Samsung’s New Smart Ring Is a Great Way to Get Health Metrics Without Wearing a Watch

The wearables market is undeniably stacked, and pretty much every tech company wants in on it. In most cases, brands have been churning out smartwatches, but in the last few years, another type of device has started to gain steam: the smart ring.

While Oura might have the most name recognition when it comes to smart rings, thanks to high-profile fans like Prince Harry and NBA star Chris Paul, that brand isn’t the only game in town. At the end of July, tech giant Samsung entered the chat when it released its first-ever Galaxy Ring ($400, samsung.com). While I’ve been testing fitness trackers for years, I hadn’t ever tried a ring before. So when I was offered a sample of Samsung’s newest offering, I was eager to put it to the test. I wore the Samsung Ring for eight weeks—here are my honest thoughts.

Ring sizing

Compared to watches, buying a smart ring starts with an added step: You have to make sure it fits. A ring isn’t one-size-fits-all, nor is it adjustable like a watch strap is. Thankfully, Samsung makes this easy for you by offering a free sizing kit.

You’re sent a sampling of nine different sizes (from 5 to 13) to try on. Each tester ring has three little bumps on the inner side where the sensors are on the real Galaxy so you can get a good idea of how the actual device will fit. The brand recommends you wear your intended size for 24 hours (including while you sleep) so you can make sure it’s secure and comfy. In my experience, the sizes run a little smaller than regular rings, so I definitely recommend trying the sample kit versus simply ordering your size right off the bat.

I had a tricky time deciding which size would be best; without half sizes available, I found that the testers were either a little too loose or a little too snug for most of my fingers. I got the closest, most comfortable fit on my ring finger, however, so that was the winner. Note that Samsung recommends wearing the ring on your index finger in order to make use of some extra features, but says any one works.

Unboxing the Galaxy Ring

When my actual ring arrived, it fit as expected—no surprises there. I tried the Titanium Gold style for a test drive, and it basically looks like a chunky wedding band. (If you’re not a gold fan, you also have silver and black to choose from). I have small hands, so the wide ring looked pretty bulky on my finger. For context, it was more than double the width of both my engagement and wedding rings stacked together. If I were choosing a ring based on look alone, I definitely wouldn’t pick something so thick.

Despite its size, the ring was comfortable for everyday wear: I was able to sleep with it, run with it, and bike with it, no problem. But I had to take it off when I went to the gym; it dug into my fingers painfully when I gripped dumbbells, kettlebells, or barbells. Normally I don’t wear any rings while lifting for that reason, but I was hoping the Galaxy Ring would be okay—because, after all, it tracks workouts.

Getting started

My ring came with enough juice to use it immediately, but the charging process was such a nice surprise that I think it deserves its own callout: Unlike lots of fitness wearables that require proprietary cables, the Samsung Ring uses a regular USB-C; you simply snap the device into its cute little charging station (included in your purchase), which looks like a cross between a ring display case at a jewelry store, complete with lights, and a ring box.

Then you’re ready to get started. The Samsung Ring is compatible with phones that run Android 11 or higher—you just need to download two apps. You use Galaxy Wearable to manage your settings, find important updates, check your battery life, and even raise an SOS to find your missing ring (the lights on the inside will start to blink). Then you also need the most up-to-date version of Samsung Health, which is where you find all the important health and fitness data your fun new accessory gathers.

Working out with the Galaxy Ring

Like many wearables, the Galaxy Ring is touted as a health and fitness tracker, so testing it on the move was a must for me. Over my eight-week trial period, I wore it on outdoor runs and walks, indoor cycling, and a couple strength training sessions (before I pulled the plug on that, for the comfort reasons listed above).

A cool thing about the ring: It auto-detects runs and walks, which means you don’t need to open the app (or even have your phone with you at all) to start your workout. However, I noticed that when I relied on this Auto Workout Detection feature, the ring’s distance calculations seemed like more of an approximation, likely because it doesn’t use GPS. Generally I found it to be pretty close, though on some days, there was more discrepancy than others. For instance, the ring logged a 5.06-mile run, which I also measured with my trusty Garmin Venu 3S watch, as 4.93—decently close! But when I ran a 10-mile race on another day, the Galaxy Ring only clocked it as 8.78.

If you are able to bring your phone with you, you’ll get more accurate data. Simply start a run on your Samsung Health app, do your workout, and end the session when you’re done. When I used my phone, my ring logged 5.04 miles compared to 5.17 for my Garmin.

The ring also uses one of its inside sensors to measure heart rate, and I noticed some variation with this too. During my 10-mile race, the ring clocked my average heart rate as 167 beats per minute, while my Garmin had it just one bpm higher at 168. But during an easy four-miler on the boardwalk, my ring listed my average as 118 bpm—a little too easy. My Garmin was more on the money, with an average of 144.

