Oura Ring 5 Fixes the Stuff You Only Notice After Wearing One Every Day

• Oura has unveiled Oura Ring 5, its smallest smart ring yet
• New model is 40 per cent smaller than Oura Ring 4, measuring 6.09mm wide and 2.28mm thick
• Oura says the redesigned sensors improve overnight HRV accuracy and workout heart-rate tracking
• Battery life now runs between a claimed 6–9 days per charge
• Ring is made from titanium, with an improved scratch-resistant finish and 100-metre waterproofing
• Pricing starts at AUD$649, with premium finishes priced at AUD$799

Six months with the Oura Ring 4 gave us a pretty useful answer to the smart ring question. No, it will not fix your health for you. Yes, it can make your bad habits much harder to ignore.

That was the point Man of Many founder Scott Purcell landed on after wearing the Ring 4 every day for six months through two F45 challenges, more than 180 nights of sleep tracking, a 10kg weight drop and a cholesterol scare that finally started moving in the right direction. The ring didn’t do the work. It made the work harder to dodge. And hats off to Scott for putting it all out there and knocking it out of the park.

But that was Ring 4. Ring 5 now arrives with upgrades aimed at the stuff you only notice after living with one: size, comfort, battery life, workout accuracy and durability. Oura knows it isn’t a smartwatch. It isn’t concerned with closing rings or buzzing your wrist every five minutes. It wants the ring to disappear until the data matters.

Smaller Ring With a Clearer Purpose

The headline change is size. Oura Ring 5 is 40 per cent smaller than Oura Ring 4, measuring 6.09mm wide and 2.28mm thick. Oura is calling it the world’s smallest smart ring, which is obviously impressive for something carrying sensors, a battery and a week of health data around your finger.

But for wearable tech users, it means the Ring 5 should sit more like jewellery and less like wellness hardware trying to look subtle.

Smart rings only work if you keep wearing them. A watch can sit on the charger overnight and still be useful. A smart ring needs to stay on through sleep, work, travel, training, showers, cooking and whatever else your hands get dragged through in a normal week.

There is one catch. Oura Ring 5 is available in sizes 6 to 13, which is narrower than Ring 4’s 4 to 15 range. The smaller body may make it more comfortable for most people, but it also narrows the pool of people who can actually wear one.

Better Sensors, Better Signals

Inside the smaller body, Oura says it has redesigned the sensing architecture with more efficient LEDs, improved skin contact and 12 signal pathways to deliver more consistent readings across different fingers and skin tones.

Oura says the Ring 5 delivers 12 per cent more accurate overnight HRV than Ring 4 for the average user. The company also claims a 24 per cent improvement in workout heart-rate signal quality, translating to a 19 per cent improvement in accuracy for activities such as running, cycling and walking.

For anyone coming from the Ring 4, those are welcome changes. Scott found the previous model genuinely useful for sleep, readiness and illness detection, but he still relied on his F45 Lionheart belt for high-intensity training. Ring 4 was excellent at passive health tracking, but it couldn’t quite keep up with rapid heart-rate changes during a class full of burpees, bikes and one more rep.

That’s where the app update starts to matter. Even if Ring 5 doesn’t replace a chest strap outright, Oura is giving users a way to bring live training data into the same place as their sleep, readiness and recovery.

Oura seems to know its boundaries. Ring 5 is trying to close the gap between passive health tracking and proper fitness tracking without adding a screen, GPS or wrist-based bulk.

At least Oura and smart ring wearers can all agree: it doesn’t need a screen.

Built for the Damage Your Hands Actually Take

Durability is easy to overlook until the thing is on your hand every day. Rings hit dumbbells, barbells, desk edges, kitchen benches, luggage handles and the inside of your pocket about 50 times a day. Scott called out the scratching as one of the Ring 4’s real limitations, especially for anyone training with weights.

To help with that wear and tear, Oura Ring 5 uses a titanium build with an improved scratch-resistant finish, while retaining 100-metre waterproofing.

And while a tougher finish won’t automatically make Ring 5 indestructible, it’s one of those improvements that suggests Oura has been paying attention to how people actually wear these things. Health data is useful. So is not making your $649 ring look like it lost a fight with a squat rack after three months.

Battery Life Gets a Practical Boost

Battery life has also improved, with Oura claiming between 6 and 9 days of use from a single charge, depending on ring size and usage. Charging still takes between 20 and 80 minutes, and the ring comes with a size-specific charging dock and USB-C cable.

We’re not sure what kind of engineering it would take to achieve it, but we reckon it’s about time they designed a universal charger that adjusts to the size of your ring.

