I've been wearing the new Aura ring 4, and I'm going to tell you what's new, what I like about it so far, and what I don't like with the Aura ring 4. Aura's health tracker gets a new look, and I'm not just talking about the ring itself; the app is getting a makeover too, but more on that later. If you're not familiar, the Aura ring is a smart ring that can measure activity, sleep, and a bunch of bodily metrics such as your heart rate, your skin temperature, blood oxygen levels, respiratory rate, and more. It's compatible with the iPhone and Android, and you can manage the ring and view your health statistics through the accompanying app. The Aura ring 4 starts at $349, and compared to the previous generation ring, it comes with a sleeker design, slightly longer battery life, and better accuracy. All told, the Aura ring 4 essentially does the same thing as the Aura ring Gen 3. Here's a closer look at what's new if you've used an Aura ring before.

You'll notice that the new version has a smoother interior without those raised do B. Aura has managed to flatten out the areas where the sensors are, which gives the ring a more sleek fit. I really noticed this the most when I'm sliding the ring on and off my finger. The ring is also made entirely of titanium this time around, unlike the Aura ring Gen 3, which only had titanium on the outside. It comes in similar colors as the Aura ring Gen 3 Horizon, but the black version I've been wearing has a new glossy finish. But the biggest thing that's new about the Aura ring 4 is that it should be more accurate. The ring now has a new algorithm that can tailor readings based on an individual's finger. In fact, Aura says it has twice as many signal pathways, which means it should be able to pick up more data than the Gen 3 Aura. Also, Aura claims the battery life should last slightly longer at up to 8 days instead of 7 on the previous version. One of my favorite things about the Aura ring

isn't so much the ring itself but the app that goes with it. The app is now organized into three tabs: the today tab, as the name implies, shows your most relevant information for right now; the vitals tab lets you dive into your health scores and your health metrics; while the My Health tab shows your long-term health trends. One reason why I like the aura ring so much is because that today tab is really useful. I feel like aura's health metrics are a bit more personalized and more proactive compared to some of the dashboards that you've seen in Fitbit, Apple Health, and Samsung Health. For example, while you can edit those dashboards and kind of customize them to your liking, I do really like that that day tab shows what it thinks I want to see when I want to see it. The way it positions its health readings and statistics is kind of more an observation than just throwing data at you. For example, when I open the today tab during the workday, I see my activity goal and I see how stressed I am, and the way those

observations are framed. It feels like Aura is encouraging me to be more active or maybe telling me to prioritize relaxing and not stressing, and I find that really useful and more actionable than just scrolling through a feed of stats. Another thing I really like about the ring is an experimental feature called symptom radar. Now, this is a feature that you have to opt into. It's not available right out of the gate, but you can try it if you want. And what this basically does is it monitors your body for signs of changes in your metrics that can maybe suggest that you might be sick or just feeling a little rundown. And I actually happened to catch a little bug as I've been testing the aura ring, and sure enough, when I wore the aura ring to sleep, the next morning it showed that my body temperature was a little bit elevated, and it told me to rest. So again, this is not a diagnostic tool. This is not something that you should read into and have it tell you that you're sick, but what I like about

this is that if I am feeling off, something like symptom radar and even just the Readiness score kind of gives you that extra level of reassurance that hey, maybe I should take it easy today, maybe it's not my imagination, maybe I really am coming down with something and I should prioritize resting. Again, other wearables are doing a lot of things like this. Apple, for example, just launched the vitals app as part of watch OS 11. It'll measure certain metrics overnight and tell you if they're out of whack. My Apple watch also picked up on the same thing when I was sick, by the way, but Aura kind of did this first, so it's nice to see that influence kind of spreading to other wearables. But my biggest complaint about the Aura ring is that $6 monthly subscription. At $3.49, I feel like you should get more out of the box with the Aura ring without having to pay extra. If you don't pay for that subscription, you get your basic scores for activity, sleep, and Readiness, but you don't really get

anything else, and since other wearables makers like Samsung and Apple provide even more out of the box without a subscription, I do wish you got a little bit extra with the AA ring. Even though the aura ring can last longer than most smart watches on a single charge, I've only been getting about 6 days of battery life out of it so far, which is shorter than aura's 8-day claim. I was also kind of hoping that there would be some more new health features with the ring at launch. It's great that aura tends to update the ring over time with new features, but I was really hoping to see something that was tied to the new hardware right away. Even though the aura ring's Auto workout detection works really well for walking, it doesn't always automatically pick up my morning cycling workout, which is kind of a bummer because that's the workout I tend to do the most. But overall, the aura ring is still one of my favorite Health trackers, and the AA ring 4's new design makes it even more inconspicuous and

comfortable to wear, but since the functionality is largely the same as the aura ring gen 3, I'd mostly recommend this for first-time Aura buyers that are curious about trying a smart ring. Don't forget to check out my full written review on CNET for more details about the aura ring, including what it's like to work out with it and more details on sleep tracking. So, what do you think of the aura ring for? Let me know in the comments, and again, keep following CET for more wearables coverage. Thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.

Oura Ring 4 First Impressions After Using It For a Week

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