Samsung may release three new smartwatches this year, but the wearable I was most excited to see from the company was the Galaxy Ring. After months of teasing, Samsung officially announced the $399.99 smart ring at today’s Unpacked event — and I finally got to play with one. Granted, I’ve only had a little hands-on time with the Galaxy Ring, but I like what I’ve seen so far.
For starters, the Galaxy Ring’s hardware is pretty nice, although its overall design doesn’t stray too far from other smart rings. (I know because I showed up to the hands-on with four other smart rings.) It comes in three colors: gold, silver, and black. All have a titanium frame and look attractive, but being a magpie I found myself partial to the gold as it had the most shiny finish. I can’t speak to durability yet, but it has 10ATM water resistance and an IP68 rating.
At 7mm wide and 2.6mm thick, it I felt thinner when worn right next to my Oura ring, although that may be because the ring itself is slightly indented. It’s also light, though not noticeably so compared to other smart rings. Weighs between 2.3 and 3g, depending on size. Speaking of sizes, there are nine in total, ranging from a size five to a size 13.
But while the Galaxy Ring didn’t stand out from other smart rings on my finger, its charging case is an eye-catcher. Samsung isn’t the first to put a smart ring in a charging case, but the ones I’ve seen don’t have that futuristic transparent design and LED situation. Not only does it look chic, but it’s also very practical. Some other smart rings, like the Oura Ring and Ultrahuman Ring Air, come with easy-to-lose puck-shaped docks. A case like this is much easier to slip into your bag if you run out of charge on the go. (It’s also more immune to naughty cats who like to throw things off your nightstand.) The case itself holds 1.5 times more charge, and the rings will get six to seven days of battery life. A full charge takes about 80 minutes.
I also got to try the Samsung sizing kit which I highly recommend even if you know your standard ring size. You can order the kit online and it’s worth the extra trouble as size really does matter with smart rings. Toes can swell in hotter weather and no two toes are exactly the same size. In this case, I’m mostly a size 7.5 in non-smart rings, a size 8 in every other smart ring, and a size 9 for the Galaxy Ring. Not to mention the size will affect battery life. The smaller rings (sizes five to 11) get six days on a single charge, while the two largest get up to seven.
Samsung mostly sticks to the tried and true for technology as well. Like the Oura Ring and the majority of smart rings currently available, this is primarily intended to be an alternative, more discreet health tracker. If you were hoping for something that could give notifications or have silent alarms like earlier smart rings – you do not have luck. There are no vibrating motors, LED indicator lights or anything like that. As for sensors, you get an accelerometer, an optical heart rate sensor (including green, red and infrared LEDs) and a skin temperature sensor. You’ll generally be able to track sleep, heart rate data, and activity, though Samsung is introducing some new metrics powered by Galaxy AI.
These include the new energy rating features and wellness tips. The former uses Galaxy AI to determine how you’re feeling based on sleep, activity, sleep heart rate and sleep heart rate variability. It’s similar to the various readiness metrics that other health trackers have started to include in the past few years. Meanwhile, based on your data, the latter provides personalized information about your well-being, again very reminiscent of what is offered by Oura Ring and other competitors. Other health features include cycle tracking, high and low heart rate alerts, live heart rate readings, automatic workout detection, and inactive alerts.
Like other smart rings, the Galaxy Ring puts a big emphasis on sleep. Users will receive a sleep score that takes into account metrics such as movement during sleep, sleep latency, and heart and respiratory rate. But while smart rings are ideal for tracking sleep, Galaxy Ring will no you’ll get the new FDA-cleared sleep apnea detection feature, nor is it able to notify of an irregular heartbeat. These are limited to Galaxy Watches.
Given that this was hands-on, I wasn’t able to test the Galaxy Ring’s software, tracking accuracy, or battery life. However, Samsung has some interesting ideas for how smart rings should work within its own ecosystem of gadgets.
Sorry iOS users, but Samsung spokesperson Cole Hagedorn said On the edge that this ring is Android only (provided your Android phone can run the Samsung Health app), but you’ll get a better experience if you’re in the Samsung ecosystem. For example, new Health AI features like Energy Score won’t be available if you have a non-Galaxy phone. Same with Find My Ring. It uses Samsung Find, which again requires a Galaxy phone. Meanwhile, if you’re using a Samsung Galaxy Watch with the Galaxy Ring, the Samsung Health app will be able to choose which device to download data from. If you’re running and the signal from your watch is clearer than from the ring — it will go with the watch data. This in turn can lead to longer battery life.
But the coolest example of this is that if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, you can use a double-pinch gesture to control your phone’s camera or dismiss an alarm free hands. It’s basically the same as the double-tap (aka pinch) gesture for the Apple Watch. Is it a trick? Yes, and it was still very cool when I tried it. Getting the gesture right takes a bit of trial and error, but I’ve yet to see this on another smart ring. Unfortunately, it will be limited to the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 at launch. Samsung told me it’s coming to the S24 “very soon.”
Based on my extremely limited time with the ring, it already has a few things going for it. The hardware is slick, and despite the $400 price tag, there’s no additional subscription (I’m looking at you, Oura). But the Galaxy Ring’s success depends on two things: accurate tracking and good battery life. If it can do that while incorporating these ecosystem-specific ideas, Samsung could very well take the lead in the smart ring category. And if not, it raised an ambitious idea for where smart rings should go.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring is available for pre-order from today, with general availability starting on July 24.
Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge
