Fitbit Air vs Oura Ring 4: Band or ring?

If you’re looking for an unobtrusive fitness tracker then the recently announced screenless Fitbit Air and the Oura Ring 4 are two great options.

While you’ll need to be happy to ditch the smartwatch features, both promise to quietly track your health, fitness and workout metrics without interfering with your daily life.

While we are yet to review the Fitbit Air, we have reviewed the Oura Ring 4 and not only gave the wearable a 4.5 star rating but also recommended it as one of the best smart rings out there. With this in mind, how do the Fitbit Air’s features compare?

We’ve highlighted the key differences, as well as notable similarities, between the Fitbit Air and Oura Ring 4 below. Read on to see how the two differ and decide which one might suit you best.

If not, our list of the best fitness trackers includes our current favorites on the market. If, however, you think you would prefer a device that acts as an extension of your smartphone, you should visit our list of smart watches instead.

Comparison table for details

Price and Availability

At the time of writing, the Fitbit Air is available to pre-order and will launch in the UK and US from May 26. With a starting RRP of £84.99/$99.99, the Fitbit Air is one of the cheapest fitness trackers around.

In comparison, the Oura Ring 4 has a more expensive starting price of £349/$349 – although this can change significantly depending on the finish you choose. For example, the Silver or Black iteration is £349/$349 while the Gold or Rose Gold iteration will set you back £499/$499 instead.

Alternatively you can opt for the Oura Ring 4 Ceramic which comes in a choice of four colors but starts at £499/$499.

Fitbit Air has interchangeable bands

Let’s get the most obvious differences out of the way: the Oura Ring 4 is a smart ring while the Fitbit Air is a screenless wristband. Naturally, this means that the color or shape of the Oura Ring 4 cannot be changed after purchase, while the Fitbit Air band is completely interchangeable.

Google explains that the Fitbit Air goes from “a bracelet to a fitness band to a sleep tracker” since you can buy the different bands separately.

However, that doesn’t mean the Oura Ring 4 stands out as an unsightly wearable. In fact, with a width of 7.9mm and a thickness of 2.88mm, the Oura Ring 4 is designed to look like a regular ring and not stand out as a fitness tracker.

The Oura Ring 4 promises up to eight days of battery life with super-fast charging

Compared to Apple’s best watches, the Fitbit Air and Oura Ring 4 boast superior battery lives. In fact, while Google promises the Fitbit Air will see up to seven days of power, the Oura Ring 4 is promised up to eight.

However, it’s worth noting that in our review we actually found that the Ring 4 struggled to see a full eight days and managed about five days instead. That was for daily use, activity tracking and the occasional workout, so you’ll need to be a light user to see a full eight days.

Otherwise, the Fitbit Air is said to take about 90 minutes from 0 to 100% battery, and a five-minute charge should result in an extra day’s worth. In comparison, the Oura Ring 4 is said to take up to 80 minutes to charge, though it doesn’t benefit from any of the fast charging tricks like the Fitbit Air.

Oura Ring 4 has the integration of Natural Cycles

Women are said to make up 60% of Oura Ring 4 users, as the wearable provides in-depth cycle information including pregnancy metrics and even fertility data. Also, the Ring 4 sports integration with Natural Cycles, a natural birth control or family planning tool that determines your most fertile periods of the month based on your skin temperature.

This is especially attractive to those who do not want to rely on hormonal birth control methods that often come with a long list of side effects. Garmin also recently launched an integration with Natural Cycles.

Although the Fitbit Air includes menstrual cycle information, with predicted periods and fertile windows displayed in the new Google Health app, this is based on your own recorded data and trends. Although the Fitbit Air can track skin temperature, if you forget to record the time then this can affect the accuracy of your data.

Both work with a subscription, although the Fitbit Air is optional

The Fitbit Air is compatible with the new Google Health smartphone app, which replaced the old Fitbit. Google Health will act as a hub for your Fitbit data, bringing together your health and fitness tracking metrics and insights on your iPhone or Android.

While Google Health offers comprehensive coverage, there is a paid subscription option that unlocks many additional features. The bundled Google Health Premium, $9.99-a-month subscription will provide access to Google Health Coach, an AI-powered Gemini tool that provides personalized workout plans and guidance based on you and your personal goals. In addition, Google Health Premium includes deep sleep tracking that is said to be 15% more accurate on Fitbit Air compared to previous models.

However, we should note that the Fitbit Air does not the need this registers to work, while Ring 4 requires Oura’s registration.

Slightly cheaper at £5.99/$5.99 per month, Oura Membership is mandatory and required to unlock all the everyday features you can expect to see on your Ring 4.

Both promise automatic workout detection but Oura’s isn’t always reliable

Since the Fitbit Air or Ring 4 don’t have a display, checking metrics and tracking is done through their smartphone apps. While you can start tracking workouts through an app, both the Fitbit Air and Ring 4 promise automatic workout detection. This means you can just start a workout and both the wearable will track and log the workout, without you needing to dive into the app.

In theory, this is a welcome time saver and means you won’t miss important data like your HRV. However, we actually found the Ring 4’s automatic workout tracking hit and miss. While running was well-tracked, other activities were sometimes missed entirely.

With this in mind, we can always recommend incorporating exercise into practice.

Preliminary Decision

Since the concept is the same, both offering screenless and therefore distraction-free health tracking, perhaps one of the biggest deciding factors between Fitbit Air and Oura Ring 4 is whether you choose to wear a band or a ring.

Having said that, it’s worth remembering that the Fitbit Air benefits from an AI-powered Health Coach (albeit with an optional subscription) which can be useful for beginners who would like help to start their fitness journey. Also, the Oura Ring 4 is not only expensive, but requires a subscription to track basic metrics, making it a long-term investment.

On the other hand, Oura Ring 4 is equipped with a lot of women’s health information that can be useful for those who want to move away from hormonal birth control, start family planning or follow up with pregnancy.

We’ll be sure to review this in comparison once we review the Fitbit Air.