Oura Ring

I ordered the ring in September, arrived in December (I was patient with this).

It would not charge. I reached tech support a few days later. Charged, worked for one week, stopped working. Would not connect to the app.

No response from tech support for 3 WEEKS.

Then, reconnecting and working for four days until failing again. All data lost.

No response from the company, still several more weeks later.

Patience gone; contesting fee through credit card. I really wanted this to work.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

When I bought the ring through PayPal on 8/4/18, my anticipated shipping date was 9/30/18. Halfway through September, the date was revised to 10/30/18, and halfway through October, it was revised to 11/30/18. On December 1st, I got an email announcing that my anticipated shipping date was yesterday, and 13% of the units in my group had already been shipped, which made no sense. When I contacted Oura on December 1st, they told me that a "realistic" shipping date was 1/4/19.

At that point, I filed a complaint through PayPal, because my option to receive a refund through PayPal expires at six months. Pekka replied to my email and said that my PayPal complaint had put my order on hold. He asked me to cancel my dispute. On reading PayPal's dispute terms, I discovered that if I canceled my dispute, I could not later file another dispute for not receiving the item. So naturally, I asked him to address my PayPal dispute through PayPal. He did not respond that email, nor did he respond through PayPal to my dispute.

Two weeks later, on 12/20/18, PayPal refunded my $264. At that point, Pekka sent me an email stating, "Unfortunately, PayPal decided in your favor."

So in short, I gave Oura an interest-free loan of $264 for 4 and 1/2 months.

I believe this is the sort of behavior one might expect from a company that is either (a) shady, or (b) foundering.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I had a totally different customer service experience compared with one of the other reviewers here. I sent a note to Oura about an existing order on the weekend and responsiveness was very good (mostly from Mia). I decided to change my ring type (from Heritage Black to Heritage Stealth) but had several back and forth exchanges asking questions first. Below are the date/time stamps from the conversation (US, Central Time).

I am sorry that my fellow Texan in Dallas had a poor experience two quarters ago, but perhaps Oura received the feedback and took action or otherwise is more consistently offering good customer service. I am grateful and very pleased so far and just want to offer this example as another data point for others considering a purchase (I don't usually provide feedback in forums like this, but there was such a contrast in my experience I wanted to help others know that things have turned out well in this case).

Thanks.

- Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 02:42 PM (my initial question).

- Sunday, October 28, 2018 at 02:42 PM (autoresponder indicating someone would get back to me soon and included links to some related frequently asked questions).

- Monday, October 29, 2018 at 06:57 AM (Mia’s response to my question).

- Monday, October 29, 2018 at 07:03 AM (further question from me).

- Monday, October 29, 2018 at 07:16 AM (Mia’s response to my question).

- Monday, October 29, 2018 at 07:27 AM (further question from me).

- Monday, October 29, 2018 at 07:36 AM (Mia’s response to my question).

- Monday, October 29, 2018 at 07:40 AM (further question from me and request to process change/invoice).

- Monday, October 29, 2018 at 7:51 AM (Mia’s response indicating my PayPal invoice process started).

- Monday, October 29, 2018 at 4:11 PM (question from me on expected timing to receive the invoice).

- Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at 6:31 AM (Mia’s response indicating the PayPal invoice was sent).

- Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at 6:32 AM (PayPal invoice received).

- Tuesday, October 30, 2018 at 6:34 AM (PayPal invoice paid).

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

Buyer beware. Customer service is atrocious and non-responsive. I placed an order for a black ring and later wanted to change it to silver. Not a hard request. I sent notes per the email order confirmation to both their order and service email addresses. Numerous attempts - NOT ONE SINGLE response. Yes, I checked my junk mail. They just go radio silent. IF this is customer service for someone trying to buy the ring, buyer beware of afterward, if you need support.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I have been using the Oura Ring for about nine months now, and I highly recommend it. It has been amazingly accurate and has provided great insights regarding my sleep quality and readiness for the next day's workout(s).

I found that being able to add activities and intensity has really helped with the accuracy of the day's overall activities.

The HRV data has been one of the best metrics in my mind for readiness, but all the data has been both consistent and useful.

I did have an issue with battery life at one point. I contacted Oura, they looked at my data (that is synced with the Oura Cloud), and they determined that my power consumption was high and promptly sent out a new ring.

I use the ring during cross-training, running, weightlifting (even deadlifting), yoga, rowing, and cycling. I haven't had any issues with cracking, durability or discomfort.

I have already pre-ordered the new style ring and can't wait to get it. It has been by far the best fitness/ self-quantification tool I have tried. And I have tried many of them.

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I’ve had the ring for 6 months now and find the sleep tracking to be very accurate.

There have been times while watching TV in bed where I was completely still that the ring recorded me as in light sleep, but if you think about the algorithm they use to record sleep, my body was telling the ring it was asleep via the biofeedback.

I lift heavy, and the app does a good job tracking activity if you app your workouts in the activity section.

This is a great product and I ordered the new ring 5 minutes after it went on pre-sale.

