The Oura Ring is about to enter its third generation, with the latest model bringing with it a suite of new features and a new sensor array, all wrapped up inside the same familiar but incredibly svelte design as before. Oura has not changed the physical size or weight of the third-generation Ring over the second generation, but the big technical change is a revised sensor array, which includes more temperature sensors and a new heart rate sensor.
There are seven temperature sensors in all, which will monitor your body temperature throughout the day and night, providing insight into your health. The heart rate sensor now uses red and green LEDs compared to the infrared sensor on the second-generation Oura Ring. This enables all-day monitoring, and in the future, it will work for workout tracking, too.
This new hardware brings some new software and features with it. The new heart rate sensor helps the ring report restorative time, so you can better judge the amount of time you need to take for recovery following exercise. The temperature sensors provide accurate menstrual cycle tracking, with Oura claiming a 30-day prediction plan with a six-day alert ahead of your period beginning.
These will all be available when the third-generation Oura ring is released, but there are also a few other features coming later in the year and into next. Most notably, the Oura Ring will get blood oxygen (Sp02) monitoring in 2022, which will help bring more detail to sleep tracking, along with something called improved sleep staging to refine sleep tracking even further.
The aforementioned heart rate tracking for workouts will arrive in late 2021, according to Oura, at the same time as a subscription-based content platform called Oura Membership. Details on what this library will contain are a little thin, but we should expect video and audio guidance on sleep, meditation, and breathing exercises, all designed to help improve wellbeing.
We do know how much this costs, which is $5.99 per month, but six months of free membership will be included with each new third-generation Oura Ring, and anyone upgrading from an old Oura Ring will get a free lifetime membership, plus a discount on a third-generation ring. It’s a nice way to reward existing customers.
Pre-orders for the third-generation Oura Ring open today, with prices starting at $299 and the option of a black, silver, gold, or Stealth finish, and shipments are expected to start in mid-November.
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