Smart rings offer an opportunity to free our wrists from bulky and sometimes gaudy smartwatches, becoming more fashionable alternatives to wearable tech. A ring itself can be considered a fashion item, part of one’s jewelry, but smart rings like the Samsung Galaxy Ring opt for more discreet and minimalist designs. The idea is for these devices to get out of your way and do their jobs in the background while you wear your more luxurious bracelets and watches on your wrist. That’s not stopping the tech giant from trying to build bridges with the fashion industry, and that has given birth to one of the oddest mashups between these two worlds: smart ring-inspired luxury sleepwear.
Designer: Samsung
It’s not the first time that the tech industry has tried to make its presence and products known in the fashion world. From “accessories” like the foldable Honor V Purse to the oddities like Microsoft’s annual ugly sweaters, there are numerous examples of phones and gadgets trying to look chic, one way or another. Smartwatches themselves are supposed to be fashionable, which is why luxury brands once tried to break into that nascent market.
This collaboration between Samsung and famed luxury fashion designer LaQuan Smith, however, is both unusual yet also thankfully not as in-your-face as previous works. This piece of fashion doesn’t flaunt the Galaxy Ring in any form, but it also makes it less evident how the two are related. At New York Fashion Week next month, LaQuan Smith will showcase his Spring/Summer ’25 Collection, including the Lucid Dream line of luxury sleepwear inspired by Samsung’s latest luxurious-looking wearable.
It’s admittedly difficult to immediately discern the connection between these two very unrelated things, and the explanation is also a bit of a stretch. In a nutshell, the fashionable two-piece pajamas can be used not only in bed but also during the day, transitioning from sleepwear to daywear without having to take anything off. This, according to Samsung, echoes the Galaxy Ring’s 24/7 usability, never taking it off unless to charge it after a few days.
Of course, LaQuan Smith himself wears a Galaxy Ring all day, or so the press release states, which includes during his sleeping hours. Sleep, according to the designer, is a critical factor not just in his wellness but also in his creativity, where many of his waking designs were inspired by dreams in his sleep. Whether that will immediately make you think of Galaxy Ring-inspired pajamas is left to your imagination, but those who want a piece of this limited edition fashion item will have to wait after the event to see when and where Samsung will sell them.
Forget bulky, pricey, and intrusive smartwatches! Smart rings are the new black, providing key insights into your health without weighing down your wrist or distracting you with notifications. Like David versus Goliath, RingConn boldly faced giants to bring an accessible smart ring to the masses and it continues to challenge the status quo even with the arrival of even bigger names in the market. Taking its game to the next level, RingConn is introducing its next-gen smart ring boasting not only a discreet, comfortable design and AI-powered comprehensive health tracking but also a battery life that will last you almost two weeks, ensuring that you will never miss a beat when it comes to taking control of your well-being, especially the all-important sleep that we often take for granted.
The original RingConn already delivered a more convenient way to keep track of your health and sleep quality 24/7. You only had to take it off after a few days to charge it briefly, and it didn’t get in your way or distract you with notifications. Best of all, it offered all the data and insights into your health without any subscription fees. It empowered everyone to take control of their health by giving them the tools and knowledge to create the path to healthier living.
The RingConn Gen 2 builds on that solid foundation and takes it up to eleven, improving not only the technology inside but also the design that will make you proud to show the ring off. At only 2g and only 2mm thick, it is the thinnest and lightest smart ring on the market. You might even forget that you’re wearing it, freeing you to go about your life without giving it a second thought. And with an IP68 dust and water protection rating, you don’t even have to worry when your hand gets wet, accidentally or intentionally. Wear it outdoors, in the shower, under the rain, or for a swim, the RingConn Gen 2 will be able to keep up with whatever lifestyle you live.
Its ultra-thin profile belies the amount of technology that the RingConn Gen 2 packs inside. From the basics like 3D accelerometers to advanced PPG (photoplethysmography) and temperature sensors, this discreet and lightweight smart ring has everything necessary to paint a complete picture of your body’s health. Unlike a smartwatch, the RingConn Gen 2 takes advantage of the finger’s thin skin and abundant blood vessels to provide precise tracking, taking note of key metrics like heart rate, heart rate variability, and blood oxygen levels. All of this data is fed into the RingConn app which presents a holistic view of your well-being, including stress levels and monthly cycles, without hiding anything behind subscription fees.
One of the biggest innovations that this next-gen smart ring brings to the table, or to the bed rather, is AI-powered sleep tracking. Sleep is easily overlooked and quickly sacrificed on the altar of productivity, but it is ironically one of the most important factors in living a healthy and productive life. Using next-gen sensors and advanced AI, the RingConn Gen 2 can evaluate your nighttime breathing, respiratory variations, sleep stages, and overall sleep efficiency, allowing you to detect critical sleep risk events and issues like sleep apnea so that you can take the right steps to improve your sleep quality and your overall well-being.
With all the features it provides, your mind will probably be blown away by the RingConn Gen 2’s 10-12 day uptime on a single charge. Add in the charging case and you can get an accumulative 150 days of use before you need to plug it in. That’s five months of continuous sleep and health tracking, generating a comprehensive picture of your health directly available on your phone. So ditch the smartwatch, put on your favorite timepiece, slip on the RingConn Gen 2, and live your healthiest life today!