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I've been wearing my Ring for a little over a week and have found the data to be very questionable. The sleep tracking is obviously not accurate since it seems to log all prone time as asleep. This morning I woke at 4:15 am and went to the bathroom and never went back to sleep, but the Ring indicates I slept again before getting out of bed for good. This is pretty common, so I don't have any trust in the measurements the Ring is reporting.

I also find the activity tracking suspect and sometimes the Ring doesn't even transfer data to the phone. This device is definitely not ready for prime time. It's a shame because I really like the idea of self-quantification and how it can help.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

I've been using the Oura Ring for about two months. I've found that it has reliably indicated poor deep sleep whenever I'd sleep with my girlfriend. However, I've also seen it and (blogged about it) detect me in light sleep when I was on the phone late at night.

As for activity tracking, it's still a bulky ring, and it makes certain activities difficult (lifting, for example). I swam with it, but I'd take it off for any barbell work. Also, tech support told me that activity tracking plays only a very small role in the app's calculations.

From personal experience, readiness did not always correlate with actual performance in the gym.

Final note: The skin under the ring tends to "marinate" if you keep it on for more than several hours. As a sleep monitor, it can provide good insights. I wouldn't use it as an activity monitor.

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I've had my Ring for four weeks, and it's already cracked. It worked for a few days after I cracked it, then became sporadic and finally quit working within 24 hours. I cracked the Ring doing burpees. I read several in depth reviews online indicating it was the best tracker for fitness training, including CrossFit. I would strongly discourage using this Ring while doing any such activities.

It is waterproof, which is why I bought it, now I wished I'd have waited and saved more money for the Apple Watch Series 2 and the Beddit sleep monitor. I will say I do prefer the inactivity monitor over the Stand rings on the Apple Watch but found the stats on the Readiness Screen of the Oura Ring to be useless. There is no way to delete and download the data, and they supposedly work into the algorithm to calculate your readiness for activity, but I was under the impression I'd be able to monitor body temperature better not just of an average. The labels are so small, and the increments are so close together you can't really decipher any details on the data.

Anyhow, that's my two cents, but you'd have to decide what you really want to use it for. I'm active and use my hands a lot. I don't recommend it for people like me.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend

The technology that they've been able to pack into the small ring is incredible - heart rate, heart wavelength, body temperature, motion. It is so much more accurate than any wrist monitor.

The ring itself is amazing. Where this product is weakest, though, is with the app. Since the product just came out, they have some work to do with the app (it's not even version 1.0 of the app yet). It sounds like they are overhauling it now. Looking forward to seeing what they will do!

Bottom Line: Yes, I would recommend this to a friend

I was a Kickstarter backer of Oura and had high hopes for it. Now that Oura has shut down their forums, there is no place to provide feedback directly to them. The biggest issue with Oura is that the activity intensity is NOT captured accurately; consequently, the Activity and Readiness scores suffer from "garbage in/garbage out."

After a recent firmware update, I pulled my Oura out of the box to see if it had improved its activity monitoring. My data over this two week period with ten intense workouts (averaging one hour on an elliptical with average heart rate of 134 and average max heart rate of 161. I'm a 68-year-old male with a calculated max heart rate of 152) were all recorded as "medium" by Oura.

Walking my dog for 20 minutes was actually rated higher on Oura's activity scale than my elliptical workouts! The Activity and Readiness percent do not appear to bear any correlation to the activities I actually engage in. The Activity percent was actually HIGHER on the four days I did not do my intense workout, and the Readiness percent was unchanged. Go figure. I cannot recommend Oura for anyone whose active workouts are not captured by Oura's accelerometer. It won't capture static activities like bike riding, ellipticals or even yoga. Dog walking it does capture!

Oura fares better on the sleep measures which I compared to the recent sleep data added to Fitbit. Over the same two week period, Oura averaged five hours 35 minutes of sleep and Fitbit averaged 5:42 (I don't need much sleep).

The breakdowns by Deep, REM, Light, and Awake time were another matter. Awake time was pretty equal, averaging 47 minutes with Oura to 45 with Fitbit, and Deep sleep time was not too far off at 26 with Oura, and 46 with Fitbit. The REM and Light sleep times were quite disparate; Oura REM at one hour, 55 minutes average, Fitbit at 1:17, Light sleep time was 3:13 with Oura and 3:39 with Fitbit. So the total REM/Light was pretty close between the two devices at 5:08 Oura and 4:57 with Fitbit. So there is clearly a difference in the algorithms used to track the different sleep categories.

For me, Oura is going back in the box as it simply is a LOUSY activity tracker that gives bad data in its Activity and Readiness measures. And as a Sleep tracker (which was one of the touted features of Oura), it's data is directionally accurate but hard to trust since they don't provide any idea how it is calculated. I will rely on my Fitbit Blaze. It is a cheaper, better activity tracker with sleep data that is similarly directionally accurate.

It's too bad. Oura is a great concept that simply can't deliver due to its inability to track the most important input to its data; the intensity of your activities.

Bottom Line: No, I would not recommend this to a friend