings could help you monitor changes in sleep, stress and recovery over time. While the study doesn't use the term "forest bathing," what the researchers found lines up with the idea. They discovered that spending time in nature helped people with chronic back pain feel better, both physically and mentally. Here's what the research revealed. The Oura Ring 4 can help you track how your sleep and recovery respond to lifestyle changes. It offers daily insights into rest, stress, and activity levels, making it easier to spot what's working for your body. This small study, carried out by researchers at the University of Plymouth and the University of Exeter, looked at how nature might support people living with long-term lower back pain. The team interviewed just 10 participants, all of whom had experienced chronic pain for between five and 38 years. Despite the limited sample size, the insights were hopeful. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. Spending time in nature helped people feel less focused on their pain, more socially connected and less stressed overall. Many preferred walking outdoors to being in a gym, and said the fresh air, greenery and sounds of water offered a calming escape from daily discomfort. Some did note that uneven terrain or limited seating made certain places harder to enjoy, but overall, nature was a welcome outlet. You don't need a forest on your doorstep to feel the benefits of being outdoors. Whether you have access to a small park, a garden, or a nearby walking path, spending time in nature regularly, even for just 10 or 15 minutes daily, could help reduce stress and take your mind off physical discomfort. The study showed that spending time outdoors can support both physical pain and mental well-being. But comfort and accessibility are key, especially if you live with back pain. If uneven paths or long walks are difficult, try finding routes with flat, even ground and benches where you can rest. Accessible parks, botanical gardens, or smooth riverside paths can be great places to start. Even if you only have a small garden, balcony, or green space nearby, sitting outside and tuning in to natural sounds like birdsong or rustling trees can still help. If you are hoping to walk more often, a good pair of shoes can really help. We've tested and reviewed the best hiking shoes to help you find supportive options for gentle walks or bigger adventures.
NBC News
2 days ago
- Health
- NBC News
Oura Ring vs Apple Watch: I've tested both for months — here's what you should know
If you told me to pick my favorite wearable, I would have a hard time choosing between the Oura Ring and Apple Watch (and Garmin, to be fair). What's interesting is that the two wearables are wildly different from each other. The Apple Watch is a tiny computer on my wrist I can use instead of pulling my phone out of my pocket every two seconds. The Oura Ring is a stylish ring I forget about until I open the app and start diving into my health, sleep and fitness data. I've been wearing both for most of 2025 — here's what you need to know. Oura and Apple sell a few different wearables and I've tested all of them. The two that are most similar from the brands are the Oura Ring 4 ($349) and Apple Watch Series 10 ($399). They are the brand's latest wearables, and are priced similarly. That said, they are very different products with very different users in mind. But when people ask me what wearable or fitness tracker to buy, Apple Watch and Oura Ring are the two they mention first and most often. I've worn both at the same time for nearly all of 2025, comparing them to each other and other wearables I've tested throughout the year. Want more from NBC Select? Sign up for our newsletter, The Selection, and shop smarter. My experience using the Oura Ring and Apple Watch The Oura Ring 4 and Apple Watch Series 10 are both excellent wearables. Both are comfortable, easy to use, and provide accurate and easy to understand information about your health, sleep and fitness activity. Below, I outline some key differences between each wearable. Design Oura Ring The latest Oura Ring 4 is the best looking and most comfortable Oura Ring yet. It is made of titanium, comes in six finishes and is available in sizes four to 15. While it is a bit big compared to a non-smart ring, I got used to wearing it on my ring finger after a few days. What helps