Before you go out on a limb buying a Galaxy or Oura ring, the RingConn Gen 2 already holds the title for being the thinnest/lightest smart ring. It still manages to also boast of a 2-week-long battery life, the ability to track your health and sleep with AI-powered insights, IP68 water resistance, and here’s the kicker… a subscription-less smartphone app that gives you all your health data without hiding behind a paywall. With not one but TWO design awards under its belt, the RingConn Gen 2 boasts a $209 starting price – less than half of what its competitor’s smart rings go for. Here’s everything the Gen 2 can do…
Lighter than an AirPod, Thinner than a Credit Card
I’ve long proclaimed the superiority of smart rings to smartwatches. They’re ultimately a bunch of sensors hooked together – but the smart ring does offer a much more efficient format. It’s minimalist, can be worn alongside other rings (you can’t wear two watches), and all your data goes to your smartphone so your ring doesn’t need to worry about having its own display. This translates to a MUCH longer battery life, and the absence of a second display to get addicted to or to have inundate you with notifications. Smart rings are almost ALWAYS designed to be entirely waterproof so you can even swim with them, and they usually last a week or more on a full charge, making them vastly more superior to smartwatches.
Weighing between 2-3 grams, the RingConn’s Gen 2 is lighter than a single AirPod (which weighs 4 grams), and with a cross-section that’s 2mm wide, the ring is also about as thin as your average credit card. That lightweight and sleek form factor makes it perfect for wearing all-day every day because chances are within a few hours of slipping it on, you’ll forget you’re wearing it. Meanwhile, the ring will be hard at work, tracking your sleep, fitness/activity, heart rate, body temperature, stress levels, sleep apnea, and even acting as your period calendar (for women wearers).
Comprehensive AI-powered Sleep + Health Tracking
The RingConn Gen 2 does everything any wrist-worn health tracker does, but better. Its upgraded photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors can measure heart rate, heart rate variability, and blood oxygen levels with great accuracy. These sensors are embedded in a design that takes advantage of the finger’s unique anatomy, which allows for MUCH more precise readings compared to wrist-based devices. The temperature sensor gauges your temperature levels as well as fluctuations, pairing it with your heart rate data to get a sense of your stress levels or even if you’re on your period. Combine all three with the accelerometer and the Gen 2 captures all your steps and other physical activity, tracking various sports from running to cycling, soccer, swimming, and a bunch more.
At the end of your day, the ring also tracks your sleep using AI. In 2024, RingConn unveiled its first transformer-based deep learning model for sleep apnea detection – the ring uses this AI-based learning model to identify sleep risk events that could be affecting your health – something other smart rings currently cannot because they haven’t built out such AI models. The more you wear the ring, the more it learns and the more personalized it becomes, getting better at tracking and identifying your quality of sleep and even detecting any drops in blood oxygen caused by apnea events and obstructed breathing (snoring, etc.)
Fitness Insights without a Monthly Subscription
I can’t stress this enough but your health should never be behind a paywall. It really doesn’t make sense to buy a fitness tracker only to then have an app that gates pro-level health tracking metrics behind a subscription model. To that end, the RingConn Gen 2 makes a pretty bold claim of not hiding behind any sort of freemium or premium business model. The RingConn app, available for Android and iOS devices, is free to use, and locally backs up all your health data. This allows you to monitor your health even when your smartphone isn’t connected to the internet. Picture yourself trekking in the wilderness with no cellular service but still being able to track your metrics in real-time.
Your health data is also compatible with leading fitness apps such as Apple Health and Google Health Connect, allowing you to comprehensively track workouts, sports, and all other activities within one singular dashboard. For specific insights, the RingConn app is still your go-to destination… and its sleep-tracking feature gives you a holistic look at your body’s metrics through your entire sleep journey, allowing you to catch any potential concerning events immediately. The app also analyzes data throughout the day to provide a detailed stress index and ratio, helping you gain a clear understanding of your stress levels. Additionally, the RingConn Gen 2 features comprehensive menstrual health tracking right within the app, allowing users to monitor cycles, predict ovulation, and track symptoms for deeper insights into their health patterns.
Sleek Metal Design with 12-day Battery Life
The RingConn sports a hypoallergenic aerospace-grade titanium alloy exterior, while the inside of the ring has a medical-grade epoxy coating that allows the sensors to work accurately when in contact against the skin. Between these two layers lie all the hardware and sensors that power the Gen 2, along with a best-in-class battery. Lasting a stunning 5 more days than even the Galaxy and Oura rings, the RingConn Gen 2 boasts a 12-day battery life. It’s rather impressive considering exactly how small and thin the Gen 2 ring is. When the ring runs low on charge, it comes with its own charging case that begins working the second you slip the ring into its cylindrical platform. A simple 2-hour charge brings the Gen 2 ring’s battery to 100%, lasting nearly 2 weeks… and the case houses its own 500mAh battery so you can charge your ring without necessarily having the case plugged in.
The RingConn Gen 2 boasts a starting price of $209, which includes the ring itself, the charging case, and free global shipping. Upgrading to the $239 package also gives you a clear silicone ring protector and a separate bedside charging dock. The RingConn Gen 2 comes in 3 colors – Future Silver, Royal Gold, and Matte Black, across 9 sizes, ranging from a size #6 to a size #14 depending on your index finger’s diameter.
Many of the devices that exist today were, at some point in time, inspired by science fiction, from personal computers to smartphones to tablets. Smartwatches, in particular, may have partly been imagined after seeing wrist-worn communication devices in some sci-fi shows and flicks. Of course, today’s smartwatches are more practical and less sensational, even as they demonstrate the marvels of technology squeezed in such a small space. But smartwatches aren’t the booming business that manufacturers hoped they would be, at least not compared to smartwatches, and every year brings doubts about this product category’s future. This year is no different, especially with new technologies like smart rings and especially AI trying to take center stage, even when it comes to health and fitness.
Designer: Apple
What Are Smartwatches For?
