A recent iFixit teardown of the Oura Ring 5 found that getting inside the ring required harsh methods that ultimately popped the built-in Li-ion battery, turning the device into a near-total loss once disassembled.
A smart ring is supposed to disappear on your finger. The moment it stops working, though, the reality of what’s inside can be brutal.
iFixit recently took apart a modern Oura smart ring to judge its e-waste footprint after the built-in battery died. The target was the Oura Ring 5. a $400 smart ring built to track vitals in a small metal-and-epoxy package—one that’s designed to survive everyday exposure like a rain shower and washing your hands.
That resilience came with a cost during repair. To reach the internals, the teardown found that “forceful methods” were needed. Unlike previous Oura and Samsung smart rings where some applied heat was enough, the Ring 5 required even more heat to make the inner ring slide out.
Then things went wrong in a way anyone who owns an expensive wearable would dread: by the time enough heat was used to free the inner ring. the Li-ion battery inside had already popped from the heat. The inner ring then got stuck. At that point, the teardown required even more violence just to keep going and reach the super-tiny battery.
The battery itself is a 10.5 mAh Lipo cell. But once the battery popped and the ring was disassembled under these conditions, the smart ring effectively couldn’t be put back together—certainly not in a way that would remain waterproof, which is central to how these devices are meant to be used.
That repair reality lands on the doorstep of a much bigger policy shift. With the EU’s February 2027 deadline for user-replaceable batteries looming. the question now is whether devices like the Oura Ring 5 can fit into an exception—or whether manufacturers will have to redesign the hardware and rethink the business model for a “rather large market.” So far. the regulation has already forced Nintendo to make a special Switch 2 console for the EU.
And for smart rings, the teardown underlines the uncomfortable hinge: making wearables tiny and water-friendly is one thing. Making them serviceable when the battery dies is something else entirely—and it’s exactly what the next rules will test.
Oura Ring 5 iFixit smart ring repairability e-waste built-in battery Li-ion battery EU user-replaceable batteries repair nightmare