Samsung Galaxy Ring: A New Era in Wearable Technology

Samsung Galaxy Ring hands-on: Why I'd ditch my Oura for this competing wearable

I've tested five smart rings in seven months, and Samsung's approach feels like the one to beat in 2024. I have tested five smart rings over the past seven months and realized that the form factor lacks various features that could make my day-to-day life easier. I wrote recently about how adding these features to the Galaxy Ring could make it an instant buy for me, and it seems like Samsung listened. Also: What you missed at Samsung Unpacked July 2024: Galaxy Z Fold 6, Watch Ultra, Ring, AI, more I haven't tested Samsung's smart ring sensors yet, but the Galaxy Ring adds two features I've missed on the other rings while also offering a lighter form factor. Here's the rundown of the best new things. There have been several instances when I misplaced my smart ring, and it took me at least 10 minutes each time to find it -- either in my bathroom, on my lunch table, or in the trash (because I cleared one along with my pizza boxes). I've wanted a form of Find My on all the smart rings I've worn, and Samsung has added just such a service. The Galaxy Ring features Find My Ring on Samsung Find, which means you can connect your Samsung smart ring to your Galaxy smartphone and find it on your phone if you misplace it. Also: Samsung unveils Galaxy Ring: Key features, price, and everything you need to know While Track My Ring is not supported, you will be able to track the Galaxy Ring based on the last connected location with your Galaxy phone. This means if your phone's Bluetooth is off, and you misplace your Ring, you won't be able to track it live. The Galaxy Ring is capable of flashing green and red lights, but there is no vibration motor or audible sound. Moreover, Samsung Find is only available on Galaxy smartphones. While the Galaxy Ring works with all Android smartphones through the Samsung SmartThings app, it won't support location tracking on all phones. I would have preferred it to work with any Android smartphone, but I expect the presence of the Samsung Find feature on the Galaxy Ring will push other manufacturers to add Google Find My support to their next-gen smart rings, too. The Samsung Galaxy Ring is thinner and lighter than the competition. For context, it weighs 2.3 grams for the smallest size, which is less than the Oura Ring (4 grams), the RingConn Smart Ring (3 grams), and the Ultrahuman Ring Air (2.4 grams). Additionally, Amazfit specifies 3.75 grams for its size 10 Helio Ring, which is heavier than the 2.8 grams for the same size Galaxy Ring. I had a brief hands-on with the Galaxy Ring and I liked the fit and comfort of the device. It was better than the Amazfit Helio Ring that I'm currently wearing. Also: The best smart rings of 2024: Expert tested and reviewed Like RingConn, Samsung also provides a charging case instead of a puck. I've argued before that a case is more useful than a puck because it's not as easy to misplace. Plus, I can charge my smart ring while on the go, meaning I don't need to look for an outlet to plug the Galaxy Ring into. The Galaxy Ring Case seems well-built and has a battery indicator alongside the rails of the charging puck inside. When you place the Galaxy Ring on it, the light indicates how much battery life is left. It's a nice touch missing from the RingConn Smart Ring, whose charging solution is second only to Samsung's ring. Other smart rings -- including from Oura, Amazfit, and Ultrahuman -- have a puck that's arguably worse than a charging case. Samsung has done an excellent job designing the Galaxy Ring and its case. It exudes premium. The Samsung Galaxy Ring costs $400, $100 more than the Oura Ring, which also has a $6/month subscription fee. If you don't pay the subscription fee, your data will be reduced to viewing the Sleep Score, Readiness, and Activity features in the app. Unlike the Oura Ring, the Galaxy Ring has no such subscription fee and all of its data is viewable in the Galaxy Health app. Also: How to preorder the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, Flip 6, Watch Ultra, Ring, and find the best deals That said, the new Samsung ring seems expensive when compared to non-subscription competitors like from Ultrahuman ($349), RingConn ($279), and Amazfit ($300). The Galaxy Ring is expensive, but I'd pay the price to get a presumably better app experience. So far, smart ring apps have been an underwhelming part of my ring testing experience. I have high hopes for the Galaxy Health app pushing out timely notifications. The Samsung Galaxy Ring will sell in three color options: Titanium Black (matte), Titanium Silver (matte), and Gold (glossy). It comes in nine sizes ranging from 5 to 13, with a battery life that is supposed to last up to seven days. The device is made from Titanium Grade 5 material, so it should be robust enough to last awhile. The Galaxy Ring packs an accelerometer, a PPG sensor, and a skin temperature sensor. It can help you track your heart rate, sleep, and more. The sleep tracking includes data like time in bed, sleep latency, nighttime movement, heart rate, and respiratory rate. The Galaxy Health app also offers an AI-powered Energy Score, and recommendations based on your physical state and well-being across four factors -- Sleep, Activity, Sleeping Heart Rate, and Sleeping Heart Rate Variability (HRV). Also: Samsung Galaxy Ring vs. Oura Ring: Which wearable should you buy? The Galaxy Ring can track your menstrual cycle by taking measurements of overnight skin temperature. It also features automatic workout detection for walking and running. Samsung says that if you wear the Galaxy Ring with your Galaxy Watch, the Ring's battery will last 30% longer. The Galaxy Ring also supports a new feature called Gestures; you can take photos or dismiss your alarm on compatible Samsung smartphones with a double pinch.