Defining smartwatches has never been easy. Simply saying that they are watches that can mirror notifications from your phone and track your activity is both a disservice and an oversimplification. Given all that they can do these days, seeing them as miniature smartphones on your wrist isn’t exactly inaccurate, though the user experience is significantly limited due to the small screen and feeble hardware. In fact, the very first batch of smartwatches from smartphone makers pretty much tried to sell that image with little success.
Designer: Google
It wasn’t until the Apple Watch and anecdotes of its life-saving features that this wearable really defined its identity in the market. It was, for all intents and purposes, a wearable health tracker masquerading as a timepiece. And depending on the brand and style of the smartwatch, it may or may not pass for a luxury watch, at least from a distance. It basically pushed fitness trackers out of the scene, with more advanced sensors, a more flexible user experience, and connectivity to a smartphone. Over time, however, people and even companies have also started to wonder why they still have a smartwatch, especially with upcoming technologies and designs that offer more choices especially when it comes to aesthetics and style.
True Wearables
Smartwatches are perhaps the world’s first taste of wearable technologies, but that’s hardly the only incarnation possible. Ideally, true wearables will be something you can, well, wear, including clothing, footwear, and especially jewelry. These weren’t possible years ago, but technology and manufacturing are thankfully catching up and, soon, people won’t have to ditch their heirloom mechanical watches just because they want to monitor their health 24/7.
Smart rings, for example, try to offer at least the basics of activity tracking and health monitoring but in a more discreet form that doesn’t get in the way, at least if you’re used to wearing rings all day. A ring would let you wear your favorite timepiece, or wear a different watch for any occasion, all without losing those important health stats. There are also attempts at developing other kinds of smart jewelry that also have health sensors or apparel that let you control your phone or other devices. These are wearables in the truest sense of the term, and they won’t be just science fiction soon.
AI Craze
Another trend gripping the tech industry as a whole is also putting the usefulness of smartwatches into question. AI can be found anywhere these days, from image generators to note-taking apps. Of course, tech companies have long been touting AI-powered services via cloud-based personal assistants, but the trend these days is moving the bulk of the work to the device itself. Smartphones might be powerful enough to support this kind of AI, but smartwatches don’t have that much silicon muscle, at least not without burning through their already meager battery lives.
Designer: Google
It’s actually curious that both Apple and Google have been rather silent about their latest AI features when it comes to their own smartwatches, possibly hinting they won’t be coming any time soon. It’s certainly possible for smartwatches to offload the work to the smartphones they’re connected to, but the latency might be too much to ask as well. It could still be good for the occasional verbal question to AI services, but nothing that actually makes a smartwatch a must-have for this purpose.
Distraction Station
If health monitoring and AI won’t be the exclusive domain of smartwatches, then one must wonder what other unique experiences they offer. Unlike a smart ring or even a fitness tracker, a smartwatch offers more advanced features related to a smartphone, like reading notifications in full, replying to messages, or even viewing some apps in a smaller form. But are these actually advantages or are they merely showing off feats of technology that actually become detrimental to users in the end?
Designer: Samsung
Smartphones are notorious for being sources of distractions, which is why there is a counter-movement of phones espousing minimalism or devices with distraction-free experiences. You can, of course, select only the notifications you really need to see on your wrist, but even smartphones have that same function anyway. In reality, smartwatches make it too easy to be distracted by those notifications without even pulling out your phone, and you spend more time looking at your smartwatch than you would a regular watch. Funnily enough, the people around you wouldn’t even have a clue that you’re wearing a smartwatch and would simply presume you’re being impatient.
Fringe Benefits
That said, there are definitely things that only a smartwatch can offer, at least for now. Smart rings, due to their size, can only offer a small selection of sensors to monitor your health. For more advanced biometrics, you’ll need a larger device to wear, like a smartwatch or a fitness band. There are also still some discussions on whether a ring or a watch is more accurate, though both naturally pale in comparison to medical equipment.
Designer: Apple
Unlike a fitness band, a smartwatch also offers more flexibility when it comes to aesthetics. After all, it can masquerade as a traditional watch given the right band and watch face. More active people might also want a fuller activity-tracking experience without having to wear a watch and a fitness tracker at the same time, and a smartwatch definitely bridges the gap between the two.
Final Thoughts: Smartwatches Today and Tomorrow
Just when the smartwatch market seems to have secured its footing, its future comes into question once again. Luxury brands that once tried to portray smartwatches as fashionable accessories have now pulled back from the market, leaving only tech companies to do the heavy lifting. Some of these tech companies, however, are looking into smart rings as well, and their AI endeavors don’t seem to have a place on smartwatches either. Smartwatches aren’t going to disappear immediately, and they might finally be able to have enough processing power and battery capacity to support even the most basic on-device AI features, but it might be time to again rethink what role smartwatches play in our modern world.
You know you’re doing something right when Samsung ends up launching a product to compete with yours, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that Apple plans on joining the category too. The smart ring market is seeing an undeniable rise for a bunch of reasons. Smart rings are classy, discreet, and don’t have too many components or requirements. You have ten fingers, so you can easily wear a smart ring along with your engagement ring or accessories (try wearing two watches and see people stare) and you can easily wear the ring while asleep too. Smartwatches walked so smart rings could run, and the latest runner to enter the marathon is the Kuura Ring – a sleek wearable that’s titanium on the outside, and sensors galore on the inside that tracks everything from your sleep to your stress levels and exercises. Like a fitness tracker but sleeker and frankly a little more convenient, the Kuura is yet another nail in the smartwatch coffin, affirming the fact that rings are, in fact, the future of the health wearable industry.