is the long battery life: the Oura Ring 4 lasts up to eight days on a single charge, longer than most of its competitors. Unlike the Oura Ring Gen 3, which had three round sensor bumps on the inner side of the ring, the Oura Ring 4 is basically smooth all around, inside and out. This makes it much more comfortable than the previous version, and in-line with my experience wearing other smart rings like the Ultrahuman Ring Air and Samsung Galaxy Ring. Apple Watch The latest Apple Watch Series 10 is similarly the most comfortable Apple Watch I've worn, and I've tested a lot of them over the years. It's thinner and lighter than the Apple Watch Series 9, but has a bigger screen that reaches further into the edges of the case. The screen is also brighter and easier to see at off-angles, meaning I can check the time or a notification at a glance much easier than before. The Series 10 also charges faster — it can get up to 80% battery in 30 minutes of fast charging, up from 45 minutes on the Series 9. Battery life is still a bit lackluster though at up to 18 hours. I end up charging mine every night before bedtime to make sure it doesn't die overnight. My take: This is a toss up that largely comes down to personal preference. Aside from battery life, where the Oura Ring is a clear winner, the deciding factor is whether you find rings or watches more comfortable. Generally, I prefer watches over rings, and the Oura Ring is bulkier than the usual non-smart ring sizes I gravitate towards. But I know many folks can't stand the look and feel of the square, shiny Apple Watch, and you might be one of them. Day-to-day Oura Using the Oura Ring daily is a comfortable and largely passive experience. Most days, I forget that I am wearing it, which makes checking the Oura app feel fun instead of like a chore. It tracks most health and fitness basics for you — think steps, walks, sleep, readiness and stress. But not everything works automatically. Oura doesn't always automatically detect and track lower intensity workouts such as strength training and yoga, in my experience. For cycling tracking, you need to be diligent and consistent about manually inputting each day of your cycle to get the most accurate information, says NBC Select updates editor Mili Godio, who has worn her Oura Ring 4 for over 5 months. Apple You can do as much or as little as you want with the Apple Watch. It can act almost like a smartphone — you can check all your notifications, send texts, use contactless payments, take calls, store your favorite podcasts and music, navigate with a maps app, the list goes on. You can also turn off all notifications and do none of the things I just listed and turn the Apple Watch into a more passive fitness tracker and digital wristwatch. It has such robust settings and options that it can really be whatever you want it to be, especially when you consider all the watch face and watch band options. My take: This one is all about taste. Do you want something you can wear and forget about? That's the Oura Ring. Do you want easy access to a ton of information, right on your wrist? That's the Apple Watch. Tracking and metrics Oura Ring The Oura Ring's greatest strength is its health and sleep tracking. It offers detailed and accurate graphs, charts and trends for tons of different metrics like sleep stages, bedtime and wake-up time, heart rate variability, respiratory rate and body temperature. All of these put together, combined with the Oura app's intuitive and friendly design, means I get a good understanding of my health at a glance and a deeper understanding of my trends if I feel like diving a little deeper. The Oura Ring has also accurately assessed when I am sick. I have been sick a few times so far this year, and each time the Oura app notifies me of health metrics being out of their typical range, and suggests entering rest mode. I appreciate this approach much more than some fitness trackers that focus exclusively on consistently hitting streaks and goals. Apple Watch The Apple Watch shows metrics across two apps: the Apple Health and Apple Fitness app. The health app shows similar stats to the Oura Ring, with a focus on health, fitness and sleep trends over time, while the Fitness app shows all your individual workouts. It can similarly predict or tell me when I am sick through the Vitals feature, and has largely caught my illnesses as they