Samsung has been leaking information about its first smart ring, the Galaxy Ring, since January of last year. Today (Wednesday), at the official launch event at the Louvre in Paris, Samsung officially announced the new ring’s features and provided more details about its expected launch in several countries around the world later this month. In the meantime, Israelis will have to wait for the next round of launches of the ring.
The main idea of the Galaxy Ring is its comfort. It is designed for users who don’t want to walk around with a smartwatch on their wrist, especially while sleeping, or find it uncomfortable. I wear the Ultrahuman ring, but the Samsung ring is narrower and less showy on my finger. (Credit: Samsung)
Do you have a Samsung Watch? The Ring will help extend your battery life
The ring makes it easier to monitor your sleep and also offers a longer battery life than the watch. The ring has about seven days of battery life, compared to only one or two days on some watches. Users who also own a Samsung watch will get about 30% more battery life from their watch, as some of the monitoring is done by the ring.
The ring weighs just 2.3-3 grams, has a concave design and is available in silver, gold and black with a titanium finish. The ring is water resistant up to 100 meters (10 ATM) and is available in 9 different sizes (you will need to choose the appropriate size from the measuring kit).
Like the Samsung watch, the ring also works with the Samsung Health health app, and Samsung stresses that the information the app provides doesn’t require a subscription fee — in contrast to the current market leader, Oura, which charges a subscription fee for various uses of its application.
The ring and app provide insights into your sleep, including your sleep patterns and tips to develop better habits, such as a sleep score that lets you easily understand if your night’s sleep was effective, measurements of your movements while you sleep, your heart rate, breathing rate while you sleep, and cycle tracking with overnight skin temperature monitoring.
Every morning, the app provides a health report with various health indicators. The energy score provides recommendations on your current physical condition and is calculated by assessing your physical and mental state in four aspects: sleep, activity, heart rate during sleep, and heart rate variability during sleep. Additionally, you can receive personalized messages with wellness tips (quality of life advice) based on your personal information and interests. (Credit: Samsung)
The app will tell you where the ring is
Additional information you get from the ring and app: heart rate alerts for especially high or low heart rates, walking and running tracking to help you maintain an active lifestyle and stay motivated, automatic workout detection and daily fitness reminders with alerts for inactivity (for example, if you’re sitting down for long periods of time at work), and more.
The ring is also used as a remote control to take photos with your smartphone using finger gestures – you can also cancel phone notifications this way.
One of the annoying things about smart rings is, of course, how easy it is to lose them, and Samsung has integrated a “Find My Ring” feature into the Galaxy Ring that will show you the exact location of your ring.