My First Day With the Galaxy Ring: It's So Light, I Keep Forgetting I Have It On

After wearing the $400 Galaxy Ring for 24 hours, I've already left it behind on the bathroom sink twice. Samsung's new smart ring is so light that most of the time, I don't even notice it's on my finger. This is a good and bad thing. I like that it doesn't get in my way. But it also means I forget to put it back on when I take it off to shower or wash my hands. I've already had to use Samsung's Find app to make the Galaxy Ring LEDs flash so I could see when it dropped into my makeup bag. The Galaxy Ring has a lot of neat features that make it stand out from other smart rings, like the find feature. But are they enough to tempt people who aren't into smartwatches to track their health and sleep? Well if my initial impressions after wearing the Galaxy Ring for a day are any indication, yes and no. The Galaxy Ring runs a little smaller compared to standard ring sizes and other smart rings. I've worn the Amazfit Helio Ring on my index finger in a size 10 for a few weeks and assumed I'd also be a 10 in the Galaxy Ring. After getting fitted by a friendly Samsung employee at the Galaxy Experience Space in New York City using the sizing kit, I'm actually most comfortable with an 11 on my index finger. He suggested that it should be snug but still able to slide over your knuckle without too much pressure. Unboxing the Galaxy Ring is pretty fun. I've opened my fair share of tech boxes over the years and there's a lot of thought that's been put into this casing. Like a series of Matryoshka dolls, the Galaxy Ring's transparent case sits neatly inside a bigger black ring box. Very cute. I've got the matte black Galaxy Ring in for review, and it's not my favorite of the three colors available. I was not-so-secretly hoping to get the gold finish that I tried on during a briefing, which goes better with my other jewelry and rings. Setting up the Galaxy Ring is just like pairing any other Samsung wearable to your phone. As long as you already have the Wear app installed, you just open the Galaxy Ring box and wait for a pop-up to appear on the phone. I already had my health details pre-filled in Samsung Health from reviewing devices like the Galaxy Watch 6, but if you're new to the world of Samsung wearables, you'll want to enter in things like your birthdate, height and weight. It's going to take a few days of wearing the Ring to get any sort of real, actionable insights and tap into the promised Galaxy AI features, like wellness tips. But the energy score after my first night of sleep was 78 out of 100, not too bad considering I'd been running around New York City in sweltering heat and only managed six hours of sleep. Just like the Oura Ring, the Galaxy Ring has separate scores for sleep and energy. (Oura calls the latter the Readiness score). But even though my energy score was 78, my sleep score was a whopping 92. I've written before about the discrepancies between how you feel compared to a device's sleep score and was pretty surprised that my rating was so high given the Ring also identified I moved around a lot during the night. I like that the Galaxy Ring is opening the door to a world where I can just tap my fingers together to control other connected devices. But right now, the only things you can do with the double pinch gesture is take a photo on your phone and stop an alarm. I wish Samsung had a few more features baked in at launch, maybe like being able to skip tracks like you can with the S Pen on the S24 Ultra. Stay tuned for the full Galaxy Ring review once I've gathered more data. I'm looking forward to taking it to the weight room and to the gym to find out how it holds up to a workout.