Move Smarter: your walks, runs, cycles and gym sessions and measure your heart rate, and recovery rates to plan your personal fitness goals.
The Kuura Ring looks like any minimalist metal ring, blending right in without necessarily looking tech-forward. A titanium outer shell comes in 3 colors – black, silver, and gold, while the inner surface of the ring is made from hypoallergenic epoxy, which hermetically seals all the electronics inside the ring giving it complete water resistance. The insides are lined with various sensors that can track body metrics from body temperature to heart rate and even blood oxygen, giving the Kuura Ring a wide variety of stats to help interpret different stages of your health. A 17.5mAh battery powers the entire wearable, giving it a solid week’s worth of usage so you don’t need to charge your ring every day like you would most fitness trackers.
Live Smarter: Get a clear picture of your health from over 20 biometric signals, including temperature to stress levels to help you live your best life each day.
The sensors within the Kuura capture your health in a holistic manner, working around the clock to give you stats across a variety of categories. A G-sensor captures movement, a heart-rate light reads your heart rate, HRV, and stress levels, a blood oxygen light does exactly what it says it does, and an infrared light detects when the ring’s worn, switching the wearable off when you take it off. Combined, these sensors are all the Kuura needs to analyze your well-being.
The ring does everything a fitness wearable does and maybe some more. It monitors your health, ensuring your heart rate isn’t too high or too low, captures your steps to see how much you’re moving in the day, uses a variety of stats to check your stress levels, tracks your workouts (ranging from a variety of workout styles), and at the end of the day, tracks your sleep cycle. The lack of a screen on the ring means all the data is sent to Kuura’s own smartphone app (it also means better battery performance) where you can access every single metric laid out in a well-designed UI. The app is your health dashboard, letting you see your progress as well as learn all your rooms for improvement, and even set fitness goals that you can aim for.
Sleep Smarter: Wake up to analysis about your deep sleep, light sleep & REM sleep to optimize your sleep schedules and rise feeling refreshed and ready for the day.
Different sections in the app provide their own detailed metrics. The sleep tracking page gives you a detailed analysis of your sleep across 4 stages – REM, restful sleep, light sleep, and wakefulness. The fitness tracker captures movement (distance and steps), duration of your workout, and even the kilocalories burned. The water-resistance allows you to even go swimming with your Kuura on. Finally, the overall health tracker looks at your heart rate, variability, body temperature, and stress levels to give you a score that helps you understand where you stand in your journey to a healthy life.
Available in 3 different colors, the Kuura Ring comes in 8 sizes that fit men and women of all ages and body types. Earlybird backers can grab the Kuura Ring for just $99, which also includes the ring’s contact-based charging cable, and the free Kuura smartphone app available on iOS and Android.
While Samsung’s Galaxy Ring is still months away from an official launch, its announcement is proof that the smart ring is the next frontier of the health wearable space. The problem with smartwatches like the Apple or Galaxy Watch, you see, is that they aren’t for everyone. Not all people wear watches, and for the ones who do, there’s a large subset of people who prefer analog timepieces rather than gadgets with screens and sensors. Rings, on the other hand, have a distinct advantage – they’re smaller, sleeker, lighter, and unlike watches, you can wear multiple, combining your wedding ring or any ring-based jewelry with a health-tracking wearable ring. The smart ring market is at the precipice of expansion, and months from now you’ll see hundreds of brands jumping on the bandwagon… but if you’re looking for one now, the Vera Ring is a compelling pick. Designed to be incredibly sleek, breathtakingly light, and completely waterproof, the Vera Ring does everything a health tracker can do and more. It monitors your heart rate 24/7, tracking your heart health, respiratory health, stress levels, sleep quality, and even combines multiple metrics like body temperature, heart rate variability, and stress levels to tell you how good your overall immunity is.
The creators of the Vera Ring make a compelling argument – in the regular world, you’re bombarded with metrics and data everywhere. Businesses thrive on data, programs require data to run, AI systems are entirely beholden to their databases – but there’s hardly any good real-time data-measuring for your body. Unless you’re wearing a smartwatch 24/7, you have no way of being able to get a broad yet focused overview of your health. That’s where a smart ring comes in. The Vera Ring looks and feels exactly like your everyday ring, but sits on your finger and tracks your body metrics all day all week. With a battery that lasts for 7 full days on a charge, the Vera captures a weekly holistic portrait of your health, presenting all that information to you in a way that’s easy to digest. You can see if your heart’s healthy, if you’re running normal body temperature, if you’re sleeping well or sleeping enough, if you’re stressed or relaxed, and even track menstrual cycles. More so, the Vera app also recommends tweaks to your lifestyle to help you improve your health, and catches health issues before they become serious or irreversible.
The beauty of the Vera Ring lies in its design. 2.5mm thick and 7.5mm wide, the Vera is an icon of minimalism, with a metal finish on the outside, and a medical-grade resin inner that holds all the components in place. The tiny ring weighs anywhere from 5.2 grams (0.18 ounces) to 8.5 grams (0.29 ounces) depending on size, and is hermetically sealed, making it completely waterproof so you could wear it everywhere, even in the shower or the pool. The only time you really need to take it off is when it’s low on charge, and the ring comes with its own holder/charger that lets you dock it and charge it in mere minutes.
