Oura Ring 4

I am a long term Fitbit fan. What a brilliant product that was, but now the whole brand has been completely destroyed by Google (who bought the company several years ago to destroy it), which is how I came to purchase an Oura Ring 4 - because in February this year if your old Fitbit is still working (I bought one from someone in China last year as you can't buy them from Fitbit anymore) you have to move to a Google account or you will lose your data and your app won't work anymore. Google, that is hugely manipulative and why I refuse to get an account with you.

So I bought an Oura as I don't want a huge ugly Apple or Garmin watch on my wrist. But what a piece of rubbish this is. And what liars people are. I watched multiple "reviews" online where people were sent an Oura ring on spec but claimed that they were reviewing the ring independently. No they weren't. None of them said the Oura ring didn't work. All of them said the Oura ring was equal to a Garmin or an Apple Watch when it came to recording steps, sleep etc. Nonsense.

So here are some examples and yes, I have only had the ring for two weeks but I am ready to throw it out because it really is rubbish. The only reason I am wearing it at the moment is so that when people ask me about it I can tell them not to buy one.

Steps - well it doesn't count them with any reliability. See the review for Oura 3 on Product Review, this hopelessness has not changed. One night I was up until 12.30 and then after I went to bed I got up to go to the toilet a couple of times and at 7.30 the next morning my Oura ring let me know I had done 8 steps. I am careful not to put my ring in water even though it is supposed to be waterproof and I am also careful to keep the sensors aligned at the optimum position. But it really doesn't matter. Lately the ring has been congratulating me on meeting my activity goals - I am not even halfway to my goal (which the ring keeps changing) due to experiencing a period of really poor sleep. The readiness scores are a joke. I am being told I have a readiness score of 82 when I can't get off the couch due to exhaustion. It is all just meaningless nonsense.

But Oura does not claim to be great at counting steps. What it claims to be good at is recording sleep. Well my sleep is very poor and I have been monitoring it with my Fitbit for ten years plus so I know my rhythms. I get on average 6 1/2 hours per night - an average that involves a lot of 5 hour nights followed by the occasional 8 1/2 or 9 hour night. When you set up your Oura ring it asks you for details about your sleep and I selected "sleep disorder". Who knows what that means - it could have asked - do you have trouble falling asleep, staying asleep or getting back to sleep if you wake up too early in the morning (i.e. how your doctor will assess your sleep difficulties) I would have said yes to all three and it might have started with some meaningful data but it didn't. It offered a drop down box of four equally meaningless choices. And it obviously did nothing with that data. The set up process is just a way of making you feel like the Oura ring is actually going to do something for you.

In relation to recording my sleep, first of all the ring repeatedly congratulated me on my ability to fall asleep within 15 minutes. Um nope. I was in bed for several hours on those nights attempting to go to sleep. Then it started asking me if I was taking a "nap" at 11.30 at night. No. That's when I was initially trying to go to sleep, and no sleeping occurred; I was just not moving much. I have also been congratulated by the ring on meeting my sleep needs. Really? My body seems to be telling me pretty clearly the opposite. At one point I got told I had a sleep deficit of 2 1/2 hours ... I would have estimated it at actually round ten hours.

There are also the usual biometrics - heart rate, body temperature, blood oxygen levels ... etc. But if you can't trust the step counting or the sleep detection why on earth would you trust those? I mean really - blood oxygen???? The ring is reminding me of dealing with compulsive liar. If you are polite enough to not protest about the first few lies it tells you, then it seems to think you are an id*ot and will swallow even more outrageous lies. No, wrong again.

So don't bother buying this ring. Grieve with me for the profound and profligate loss of Fitbit. And Jennifer Aniston - you can stick with the haircuts and the acting. We don't need your advice on products, especially if you can't be truthful.