Smart rings, no matter where they come from, are a tough sell for us here. Fewer tracking features on a smaller device with a full-sized price? There's a special sort of customer that'll appeal to but it's hardly the value proposition. Samsung's Galaxy Ring offers plenty to justify its price but an excellent build, case, and battery life can't disguise the fact that you're paying more for less here.
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Design
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Features
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Battery
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Tracking
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Value
Samsung’s Galaxy Ring has been around for a good few months now, but South Africa missed the initial rollout window. Rather than missing it completely, we were just a little late to the party. But at R8,000 for the densely-packed tracker, is it worth buying one of these over sticking with your wrist-based fitness accessory?
That largely depends on whether the chunky size of smartwatches irritates your arm and whether you’re ready to accept a smaller version of that same irritation on your finger. Smart rings, no matter where they come from, are thicker than something made from platinum, gold, or whatever easily tarnished metal it is they sell at music festivals.
Enter the Ring
Not too much thicker, in Samsung’s case, but the Galaxy Ring still measures 2.6mm around its perimeter. That’s enough to intrude on your other fingers, but it at least retains its thickness all the way from US size 8 to 15. Those are the available options in SA at present, and sizing correctly is important enough that Samsung will send you a sizing kit before letting you complete an order here. That’s… actually quite a nice touch, Samsung.
Once you have your Galaxy Ring in (or on) hand, whether you’ve opted for the Titanium Black (our review model’s hue), Titanium Silver, or Titanium Gold colour choice, it’ll be obvious why you’re paying eight grand for one. Build quality is uniformly excellent. The ring itself feels durable, with enough heft to reassure you that it’ll survive your lifestyle.
This carries through to the light show of a charging case that comes with the Galaxy Ring. It looks a bit like you’ve entombed some tech in a lucite block until you flip it open. Then, internal lights provide a charge indication, and you’re bathed in a suitably techy glow. We might have accepted a less snazzy case and a lower price, but this is a premium device. It was never going to happen.
Staying on track
If you’ve seen any high-end Samsung smartphone, you’ll have a fair idea of the build in store. This continues to the feature set. An IP68 rating and a dive rating of 10ATM (100 metres) give the Galaxy Ring watery survivability, but, as with other smart rings, that only applies until something cracks. It shouldn’t happen easily, but it could.
That would be a terrible shame, because Samsung somehow crams Bluetooth LE, an accelerometer, a PPG heart-rate sensor, and a skin-temperature sensor alongside the battery. The latter should last most of a week, with Samsung’s largest sizes reportedly going the full seven days. We didn’t play with one of those, so we can’t say for sure. Recharging to full takes a little less than an hour and a half, which isn’t an inconvenient amount of time (unless you’re running an ultramarathon).
Tracking variety is on par with wrist-based wearables. Steps, continuous heart rate (what did you think the sensor was for?), blood oxygen, and stress levels are all within the Galaxy Ring’s grasp, with the stats and metrics funnelled through to Samsung’s app for later analysis.
The drawback is that the only automatically-detected activity involves putting one foot in front of another. Swimming, cycling, or similar outings must be started manually via Samsung’s app. Still, it’s all much smaller than a smartwatch, and there are gesture controls that you’ll try a time or two before forgetting they exist. You can only take so many remote photographs by pushing your fingers together.
Samsung Galaxy Ring verdict
There’s no denying that Samsung has made an attractive wearable in the Galaxy Ring. The major question is whether it’s an essential wearable. That’s not a question we’re supposed to ask. At the very least, Samsung might find it inconvenient. If you’re adamant about being on the leading edge of tech, you probably should have a smart ring on your finger. If you merely want the functions the Galaxy Ring provides but aren’t too picky, you can have everything on offer here for quite a bit less money.
The increased size of wrist-based trackers offers better pricing and tracking accuracy, plus space for more features than Samsung fields here. Smart rings are cool, but they’re not quite “another R8,000” cool. The other drawback is limited compatibility. If you don’t have a Samsung smartphone, you’ll lose access to some features, and if you’re using anything other than Android, you’re completely out of luck. If Samsung is the brand name on all of your regular tech, though, it’s worth looking into the Galaxy Ring. Even if your Galaxy Watch 6 already does all this and more.
