Samsung may have launched three new smartwatches this year, but the wearable I saw the most 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 short time with the Galaxy Ring, but I like what I’ve seen so far.
The Galaxy Ring’s hardware is quite nice, although its overall design doesn’t stray too far from other smart rings. (I know this because I got to wear four other smart rings hands-on.) It comes in three colors: gold, silver, and black. They all have a titanium frame and look attractive, but like a magpie I found myself drawn to the gold as it had the most shiny finish. I can’t talk about durability yet, but it has 10ATM water resistance and an IP68 rating.
With a width of 7 mm and a thickness of 2.6 mm he felt slimmer when worn next to my Oura ring, although that may be because the ring itself is slightly concave. 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 size 5 to 13.
But while the Galaxy Ring didn’t stand out from other smart rings on my finger, its charging case is eye-catching. Samsung isn’t the first to put a smart ring in a charging case, but the ones I’ve seen don’t have this 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 the Ultrahuman Ring Air, come with puck-shaped docks that are easy to lose. Such a case is much easier to stuff in your bag if you run out of ammo on the go. (It’s also more resistant to mischievous cats who like to blast things off your nightstand.) The case itself holds 1.5 times the charge, and the rings last six to seven days on battery. 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 because size really does matter with smart rings. Toes can swell in warmer weather and no two toes are exactly the same size. For example, I’m usually 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 5 to 11) last six days on a single charge, while the two largest last up to seven.
Samsung also mostly sticks to tried and true technology. Like the Oura Ring and the vast majority of smart rings currently available, this one is primarily intended to be an alternative, more discreet health tracker. If you were hoping for something that can provide notifications or have silent alarms like earlier smart rings – you’re out of luck. There are no vibrating motors, LED light indicators or anything like that. In terms of sensors, you get an accelerometer, an optical heart rate sensor (including green, red and infrared LEDs) and a skin temperature sensor. In general, you’ll be able to track sleep, heart rate data, and activity, though Samsung is throwing some new Galaxy AI-based metrics into the mix.
These include new energy score features and wellness tips. The first uses Galaxy AI to determine how you feel based on sleep, activity, sleep heart rate and sleep heart rate variability. This is similar to the various readiness metrics that other health trackers have started incorporating in the past few years. Meanwhile, based on your data, this one provides personalized insights into your well-being, again very similar to what Oura Ring and other competitors offer. Other health features include cycle tracking, high and low heart rate alerts, live heart rate measurement, automatic workout detection, and inactive alerts.
Like other smart rings, the Galaxy Ring puts a lot of emphasis on sleep. Users receive a sleep score that takes into account metrics such as movement during sleep, sleep latency, and heart and respiratory rates. But while smart rings are ideal for tracking sleep, Galaxy Ring will No get the new FDA-approved sleep apnea detection feature, nor is it capable of alerting you to an irregular heart rhythm. These are limited to the Galaxy Watch.
Since this was a hands-on test, I couldn’t really test the Galaxy Ring’s software, tracking accuracy, or battery life. That said, Samsung has some interesting ideas for how smart rings should work within its own gadget ecosystem.
Sorry iOS users, but Samsung spokesperson Cole Hagedorn said The Verge that this ring is Android only (assuming your Android phone can run Samsung Health), 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 a Galaxy Ring, the Samsung Health app will be able to choose which device it downloads data from. If you are running and the signal from your watch is cleaner than the ring – it will go with the watch data. This in turn could lead to increased battery life.
But the best example of this is that if you have a Samsung Galaxy phone, you can use the double pinch gesture to control your phone’s camera or cancel the alarm. without hands. It’s basically the same as the double-tap (aka pinchy pinch) gesture for the Apple Watch. Is this unusual? Yes, and when I tried it, it was still very cool. It takes a bit of trial and error to get the gesture right, but I haven’t seen that on any other smart ring yet. Unfortunately, it’ll be limited to the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6 at launch. Samsung told me it’s also 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 (looking at you, Ouro). However, 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 sparked an ambitious idea for where smart rings should go next.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring is available for pre-order starting today, with general availability starting on July 24.
Photo by Victoria Song/The Verge