have happened. Fitness is where the Apple Watch has more to offer than the Oura Ring. The Apple Watch has built-in GPS, making it more accurate for outdoor exercises like running and cycling compared to the Oura Ring. With outdoor running in particular, the Apple Watch shows more detailed stats like average cadence, stride length and more. It also has the Training Load feature, which can help track your weekly and monthly fitness. My take: Another tossup. Both Oura Ring and Apple Watch do a great job tracking and showcasing health, sleep and exercise metrics. Oura is a little more accurate when it comes to sleep data and predicting when I am sick, but the Apple Watch is always a close second, in my experience. The Apple Watch is better for fitness, as it has built-in GPS, more detailed stats in certain workouts and a screen that can show you live stats as you exercise. Oura vs Apple Watch: The final verdict The Apple Watch Series 10 and Oura Ring 4 are arguably the best smartwatch and best smart ring you can buy. One isn't better than the other, but one might make more sense for you personally. The Apple Watch is a smartwatch. It's like having a tiny phone on your wrist. It's a wearable you check all the time: you check the time, incoming texts, the weather, your pace during a run, etc. The Oura Ring is a passive smart ring. You check the Oura app usually during downtime, when you aren't too busy. Unless you are manually starting and stopping a workout, it's meant to work in the background, and be available when you feel like checking in on your stats and trends. If you want a tiny phone on your wrist that can do a little bit of everything, you want a smartwatch, and the Apple Watch is one of the best. It's better than the Oura Ring for checking live exercise stats while running and biking. It's also a better value than the Oura Ring, as it does almost everything the Oura Ring does (and more) without a subscription fee If you want to track your health, fitness and sleep but don't want something on your wrist peppering you with information, you want a smart ring, and the Oura Ring is the best on the market right now. It's got much better battery life than the Apple Watch, and is a little more accurate for sleep and illness tracking, in my experience. Why trust NBC Select? I am a reporter at NBC Select who covers technology and fitness including recent stories on smartwatches, running shoes, workout earbuds and more. I've tested the Oura Ring Gen 3 and Oura Ring 4 for over a year, and have tested various Apple Watch models, including the latest Series 10, for years.
Tom's Guide
3 days ago
- Health
- Tom's Guide
Don't fall for the Oura Ring 4 upgrade — the Ring 3 has the same sleep tracking tech and is $150 cheaper
From Oura to Garmin, Eight Sleep and Apple I've tested my fair share of sleep trackers over the past few months, but the one I always recommend to friends looking to optimize and learn more about their ZZZs for a reasonable price? It's the Oura Ring. While no sleep tracker is 100% accurate every night, in my experience the Eight Sleep Pod 4, aka our best smart bed of the year, and Oura Ring provide the most reliable data. I began tracking my sleep with the Oura Ring 3 at the start of this year and have recently upgraded to the Oura Ring 4. While there are noticeable improvement (like the Ring 4's more durable finish), if you're using the ring purely as a sleep tracker, I recommend saving your pennies and opting for the previous generation while stocks last. Here's why... While the underlying sleep tracking tech remains the same, the key updates Oura has introduced with the fourth generation ring revolve around improved battery life and sensor accuracy, and a redesign focused on comfort and better durability. The Ring 4 also introduces "Smart Sensing" technology and a wider size range. Oura Ring's "Smart Sensing" is powered by an advanced algorithm that works alongside the research-grade sensors within Oura Ring 4 to respond to each member's unique finger physiology, including the structure and distinct features of your finger (i.e. skin tone, BMI, and age). Battery life has also been improved with the Oura Ring 4. Oura Ring 3 claimed to last up to seven days between charges, though in my experience and that of our other reviewers, four to five days is a more accurate battery life window. However, I have used the Oura Ring 4 for four days and it has 48% charge remaining, suggesting it will power through eight days. Finally, the Oura Ring 4 has a more robust titanium design. I noticed the Oura Ring 3 start to scratch within the first few days of wearing it, so this is certainly a welcome upgrade. Oura Ring 3: was from $299 now from $199 at OuraThe Oura Ring 3 was released in 2021. It comes in two styles — heritage (a plateau design) and horizon (sleek circular design). In current sleep sales, there's $100 off the Oura Ring 3 while stocks last. Oura Ring 4: from $349 at Oura The Oura Ring 4 replaced the Ring 3 as of October 2024. This new-and-improved smart ring is available in six different smooth metal finishes including (in ascending price order) silver, black, brushed silver, stealth, gold and rose gold and additional ring sizes from 4 to 15 rather than 6 to 13. Prices start from $349 and reach $499. If you're looking for a comprehensive sleep tracker but don't want to splash more than $300, here's why I recommend you shop the Oura Ring 3 over the Oura Ring 4, after testing both myself... With $100 off all sizes now, you can get the Oura Ring 3 for between $199 and $349 (was $299 to $449). The Heritage style Oura Ring 3 is $199 in silver and black and $279 in stealth, and the Horizon design is $249 in black, $279 in stealth and brushed titanium and $349 in gold. Meanwhile the Oura Ring 4 sits at MSRP of $349 in silver and black, $399 in brushed silver and stealth, and $499 in gold and rose gold. No matter the model or color you're going for, you'll end up paying at least $150 more for the Ring 4. Add on top Oura's subscription fee ($5.99 per month or $69.99 per year) and this sleep tracker becomes a significant financial commitment. For me, the difference in sleep tracking functionality between Gen 3 and Gen 4 doesn't quite justify the $150 price difference. So, to save cents where you can I recommend shopping the Ring 3 while stocks last. While it is now a popular all-round health tracker worn by wellness enthusiasts, the Oura Ring has its roots in the sleep tracking market and has proved itself as a comprehensive snooze gadget. The Oura Ring 3 might not be the newest, most advanced sleep tracker on the market after being around for the best part of four years, but it still gives a reliable picture of how well you sleep each night. It keeps tabs on how long it takes for you to fall asleep, how long you spend in each sleep stage, how long you sleep overall and how 'efficient' your sleep has been. The Oura Ring 4 is said to be built with more accurate sensors, but there are no new metrics covered in your nightly sleep report. I've observed similar discrepancies in time spent asleep when comparing data given by the Eight Sleep Pod 4 smart mattress cover with that from both the Oura Ring 3 and Oura Ring 4. Between the Ring 3 and the Eight Sleep Pod I observed a discrepancy of between 16 and 44 minutes in time spent asleep. With the Ring 4 and Eight Sleep Pod, the discrepancy was between 11 and 36 minutes. Even with the latest wellness tech, measuring exact sleep time at home is a difficult task as you're literally in an unconscious state. Considering the differences in sleep time mentioned above are only a matter of minutes, I recommend the more affordable Ring 3. While one of the key upgrades between the two rings is focused on comfort, I haven't noticed a major difference between the two rings. Both are comfortable overnight. Sitting on your finger rather than your wrist, I find the Oura Ring more comfortable overnight compared with wrist-worn trackers that can feel claustrophobic in bed. In fact, the Oura Ring 3 is slimmer than the Ring 4 in the size I wear (size 9). The Ring 3 measures 2.57mm thick on the sides and 2.97mm thick on the "top" compared to 2.88mm all the way around with the Ring 4, so it feels less clumpy on your finger. In terms of durability, if you're wearing the ring purely as a sleep tracker, the Oura Ring 3 won't tarnish in bed. It is only likely to scratch if you're wearing it as an all-day health tracker. Having tested both the Oura Ring 3 and Ring 4, it's clear to see the Ring 4 is an upgraded, more durable product with longer battery life and more accurate biometric sensors. However, if you want an excellent smart ring for sleep tracking, you're in capable hands with the Oura Ring 3, which you can buy right now for $150 less.
