Having been teased in January and again in February, the Samsung Galaxy Ring will get its full launch on July 10, when we’ll hear all the details about it. Those details should include a price – and it could be on the steep side, if a new rumor is to be believed.
This leak comes from Dealabs (via WinFuture) and the suggestion is that we’re looking at a price of €449 in France. Now, Samsung won’t use a straight currency conversion for its pricing, but that works out at a hefty $485 / £380 / AU$720 at today’s exchange rates.
For comparison, the 3rd-gen Oura ring starts at $299 / £299 (that’s about AU$445, and it costs €399), though it’s worth noting that there are significantly more expensive variants too. So the Galaxy Ring could be significantly more expensive, and if so Samsung will have to do a good job of selling it.
Previous pricing leaks had suggested the Samsung Galaxy Ring could come in at the $300-350 mark, which would more reasonable. At that kind of price point, Samsung’s smart ring would be comparable to the cheaper options in our best smartwatches list.
Subs and sequels
Something else we’ve heard about the Galaxy Ring is that it might come with an optional subscription attached. This is something the likes of Oura, Fitbit, and Apple already do, and would probably involve extra health-tracking features and analysis.
There’s nothing about a subscription in this Dealabs leak, though we know that Samsung will be pushing the health and fitness features of this wearable. After all, it can’t exactly stream your music, answer calls, or show you your incoming messages.
The next Galaxy Ring, however, might be more versatile – 91mobiles has spotted a Samsung patent for a smart ring with a display, presumably to show notifications and fitness stats. It also looks a little more elongated in shape than the model that’s about to be launched.
It should be noted that patents are not a guarantee of a future product, but rather a hint at what a company is exploring in terms of its tech. We’ll concentrate on the first Galaxy Ring for now, before turning to any potential successor with a screen attached (and of course, the ultimate test of any device with a display is whether or not it’ll run Doom).