I put the Galaxy Ring to the test – and it’s better than my Apple Watch in one critical area

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Samsung Galaxy Ring is a brilliant ring that excels at wellness monitoring, particularly for delivering actionable insights that will help you enhance areas of your well being that would use some consideration.
• Individuals fascinated about digital well being monitoring will admire the Galaxy Ring’s minimalism, consolation, lengthy battery life, and minimal notifications.
• At $399, the Galaxy Ring is costlier than a few of its opponents, nevertheless it doesn’t require a $5.99-per-month subscription like its largest rival, Oura.

extra shopping for selections

Wearable applied sciences made 2024 their second to shine, with the stunning reputation of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, the long-awaited arrival of the Apple Vision Pro, and the then-runaway hit of the Samsung Galaxy Ring.

Additionally: This subscription-free smart ring gave my Oura a run for its money (and it’s cheaper too)

For the previous decade, the good ring market has been dominated by startups like Oura and former pioneer Motiv, however Samsung was one of many first huge tech firms 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 about two weeks in 2024 — after testing the matte black Oura Horizon Stealth ($449) for roughly a 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.

I have been very stunned at how polished and helpful the Galaxy Ring is. It does 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 superbly designed, straightforward to make use of, and communicates well being info in methods which can be as helpful as any health tracker in the marketplace.

The truth is, I believed the Galaxy AI stamp on the Galaxy Ring was principally Samsung advertising, however on the subject of 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, someday I checked out my Vitality rating of 78 within the app, and it was “Good” however on the decrease finish of fine, which was in line with 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 useful that I improve that to 33 to 87 minutes. So I bought extra disciplined about constantly rising my cardio, which had the supposed impact of giving me an power increase — albeit for the brief interval I examined the product.

Additionally: Why I wear this $150 smartwatch even after testing competing Samsung and Garmin models

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

The Apple Watch can even observe HRV and has a helpful guided respiration train in its Mindfulness app. The truth is, 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 does 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 slightly bit thinner and lighter than the Oura ring and a lot of the different good rings. The Ultrahuman Ring Air is probably the most comparable in dimension and weight.

The opposite distinctive design function 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 answer. The case is evident, has a battery, and costs independently of the ring in an effort to recharge wirelessly on the go — in comparison with different ring chargers which can be all docks that must be charged through a wired cable.

Additionally: I spent a weekend with Meta’s new Oakley smart glasses – they beat my Ray-Bans in every way

Like most different good rings, the Galaxy Ring is each a fancy 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 price sensor. As talked about above, Samsung’s coronary heart sensor is named an optical bio-signal sensor and is without doubt one of the most superior coronary heart sensors in the marketplace, as Samsung has been investing in well being tech for years in its varied smartwatches.

That additionally brings us to one of many Galaxy Ring’s largest 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 identical time to gut-check it. The Galaxy Ring appeared to regulate over time, and there have been days when it was solely about 5% greater, nevertheless 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 might negatively impression your progress towards your total well being and health objectives. 

The opposite huge 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 one of the best options of the Galaxy Ring, however iOS customers might want to go in a unique path. 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 might be certainly one of my conclusions from this overview. The AI-powered insights within the Samsung Well being app present extra straight 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 may very well be the product you’ve got been ready for. It additionally does not have a show to distract you and solely must be charged each 4 to seven days. 

Should you’re studying a couple of good ring, then there is a good likelihood that you just’re as a result of 1.) you’d slightly put on a hoop than a smartwatch, or 2.) you would like to trace your sleep (and good rings are usually higher sleep trackers than smartwatches), or 3.) you are a girl who want to use a wise ring for cycle monitoring to optimize your well being. The Galaxy Ring is a superb selection for the primary two choices. Whereas the Galaxy Ring does present cycle monitoring, it solely presents a common overview and is liable to miscalculations, as ZDNET’s good ring professional Nina Raemont factors out.

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

The way it compares

Newest updates:

August 1, 2025: Added a brand new comparability chart evaluating the Samsung Galaxy Ring to its most up-to-date rival: the Oura Ring 4. Oura’s wearable is extra inexpensive, homes sensors that the Galaxy Ring lacks, and has an extended battery life (though this declare is disputed in ZDNET’s review). Outdated hyperlinks have been additionally changed.