Slip the ring on and it begins tracking all your vitals, sending complex data to the Vera app where everything is simplified into easy-to-digest bits. The ring has a 6-axis accelerometer, a skin temperature sensor, and multiple PPG sensors that measure blood volume variations to detect heart rate, blood oxygen, and multiple other metrics pertaining to your health while you’re awake or asleep. Data in real-time gets sent to the Vera app, where an intuitive dashboard gives you scores based on different domains like your heart health, sleep health, stress levels, and even your overall immunity, calculated as a culmination of multiple factors. The app lets you monitor your scores over days and weeks, and does so not just for your ring, but for your entire family, allowing you to check up on your elderly parents, see if your kids are getting enough physical activity or sleep, or if you or your partner are feeling stressed. For women, the Vera also helps effectively track menstrual cycles, giving them a holistic snapshot of their body through the week and the month.
What really seals the deal is that the Vera Ring focuses on the essentials, doing the job of a health-tracking watch but without a distracting screen. You aren’t inundated with notifications, or with a constant need to keep looking at how many steps you’ve taken (I’m guilty of wanting to complete my Apple Watch activity ring every single day) – the ring silently and diligently tracks your vitals 24×7, connecting to your smartphone via Bluetooth 4.0 to present you with information only when you access the Vera smartphone app.
The Vera Ring comes in 6 different finishes (3 matte metal and 3 ‘precious’ chrome metal finishes) and multiple sizes to fit a variety of fingers. Each ring is also accompanied by a battery stand that can charge the ring and can even hold enough power to juice your Vera Ring 30 times over. The Vera Ring starts at a discounted $249, ships globally with a 1-year warranty, and backers get a lifetime subscription to all the Vera app’s features.
Now that smartwatches have more or less become more acceptable in society, it seems that the wearable tech market is setting its eyes on less conspicuous and less distracting designs for monitoring one’s health and fitness. And just like smartwatches in their early years, smart rings just aren’t resounding yet with people, though that could only be a matter of time. There hasn’t been much variety yet in this nascent market, which isn’t surprising given the physical limitations of a ring. Wearable tech brand Amazfit, however, believes it has something unique to offer, at least to athletes and very active people who are just as concerned with their mental health and recovery as they are with their steps and heart rate.
The niche that smartwatches have found themselves in seems to revolve around fitness and health, with features like activity tracking, health monitors, and the like. While those are indeed important metrics, they only represent a part of one’s overall well-being. Mental health is just as important, and giving your body and mind time to rest and recover is critical as well. Those are the points that the Amazfit Helio Ring is trying to emphasize in order to differentiate it from the likes of the Oura Ring, currently the leading name in this very young and small market.
In a nutshell, the Amazfit Helio Ring takes the same data collected by sensors inside the ring but interprets them in a slightly different way. Of course, it still records your steps, tracks your blood oxygen levels, and even monitors your sleep, but it frames that information in light of stress levels, your mental health, and most importantly, how well you’re taking steps to recover from those. Amazfit will propose actionable steps to guide you toward recovery, which unsurprisingly include getting enough sleep and meditation.
As for the device itself, the Amazfit Helios Ring is a bit of an outlier in that it doesn’t try to masquerade as a piece of jewelry. The dotted pattern on its surface is a dead giveaway that it is anything but luxurious, giving it a more rugged appearance that its target audience won’t mind anyway. In fact, it is intentionally designed for this group of people, using “skin-friendly” titanium alloy and ensuring water resistance of up to 10ATM, for those times when you need to take a swim.
The Amazfit Helios Ring can be used on its own, with or without an Amazfit smartwatch. Of course, you will need to pair with the mobile app, but you will also need to subscribe to the Zepp Aura rest and wellness service to really use the data it gives. A purchase of the ring will include a three-month free trial, but there are no pricing details available yet.
Smartwatches are soon going to become the Blackberries of the wearable world. Only people who really need ‘watches’ will opt for them… while the rest of us will wear smaller, more inconspicuous finger-based smart wearables like the Ring One. Designed to monitor your vitals, track your fitness routines, measure your sleep, even detect period cycles in women, and enable NFC payments with a simple tap, the Ring One is a slick wearable that sits on your finger. It might be missing a screen, but it makes up for it by still doing a stellar job of keeping a tab on your vitals in real-time, tracking micro-fluctuations in your heart-rate and temperature, and even measuring all 4 stages of your sleep. It’s 80% smaller than a smartwatch, but does 99% of the things a smartwatch does… except for telling you the time, of course.
Designers: Janeef Mayari, Sai Prasanth KLN & Dhoorjati Varma
Engineered to be small enough to fit on your finger, the Ring One disguises itself as a piece of jewelry… but hides some impressive tech underneath the surface. It trades the smartwatch’s crown for a rotating dial, allowing you to toggle between the Ring One’s many different modes, from heart tracking to fitness/workout tracking, sleep tracking, making NFC payments, and even letting you remotely unlock your car. The underside of the ring has a research-grade optical PPG sensor, a temperature sensor, gyroscopes, and accelerometers that help it track movement and how your body responds to it. The Ring One is capable of tracking your health 24/7, with a battery that still manages to pull off a week’s worth of use before it needs charging. All this sits within a ring that’s made from grade-2 Titanium and medical-grade epoxy, making the entire device hypoallergenic and 10x lighter than your average smartwatch.
Wake up each morning to detailed sleep insights.
Keep an eye on your heart and your overall health.
Given the discernible lack of a screen, the Ring One relies on a smartphone app to display its data. This works well for people who don’t want extra screens on their wrist, giving you a wearable that allows you to focus without distracting you with metrics and all sorts of data-points. When you want to perform a deep-dive into your health, the Ring One’s app has historical as well as real-time data for you, ranging across a variety of categories, from a breakdown of your heart activity including heart rate, HRV, SpO2, blood pressure, and skin temperature, to a comprehensive analysis of your sleep across wakeful, REM, core, and deep sleep stages.
Maximize your fitness gains with advanced exercise metrics.
