I’ve spent months going back and forth on my thoughts on the $400 Samsung Galaxy Ring, so it’s taken me a while to write about it. When I took it on vacation in late July, I hated it. It had little use for my trip other than tracking metrics I wasn’t actively paying attention to in my free time. I put it in its futuristic-looking transparent charging case and swapped it out for a OnePlus Watch 2R.
When I come back from traveling around, the weight of the OnePlus Watch 2R weighs me down. Never mind that the screen is bigger than I’m used to, but for the gadgets I carry around, it’s a gift. and My smartphone also added to the burden. It was everything at once, and it was too much of a burden, and I’m not just talking about jet lag. I put down my smartwatch and switched back to my Galaxy Ring, which quickly became part of my recovery as I retrained my body to go to bed early and wake up early. I haven’t taken it off since.
Samsung’s first-generation smart ring did an amazing job. I no longer care to wear a smartwatch, especially for daily maintenance workouts. The Galaxy Ring tells me everything I need to know: how many steps I took, when my heart rate spiked due to stress, and how well I slept. When I want something a little more challenging, it tracks my walks around the neighborhood and hikes up a hill near my home. I still need a smartwatch for more complex situations, like swimming at the community pool or tracking my heart rate during a Peloton-assisted bootcamp. But it feels like I only pull out the watch occasionally because I get by just fine with the Samsung Galaxy Ring.
Samsung Galaxy Ring
The Galaxy Ring is an easy way to track your steps and sleep, especially if you’re already embedded in the Samsung ecosystem.
advantage
- Easily track your daily steps
- Battery life of nearly a week
- No subscription required
shortcoming
- Not suitable for tracking serious workouts
- Inaccurate SpO2 levels
- Some features unique to Samsung devices
Your new favorite little black ring
I have been wearing the black Galaxy Ring on my left index finger for the past few months. I wash my hands and dishes with it. I wash my face and my daughter’s face when she scribbles on it. I take out the trash, put on gloves to help move the swing, and then swing with the Galaxy Ring on. Generally, I don’t take the ring off except for twice-daily cleaning and bathing. At that point, it’s normal, just like I take off other jewelry, which means the Galaxy Ring feels like an accessory. I even found a beautiful labradorite ring on my right index finger that matches the ring.
The Galaxy Ring comes in three titanium finishes: the solid black I mentioned, gold, and silver. clever If you want a ring that blends in with regular jewelry, go for a two-metal finish. When I wear a plain black ring with my favorite large gemstone ring, it sometimes feels too dainty. Also, since I’ve worn it for two months, the bottom of it (where the tracking hardware is) is already scratched. I think it’s because I put a lot of work into the ring. I expected some wear, but not so soon. At least it’s on the bottom, so it’s not that noticeable at first glance.
Samsung matched me with a size 9 ring. Getting there is a tough testbut it finally fit. It’s no longer as tight as it was when I first tried the Galaxy Ring in New York in July, and I wore it throughout the hot summer. Whenever the Ring felt like it was constricting my finger, I put it back in the clear charging case to recharge it during breaks.
The Galaxy Ring’s charging case is truly unique. At first, I thought the case was tacky, but its small size is perfect for tossing in my bag on the way to the nail salon when I need to take out the Ring and dock it. The case is transparent with white LED accents, including around the charging base, to indicate how much power is left in the case and how much power is left when the Ring is charging. Dock.
The Galaxy Ring charging case is really cool. Yes, it does remind me, a woman, of a makeup case.
Supporting Roles for Health Tracking
Yes, it’s the easiest way to track your daily fitness without having to think too much about it, but if you’re doing more than that, like training for a marathon or improving your mountain biking, the Galaxy Ring won’t replace a smartwatch.
For those who are more athletically oriented, the Galaxy Ring can help promote health without the physical space of a smartwatch. During the day, it tracks the number of steps you take, the stairs you climb, and even takes altitude into account if you live in a hilly area. At night, while you sleep, it tracks blood oxygen levels and temperature changes throughout the night. It will let you know if you snore and how often you get up to go to the bathroom. It will also chide you about your lack of sleep and whether the sleep you get is enough to get you through the rest of the day.
Of course, the Galaxy Ring isn’t the one doing all this. The Samsung Health app collects the data the smart ring gets and then makes its best guess about your lifestyle. The casual insight I get into my situation is OK, and so far I’m getting more out of Samsung Health now than I did before I started wearing the Galaxy Watch 4 and Galaxy Watch 6. Because it’s a ring, I wear it 24/7. I realized that during a sedentary day at the office, I was walking more than I thought I was. I wasn’t sleeping as well as I thought I was, and whether I woke up with enough sleep and a hangover seemed to be directly correlated to whether I was exercising consistently.