There’s also a new Oura Ring Charging Case, sold separately, which can provide up to one month of charging on the go. It’s a handy travel accessory, though it does add another thing to pack, carry and eventually forget in a hotel room.

Either way, more battery and a portable charging option mean fewer data gaps. For any health tracker, consistency matters.

Oura’s App Is Becoming a Bigger Part of the Product

The Ring 5 itself is only half the update. The other half lives inside the app.

Oura is also rolling out new software experiences, including Live Activity Tracking, Health Radar, GLP-1 insights, more granular data-deletion tools, and Locate, which helps users find a misplaced Oura Ring or Charging case.

Live Activity Tracking is the most immediately useful one for Australian users. Rolling out globally from 4 June to Oura Members with Ring Gen3 and newer models, it lets users start workouts in the Oura App and view live pace, distance and heart rate from the lock screen. Okay, maybe they did add a screen.

Health Radar is more ambitious. Building on Oura’s existing Symptom Radar feature, it looks for longer-term changes in cardiovascular and respiratory signals, including Blood Pressure Signals and Nighttime Breathing. The idea is to flag patterns worth paying attention to before they become something you only notice when you feel terrible.

The catch is local availability. Oura says Health Radar and GLP-1 insights will begin rolling out in June 2026 to members in the US, UAE and India with Oura Ring Gen3 and newer models. Australian timing has not been confirmed.

Then there’s the subscription. Scott flagged Oura Membership as one of the most annoying parts of the Ring 4 experience, and Ring 5 isn’t changing the arrangement. You buy the ring, then pay again for the deeper insights that make it worth owning.

Oura is not alone there; look at the way car manufacturers handle digital features. Pay here for heated seats. The problem isn’t Oura charging for software. It’s that without those paid insights, the hardware feels incomplete.

Oura Ring 5 Price and Availability in Australia

In Australia, Oura Ring 5 starts at $649 for the Black and Silver finishes. Gold, Deep Rose, Stealth and Brushed Silver are priced at $799.

Pre-orders are now open, with shipping beginning 4 June. The ring comes with a size-specific standard charger and USB-C cable, while the portable charging case is sold separately.

As with previous Oura models, the company recommends using its sizing kit before ordering. It also suggests wearing the sizing ring for at least 24 hours, including while sleeping, before locking in your size. And with the narrower size options, it’s worthwhile doing it properly.

Oura Ring 5 Key Specs

• Australian price: $649
• Premium finishes: $799
• Finishes: Black, Silver, Gold, Deep Rose, Stealth, Brushed Silver
• Sizes: 6–13
• Width: 6.09mm
• Thickness: 2.28mm
• Weight: From 2 grams, depending on ring size
• Material: Scratch-resistant titanium
• Battery life: 6–9 days, depending on ring size and usage
• Charging: Size-specific charger, 20–80 minutes
• Waterproofing: Up to 100 metres
• Compatibility: iOS and Android
• Included: Oura Ring 5, size-specific standard charger, USB-C cable

Oura Ring 4 vs Oura Ring 5

For a cleaner look at what has changed, here’s how Oura Ring 5 compares to Ring 4 on the core hardware specs.

Spec	Oura Ring 4	Oura Ring 5
Australian Starting Price	$599	$649
Sizes	4–15	6–13
Width	7.90mm	6.09mm
Thickness	2.88 / 3.51mm	2.28mm
Battery Life	5–8 days	6–9 days
Material	Titanium or zirconia ceramic	Durable, scratch-resistant titanium
Durability	Water-resistant up to 100m	Waterproof up to 100m

Scroll horizontally to view full table

Should You Upgrade?

The Oura Ring 5 looks like a sensible upgrade, but not the kind of dramatic reset that should have Ring 4 owners rushing to the add-to-cart button.

Ring 4 already proved its value. Scott’s six-month review showed what the Ring 4 did best: turn vague intentions into visible patterns he could actually act on.

Ring 5 is about making that loop easier to live with: smaller on the finger, tougher in daily use, better during workouts, and maybe a little too much stuck behind the membership wall.

If you already own an Oura Ring 4 and mostly use it for sleep, readiness and general recovery, you’re probably not due for an upgrade just yet. If you were put off by the size, worried about scratches or wanted more useful workout heart-rate tracking, Ring 5 looks like the version you were waiting for.

Oura knows that the best smart ring is the one you keep wearing. Ring 5 isn’t trying to shout louder from your finger (they better not add a speaker for Ring 6). It wants to disappear entirely, then tap you on the shoulder to tell you all about it.