I put the Galaxy ring in the test – and it’s better than my Apple Watch in an important area

Key takeaways of zdnet

• The Samsung Galaxy ring is a smart ring that excel in wellness tracking, especially to help improve your health areas to provide actionable insights to provide insight.
• People interested in digital health trekking will appreciate the minimalism, comfort, long battery life and minimum information of the Galaxy ring.
• In $ 399, the Galaxy Ring is more expensive than some of its contestants, but its greatest rival, like ORA, does not require $ 5.99-per month membership.

More Buying Choices

Weeing technologies made their moment to shine 2024, with the amazing popularity of Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, long-awaited arrival of Apple Vision Pro and with the then run-hits Samsung Galaxy Ring,

Too: This subscription-free smart ring gave my money a run for his money (and it is also cheaper)

For the past decade, startups like OURA and former pioneer have dominated the smart ring market. InspirationBut Samsung was one of the first major tech companies to launch a ring of its own, which took the smart ring to new heights.

I have used a matte black size 10 galaxy ring ($ 399) on my index finger for about two weeks in 2024 – after testing Matt Black OURA HUSIS SC ($ 449) for about a month and Motiv ring About six months ago in 2018. I have also been a perennial Apple Watch user since the launch in 2015 and a fitbit user for many years before that.

I was very surprised how polished and useful the Galaxy ring is. It does not feel like a 1.0 product. Samsung has clearly taken lessons from other smart rings and smartwatches and a tool that is beautifully designed, easy to use, and communicates health information in ways that are useful as any fitness tracker in the market.

In fact, I felt that the Galaxy AI Stamp on the Galaxy ring was mostly Samsung Marketing, but when it comes to the overall “energy” score that the ring gives you – as well as sleep and stress reporting in the Samsung Health app – it provides a lot of actionable insight into the Samsung Health app, as I have ever received from apple watch.

For example, one day I saw my energy score of 78 in the app, and it was “good”, but at the bottom of the good, which suit my perception of how I felt that morning. When I clicked in the energy score, I found various matrix who contributed to it. Most of them belonged to sleep, but my lowest was a “previous day activity”. It was noted that my “medium-to-exercise time” was only six minutes and recommended that I increase it from 33 to 87 minutes. So I was more disciplined about increasing my cardio continuously, in which I had an effect of promoting an energy – although I though for a short period of testing that product.

Also: Why do I wear this $ 150 smartwatch even after testing the competition of Samsung and Garmin models.

I also found that the Galaxy ring accurately tracks the ring tension. It uses heart rate variability (HRV) from its optical bio-signal sensor-a very fancy name for its heart sensor. When I see my stress level spikeing in the app, I can open a direct deep breathing session within the app directly. In that “breath” section of the app, you can also set the number of breathing cycles and per time, which lets you customize how long you want to exercise and how much you want to slow down your heart rate to hack your level of stress.

Apple Watch can also track HRV and its mindfulness app has a useful guided breathing exercise. In fact, I have written about how these Apple Watch Tools helped me highlight and improve itApple, however, has never made these features in its smartwatch software, especially excludes stress, and does not bind its data into useful health insight or coaching tips.

The design and build quality of the Samsung Galaxy ring also impressed me. It is slightly thin and lighter than the OURA ring and most other smart rings. Ultrahuman ring is the most comparable in air size and weight.

Another unique design feature of the Galaxy ring is that it is slightly concave, which should help protect it from scuff and scratch. The Galaxy ring also comes with a unique case and charging solution. The case is clear, a battery, and charges freely from the ring so that you can walk wirelessly compared to other ring chargers – all docks that are all docks that need to be charged through a wired cable.

Too: I spent a weekend with the new Meta’s new Okle smart glasses – they defeated Mere Ray -Bans in every way

Like most other smart rings, the Galaxy ring is a complex piece of both techniques, which is small in a small package, while there is also a relatively simple tool that contains three sensors that have been around for a long time: an accelerometer, a skin temperature sensor and a heart rate sensor. As mentioned above, Samsung’s heart sensor is called an optical bio-signal sensor and is one of the most advanced heart sensors in the market, as Samsung has been investing in health technology in its various smartwatches for years.

This also brings us to one of the largest shortcomings of the Galaxy ring: the fact that its activity sensor increases by about 10%in my test. It was even more in the first few days when I tried the ring, which was tracked more than 20% of steps compared to the tracked. Apple Watch Ultra 2 And I wore Aura ring at the same time. The Galaxy ring seemed to adjust over time, and there were days when it was only 5% more, but it was still always above the count count of the Apple Watch and OURA ring. An activity tracker that reduces your activity may make you feel better and more confident, but can negatively affect your progress towards your overall health and fitness goals.

The second major defect of the Galaxy ring is that it is only integrated with Android-Cowl Samsung smartphone and smartwatch. Android users on a non-surrender phone will still benefit from the best features of the Galaxy ring, but iOS users will need to go in a different direction. Thankfully, we have received some recommendations in that realm.

ZDNET purchase advice

On software Galaxy My apple is smarter than the watch – and I never expected that this review would one of my conclusions. The Samsung Health app provides more direct action from the AI-manual insight Galaxy ring, as much as I have ever received from Apple. Therefore, if you want more actionable health and wellness insights than getting from the most popular smartwatch – and you have an Android phone – then the Galaxy ring can be the product you are waiting for. There is no performance to distract you and only need to be charged every four to seven days.

If you are reading about a smart ring, then there is a good chance that you are interested because you 1.) You will wear a ring instead of a smartwatch, or 2.) You want to track your sleep (and smart rings are better sleeping trackers than smartwatch), or 3.) You are a woman who wants to use a smart ring to adapt to your health. Galaxy ring is an excellent choice for the first two options. While the Galaxy ring offers bicycle tracking, it only provides a general observation and is prone to miscalance, as ZDNET’s smart ring expert Nina Raimont explains.

If you are an iPhone user and you want the benefits of the device similar to the Galaxy ring, then ZDNET recommends Ultrahman Ring Air Or OURA RingSince both work well with Apple’s iOS.

How it compares

latest updates:

August 1, 2025: Samsung Galaxy Ring compared its most recent rival: The Ola Ring 4. The OURA is more economical, the houses added a new comparison chart to the sensors that decrease the galaxy ring, and this claim is disputed in the review of ZDNET). The old link was also replaced.