Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon: Enhanced features, no more flat spot

The Gen3 Horizon is perfectly round

Matthew Miller/ZDNET

Oura released the Oura Ring Gen 3 last year (see our full review), and over the past year it has delivered on its promises with enhanced features like blood oxygen sensing and workout heart rate. The new Gen 3 Horizon is a completely round ring that loses the flat spot seen in last year's models.

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The flat spot was fine with me since it replaced my wedding ring which has a very similar flat top design. However, many people prefer a more traditional round ring design and with the Gen 3 Horizon delivers on that desire. Oura also adds Rose Gold to the Gen 3 Horizon lineup. The Horizon model is available in Silver, Black, Stealth, Gold, and Rose Gold starting at $349. The Heritage lineup starts at $299.

Note the flat spot on the Heritage ring (left) compared to the round Horizon (right)

Matthew Miller/ZDNET

The Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon provides the same one week battery life, detailed sleep stage analysis, daytime and live heart rate, period prediction, workout heart rate, and blood oxygen sensing. Readiness, sleep, and activity scores are key to understanding your health and wellness. The ease of wearing the Oura Ring and letting it gather all of this data with no required input is refreshing and one reason I continue to wear it daily.

Oura sent along a larger size of the Gen 3 Horizon, in silver color, so that I could wear it on the preferred finger and evaluate its performance. I have been wearing this Horizon model on my left index finger and am seeing more consistent heart rate since the contact is better than wearing an Oura on my ring finger.

There is a small opening in the metal of the Horizon model

Matthew Miller/ZDNET

The round design is nice and I no longer fidget with the flat part where I would rotate it to the top as it moved around my finger. There is one open spot in the ring and I do shift that to the bottom so it still is a bit of a fidget spinner.

One new feature is the ability to choose either active calorie burn or steps for your daily activity goal. When I work from home, I spend time on my Hydrow so I chose calories as my goal since it is more applicable to my situation. You can also choose to hide calories if this is a metric you do not want to see.

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Tom Hale, ŌURA CEO, stated:

One of the most powerful attributes of the Oura Ring is its form factor. Our research shows that consumers want a tracker that empowers them to live healthier, seamlessly fits into their lives, and looks and feels good on the body. The new Oura Horizon furthers our promise to deliver the most innovative and advanced health tracker while maintaining exceptional comfort and design.

A new feature that is coming soon to the Gen 3 Heritage and Horizon models is a new improved sleep staging algorithm. The algorithm will provide even more accuracy than we already see with the Oura Ring so stay tuned for that update.

One aspect of the Oura Ring experience that I am currently exploring since I haven't spent much time with it in the past is the Explore functionality of the smartphone app. There is meditation, breathe, sleep, and learn modules in there to help you optimize your Oura Ring experience and also help you relax and focus during stressful times of your day. I encourage readers to check into this Explore feature and share their experiences with it.