Smart rings may be a new product category in the world of wearables, but they’re making big waves. As we track the development of this growing product category, ZDNET’s team of experts is testing every notable smart ring available on the market. This is no small feat, considering how rapidly the market in question is growing.
Too: The best smart rings you can buy
How do we test and evaluate these smart rings? What features do we look for, and what red and green flags should you look for when shopping for smart rings? Here are the full details.
Why is the Smart Ring ZDNET recommended?
We don’t recommend that you buy a smart ring until we’ve spent days and weeks testing them ourselves. To earn our recommendation, the best smart rings have to excel in terms of comfort, activity features, battery life, and sleep-tracking features, and they do so while having a price to match (around $350 with or without a subscription). Other features, such as add-ons and accessories, do not hold the same importance as the above. Sure, it’s nice to have an AI-assisted health coach or symptom logging, but those add-ons or accessories don’t impact the usefulness of a smart ring the way health tracking metrics, battery life, and comfort do.
How will we test smart rings in 2026
Rest
I once wore a square-shaped smart ring and I couldn’t move my fingers all day. I’ve worn smart rings that seem inherently unobtrusive and ones that stick out and make it nearly impossible to do everyday tasks, like holding a subway pole, carrying multiple bags, or typing on a keyboard. Before I open the Smart Ring app on my phone, the first thing I pay attention to is how the Smart Ring feels around my finger. If a brand can’t provide comfort right from the start, it will be difficult for anyone to genuinely wear it.
When testing smart rings, I consider shape and design, and prefer circular rings over funky, square-shaped rings for maximum wearability.
I also consider the size range to be another element of comfort. You’ll want to have your ring size available, and it’s usually a good sign when a brand offers six to 12 or at least that many sizes for you to sample before finalizing an order.
Pricing and Subscriptions
You can expect to pay between $200 and $400 for a competing smart ring. Prices will vary — and even more — depending on the finish you prefer (for example, the Stealth or Gold finish on the Ora Ring 4 bumps the $350 ring up by $100 and $150, respectively). My advice? Don’t waste your money on more expensive finishes unless appearance matters a lot to you. It’s the underlying technology that you should pay more for.
Many smart rings like Oura come with a monthly subscription, which increases the price to about $50 to $100 per year. Although it can be seen as a way for brands to extract more money from customers, I have found Ora subscriptions to be very useful. Subscriptions can provide innovative new features, security protections, and a better customer experience. Depending on the brand and its features, subscriptions are not necessarily a warning, but a caution.
If a smart ring costs less than $300, it often lacks essential features, such as health data scores that provide information about sleep quality and readiness, long battery life, or comprehensive data for daily health recommendations. I’ve found that $350 is the sweet spot for smart rings that offer a comprehensive, competitive product with maximum wearability, about five days of battery life, a set of health data with actionable insights, and decent customer service.
battery life
Spec sheets aren’t always accurate when it comes to the battery life of smart rings. That’s why I record the time it takes for the smart ring to go from 100% to 1%. I also charge the Ring to 100% before my first full day of use and testing. Some of the best smart rings offer five or six days of battery life.
Activity Features
Smart rings are excellent at measuring sleep and activity. As their name suggests, they’re designed to learn from your data over time, providing more personalized activity and wellness recommendations. To test the activity features of smart rings, I wear them for at least two weeks to a month, collecting as much health and fitness data as possible. I go on long walks, run, take dance classes, and ride bikes while wearing rings.
Also: The 3 smart rings readers will buy the most in 2025
The best rings can detect and log activity even if you don’t manually log a workout, while the runners-up accurately document activity data and provide insight into heart rate, blood oxygen levels, recovery time, and more.
Features of sleep
Smart rings do the best sleep tracking compared to smartwatches, thanks to their discreet and lightweight design. To compare smart rings, I wear them for as long as possible while sleeping to understand their features and how they rate my daily sleep. I then compare this data to other wearables. After a few weeks or months of sleeping with the ring, I evaluate other factors, including gaps in data, the usefulness of sleep insights, the different stages of sleep monitored, and bedtime recommendations.
Add-ons and Accessories
I test every add-on feature the smart ring offers, like symptom tracking, tags, AI recommendations, and more. I consider how these features will benefit users, the target audience for each, how well the audience matches up with the actual product, and the overall functionality of the add-on.
customer insight
With each smart ring I test, I’ll visit its respective Reddit to see what other users are saying about the ring. Learning how other users like or dislike a product is informing how I write my tips and recommendations. Through these forums, I learn about battery issues, software bugs, and general customer service protocols. This is an important part of my review process.
