Oura Ring 4 Ceramic Review Arrives with More Colorful Upgrades

The Oura Ring 4 Ceramic debuts with a straightforward proposition that nails it: Make an expensive health tracker look and feel like jewelry. After a couple of weeks with them, it’s hard to say using these colorful zirconia ceramic upgrades justifies their cost on style alone — but they do protect the health insights that made Oura’s fourth-gen ring a cult favorite among sleep and recovery enthusiasts.

Design and materials: zirconia ceramic colors and feel

Oura’s debut non-metal lineup replaces titanium finishes with zirconia ceramic in four colors: Midnight, Cloud, Tide, and Petal. The palette is far more boutique than tech, and the surface in particular does a much better job of resisting fingerprints than models with titanium casing. At 3.51 mm for thickness (vs. 2.88 mm for titanium) and between 5.1 g–8.1 g depending on size (vs. 3.3 g–5.2 g), it’s arguably stouter on paper, though not distractingly so in hand or pocket to our feel and taste tests during brief bouts of examination outside the Apple Store at press events around town over the past two weeks or so, physically distanced from one another, accompanied by some mostly uncomfortable skies watching us under their breathtaking clouds overhead as rays of dazzling sunlight sparkled evilly through menacing gaps here, there, everywhere, leaving us wanting…

Ceramic also alters the tactile feel of a device. It’s warm against the skin and a bit grippy, which helps it stay in place but can catch unevenly on neighboring fingers until you reposition. The color is built into the ceramic rather than painted, so it shouldn’t fade with wear, Oura says. In reality, the finish looked just as vivid after daily wear as it did on day one.

Comfort and durability in daily wear and rough handling

Zirconia ceramic is extremely hardy, and over the course of a usual week inclusive of brisk dishwashing, metal railings, packed commutes — it withstood potential disasters. Oura cautions that softer metals — like cookware or dumbbells — can cause cosmetic scuffs. The ring comes with a polishing pad that helped buff out marks, and smudges wiped away with a cloth in my testing. It’s water-resistant to 100 meters, so showers and swims are cool; lifting with bare metal bars still isn’t if you care about the finish.

Fit remains Oura’s quiet advantage. The sizing kit that comes with it helps you choose a finger that will keep contact on the sensor without pinching overnight. For the extra grams, the Ceramic all but disappeared as a band: sleep-friendly, nap-proof, and unremarkable on runs or typing sessions.

Sensors and health insights remain consistent and reliable

Beneath the shiny finish, it’s the same array of sensors that can be found on the regular Ring 4: optical heart rate, temperature trend tracking, and motion for sleep and activity. The headline figures — Readiness, Sleep, Activity — continue to make it the main reason you’d want it on. Readiness combines heart rate variability, resting heart rate, sleep debt, and recent strain to nudge you either toward recovery or load. It’s an easy number that often matches up with how you’re feeling.

Oura’s temperature signals are not just a party trick. In the UCSF-led research project TemPredict, for instance, those nightly temperatures from Oura data helped trigger warnings of possible illness onset prior to symptoms in many participants. Independent labs have found ring-worn HR and HRV to be strongest at rest, consistent with Oura’s focus on overnight trends. Like any consumer wearable, the sleep staging isn’t a substitute for polysomnography, but it’s directionally useful and among the more reliable in its class, say sleep researchers at university labs that have benchmarked multiple wearables.

One reminder: Most of the advanced insights you’ll get access to are part of an Oura Membership, which is $5.99 a month in the U.S. The paywall is something to consider in terms of total cost of ownership.

Battery and charging performance across a typical week

Oura claims a battery life of 5 to 8 days, and the Ceramic was in line with that. A weekly charge, via the compact dock included in the box, got me through each week — even with the continuous heart rate and automatic workout detection turned on. The ceramic casing does not alter charging habits or speed.

Price and value: premium materials without extra sensors

At $500, the Ceramic is $150 more expensive than the Ring 4 in regular guise. You’re paying for materials and color, not more sensors. The price lands it at the premium end of the smart ring market, but the jewelry-grade appeal is that extra. Lower-price rivals can meet some benchmarks but tend to blend in less believably with everyday accessories — which matters if you intend to wear the device around the clock.

(Context helpful here: Analysts at Counterpoint Research have called the smart ring one of the fastest-growing subcategories within wearables thanks to its comfort and battery life. The Oura Ring 4 Ceramic also leans into those strengths but makes the form factor more fashion-forward in general.)

Who it’s for: style-focused buyers who want discreet tracking

If you’ve been admiring Oura but recoiled at the techy metal look and feel … well, the Ceramic is the one to get. It’s for people who appreciate discreet, always-on health tracking — sleep, recovery, temperature trends — without broadcasting they’re sporting a gadget. If you crave a slimmer, lighter band or are going to abuse it lifting barbells and dinging metal tools on it, the titanium model might be the more durable pick as well as the easier one on your wallet.

Verdict: ceramic style with the same trusted Oura features

The Oura Ring 4 Ceramic is a handsome glow-up: bolder colors, a fingerprint-resistant finish, and the same reliable health insights and weeklong battery. For most people that trade-off — a little Casio cash register thickness, a not-insubstantial price premium — is well worth it if you want a smart ring that looks like jewelry first and tech second. For some, that is exactly the upgrade they’ve been pining after.