Turn the ‘bezel’ or Turn Wheel on the Ring One and it instantly goes into workout tracking mode, letting you get a comprehensive breakdown of your exercise routine by measuring your heart rate, steps taken, calories burnt, and overall strain index. It even goes as far as recommending how much you should strain yourself on a given day as per your sleep score, ensuring your body is well-rested enough for a rigorous workout. For women wearers, the Ring One serves as an effective period tracking device, letting you know well in advance of your cycle status.
Enjoy secure and convenient payments.
Quite like any wearable, the Ring One prides itself in versatility too. Rotate the Turn Wheel further and it turns into an NFC-enabled payment device that lets you tap to pay at terminals and other POS systems. The Ring One app lets you store all your favorite cards, and lets you directly tap-to-pay with them through the ring itself.
Use Ring One as your car key.
Once you’ve made the payment, rotate the ring to ‘lock’ it so it doesn’t tap anywhere else by accident – similar to simply putting your card back in your wallet. The NFC feature extends to car keys too, supported by the Digital Key 2.0 specification. Feed the details into the app and you can use your Ring One to unlock your Tesla, Hyundai, and other compliant cars.
An iconic charging case.
Despite its ridiculously small size, the Ring One boasts an impressive 7-day battery life even when kept running all day long. Its data gets beamed to the smartphone app in real-time, letting you see your stats at any given point of the day as well as from your history. A proprietary dock lets you charge your Ring One when not in use or when its battery gets depleted. Place the ring in it and it wirelessly begins juicing your wearable’s battery. The dock has a light to let you know your Ring One’s charging status, and even has a built-in tweeter that lets you ‘ring’ your Ring One from your phone just in case you can’t find the dock with the Ring One on it.
The slick Ring One comes in a variety of finishes, from a nude steel to an anodized black, gold, and even a rose-gold finish with a choice between a black or a white band running around the center. The Ring One starts at a discounted $172 for any of the titanium-based variants, but if you’re looking to really bling up your wearable, Ring One’s makers will craft a solid 18-carat gold Ring One wearable for you for $599 just in case you want to treat yourself to a bit of jewelry, or want to surprise your partner with an eternal symbol of love and overall health and wellness!
Smart wearables and activity trackers are en vogue these days, but with few exceptions, most of them seem to be hyper-focused on the “activity” part of our fitness. Sure, being active and burning calories is always a good thing, especially considering the sedentary lifestyles that most people adopt, but these aren’t the only factors that will keep you living healthy and enjoying life longer. Sleep and recovery, stress and relaxation, and even the coffee you drink all contribute to your overall health, and the Ultrahuman Ring AIR provides a window into those metrics with a stylish wearable that’s so lightweight and comfortable that you might even forget you’re wearing one.
Activity trackers, which evolved from single-purpose pedometers, are nothing new. They come in different forms, from smart bands to smartwatches to the new breed of smart rings, but they have many common characteristics. They’re designed to detect your activity and your body’s vitals as they’re related to those activities, sometimes with some sleep tracking on the side. The latter, unfortunately, doesn’t get as much attention as sweating it out during the day, which further feeds the misunderstanding that sleep is something you can cut down if you need more hours in a day. The Ultrahuman Ring AIR, however, takes a very different approach, one that places sleep above all to provide a more holistic view of your current health so that you can take the necessary steps to improve it.
Sleep Index – Derived to help you understand the various sleep stages such as Deep sleep, REM sleep, Light sleep and being Awake.
Circadian Phase Alignment – A way to sync with your body’s natural rhythm. Analyse temperature minima, align your lifestyle and optimise your sleep-wake cycle for improved cognitive function, energy levels, and hormone balance.
Recovery Score – Derived from a blend of key metrics, including Heart Rate Variability (HRV), Heart Rate, and Skin Temperature, this score provides insights into various signals your body sends throughout the day, enabling a deeper comprehension of its needs.
Movement Index – The score is based on metabolic equivalent (METs) and depends on how much you move throughout the day rather than just your workout for a specific duration during the day.
Stimulant Window Recommender – Designed to optimize your stimulant consumption for enhanced productivity and sleep management.
The Ultrahuman Ring AIR gives due importance to your sleep index, which gives insight not just into your sleep length but also to sleep efficiency, restfulness, consistency, and other markers that indicate the quality of your rest. It also gives you a Recovery Score, using body signals like heart rate variability (HRV) and skin temperature to detect your levels of stress. Of course, it doesn’t just tell you that you’re stressed but also offers concrete ways to calm down, harnessing a huge library of premium content from athletes and experts available on the Ultrahuman app. Ultrahuman even has a “Stimulant Window Recommender” that tells you the best time to drink your favorite coffee blend to have the best effect on your productivity. It also features a revolutionary Circadian Phase Alignment that helps you sync with your natural body rhythm, optimizing your sleep-wake cycle for improved cognitive functions and more balanced health. There’s also Phase Advance that nudges you to move and enjoy healthy sunlight to help shift your sleep schedule earlier. There are even more features coming, including respiratory rate and that oh-so-desirable blood pressure measurement.
Water Resistance – Provides reliable water resistance up to ~330 feet.
Of course, none of this valuable information would matter if your smart ring didn’t make it to the end of the day or didn’t make it out of the swimming pool. Thankfully, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR is not only elegant but also long-lasting, both inside and out. It has an advertised battery life of 6 days, ensuring that you get the most out of all the metrics that it can collect 24 hours a day. The tungsten carbide that coats the titanium outer shell provides a double layer of durability, while its water resistance enables you to wear it for a swim or a shallow dive to a depth of 330 meters. Despite all this toughness, the smooth, hypoallergenic inner shell and lightweight construction make it a joy to wear all throughout the day, especially when you’re sleeping at night.