The Galaxy Ring isn’t a perfect, all-purpose tracker. For example, there’s a discrepancy between how far I walked as assessed by Samsung Health and what Strava ultimately shows. Often, the watch would show that I walked less distance than I actually did, which I assume is because it relies on location data from my phone. But Strava has access to the same data, and it still seems to get a more accurate distance reading from the ring. The point is that it’s all very confusing, which is why I recommend a traditional smartwatch if you need serious numbers. The Galaxy Ring also doesn’t excel at tracking niche workouts and activities. If you’re walking, hiking, or biking, those are fine. But I wore the Galaxy Ring swimming, and it didn’t tell me my heart rate or distance I swam while swimming. I usually get that kind of information from a smartwatch.
Another difference has to do with how the Galaxy Ring tracks blood oxygen levels during sleep. If you toss and turn in your sleep, you can hold your finger down on it to get a more alarming reading. Samsung Health claims my blood oxygen levels hover around 85-89% most nights, which I was quickly reminded of.This is the kind of reading that would send you to the hospital. Unless you can explain to investigators that there is some flaw in the way Ring tracks blood oxygen at night, I wouldn’t rely on this data. Smartwatches have more watch faces on the wrist to extract data, and you’re not immediately cutting off circulation by sleeping.
The most annoying thing about wearing a smart ring over a smartwatch is that you have to carry your phone with you if you want to do more than just live your life. I already carry my phone with me to play music on my headphones while jogging, but theoretically I wouldn’t have to do that if I was wearing a smartwatch – it usually has built-in storage to play music on the go, and it’s not bulky. You’ll also be heavily reliant on your phone for your daily stats. Every morning, instead of checking the display on my wrist, I’ll pick up my phone and sync it to my ring to see how I slept. It’s not a habit I’m proud of, but I still pick up that device to snooze the alarm.
The key is Samsung Health
Since the Ring itself doesn’t have a display to interact with, everything you do—from programming the device to checking stats—involves dealing with Samsung Healthy. Now, this app has gotten a lot more sophisticated since its launch. I’ve been using it to track my health data since I first adopted it on a Galaxy Fit smartwatch in 2019. Samsung Health also easily integrates with Google Fit and Android’s Health Connect, so you can share this data with third parties like Strava without having to worry about duplication.
What I’m not sure Samsung Health can do yet is coach me into better habits. I mean, it’s vaguely similar to the app’s energy score, which is reminiscent of FitBit’s daily readiness score, which I usually use to gauge how “fit” I’m heading. But it’s unfairly ironic that the advice it gives me fails to take into account all the other aspects of my problem. Instead of asking me how I’m feeling and if I’m sick—the app doesn’t even know I’m sick, and doesn’t bother to ask—it blames me for not getting enough sleep, immediately assuming I had a drink or a snack before bed. There’s an accusatory tone to its wording, and I’m shocked that this conversation is even part of its rotation.
Samsung Health accused me of drinking and eating too late. How rude!
During my review period, I received several notifications that I was not sleeping well. The second time Samsung Health reminded me, it again blamed my drinking and late-night eating. Again, I had other issues mentally and physically that were the actual factors that made it difficult for me to sleep. But there was no place to manually enter this data and take it into account with all the other factors.
Samsung Health does a great job of guiding you when things are going well. I’ve been walking and exercising every day for about three weeks, and the messages I receive are positive and encouraging me to keep going. I also get regular reminders that this lifestyle helps to avoid depression and anxiety. It really does! But I wish I could input more information about my mental health and any ailments I’ve been diagnosed with, and combine it with my heart rate and blood pressure numbers and why I can’t sleep at night.
Hopefully, Samsung Health will get even more powerful in the future. At the very least, the stats it offers now are free. Competitive devices, like the Oura Ring, which arguably helped drive the category forward, require subscriptions for tracking, while Samsung does it directly for you. But who knows what the future holds? Until then, let’s hope for a smart ring that doesn’t make people worry when it comes to displaying blood oxygen levels. I swear I’m fine!
If you’re training for something, or you’ve already built a workout habit and want more stats, you’ll have to stick with the Samsung ecosystem. The Galaxy Ring works best with at least a Samsung smartwatch, and some gestures are only available with Samsung smartphones. We’re still waiting on our Galaxy Watch 7 review unit, but I can already tell how annoying it can be to wear a Galaxy Ring and a Pixel Watch at the same time. You have to choose which health suite to sync with Google Fit first, and the data won’t be connected. At least if you carry your Galaxy Watch with you, Samsung Health knows when to turn off tracking tasks to get more detailed workout data.
Great for passive health tracking
The Galaxy Ring is one of the more expensive smart rings on the market. It’s a bit more expensive than cheaper brands like RingConn, but at least you can fully integrate your data with other services without any hassle. If passive health tracking is your thing, How it works If you want to be healthier, then the $400 price tag is worth it, especially if you’re already deeply involved in the ecosystem. The only downside is that it gives a very worrying reading of blood oxygen levels. I imagine Samsung will try to address this with an algorithm change or at least a disclaimer.