Why You Shouldn't Expect an Apple Ring

Bridget has spent over 18 years as a consumer tech reporter, hosting daily tech news shows and writing syndicated newspaper columns. She's often a guest on national radio and television stations, including ABC, CBS, CNBC and NBC. This week Samsung came out with a shiny new toy -- the Galaxy Ring -- and Apple users might be feeling some jealousy. But even though Apple has filed patents for smart rings (including some from several years ago) don't count on Apple making a smart ring anytime soon. I like the idea of wearing a ring as a health tracker, and I wear one called the Evie. But as I used it, I realized that a smart ring would be a problematic product for Apple (at least with how the technology stands today), and I see it as going against Apple's current product goals. In this week's episode of One More Thing, which is embedded above, I explore all the reasons Apple has for not making a smart ring and instead will keep all it's focus on improving sensors in the Apple Watch. Looking at the Oura ring -- probably the most popular smart ring model today -- one aspect that made it stand out was it would take all your data and turn it into various health scores. Samsung is using that same idea in the Galaxy Ring with what it calls an "energy score." But in the upcoming WatchOS 11 update, Apple will be offering Vitals app to measure overall health on a daily basis. The Apple Watch will also measure intensity and duration of workouts with Training Load Scores. All of which is done with Apple Watch sensors, which can get more robust data than what's possible in a ring. Apple markets its products as a way to help you live a healthier life, but more than that, the Apple Watch is promoted as something that can save your life -- something a ring cannot claim to do. The Apple Watch can alert users to potential heart health problems, or dial 911 after someone is in a crash or takes a hard fall. Reports from Bloomberg say Apple wants to lead the industry by figuring out how to use the watch to track glucose and blood pressure -- things that are incredibly difficult to do accurately in a small block on your wrist. Apple can make a bigger difference in health monitoring by coming up with these sensors in a watch, before it starts trying to cram smaller, sub-par sensors in a ring for a finger. There's an argument to be made that data from a ring could supplement data from a watch, because more data means better data, but would Apple admit that the Watch alone isn't good enough? I doubt that's the message Apple wants to send. With Apple you also have to think beyond the hardware. Services are a growing part of Apple's business. And when it comes to Apple Fitness Plus, the workout video subscription program, the Apple Watch plays a big role in what makes the service special. In a Fitness Plus video, if you're wearing an Apple Watch, you will see your real time BPM and calories burned estimate overlayed on the workout video. It all syncs together effortlessly. Apple needs the power of the Watch to sell you on what makes Fitness Plus worth investing in. It's the kind of feature that gets customers hooked and staying subscribed, and keeps you wanting an Apple Watch instead of giving it up for a screenless ring. It's possible for a smart ring to be turned into a remote-control of sorts. The Galaxy Ring can be used to remotely take a photo on a phone. And the idea of controlling music or devices with a ring is a feature we've seen highlighted in Apple's patent documents. But the bigger mission for Apple now is getting Apple Intelligence and the AI-smart Siri to fulfill it's big promises. With Apple's AI, the idea is that you should be able to easily control all sorts of things on your devices with very simple, natural commands to Siri. If Apple has to sell us that using a Ring to control our music is better than using Siri, then I would see that as Apple failing on it's promise that AI can make life easier. Materials are another challenge for Apple. The company is on a mission to be 100 percent carbon neutral in six years. If Apple adds a ring, it needs to add another product into that equation of making something sustainable and easy to recycle. Not to mention, a ring is something people can feel finicky about. Ring sizes need to be measured, and what feels okay on your hand one day might feel too tight or loose the next day. Would everyone want to wear a ring when they are lifting weights at the gym or grabbing rowing machine handles? It's easy to see how customers may be quick to return or exchange a ring based on how it fits. It makes more sense for Apple to save the resources and keep focused on making a watch that can outshine any ring sensor. The idea of a smart ring sounds nice because it means you don't need to be bothered with wearing a smartwatch and getting pings on a screen all day. It also doesn't need to be recharged as often. For now, a ring is just a symbol of not wanting a smart watch. It's a luxury item for tracking your health without having to be so connected. Until the day comes that a sensor in a ring can be as good as a sensor in a watch, then maybe Apple will consider jumping into the screen-free fitness tech.