I looked a little closer at my data and noticed something interesting. During that four-miler, the breakdown of time spent in each heart rate zone seemed on the mark. If you look at the graph of the Galaxy’s readings below, you’ll see I spent the largest amount of time in my aerobic zone, between 129 and 146 bpm. Only a tiny smidge was logged in 110–128 (where the 118 average would be smack in the middle). You can see that matches up pretty well with my Garmin. Could it be that the ring’s data was accurate, but its math was off?

(I noticed this issue with heart rate averages several times during my testing period. I asked a rep from Samsung for some intel, and they recommended making sure that the ring fits correctly—snugly, and without gaps—and that the “orientation indicator” line faces toward the palm for proper readings.)

Galaxy Ring health metrics

I think the ring shines in this space—there are a ton of metrics literally at your fingertips. My favorite was the Energy Score, a daily measurement of your physical and mental readiness. Your ring tallies this by analyzing your sleep, activity, and heart rate data from the day before.

When I exercised the prior day, stayed on track with my normal bedtime and wakeup time, and logged restorative sleep, my Energy Score would generally be in the “good” to “excellent” range, in the 80s. If I did a little too much the day before? It’d plummet, telling me that it was time for a day on the couch instead of one on the trails. For instance, the day after a three-hour marathon training run, my Energy Score dropped to a 51—the lowest I’d had to-date.

Click on any of the Energy Score factors in the Galaxy Wearable app and you’ll get a bunch more data: For instance, if you click on “sleep time average,” you’ll see a bar chart of your sleep length duration for the past seven days and how that compares to your average. Click on “bed/wake time consistency,” and you’ll see how your bed/wakeup times for that week compared to your normal.

You can also get more info on your sleeping heart rate and heart rate variability (HRV), two important metrics that can signal not only potential red flags with your exercise routine (too much training with not enough recovery can cause the former to spike and the latter to plummet), but also with illness, which can follow a similar pattern. I caught a nasty respiratory bug in August, and my HRV graph showed a clear picture of my health: The metric dropped while I was fighting off the virus and then rebounded when I recovered.

Another neat thing about the ring is the robust sleep data it provides. It gives you an overall number, sure, but also a scored breakdown of its important components. Some cool ones: physical recovery (it’ll tell you how much deep sleep you got), mental recovery (how much REM sleep and how much time was spent in wakefulness), and restfulness (how much time you actually spend asleep). You’ll also get a breakdown of your sleep stages (which takes into account things like movement, heart rate, and respiration rate) in a nifty graph, the time you spent snoring, your skin temperature while you slept, and your average respiratory rate while sleeping (click on that, and it’ll tell you how it compares to your usual too).

Battery life

I’ve tested a few smartwatches over the years that needed to be charged almost nightly, which I think is a bummer. If you feel similar, the lasting power of the Galaxy Ring will be a plus for you: A single charge will get you pretty much through your workweek. For example, the last time I charged mine up, I got it to 100% on Sunday morning; it didn’t die until Friday.

Price

At $400, the Galaxy Ring isn’t cheap—it’s roughly on par with a higher-end smartwatch ($50 more than the new Google Pixel Watch 3, and $50 less than my Garmin Venu 3S, for instance). To me, that seems kind of pricey for just a ring; it doesn’t have the cool features of a smartwatch, like the ability to answer calls, send texts, or play music.

Compared just to the ring realm, it’s also pretty pricey, coming at $100 more than Oura’s base option. But there’s one cost consideration where it does come out on top: Unlike Oura, which requires a membership fee to access all the cool data ($6 per month), there are no monthly subscription costs with the Galaxy Ring—once you buy it, you’re done!

Bottom line

I was really impressed with the breadth of health metrics the ring offered, and I think it could be a great addition to your wellness tool kit if you’re interested in tracking these data points.

If you’re looking for specific fitness metrics (or how fitness plays a role in your health metrics), you can probably get more intel from a dedicated smartwatch. Take running, for instance: I’ve found GPS-equipped models to more accurately measure distance; if the distance isn’t right, it’ll throw off your numbers for pace, splits, and interval timing. Other wearables and smart devices also offer more info, like elevation gain, power, and stride length, and I’ve found that the watches I’ve tried give a more precise heart rate reading during activity.

I also don’t feel like the ring got a complete picture of my exercise habits because I wasn’t able to wear it while strength training and it doesn’t auto-detect indoor cycling sessions. So for all the days I lifted or cycled, it didn’t “know” I worked out; this affected things like the Energy Score, which takes previous days’ activity into account. For folks who get most of their workouts by walking or running, that’s probably not a big deal, but for gym-goers or fans of other modalities, it could end up missing a lot.

So should you buy it? I’d recommend it as a general tracker for people who are interested in what’s going on with their sleep or overall health—especially if they’re not fans of wearing a watch 24/7 and don’t want the hassle of charging a device nearly every day. The tiny ring does give a nice bang for your buck in all sorts of data points.