Being more aware of one’s health is a great thing, but it’s easy to overlook or even take for granted how sleep and recovery play a critical role in our well-being. With the Ultrahuman Ring AIR and the Ultrahuman app’s extensive wealth of knowledge and content, you can get a more holistic grasp of your body’s state and take well-informed steps to make sure that you’re living your healthiest so that you can live life to the fullest.
Stylish minimalist design with a lightweight construction and multiple size options
Incredibly long battery life (even more with the case)
Can be worn while swimming, taking a bath, or washing dishes
No subscription fee required for full data access
CONS:
Prone to scratches
Syncing requires the mobile app to be running
RATINGS:
AESTHETICS
ERGONOMICS
PERFORMANCE
SUSTAINABILITY / REPAIRABILITY
VALUE FOR MONEY
EDITOR'S QUOTE:
With an elegant and comfortable design and a battery that lasts for almost a week, the RingConn focuses on the essential parts of your health without getting in the way of your life.
The past years have seen an increased interest in personal fitness and health, both physical and mental, which has finally given smartwatches a reason to exist in the market for good. These wrist-worn smart devices have become miniature health clinics that take note of your body’s condition and state and offer some interpretation of this data. But despite smartwatches becoming a bit more stylish than their ancestors, not everyone is comfortable wearing one or is willing to give up a favored timepiece just to keep tabs on their health. The need for discretion and comfort has given rise to a new breed of fitness wearable, one that can be worn discreetly on one’s finger. RingConn is the latest to dip its finger into this niche and nascent market, so we decided to put it on to see if it’s just another “also ran” or if it has the potential to truly change the smart wearable landscape.
Right off the bat, you’ll notice and probably appreciate how simple the RingConn is; a breath of fresh air compared to the sophisticated smartwatches that brands recommend we wear to track our health regularly. It’s the perfect compromise for someone who does want to monitor their activities and sleep without being physically and mentally burdened by the complications of a smartwatch. The ring is a simple circle, though not a perfect round shape because of a subtly flat bottom. Fortunately, you won’t exactly notice that unless you examine the ring closely, and its minimalist design is enough to give the illusion of being anything but a gadget.
Simple doesn’t mean bland, however, and the RingConn definitely brings a touch of class to its appearance. Made from titanium on the outside, the ring is both durable and lightweight, so it doesn’t actually feel that substantial when worn on any finger. It comes in three stylish color options, with Moonlit Silver and Pale Gold gold offering a more luxurious character not unlike fine jewelry. Midnight Black, on the other hand, is more subdued and discreet, a better fit for those who don’t want to call too much attention to the ring.
The ring, however, is rather thick, and that makes it really noticeable even on larger fingers. That’s especially true if placed beside regular rings, especially wedding bands. It isn’t exactly an eyesore, but it does have some significant implications. For example, that does mean that it’s more likely to come in contact with some surface or object compared to thin rings, which introduces risks of scratching. The RingConn’s durability unfortunately only applies to its structural integrity, not to its shiny surface. These two factors together mean that the ring is more likely to get scuffs and scratches during the course of a few days, and the black model is apparently more prone to this than the other two colors. It’s not a complete deal-breaker, but it should give wearers fewer reasons to panic once the scratches start to show in just a few days or weeks.
The charging case mirrors the ring’s minimalist bent, made from matte aluminum that gives the accessory an elegant appearance and a solid build. Each case is made for a specific ring size, so the ring fits perfectly around the charging dock and won’t jump around when the case is placed inside your bag or pocket. Although it can easily slip into your pocket, it’s not as compact as, say, an AirPods charging case. RingConn could have probably made it a bit smaller by sacrificing some battery capacity and it wouldn’t have negatively affected the ring’s performance too much.
Ergonomics
One of the problems with smartwatches is that even the lightest of them tend to be heavier than traditional watches because of the electronics and batteries they have to bear. Even those already used to wearing timepieces on their wrists might still find that too uncomfortable, which makes them even more wary of parting with their favorite, lightweight watch. With its incredibly light body and small footprint, the RingConn doesn’t have that problem and stays out of your way, at least most of the time.
The ring doesn’t bear down on your finger, but it’s not completely unnoticeable either. Its larger-than-normal size easily makes its presence known, but its thickness is what really calls your attention to it from time to time. You will hear it tap on surfaces when you place your hand down, and you will feel it when you grip something tightly. It’s not a painful nor an uncomfortable experience, but it becomes a constant reminder that you’re wearing something unconventional on your finger.
Unlike smartwatches that have an almost “one size fits all” design, rings have to fit a finger to avoid it falling off or, conversely, affecting blood circulation. This is especially true for these smart rings that need to be in contact with a specific side of your finger for their sensors to work properly, which means they can’t be too loose either. Fortunately, RingConn is available in no less than nine sizes and will ship you a sizing kit to test which size is the perfect fit for you. The good news is that the ring can be placed on any hand and any finger, though it’s recommended to place it on your non-dominant hand so that movements won’t throw the activity tracker off.
That said, you need to be mindful that the sensors are always at the bottom side of your finger, and there is unfortunately no external marking to help you know which side is which at a very quick glance. The ring has a tendency to roll on your finger in the course of your use, so you have to check once in a while to see that it’s still in the proper position. The top of the ring is designed with a convex surface, compared to the flatter bottom side, so that would clue you in on which side is which. There are flashing red and green lights on the side of the sensors, but you won’t easily see them unless it’s dark.
