GoKawiilUltrahuman is back in the United States. The noted Oura Ring competitor has been absent from the American market since October because of a patent dispute but is now cleared by US Customs and Border Protection.
As WIRED reported in August, the US International Trade Commission had previously ruled in favor of Oura in a patent infringement case against competitors Ringconn and Ultrahuman. This decision was a big setback for Bengaluru, India-based Ultrahuman, which had established a manufacturing facility in Plano, Texas, to bypass tariffs. Ringconn reached a royalties agreement with Oura, while Ultrahuman pulled its Ring Air from the US market and countersued.
Now, the smart ring company is betting its comeback on its new Ring Pro.
Ultrahuman 2.0
Courtesy of Ultrahuman
New hardware includes a redesigned heart rate sensor and a dual-core processor for machine learning, and it can store your health data on the device for up to 250 days (the Oura will only store your data for a week). Perhaps its strongest appeal is that, unlike Oura, Ultrahuman doesn’t charge a subscription fee to access core health metrics. Rather, Ultrahuman offers the basics for free, even including some upgraded tools called PowerPlugs, which include features like ovulation tracking, along with advice on things like when to consume caffeine and how to optimize your vitamin D absorption from the sun.
Some other PowerPlugs do come with an added fee, including AFib detection, respiratory health monitoring, migraine insights, GLP-1 tracking, and integrated mental health support with BetterHelp.