It outperforms the Apple Watch by a small margin…

The Samsung Galaxy Ring has an impressive concave design and a unique wireless charging case. Jason Hiner/ZDNET

Wearable tech has had a great year in 2024, with the surprising popularity of Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses, the long-awaited arrival of the Apple Vision Pro, and now the runaway success of the Samsung Galaxy Ring, at least in the US.

The smart ring market has been dominated by startups like Oura and former pioneer Motiv over the past decade, but Samsung is the first major tech company to launch its own ring, taking interest in smart rings to new heights.

I’ve been using a size 10 matte black Galaxy ring on my index finger for the past two weeks, after testing the matte black Oura Horizon Stealth for the past month and the Motiv ring for about six months in 2018. I’ve also been a lifelong Apple Watch user since its launch in 2015, as well as a FitBit user for several years.

The three key points of the Samsung Galaxy Ring connected ring

• The Samsung Galaxy Ring is a smart ring that is remarkable for tracking overall wellness, particularly for providing actionable insights into the data it collects to help you improve areas of your health that might need some attention.
• Those interested in digital health tracking will appreciate the Galaxy Ring’s minimalism, comfort, battery life, and lack of notifications compared to wearing a smartwatch.
• The Samsung Galaxy Ring costs more than some of its competitors, but it doesn’t require a $6 monthly subscription like its biggest rival, the Oura. And while Oura rings start at $330, some of the finest finishes cost more than comparable versions of the Galaxy Ring.

I was very surprised by how sophisticated and useful the Galaxy Ring is. This is not a 1.0 product at all. Samsung has clearly learned from other smartwatches and rings and delivered a magnificent copy, one that is easy to use and communicates health information in a way that is as useful as any fitness tracker on the market.

I actually thought the Galaxy AI branding on the Galaxy Ring was mostly Samsung’s marketing ploy, but when it comes to the overall “energy” score the ring gives you (along with sleep and stress reports in the Samsung Health app), it provides much more actionable insights than I’ve ever gotten from the Apple Watch.

Wearables are all the rage: Apple Watch Ultra, Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses and Samsung Galaxy Ring. Photo by Jason Hiner/ZDNET.

For example, one day I looked at my energy score of 78 in the app and it was “good,” but on the low end of the scale, which was consistent with my perception of how I felt that morning. When I clicked on the energy score, I found several different metrics that contributed to it. Most of them were sleep-related, but the lowest was “Previous Day Activity.” It noted that my “moderate to vigorous exercise time” was only 6 minutes and recommended increasing that to 33-87 minutes. So I disciplined myself more by regularly increasing my heart rate, which had the desired effect of giving me an energy boost, albeit only for the short time I was testing the product.

I also found that the Galaxy Ring accurately detects stress. It uses heart rate variability (HRV) from its optical bio-signal sensor, which is a very fancy name for its heart rate sensor. When I see my stress levels spike in the app, I can then initiate a guided deep breathing session right in the app. In the “Breathe” section of the app, you can set the number of breaths and the length of each breath, allowing you to customize how long the exercises last and how much your heart rate slows down to reduce your stress levels.

For optimal scanning, the Galaxy Ring sensors should always be placed under the finger.
Kerry Wan/ZDNET

I was also impressed with the design and build quality of the Samsung Galaxy Ring. It’s a bit thinner and lighter than the Oura Ring and most other smart rings. The Ultrahuman Ring Air is the most comparable in size and weight. But the other unique feature of the Galaxy Ring is that it’s slightly concave, which should help protect it from scuffs and scratches in the long run. The Galaxy Ring also comes with a unique case and charging device. The case is transparent, has a battery, and charges independently of the ring, allowing you to wirelessly charge the device on the go, unlike other rings that have docks or need to be charged with a cable.

Like most other smart rings, the Galaxy Ring is both a complex piece of technology miniaturized into an incredibly small package and a relatively simple device with three sensors that have been around for a long time: an accelerometer, a skin temperature sensor, and a heart rate sensor. As mentioned above, Samsung’s heart rate sensor is called an Optical BioSignal Sensor and is one of the most advanced heart rate sensors on the market, with Samsung investing in health tech for years in its various smartwatches.

The Samsung Health app provides helpful insights and workout tips based on your data. Screenshot by Jason Hiner/ZDNET

But that also brings us to one of the Galaxy Ring’s biggest drawbacks: the fact that its activity tracker tends to overestimate steps by about 10%, in my testing. The discrepancy was even greater in the early days of testing, overestimating steps by 20% compared to what was being tracked by the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Oura Ring I wore at the same time to test it. The Galaxy Ring seemed to adjust over time, and on some days it was only about 5% higher, but it was still above the step counts of the Apple Watch and Oura. A tracker that overestimates your activity may make you feel better and more confident, but it could negatively impact your progress toward your overall health and fitness goals.

The other major downside to Galaxy Ring is that it’s exclusive to Android users and is mostly integrated into Samsung smartphones and smartwatches. Android users with non-Samsung smartphones will still be able to enjoy the best features of Galaxy Ring, but iOS users will have to go another route. Luckily, we have a few recommendations in this area.

Buying advice for the Samsung Galaxy Ring smart ring

The Galaxy Ring’s software is smarter than my Apple Watch’s, and I didn’t expect that to be one of the conclusions of this review. The AI ​​in the Samsung Health app provides more actionable information directly from the Galaxy Ring than I’ve ever gotten from Apple. If you want more actionable insights into your health and well-being than the most popular smartwatches provide, and you have an Android smartphone, the Galaxy Ring might be the product you’ve been waiting for. Plus, there’s no screen to distract you, and it only needs to be charged every four to seven days.

If you’re an iPhone user and want the benefits of a device similar to the Galaxy Ring, ZDNET recommends the Ultrahuman Ring Air or the Oura Ring, as both work well with Apple’s iOS.