Samsung Galaxy Ring Review: My Favorite Smart Ring, Hands Down

Samsung's Galaxy Ring is so comfortable that I keep forgetting it's on my finger. I've lost count of the number of times I've looked down to make sure it's still there. After a week of testing the Galaxy Ring, it's my favorite smart ring I've tried so far, hands down. 

8.5/ 10
SCORE

Samsung Galaxy Ring

$320 at Amazon

$400 at Best Buy

Pros

• Comfortable design for 24/7 wear
• Energy score is great
• Beautiful charging case with a clever design

Cons

• Live heart rate tracking limited to a few workouts
• Expensive compared to other smart rings
• Wellness tips not very helpful yet

Wearing the Galaxy Ring takes me back to simpler times when fitness trackers were all the rage. Remember Misfit, Jawbone and even Fitbit's screenless bands that were popular in the mid-2010s? Each could track activity, steps and had batteries that lasted a long time between charges. They were way more comfortable to wear than bulky smartwatches.

Smart rings feel like fitness bands have morphed from your wrist onto your finger. Compared with a smartwatch, they're pretty simple: they track sleep, heart rate and activity. But they try to help you interpret all this data in an easy-to-understand way. Samsung's ring does this through an energy score, sleep score and wellness tips.

Read more: Galaxy Z Flip 6 Review: Wonderful, but Complicated to Recommend

At a time when competitors like the Oura Ring and the Ultrahuman Ring Air offer similar scores and metrics, the Galaxy Ring stands out for its expanded feature set, which includes tools and utilities not found on competing smart rings.

You can find it on a map if you lose it and take photos remotely just by pinching your fingers together. Mainly, this feels like Samsung is priming us for a future of controlling connected devices with our bodies, like Apple's Double Tap feature on the Apple Watch. It's still early days, and I wish the Galaxy Ring could do a lot more with gestures, but I like where it's going.

I think the Galaxy Ring does enough to tempt people who aren't into smartwatches to track their health and sleep. The sleek design and jewelry-like finishes make it easy enough to slip on your finger and forget it's there until you need to charge it almost a week later. It's compatible with Android phones (Android 11 and newer), but you'll need a Samsung Galaxy phone to get the most out of it, including that energy score and those gesture controls.

The Galaxy Ring's $400 (£399) price puts me off recommending it wholeheartedly, given you can get other smart rings for less cash. The Oura Ring Gen 3, Ultrahuman Ring Air, Amazfit Helio Ring and Evie Ring do almost everything that the Galaxy Ring can, but work with both Android and iOS -- though some do require a monthly subscription, which Samsung doesn't.

Still, there's something unique about the Galaxy Ring that I can't quite put my finger on that makes it stand out from the rest.

Watch this: Samsung Galaxy Ring Review: Health and Fitness Tracking on Your Finger

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Galaxy Ring fit and comfort is key

I received the matte black Galaxy Ring for review, but it comes in two other finishes, a shiny silver or gold. There are nine different sizes from 5 through 13. I found the Galaxy Ring runs a little smaller than standard ring sizes and other smart rings I've worn.

While you can wear the Galaxy Ring on any finger you choose, Samsung recommends the index finger for the most accurate tracking. I'm usually a size 10 on my index finger, but in the Galaxy Ring, I'm an 11. 

I highly recommend you spend some time with the sizing kit before you make the final decision. I was fitted for the ring in New York City on a hot and humid day. My hands felt more swollen than they usually are, so it was a good test to simulate how the Ring might feel on my finger after working out. (Yes, your hands can change size slightly due to hormonal changes, weather or working out – mine definitely do.)

The Galaxy Ring is water resistant, so you can keep it on when you shower, wash your hands or go swimming. It's also got a scratch-resistant titanium finish, but in just a week of wearing the ring almost nonstop, I noticed a tiny scuff on the underside of the ring, right at the edge. I haven't done anything extreme with the ring apart from everyday activities like riding a bike and doing the dishes, so I'm a little concerned about the long-term durability of the matte black finish in particular.

Galaxy Ring sleep score and energy scores

Wearing a smartwatch to track sleep has conditioned me to check my phone first thing in the morning to check my data. The Galaxy Ring is no different. Open the Samsung Health app and see almost everything you could want about your slumber: sleep stages, skin temperature, heart rate and blood oxygen levels. It pulls all this together in a sleep score that rates your rest on a scale of 100.

You can also track snoring levels if you keep your phone on your nightstand within two feet of your head. It needs the microphone to pick up sounds of you sawing logs. But Samsung's FDA authorized sleep apnea detection is available only on the Galaxy Watch, not on the Galaxy Ring.

It pulls all your overnight data into a sleep score, just like the Galaxy Watch does. You can drill down into each individual metric to find out more information about what they mean, which is helpful.

I compared results from the Ring against the Eight Sleep, which has full body on-bed tracking. My sleep stages were very similar, as well as my average heart rate and breathing or respiratory rate. But the Galaxy Ring said I slept a little longer than the Eight Sleep.

There are also multiple sleep coaching tools to help you get a better night's rest. I'm not a huge fan of the results I got because, like last year's Galaxy Watch 6 I tested, the advice is pretty obvious. It's a good starting point if you don't have an idea on where to start for improving your sleep.

