The Samsung Galaxy Ring has been long-anticipated. Samsung is the first major tech company (as in, the really big players) to invest heavily in creating one of the best smart rings, a category previously dominated by start-ups like Oura, Ringconn, and Ultrahuman, and all eyes are on it.
As a wearable category in its infancy, I’m so excited to see where the technology goes. Wearable tech that’s discreet, comfortable, and stylish, rather than yet another screen on my wrist? Count me in.
So, after finally getting my hands on it, I duly charged up its little engagement-ring-style case, popped the Ring on my hand, and, along with the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra, paired them both with my phone. For this experiment, I’ll be using my everyday phone (the Oppo Find X5 Pro) with Samsung Health installed rather than a Samsung phone, as I’m keen to see whether there are any blockers when it comes to using a competing device.
So, what’s it like to wear the ring? Is the information useful? Does it look good? Will a wizard show up and ask you to take it to Mordor?* Here’s everything I learned after my first 24 hours with the Samsung Galaxy Ring.
Comfort and style
The best thing about the Galaxy Ring is that it looks good and wears well. There’s no other way to describe it: the sleek Titanium Black sample ring is simply, elegantly designed, and feels more liberating than wearing a watch, especially the beefy Ultra. The freedom to keep the powerful Ultra for GPS workouts and daily wear while taking it off in the evenings and overnight is great.
I feel like for formal events, I could wear a more stylish analog watch with my Ring (you know, with real hands and no apps) and continue tracking my health. No one would be any the wiser that I’m still, secretly, in cyborg mode.
I can also do it the other way around – I like to do several resistance-training workouts a week using weights, bands, and calisthenics. When I don’t want the Ring to scratch on the handle of a dumbbell, I can take it off and leave the Ultra on, so I’m still getting tracking benefits. Of course, I must acknowledge I’m privileged to have and wear both, and most people (other than power users) will likely buy either a Ring or a watch, not both.
Wearing it overnight is incredibly comfortable. This ring is a little narrower than my Oura Ring, and the protective concave design isn’t very prominent at all. I’m usually a size 10, but my sample size was 11 due to limited availability. However, it fits well enough and isn’t loose enough to dislodge or move around without me physically removing the ring, so I’m happy with it for now. Skin contact appears fine, and the Ring had no trouble checking my vitals during waking hours or overnight. After a night’s sleep and a full day of work, the Ring is down to 89% battery life, a decrease of just 11% after 24 hours.
Statistics and information
Each morning, the Ring feeds information about your previous day to Samsung Health, which gives you an Energy Score comprised of the following factors: Sleep time average, Sleep time consistency, Bed/wake time consistency, Sleep timing, Previous day activity, Sleeping heart rate, and Sleeping heart rate variability, or HRV.
The scores marked “consistency” weren’t collected as this was night one, and I only put the Ring on halfway through the day, so it didn’t record my earlier workout. Therefore, I expected my Energy Score to be a bit out of wack with how I felt.
After I slipped on the Ring and the Watch Ultra, around 5pm, I went to a family barbecue, during which I played being a firefighter with my niece and nephew for quite a while, then had some wine before going home to bed.
Looking back on my sleep data after I woke up, I was impressed: the Ring correctly identified when I woke up around 4am, and although my overall Sleep Score registered as 95 (Excellent), my Energy Score was only 57 (Time to Relax). This was due to an elevated average heart rate during sleep (presumably caused by the booze) of 68 bpm, which was above my average resting heart rate of 52 bpm.
It also told me I should have moved more yesterday, which is understandable: it recorded 45 minutes of active playing, pushing the kids around on their ride-on toy cars, but according to Samsung’s Energy Score, I did not complete my required 33 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous structured exercise that day. Well, there’s no way it could know about my 8am workout while I wasn’t actually wearing the thing, but I got to give Galaxy AI props for taking as much as possible into account to generate an accurate Energy Score.
So is it good?
Yes, is the answer. It’s very good. You don’t even necessarily need a Samsung phone at all: just an Android phone with Samsung Health downloaded. I found no barriers or walled-off features in this early testing. There are a few things the Oura Ring app does that are missing here, such as tagging parts of your timeline, but the personalized, AI-powered suggestions and accurate-seeming sleep staging mean the Galaxy Ring is going to do very well, especially considering those insane pre-order sellouts.
A lot of wearable tech enthusiasts, and indeed people who are still fairly clueless about it all, are going to find that they love the idea of a smart ring. The only barrier I can see is the expensive $400 buy-in, but clearly, people are paying it. Watch this space for a full review after a few more days of testing.
*Only if you found it under the Misty Mountains. If you pre-ordered it on the Samsung store, it’s probably fine.
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*Only if you found it under the Misty Mountains. If you pre-ordered it on the Samsung store, it’s probably fine.