Although the RingConn can be worn 24/7, thanks to its durability and water resistance, you should also take it off once in a while to let the skin underneath breathe. This is especially important since the plastic surface of the ring’s underside can trap moisture between it and your skin, which could lead to skin problems if left unchecked. Although it’s not necessary to charge the ring daily, as we’ll see later, there might be moments when you can take it off and place it on its charging case, like when you’re taking a shower, to give your finger’s skin a break.
Performance
A smart ring’s purpose is to offer fitness tracking and health monitoring features in a more discreet and stylish form. Given the need to be small, however, it’s understandable that there would be some sacrifices to be made compared, eschewing features that might be a staple on smartwatches. That said, the RingConn delivers the most critical information you need to keep a finger on your health, without the cruft that smartwatches also bring in the name of adding more features.
As far as sensors go, the RingConn has a heart rate sensor, a blood oxygen sensor, a skin temperature sensor, and a 3D accelerometer. These might sound basic, but these four alone can already draw a very comprehensive picture of your health every day, including your activity and steps, your heart rate variability or HRV, your stress levels, and your sleep quality. The RingConn can gather data 24/7, as long as you’re wearing it, and provide you the information that you need to make sense of all those numbers. As for the data it does provide, the RingConn yields pretty accurate readings, though there’s some margin of error for activity tracking due to how we move our fingers more often than our wrists. The wearable shines the most when tracking sleep, because it is on a more convenient body part for the sensors to function and because it’s more comfortable to wear to bed than a watch.
All this information is available in the RingConn mobile app, which is a treasure trove of knowledge about your current state as well as advice on how to improve your health. Although the app is full of numbers and graphs, it also has summaries and detailed explanations that provide more actionable knowledge you can adopt. The best part of it is that all of that knowledge isn’t gated behind a subscription fee. The price that you pay for the RingConn is the only cost you’ll have, and all the data can be accessed freely forever.
There are a few things about the mobile app you’ll need to keep in mind when using the RingConn. In order for the smart ring to sync its data, the app must be running, at least in the background. Unfortunately, some manufacturers have aggressive memory and battery management systems that would kill the RingConn app unless you explicitly tell it not to. The RingConn does have enough space for 7 days’ worth of health data, but by then it will struggle to sync with the app, so you might want to open the app regularly just to make sure the data it has is fresh. A recent June update also finally added low battery push notifications so you won’t have to worry about running empty when you least expect it.
Fortunately, you don’t actually have to charge the RingConn that much. Your mileage may vary depending on how active you are, but the ring’s battery lasted an average of six days before it needs to be topped up. Charging the ring takes a little over 90 minutes, at least if you’re going from empty to full. If you take the ring off a few minutes each day and put it on the charger, your uptime will be even longer. The charging is advertised to charge the RingConn up to 15 times, which means it could take three months before you actually run out of juice completely. The charger takes a bit slower to fill up, around 2 hours give or take.
Sustainability
The RingConn’s use of titanium for the ring’s body and aluminum for the charging case scores the brand some points in this area, but not by much. The box, though simple, isn’t exactly compact, and yet it doesn’t ship with a charging brick either. There’s no mention of the use of recycled plastics, which is a bit of a missed opportunity considering the ring needs very little in the first place. Then again, RingConn most likely focused first on using a non-allergenic inner molding for the wearer’s comfort and safety.
The ring is at least built to last, thanks to its durable titanium composition as well as its IP68 dust and water resistance rating. This means that the RingConn is safe to use under the shower, while washing dishes, or even taking a swim. It should be noted, however, that the IP68 rating does still have some limitations, particularly with the kind of water the device will be subjected to. RingConn warns against using the product in humid and steamy environments like baths, and abrasive salt water is a big no-no as well.
Value
The RingConn definitely sounds like a dream come true: a non-obtrusive and stylish accessory that lets you track important health markers while letting you still wear your favorite wristwatch. While it definitely delivers that, it should also be clear that it isn’t a smartwatch replacement, at least not entirely. The RingConn will be missing out on a few features given size constraints, though some of those might not be too much of a concern for most people. It doesn’t have sensors for ECG/EKG for warning against irregular heart rhythms or arrhythmia, for example. Nor does it have any form of GPS that would let you leave your phone at home while you go for a run.
Most importantly, it doesn’t have any sort of haptic feedback to call your attention to notifications on your phone. Nor does it have any sort of light indicator, let alone a screen. This, however, might actually be a selling point because it doesn’t bring all of the distractions that a smartwatch brings to your life, allowing you to just focus on keeping an eye on your body and nothing else.
The $279 price tag might seem a little steep at first, but it’s a one-time cost that doesn’t have any hidden subscription fees attached. That amount gets you an elegant though slightly large ring that can do most of what smartwatches can, but without the unnecessary complications and distractions, days of battery life, and unfettered access to your data. In that regard, the RingConn is practically a steal.
Verdict
It sadly took a pandemic to make people painfully aware of the unfavorable state of their health, giving rise to plenty of new products and programs that try to cash in on the rising fitness trend. These novel designs sometimes tend to be more complicated than they need to be, trying to sell you the kitchen sink when all you need is a spoon. Smartwatches have become more advanced, more capable, and thankfully more aesthetic, but they have also started to become more intrusive and more complicated than ever.
The RingConn Smart Ring makes a clean break from that trend and presents a minimalist design that provides the important essentials in health tracking. It’s comfortable, lightweight, and discreet, allowing you to wear it almost 24/7 to get the best health data all the time. It doesn’t get in the way of your mobility or your style, and, most importantly, it doesn’t hold your own data hostage behind a subscription. It lets you be aware of your health in a simple and elegant way that reflects the RingConn’s own simple and elegant design.