The energy score is separate from your sleep score, even though sleep is one of the factors that goes into calculating the energy score. It's supposedly one of the Galaxy AI-powered features, so it's exclusive to Galaxy phones, but I can't really tell how much AI is involved here. It feels really similar to the Oura's readiness score which, as far as I'm aware, doesn't use AI to calculate or provide recommendations. (Oura does have an AI coach called Oura Advisor launching soon.)

Crucially, all of Samsung's health data isn't locked behind a paywall or subscription. Oura has a $6 monthly subscription that's required to unlock the majority of your data, beyond the three scores for readiness, sleep and activity. You can, however, download biometric data from Oura's My Account Page. 

I do think the energy score is a good way to quickly see how your body is balancing sleep and activity. I've found it helpful to have a quick look at the score in the morning and determine if I'm ready to take on a workout, or I can use it as an excuse to have a rest day.

Galaxy Watch Ultra and Galaxy Ring Gallery: Details Up Close

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The Galaxy Ring has high and low heart rate alerts, but no irregular heart rhythm notifications or ECG (you'll want a Galaxy Watch for those). If you want to check your heart rate, you'll have to pull out your phone and look in the Galaxy Wearable app to see your trends or real-time measurement.

I did a spot check with the real time heart rate and compared it to a chest strap, the gold standard in consumer heart rate tracking. It matched up within two beats per minute, which is good. Most smartwatches generally fall within that range, so I was pleased to see the Galaxy Ring performed similarly well for resting heart rate.

Galaxy Ring workout and activity tracking

The Galaxy Ring has workout detection so you can head out on a walk or run and have it automatically track your activity. This is helpful because the ring has no screen and pulling out your phone to manually start an activity is tedious. But auto workout detection works only for walks and runs. No other workout types are supported.

After a few minutes the Ring should pick up that you're working out and give you credit in the Samsung Health app. I found it detected my walks after about 10 to 15 minutes of moving. You can also go out on walks and runs without your phone and the Galaxy Ring will still detect them, but you won't get GPS data.

While you can track a wide range of other workouts from Samsung Health, live heart rate data from the ring shows up for only a few types, including cycling. I tried to get a heart rate for Pilates and yoga, two of my other common workout types, but it didn't work.

And according to Samsung's help page, it's not recommended to wear the Galaxy Ring when lifting weights.

Galaxy Ring battery and charging case: so pretty

Samsung quotes the battery life on the smaller 5 to 11 sizes for up to six days of use. I have the size 11 and I've found the six day estimate to be pretty accurate. With a normal day's use, including a workout or two and sleep tracking, the ring dropped about 15% to 20%. The larger 12 to 13 sizes have a slightly bigger battery, so battery life extends up to seven days between charges.

The transparent charging case holds enough battery for about 1.5 charges, which equates to about 9 or 10 days total depending on your ring size. The case uses a USB-C connector to charge, but cleverly, also supports reverse wireless charging from a Samsung phone. 

If you get down to 15% battery remaining, the Galaxy Ring LEDs will flash. This is much better than relying on a phone notification alone. I've gone to bed a number of times with a flat Oura Ring because I didn't see a notification in time.

Galaxy Ring gestures: fun but very limited

I love how the Galaxy Ring opens up a world of interacting with a range of connected devices with a simple double pinch action. But right now, this gesture can only take a photo remotely from your phone or stop an alarm. And you'll need a phone running OneUI 6.1.1. At the time of reviewing, that's only on the Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6, not the S24 Ultra that I have paired to the Galaxy Ring.

I was able to try these actions in a briefing session, but it feels like a tease that I can't use these yet on this other flagship 2024 Samsung phone.

I would have loved Samsung to give us a few more gestures, just like the Galaxy Watch. Double pinch on the watches let you play and pause music, dismiss alerts, or answer and hang up phone calls.

The Find My Ring feature is super helpful. On my first day wearing the ring, I accidentally dropped it in my makeup bag. Because I have the matte black ring, it was impossible to see until I opened up the Samsung Find app and made the LEDs blink. The Find app also lets you see the ring's last location on a map or get a notification on the phone if you leave it behind.

Do you need a Galaxy Ring and a Galaxy Watch?

I haven't found many compelling reasons why you'd need both a Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watch, unless you get a great deal trading in an old device for a discounted ring or really hate wearing a watch to sleep. If you do wear both, Samsung Health will take readings from only one of the devices and shut down the sensors on the other one to save battery life. In almost all instances during this review period when I was wearing both, Samsung Health has used data from the Galaxy Watch rather than the Galaxy Ring.

Read more: Samsung Galaxy Ring vs. Oura Ring: How They Compare

So is the Galaxy Ring right for you? If you want to track your activity and sleep without distractions -- and you're on Android -- I think it is. The sleep tracking is helpful and accurate, and I really like the energy score, even though you'll need a Galaxy phone to see that score.

What's less convincing right now is the wellness tips. Even after a week of using the Galaxy Ring with the new Galaxy Watch 7 and Ultra, I haven't got any particularly helpful tips or advice. The only thing of note was Samsung Health telling me I did a good job of going to bed on time each night. But I don't need my phone to tell me that.