Ultrahuman Ring Pro Review

Design

• Titanium build in several finishes
• Thicker than a lot of smart rings
• Comes with a durable charging case

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro doesn’t look all that dissimilar from the company’s popular Ring Air, but it is a big ol’ boy on the finger. 

There’s no getting around it; compared to the Ring Air, the Ring Pro is a thick smart ring that’s pretty easily spotted on the finger – and the Ring Air isn’t exactly a slimline ring compared to some competitors. For context, the Ring Pro measures in at 8.2mm wide and 2.7mm thick, compared to the 6.1mm and 2.3mm of the Oura Ring 5 that usually dons my finger.

That may not sound all that different, but on the finger, it makes all the difference. The Oura Ring 5 essentially disappeared on my finger after a day or two of wear, and I completely forget that it’s actually a smart ring until I see the LED lights emitting underneath. I can’t quite say the same with the Ring Pro; I’m always conscious that it’s there on my finger, constantly making contact with my fingers to its left and right and just getting in the way a little more. 

Of course, there’s a reason for this thicker ring – mainly excellent battery life – but we’ll get to that a little later on. 

Besides, it’s not just the thicker nature that makes the Ring Pro stand out on the finger; it’s also just, well, not that durable considering its titanium construction. 

I’ve had the Oura Ring 5 on since May, and I’ve been wearing the Ring Pro for a little over a month, and the latter already has more scratches than the former. Yes, it can add character, but it can also look a little bit cheap, especially considering its price tag anyway.

That has been the case with my space silver finish, anyway; it’s possible that other finishes, like aster black or raw titanium, may better hide these minor imperfections.   

That said, the Ring Pro does take a win in emergency removals at least; there are two breaks in the body, sitting either side of the sensor that sits underneath the ring, that allow emergency services to quickly remove the ring from the finger in an emergency situation. It does break up the otherwise clean lines you see, but I think the safety focus here warrants it. 

The Ring Pro also ships with a proper travel charge case as standard, rather than the basic charging puck you get with Oura – you’ll have to pay £99/$99 for the pleasure of an Oura-branded alternative. It’s a nice, solid case too, also made from titanium, and features niceties like an LED strip to display current charge levels of the ring and a vibration motor for a tactile feel when opening and closing the lid. 

Features and app

• Ultrahuman app is data-heavy, in a good way
• Lots of unique insights not offered by the competition
• PowerPlugs can expand what the ring can track

There are usually two approaches when it comes to wearable companion apps; they’ll either try and take a more restrained approach, like Oura and Google do, limiting the amount of data you’ll see and focusing more on the AI interpretation of your data, or you can go the complete opposite way and stuff as much data as you can onto the screen.

Ultrahuman’s companion app definitely falls in the latter category, but it’s not a bad thing – especially following a ground-up redesign of its app earlier this year. 

While it’s still a data-dense app that might look intimidating to the uninitiated, it’s presented in a more easily understandable way. It’s also much more customisable than other companion apps, allowing you to hone in more on the aspects of health and fitness tracking you care about most. Most importantly, it means you can find most data on one tab, instead of tapping around menus and submenus like other apps – I’m looking at you here, Oura. 

The core tracking experience focuses on sleep, recovery and movement, much like other smart rings, with a score for each that updates throughout the day depending on what you’re up to. Just because your day starts with a high readiness, it doesn’t mean it’ll end that way; it’s more dynamic and feels like a better reflection of what you’re actually doing. 

Tapping on any data on the home screen will take you into a more detailed view, along with a more detailed breakdown. Tapping heart rate, for example, will display a graph of your recent HR averages, along with a comparison to other Ultrahuman users to add some context, while tapping movement will detail elements like steps, active hours, inactive time and calories burnt. 

Then there’s the Longevity tab, which essentially translates long-term trends into your ‘ Ultraage’, broken down into pulse age, brain age and blood age, the latter relying on blood test results to be uploaded to the app. I wouldn’t put much weight behind the specific ages it provides, but it does act as an easily understandable way to interpret your long-term data. 

Jade AI, meanwhile, is there to offer a more conversational way to delve into your data and answer any questions you might have. It’s a capable AI that provides a lot of information, but like Oura, this can sometimes turn into paragraphs of text and graphs. I find the more personal, less-is-more approach that Google’s Health Coach takes works better for me, but it’s down to personal taste. 

It is worth noting that, unlike other options, there’s a limit on how many questions you can ask Jade on the free tier. More on that in a second. 

Of course, one of the main benefits of Ultrahuman compared to Oura is that you get all of this data for free – there’s no monthly subscription here. Well, not a mandatory one anyway. 

PowerPlugs are essentially mini apps that can be developed both by Ultrahuman and third-party developers, that use your existing ring data to provide more niche functionality. Broken down into categories like sleep, women’s health and performance, these range from free, handy options like caffeine window, circadian alignment, vitamin D tracking and social jetlag to paid-for options like Afib detection, migraine insights and cycle & ovulation pro. 

