The epitome of unobtrusive health and activity tracking – that’s the Galaxy Ring in a nutshell. It’s made to excel at sleep, activity, and health tracking, something you can also do on the Galaxy Watch series, but the Ring is a fraction of the size, weighs next to nothing, and claims up to 7 days of battery life. We got a quick chance to put the Galaxy Ring through its paces and here are our initial impressions.
The Galaxy Ring comes in nine sizes, ranging from 5 to 13 on the U.S. scale, and they’re all made from grade 5 titanium alloy. No matter which size you choose, you’ll barely notice it’s on your finger. The Galaxy Ring’s concave shape is an interesting choice that Samsung claims helps prevent scratches.
Choosing the right size is essential, and Samsung offers a Galaxy Ring sizing kit with plastic mockups of all nine sizes that you can test before choosing the right size for your finger. The sizing kit is included in the retail price.
The smaller Galaxy Rings weigh in at just 2.3 grams, while even the largest size 13 Ring weighs in at a mere 3 grams. That’s pretty impressive considering all the tech packed inside – a battery, PPG optical sensor, temperature sensor, and battery indicator LEDs to name a few. It’s also a lot more convenient to wear while sleeping compared to a smartwatch.
Wearing the Galaxy Ring feels even less intrusive than wearing a regular ring. It might take some getting used to if you’re not wearing jewelry, but it’s miles better than wearing a watch on your wrist. It can also handle splashes and even deep dives thanks to its 10ATM water resistance.
Galaxy Ring looks and feels like a regular ring
Galaxy Ring comes in three colors: black, silver, and gold. The black and silver versions have a matte coating, while the gold model is shiny and reflective.
Unlike some established smart ring makers (ahem Oura), Galaxy Ring doesn’t come with any additional subscriptions, so you can freely access your health and activity data. The downside is that it only works with Samsung phones for now. Galaxy Ring pairs with your Galaxy phone over Bluetooth LE 5.4 and requires an active Samsung account and the Samsung Health app.
Once paired, the Galaxy Ring measures essential health data like heart rate, skin temperature, and sleep, as well as basic activities like walking and running.
The Galaxy Ring is billed as an advanced sleep monitoring device, tracking heart rate and breathing rates, as well as movement during sleep, and sleep latency. Samsung also says you can get even more accurate results by wearing the Galaxy Ring alongside a Galaxy Watch. The combination also increases the Galaxy Ring’s battery life by 30%, up from the original 6-7 days (depending on ring size).
Samsung claims the Galaxy Ring is rated for “hundreds of charge cycles,” with a full charge taking 80 minutes. Charging is done via a special charging case that comes with every Galaxy Ring, which requires a USB-C cable.
Galaxy Ring in its charging case
In addition to its health and activity tracking features, the Galaxy Ring has some basic remote control features via a squeeze gesture. You can pinch your thumb and index fingers while wearing the ring to activate the camera shutter on your paired Galaxy phone or dismiss alarms. These features are currently limited to the Z-fold6 And From Flip6 but Samsung confirmed that it will add support for the Galaxy S24 series in the long-term.
The Galaxy Ring also supports the Samsung Find network and can flash its LED lights to make it easier to find if you lose it.
With a price tag of $399/€449/£399, the Galaxy Ring is not a cheap gadget. It’s more expensive than the just-announced Galaxy Watch7 which offers a much larger pool of health and activity tracking features and only works with Galaxy smartphones. We’ll have to spend some more time with the Galaxy Ring to give you our final verdict, but it’s certainly an exciting device that’s worth checking out.