What you missed at Samsung Unpacked July 2024: Galaxy Z Fold 6, Watch Ultra, Ring, AI, more

This week Samsung unveiled several new products, including two foldable phones, smartwatches, earbuds, and the company's very first smart ring. Samsung this week held its summer Galaxy Unpacked event, unveiling a host of exciting new wearables and two new smartphones available as soon as later this month. As expected, artificial intelligence (AI) took center stage, as Samsung's Galaxy AI ushered in new features across the devices. Samsung's two new flagship foldable smartphones are the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Z Flip 6, updated versions of last year's models that feature larger screens, better batteries, more capable cameras, and a big bump up in durability, all while weighing less. Also: Here's why Samsung's new Galaxy Z Fold 6 is a major design success In the wearable department, Samsung announced two new smartwatches, the Galaxy Watch 7, an upgrade to last year's Watch 6, and the first of its kind, the Galaxy Watch Ultra, a high-end timepiece designed to compete against other premium wearables, but with a host of durability and sensor enhancements to withstand any weather and climate. Lastly, Samsung announced the Galaxy Ring, an accessory packed with health sensors and trackers (and with no subscription fee!), and the new Galaxy Buds 3 series, a premium set of earbuds for the Samsung ecosystem. If this all feels like information overload, we've got you covered with the highlights below. Back in April, ZDNET's Kerry Wan covered details about the upcoming Galaxy Z Fold 6, expressing careful optimism about Samsung's latest flagship foldable smartphone -- while admitting that it has some ways to go to catch up with competitors. Also: I went hands-on with Samsung's $1,900 Galaxy Z Fold 6, and it still feels like a dream Well, the new Fold 6 is thinner, lighter, and more durable than last year's model, while featuring an updated processor, a slightly better camera, and a host of new AI-related software features -- not to mention some slick new colors. Here are the highlights: The Galaxy Z Flip 6 is the smaller sibling to the flagship Fold 6 smartphone, featuring a clamshell form factor and simplified hardware specs (and a more approachable price of $1,099, about half the cost of the Fold 6). Also: I went hands-on with Samsung's Galaxy Z Flip 6, and it's basically a high-tech fidget spinner This year's version of the Z Flip 6 will go up to 12GB of RAM (from last year's 8GB), and feature an upgraded 50MP main camera, and improved durability with the same IP48 rating as the Z Fold 6. Here are some other highlights: Samsung is stepping up its wearable game with the new Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra, its first premium-tier smartwatch. The new watches come with several new health-tracking features including exercise and movement levels, sleep quality tracking, and AI functionality that tracks stress levels and diet. Along with the usual host of functional biometrics surrounding sleep, diet, fitness, and energy levels, the watches feature FDA-authorized sleep apnea detection -- the first of its kind -- as well as real-time heart rate monitoring, and Samsung Galaxy Ring synergies. The Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra are both available for preorder starting today, with general availability on July 24. Samsung is officially in the smart ring business now with the introduction of its Galaxy Ring, a wearable fitness and biometric tracker designed for 24/7 health monitoring. Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about the ring right off the bat, however, is that it doesn't require a subscription, something that almost every other big-name smart ring on the market now has. Also: Samsung Galaxy Ring hands-on: Should Android users consider anything else? ZDNET's Prakhar Khanna wrote about the Galaxy Ring earlier this month before its debut, saying that there were three main things he wanted to see in the device to make it worth buying: an app that allows you to locate the ring if it gets lost, a charging case over a charging puck, and no subscription fee. Samsung must have been listening, because all three wishes have been granted. Here's the breakdown of the biggest features: Last but certainly not least, Samsung unveiled its next-generation earbuds, the Galaxy Buds 3 and Galaxy Buds 3 Pro. The new earbuds have several AI-powered features that go beyond music playback, such as a translation mode, voice commands, two-way speakers, and adaptive ANC, and come in a canal type (with the Buds 3 Pro) and an open-ear type (with the Buds 3). Here are the highlights: