2024-07-26 15:00:34| Engadget
I dont expect much from a device as small as a ring. Theres no room for a lot of hardware, so it only really needs to do a few things well. A sleep tracker that doesnt get in the way of, well, sleeping, is my holy grail, and smart rings are a tantalizing option. Samsungs Galaxy Ring promises to monitor my slumber and log my daily activity, and do so comfortably and unobtrusively, all for $400. Thats $100 more than its closest competitor, the Oura Ring, though the latter charges an additional $6 a month to use its software. Oura has been around for over five years, and in that time, it has developed more sophisticated ways to deliver insights to its customers, while Samsung is just starting. But for a debut effort, the Galaxy Ring has been a surprisingly informative health-tracking device for those with compatible Samsung phones.
The Galaxy Rings weight and design
Of all the wearables available, rings are among the smallest and lightest. My Galaxy Ring is a size seven, which is the third tiniest Samsung makes. That puts it at about 2.3 grams, or just under 0.1 ounces light, which is about half the 4 to 6 grams that Ouras rings weigh, depending on their size.
Thanks to that lack of weight and the devices slim profile, I barely feel it on my finger when trying to fall asleep, which, for a sensitive sleeper like me, is a huge deal. The only thing that sometimes bothers me are the red and green LEDs flashing in my dark bedroom, but theyre not so bright to keep me up after I close my eyes.
Im extremely finicky, and dont like wearing a ring when my hands are even the slightest bit wet, so I frequently took the wearable off. But if youre less sensitive than me, youll be happy to know the Galaxy Ring will survive soap and running water. I wore it while washing my hands a few times, taking the ring off afterwards for my fingers to fully dry. When I eventually put the device back on after having applied lotion and sunscreen, I was happy to see that the creams did not get in the way of its sensors getting readings.
Because I frequently took the ring on and off, I did have mini panic attacks a few times when I thought it fell out of my pocket. Thankfully, in those situations, I was able to use Samsungs location-tracking app to see that it wasnt too far away and was likely in my pants. The problem with the rings lack of components, though, is that I cant play an audible alarm to help find it.
That absence of features is a compromise Im happy to make in exchange for the Galaxy Rings barely-there footprint. What Samsung does offer here also feels good enough for a basic health tracker, though it does pale in comparison to the competition.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
The Galaxy Ring as a sleep tracker
Ive mostly used the Galaxy Ring to track my sleep and general activity, since it doesnt log any workout beyond walking and running. For the most part, all I really have to do with the ring is make sure I place it on my index finger, where it fits more snugly than the middle. This helps ensure my blood oxygen readings are accurate, or I end up with numbers that are wildly low.
Beyond that, I spent most of my testing time on Samsungs Wear and Health apps, poring over my sleep data. Weve come a long way since the early days where Fitbits only looked at the duration of your rest, guessing based on how still you are whether youve fallen asleep. These days, using your heart rate to determine whether youre in REM or deep sleep is table stakes, and on that front Samsung delivers as expected.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
I obviously cant tell you what stages Im in as I sleep, but I did like that Samsung not only presents the data clearly, but also adds helpful context. It tells me why its important to have time in the REM zone, and whether 11 minutes in deep sleep was enough for recovery. The app also helps me understand how I compare to other people, without me having to navigate to a separate app or browser. I did find that the Ring noted accurately what times I fell asleep and awoke, and even logged a midday nap in the app (though it didnt show sleep cycle data for that period).
It took a few days, but once a baseline was established, the Galaxy Ring started telling me what my skin temperature was throughout the night, highlighting my peak and lowest numbers. Ive been pleasantly surprised to find that my coldest temperature to date has been on one night in Singapore, which goes against my assumption that the local heat and humidity would affect these readings.
Its been mollifying to see that my stats seem normal, although my blood oxygen levels have varied wildly depending on which finger I wear the ring on. Its even gone as low as 76 percent, which would be concerning, but Ive stopped caring much about that section of my sleep insights, since it seems my review unit might be a little loose.
You dont have to spend as much time as I do digging into the numbers Samsung, like most other modern sleep-tracking services, will assign a sleep score to tell you how well you slept. There are also graphs to help you understand your trends at a glance.
Its important to note that Samsung said the energy score, sleep tracking and Wellness Tips features are based on Galaxy AI, meaning theyll require a Galaxy phone, Samsung Health app and Samsung account to work.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
The Galaxy Ring as an activity tracker
Samsungs ring might not track a wide variety of exercises, but the data it does gather is surprisingly comprehensive. I was fully expecting the walks it automatically detected to only show me basic stats like duration and, perhaps, step count. But it actually presented my average speed, cadence, heart rate, heart rate zones, calories burned and distance traveled too.
Im pretty impressed, but I must point out that Oura offers a Workout heart rate feature that lets you manually start and end heart-rate tracking sessions from your phone. It also automatically detects at least 40 different activities, including yardwork, cycling, snowboarding, horseback riding and HIIT. Oura also frequently adds new metrics like cardiovascular age and capacity, as well as experimental features like Symptom Radar to guess when you might not be feeling well. Its ahead of Samsung in the game here and seems to be fighting to keep that gap open. I guess if youre going to pay an extra $6 a month, you better get a significantly superior service.
In my experience, both Samsung and Oura are fairly accurate at tracking activity. In the last few days, Ive been surprised to see the Galaxy Ring had tracked pretty much every time I went with my parents to a nearby hawker center, even though the walks only took fewer than 10 minutes. Compared to the Apple Watch Series 9 I usually wear, Samsung is more likely to include a short trip in its apps activity log, which was not only more rewarding but also felt like a more complete picture of my day.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
My problems with Samsung Health
One area where the Galaxy Ring (and rings in general) falls short of smartwatches is in delivering any sort of notification. As an activity tracker, this is mainly a problem when it comes to pushing stand reminders. Both Samsung and Oura will serve alerts on your phone when youve been stationary for too long, prompting you to get up and move. Wristworn wearables typically buzz and tell you on the screen, and its a lot harder to miss or ignore them. Ive definitely had a few days where I was in an editing or writing hole and only noticed numerous alerts to move hours later when I looked at my Galaxy phone.
This isnt a major problem, and is another small tradeoff Im happy to accept since the Ring is so small. But I do have two specific complaints for Samsung, and they both pertain to the app. My first issue is the confusing interface for automatic activity detection. When you go into the Rings settings to enable this (which is unfortunately not turned on by default), youll see the words Activities to detect under a tinier label called Auto detect workouts. Next to the larger font is a grayed out toggle that turns blue when you slide it to the right.
Pushing this switch on didnt actually enable the feature. Tapping on the words Activities to detect brought me into a different page with rows for Walking and Running, each accompanied by their own toggles. Youll also have to press each of these activities to go into another page and turn on location tracking. Because of this, I spent my first few days with the Galaxy Ring confused why my walks werent being logged, despite having turned on the main toggle. A better layout with improved organization that requires fewer taps and pages would really help here.
My other gripe is a more specific situation. As Im concurrently testing the Galaxy Watch Ultra, the information collected by that smartwatch is also considered by Samsung Health when calculating my energy score. This is actually a good thing, as Id prefer to use a Galaxy Watch to log my gym sessions and rely on the ring everywhere else. But because the Galaxy Watch Ultra is so inaccurate when its not being worn, it actually recorded random workout sessions, like two bike rides that I never took. This caused the Health app to think I had overexerted myself and it ended up recommending I take it super easy the next day, when in reality I had done very little.
Yes, I can manually delete these entries, but when Im busy and just want to glance at my energy score, this causes confusion. Why was my score so low? Did I somehow sleep poorly? I can already imagine hypochondriacs spiraling if they didnt know what happened.
Luckily, Samsung clearly labels at the bottom of each workout record which device detected the activity. This is unlikely to be a huge problem unless you have both the Galaxy Ring and Watch like I do, and is something that seems easy enough to fix.
Sam Rutherford for Engadget
The Galaxy Rings battery life
Samsung says the Galaxy Ring can deliver continuous usage for up to seven days, and in my experience thats fairly accurate. But youll have to be able to tolerate seeing the battery levels drop all the way to zero to get the full week. In the two weeks or so that Ive worn the ring, it consistently dropped to under 20 percent by day six, and would basically die on day seven.
Charging the devices 18mAh battery shouldnt take too long. Samsung says 30 minutes will get you 40 percent of the way, and when I placed the Ring in its case for about 5 minutes, it went up by two percent. If I hadnt been trying to gauge its battery life for this review, I would probably have recharged it any time I wasnt wearing it, and likely wouldnt have ever run out of juice.
Other issues
For its debut smart ring, Samsungs delivered a satisfactory product that mostly delivers. Compared to the Oura ring, the Galaxy Ring is perfunctory. The ain bonus Samsung had over the competition is its double pinch gesture, that can dismiss alarms or remotely launch the camera on your Samsung phone. I wasnt able to test this feature because I tested the Ring with a Galaxy S24, and its only compatible with the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. Samsung says double-pinch functionality is coming to the S24 lineup soon.
Unlike the Oura ring, Samsungs wearable doesnt work with iPhones, though rumors are rife that iOS support is coming. For now, if youre in Apples ecosystem you wont be able to use the Galaxy Ring. Those who use a Samsung phone are more likely to appreciate the Galaxy Ring most. Other integrations like Find My and Samsung Health are available to anyone that installs the SmartThings app and has a Samsung account.
Wrap-up
Though the Galaxy Ring is fairly basic at the moment, it seems to have a lot of potential. Samsung needs to continue to invest in research to expand the insights it could deliver with the limited set of data the ring collects. Given the companys history with bringing new features to its watches, Health app and the Z series of foldable phones so far, it might just do that. If youre happy to spend $400 on a low-profile wearable sleep tracker that also logs your walks or runs, the Galaxy Ring will do the job.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/samsung-galaxy-ring-review-a-bit-basic-a-bit-pricey-130034811.html?src=rss
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