Samsung Galaxy Ring beats an Apple Watch in one big way – and it’s not sleep tracking

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Samsung Galaxy Ring delivers a sensible ring that’s excellent at total wellness monitoring, particularly for delivering actionable insights concerning the information it collects that will help you enhance areas of your well being that might use some consideration.
• Individuals fascinated with digital well being monitoring will respect the Galaxy Ring’s minimalism, consolation, lengthy battery life, and lack of notifications in comparison with sporting a smartwatch.
• At $399, the Galaxy Ring is costlier than a few of its rivals, however it doesn’t require a $5.99-per-month subscription like its greatest rival, Oura; and whereas Oura Rings begin at $299, among the nicer finishes price greater than comparable Galaxy Ring variations. 

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Wearable applied sciences have seized 2024 as their second to shine, with the stunning recognition of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, the long-awaited arrival of the Apple Vision Pro, and now an rising runaway hit within the Samsung Galaxy Ring.

Additionally: We’ve entered the era of the smart ring. Here’s how it will shake up the wearables market

The good ring market has been dominated by startups like Oura and former pioneer Motiv for the previous decade, however Samsung is the primary large tech firm to launch a hoop of its personal, taking the good ring to new heights.

I’ve used a matte black dimension 10 Galaxy Ring ($399) on my index finger for the previous two weeks — after testing the matte black Oura Horizon Stealth ($449) for the previous month and the Motiv ring for about six months again in 2018. I’ve additionally been a perennial Apple Watch person because it launched in 2015 and a Fitbit person for a number of years earlier than that.

Additionally: ZDNET’s picks for the best smart rings you can buy

I have been very stunned at how polished and helpful the Galaxy Ring is. It would not really feel in any respect like a 1.0 product. Samsung has clearly taken the teachings from different good rings and smartwatches and delivered a tool that’s fantastically designed, straightforward to make use of, and communicates well being info in methods which are as helpful as any health tracker available on the market.

Actually, I believed the Galaxy AI stamp on the Galaxy Ring was principally Samsung advertising, however relating to the general “Vitality” rating that the ring offers you — in addition to the sleep and stress reporting within the Samsung Well being app — it delivers far more actionable insights than I’ve ever gotten from the Apple Watch.

For instance, in the future I checked out my Vitality rating of 78 within the app, and it was “Good” however on the decrease finish of fine, which was according to my notion of how I felt that morning. After I clicked into the Vitality rating, I discovered varied metrics that contributed to it. Most of them have been associated to sleep, however my lowest one was “Earlier day exercise.” It famous that my “moderate-to-vigorous train time” was solely six minutes and really helpful that I improve that to 33 to 87 minutes. So I bought extra disciplined about persistently rising my cardio, which had the meant impact of giving me an vitality enhance — albeit for the brief interval I examined the product.

I additionally discovered that the Galaxy Ring tracks stress precisely. It makes use of coronary heart charge variability (HRV) from its optical bio-signal sensor — a really fancy title for its coronary heart sensor. After I see my stress stage spiking within the app, I can open a guided deep respiration session instantly throughout the app. In that “Breathe” part of the app, you can too set the variety of respiration cycles and the time per cycle, which helps you to customise how lengthy you wish to do the workouts and the way a lot you wish to decelerate your coronary heart charge to hack your stress stage. 

The Apple Watch may monitor HRV and has a helpful guided respiration train in its Mindfulness app. Actually, I’ve written about how these Apple Watch tools helped me uncover my toxic stress level and improve it. Apple, nevertheless, has by no means constructed these options into its smartwatch software program, doesn’t particularly name out stress, and would not tie its information into helpful well being insights or teaching ideas. 

The design and construct high quality of the Samsung Galaxy Ring additionally impressed me. It is somewhat bit thinner and lighter than the Oura ring and many of the different good rings. The Ultrahuman Ring Air is essentially the most comparable in dimension and weight.

The opposite distinctive design characteristic of the Galaxy Ring is that it is barely concave, which ought to assist shield it in opposition to long-term scuffs and scratches. The Galaxy Ring additionally comes with a singular case and charging resolution. The case is evident, has a battery, and prices independently of the ring so as to recharge wirelessly on the go — in comparison with different ring chargers which are all docks that should be charged through a wired cable.

Additionally: This smart ring for fitness freaks nearly beats Oura. Here’s how

Like most different good rings, the Galaxy Ring is each a posh piece of know-how miniaturized into an impossibly small package deal whereas additionally being a comparatively easy gadget that options three sensors which have been round for a very long time: an accelerometer, a pores and skin temperature sensor, and a coronary heart charge sensor. As talked about above, Samsung’s coronary heart sensor is named an optical bio-signal sensor and is among the most superior coronary heart sensors available on the market, as Samsung has been investing in well being tech for years in its varied smartwatches.

That additionally brings us to one of many Galaxy’s Ring’s greatest drawbacks: the truth that its exercise sensor tends to overestimate steps by about 10%, in my testing. It was off by much more within the first few days I attempted the ring, overestimating steps by 20% in comparison with what was tracked by the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Oura Ring I wore on the similar time to gut-check it. The Galaxy Ring appeared to regulate over time and there have been days when it was solely about 5% larger, however it was nonetheless all the time above the step rely of the Apple Watch and the Oura Ring. An exercise tracker that overestimates your exercise would possibly make you are feeling higher and extra assured however may negatively influence your progress to your total well being and health targets. 

The opposite large disadvantage of the Galaxy Ring is that it’s Android-only and most built-in with Samsung smartphones and smartwatches. Android customers on non-Samsung telephones will nonetheless profit from the perfect options of the Galaxy Ring, however iOS customers might want to go in a unique route. Fortunately, we’ve got a couple of recommendations in that realm.

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

The software program on the Galaxy Ring is smarter than my Apple Watch — and I by no means anticipated that will be one among my conclusions from this overview. The AI-powered insights within the Samsung Well being app present extra instantly actionable info from the Galaxy Ring than I’ve ever gotten from Apple. So, if you would like extra actionable well being and wellness insights than you get from the most well-liked smartwatch — and you’ve got an Android telephone — then the Galaxy Ring could possibly be the product you’ve got been ready for. It additionally would not have a show to distract you and solely must be charged each 4 to seven days. 

Should you’re studying a few good ring, then there is a good likelihood that you just’re as a result of 1.) you’d somewhat put on a hoop than a smartwatch, or 2.) you would like to trace your sleep (and good rings are typically higher sleep trackers than smartwatches), or 3.) you are a lady who wish to use a sensible ring for cycle monitoring to optimize your well being. The Galaxy Ring is a wonderful selection for the primary two choices, and ZDNET’s good ring skilled Nina Raemont goes to observe up along with her cycle monitoring evaluation of the Galaxy Ring in comparison with the opposite good ring choices.

Should you’re an iPhone person and also you need the advantages of a tool just like the Galaxy Ring, ZDNET recommends the Ultrahuman Ring Air or the Oura Ring, since each work effectively with Apple’s iOS.