Migraine insights and respiratory health are two that I find myself using most often from the paid selection; the former acts as a diary and analyses your data to find potential migraine signals, while the latter records my sleep and gives me a breakdown of any snoring or coughing it detected overnight. 

I think it’s a smart way to approach monthly subscriptions, only paying for the specific features you want. And, if you just want everything, you can get the Ultrahuman Max subscription – a £9.99 per month subscription that provides access to all current and future PowerPlugs along with unlimited credits for Jade AI. 

It’s worth noting that all of this is also available with the cheaper, slimmer Ring Air. Despite lacking features like blood pressure trends offered by Oura and sleep apnea detection from the RingConn Gen 3, the Ring Pro doesn’t add anything new to Ultrahuman’s arsenal – just improves the accuracy of existing hardware and boosts battery life. 

Health and exercise tracking

• Upgraded HR sensor
• Solid health tracking across the board
• Not the most insightful exercise tracking

When it comes to tracking exercise, movement and sleep, Ultrahuman has improved on the formula it first delivered with the Ring Air. 

That starts with a new redesigned heart rate monitor with better signal quality, particularly when monitoring sleep, along with dual-core processing power and the ability to store up to 250 days of data before it’ll need to sync with the app. The Ring Air? That’d hit its limit at just four days. 

I did initially have a few concerns about the quality of the data my Ring Pro was providing me, particularly in the HRV department. I know you can’t really compare HRV measurements between wearables as different manufacturers use different processes, but the Ring Pro’s HRV measurements were way off what I was used to seeing from other wearables. Like, 2-3x higher. 

Thankfully, an update that got pushed a week or so ago seemingly fixed this issue, bringing it back in line with what I’m used to seeing and, thus, bolstering my confidence in the overall accuracy of the ring’s data and insights. 

Other elements, like heart rate range, all fall within a similar window to those presented by the Oura Ring 5 and Google Pixel Watch 5 I wear regularly.

It is slightly generous on the sleep tracking front, often missing those small moments during the night where I wake up (I’m not the best sleeper!) that the Oura Ring picks up on. It does mean Ultrahuman thinks I’ve slept for slightly longer (usually around 30 minutes, give or take) than what Oura claims. Generally, though, it tracks sleep periods, elements like HR drop timing and more, along with more unique elements like brain waste clearance and morning alertness. 

It’s at its best when paired with paid-for Powerplugs like the respiratory health mentioned earlier, but even without the premium extras, there’s more than enough information, data and analysis here to keep most users happy. 

Like most other smart rings, the dedicated exercise tracking experience isn’t that capable. Lacking elements like built-in GPS, you’ll need your phone with you for the Ring to track most outdoor activities, and even then, the dedicated exercise modes – while wide-ranging – are fairly basic in terms of data recorded. You’ll get the basics like distance, average pace, heart rate, time and calories burnt, but you won’t find in-depth, sport-specific features – like cadence when you’re running – here. 

For that kind of exercise tracking, you’re best off getting a proper smartwatch. 

The Ring Pro is, at least, great at automatically detecting motion and tagging it with an exercise. It’s not always 100% sure of what you’re up to, and it’ll ask you to select the activity from a dropdown so it can get more accurate in future. There are, of course, times where it got confused – at one point, I was mowing my lawn and the Ring Pro thought I was on a bike ride – but for the most part, most of my walks have been automatically detected and imported. 

Battery life

• Over two weeks of battery life on a single charge
• Can extend further by reducing functionality
• Charge case holds three full charges

The upside of the chunky design is excellent battery life. It’s essentially the reason to opt for the Ring Pro over not only Ultrahuman’s Ring Air but also the Oura Ring 5, lasting up to 15 days in its more battery-friendly mode or up to 11 days with its full-power, always-on turbo mode enabled. Only the RingConn Gen 3’s 14 days comes close, but only with certain features disabled. 

To my surprise, Ultrahuman’s claims are a little too conservative; I found I’d get around 14-15 days per charge in its more demanding turbo mode, compared to the two-and-a-bit days I’d get from the slimmer Ultrahuman Ring Air in the same mode. It essentially means that there’s no longer a compromise between constant data collection and longevity; with the Ring Pro, you can have it both ways.

I’d always been happy with the Oura Ring 5’s boosted week-long battery life, but donning both on my fingers over the past month or so, charging the Oura Ring – even once a week – has started to get on my nerves. I’ve had a taste of a truly long-lasting smart ring, and I’ll struggle to go back to anything else.

That said, when it does eventually need a top-up, it’ll take around three hours to get a completely full charge. Oura’s latest ring offers the same in around an hour and a half, minimising the amount of time it’s off-finger. 

You do, at least, get a portable charging case with the Ring Pro – you have to pay extra for Oura’s option – and it has niceties like an all-metal design, an LED strip light that displays the current charge level of the ring when charging and a subtle vibration motor that triggers when you open and close the case. 

It’s definitely beholden to its Pro branding, and with three full charges (around 45 days) onboard in addition to the Ring’s 15 days, you’ll only need to charge the case every couple of months. 

Should you buy it?