CNBC
10-06-2025
- Health
- CNBC
23. ŌURA
Founders: Petteri Lahtela, Kari Kivelä, Markku KoskelaCEO: Tom HaleLaunched: 2013Headquarters: Oulu, FinlandFunding: $200 millionValuation: $5.2 billionKey Technologies: N/A Industry: Consumer technology, health carePrevious appearances on Disruptor 50 list: 2 (No. 33 in 2023) Oura has pioneered the smart ring market since the San Francisco-based company launched its eponymous connected device in 2015. But over the last twelve months, Oura has hastened its disruption of the broader wearables market, showing its evolution well beyond the original roots in sleep tracking. The company released the latest version of its flagship product, the Oura Ring 4, in October, which it says is its most accurate iteration yet thanks to additional signal pathways in the ring's sensors, allowing for better tracking of things like blood oxygen levels and heart rate. It also helps dial in a wide range of metrics, features and health indicators that Oura provides wearers via its app, everything from daily readiness and sleep scores in the morning to stress and activity tracking during the day and into the evening. Oura is also further leaning into the proactive side of wellness insights that its ring can provide. In March, the company launched an AI-powered health coach that uses algorithms and LLMs to analyze data and biometrics to offer personalized guidance around long-term trends in sleep or how meal timing might be impacting metabolic health. The AI health coach is also able to create plans around goals like improving sleep or improving stress resilience. The company has also made major strides in women's health, adding features around menstrual, period and pregnancy cycles, both tracking and insights. All of that is part of Oura's move into becoming an all-encompassing health and wellness tracker, with the goal of, as the company puts it, helping wearers "live healthier, longer." In December 2024, Oura raised a $200 million Series D that it said would help "fuel" healthcare innovation. Participating in that round was Dexcom, the global leader in glucose biosensing, which also partnered with Oura to allow users of its glucose monitor to share data between the two products. Oura CEO Tom Hale told CNBC in November that the company is testing out nutrition, allowing users to take pictures of their meal and load it into the Oura app. In September, Oura acquired Veri, a metabolic health startup that uses data from continuous glucose monitors to give users insight into their blood sugar levels. "Metabolic health is the natural next dimension of the Oura Ring holistic health experience, and one that our customers have told us they want," Hale said in a release announcing the Veri acquisition. Oura started with sleep, migrated to cardiovascular health, stress & resilience, and women's health, and is always looking for the "next pillar," according to Hale. "Metabolic health is an important next horizon and the team at Veri brings deep experience in that space," Hale said.
Tom's Guide
03-06-2025
- Business
- Tom's Guide
Samsung Galaxy Ring 2 is reportedly in the works — but we could be waiting a while
A new report has revealed that Samsung is working on the sequel to one of the best smart rings on the market, the Galaxy Ring 2. This news comes from Galaxy Club, who claims that Samsung has started work on its next generation of smart rings. This is great news as we loved the original Galaxy Ring that launched in 2024 and have been looking forward to a successor device. However, there is some bad news about when we could be getting it. Galaxy Club's report makes it clear that the development process is still in the very early stages. As such, a release this year is highly unlikely, which makes sense as there was no mention made at the 2025 Galaxy Unpacked back in January. Considering it usually takes several months to move through the design process, we may hear more about the Galaxy Ring 2 at a Galaxy Unpacked event next year. These normally take place in early spring and late summer each year. We've been hearing a lot of rumors about the Galaxy Ring 2, including that it could feature a solid-state battery that could drastically increase the battery life. For reference, the Galaxy Ring is stated to offer around 7 days on full charge, but we found you'll likely get about 5 days off a full charge from regular use. If the new battery rumor is accurate, and does improve the battery life as much as hoped, then the next generation of Galaxy Rings could outlast even the class-leading Oura Ring 4, which is claimed to last for up to 8 days (although we found it needed charging after 6). The Galaxy Ring 2 may also use an onboard body temperature sensor, based on a recent patent filed by Samsung. This could differentiate between your skin temperature and the temperature of external objects, using a motion sensor to judge what you're trying to measure. Get instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. There are also indications that Samsung could help to make the Galaxy Ring 2 more inclusive by including sizes 14 and 15 to the range. The size 14 Galaxy Ring 2 will apparently boast a 23mm interior diameter, and the size 15 ring would have a 23.8mm interior diameter. For the time being, we have to take any hardware rumors with a grain of salt, but the future is certainly looking bright for Samsung's next wearable. However, let us know what you think and if there are any major changes that you want to see in the Galaxy Ring 2?
