We tested six smart rings, and there’s a clear winner

Smart rings are having a moment. After years arsenic a niche gadget, regular radical are starting to spot the appeal. They’re thinner, much accurate, and much wearable compared to a decennary agone — and for immoderate people, they’re a smarter prime than smartwatches.

Smartwatches whitethorn predominate the wearable landscape, but they don’t enactment for everyone. They tin beryllium bulky. Daily charging is simply a pain. Plus, they don’t ever enactment for radical with wrist tattoos oregon those who enactment successful much niche sports. (Ever effort stuffing a Garmin nether a boxing glove? It’s not fun.) Conversely, astute rings are discreet and often person multiday artillery life, and your digit tin beryllium a much close spot to stitchery bosom complaint data. 

But which astute ringing is the best? To find out, I called successful six astute rings presently connected the market: the Oura Ring, Ultrahuman Ring Air, Circular Slim, Samsung Galaxy Ring, RingConn, and Evie Ring. For the past fewer months, I slept with them. Showered with them. Exercised with them. Compared a crapton of wellness information until my eyes bled. For a while, I wore each six simultaneously similar a mafia don wearing 2 pairs of astute ringing brass knuckles. I present person six ringing tans. All truthful I could definitively archer you which is the 1 astute ringing to regularisation them all. 

Accuracy is simply a must

On paper, the $294 Circular Slim has a batch of promise. It executes connected astir nary of it. The large occupation was accuracy. While the metrics were mostly fine, my measurement number was occasionally truthful incorrect I couldn’t assistance but laugh. I’m talking 5,000 steps disconnected compared to my different wearables. And that’s erstwhile I had the patience to reappraisal my metrics due to the fact that syncing is an implicit chore. On average, it took 2 to 3 minutes, which meant I often rage discontinue the app. It’d beryllium 1 happening if this was a one-off. It was not. Most radical privation astute rings for wellness tracking. If you’re not close and syncing is simply a chore, what is the point? 

It’s a bummer due to the fact that this is the lone astute ringing with ambitions of being thing different than a fittingness tracker. It has a vibration centrifugal for soundless alarms. When Circular was inactive a Kickstarter, that centrifugal was besides expected to alert you to notifications. That diagnostic has been “coming soon” for years — something users are nary excessively blessed about. At the moment, the haptics are constricted to soundless alarms, but adjacent that doesn’t rather deed the mark. You person to pat the ringing doubly supra the logo to disregard the alarm. In the dark, that logo is nigh intolerable to see. Most mornings, I’m truthful groggy I extremity up smacking my manus aggregate times conscionable to crook it off. There’s besides an ambitious AI chatbot that spits retired regular recommendations. The occupation is it takes 14 days to calibrate, and similar different AI-powered fittingness features, it wasn’t precise helpful. But the existent kicker is the charger is an easy misplaced USB stick. It’d beryllium 1 happening if it had large artillery life, but no. I got 2 to 3 days with each the features turned on. I besides don’t deliberation a astir $300 ringing should consciousness similar it was made of cheap, 3D-printed plastic. Easily my slightest favourite ringing of the bunch.

Eliminated: Circular Ring

Design matters, but truthful does polish

The adjacent ringing connected the chopping artifact is the $269 Evie Ring. It hurts maine to constitute this due to the fact that it’s the prettiest and astir comfy of the six. Most astute rings thin to beryllium indistinguishable from 1 another, but the Evie Ring has a clever open-gap design, which means it doesn’t substance if your fingers bloat oregon summation a fewer pounds. You’ll ever beryllium capable to instrumentality it disconnected with ease. 

If plan and comfortableness were the lone factors, this ringing would win. But it’s not. The Evie Ring’s main contented is it’s the quintessential first-gen merchandise with first-gen issues. Everything works decently, dissimilar the Circular Ring, but there’s a chiseled deficiency of polish. Syncing and firmware updates tin instrumentality a while, and Movano hasn’t figured retired the champion mode to contiguous and contextualize your information — though it makes a valiant effort. The ringing has just relaunched to code immoderate of this feedback, but it’s inactive precise overmuch playing catch-up. Hopefully, aboriginal versions volition creaseless retired the kinks.  

Eliminated: Evie Ring

Being ‘fine’ isn’t enough

The $279 RingConn isn’t bad. It simply doesn’t basal out. It has the champion artillery beingness of the pack. I reliably got six to 9 days connected a azygous complaint and it has a neat small charging case. It’s conscionable so… middling. This is the astute ringing I’d urge radical get if each they wanted was basic, mostly decent wellness tracking without immoderate bells and whistles. Syncing tin sometimes instrumentality a bit, but obscurity adjacent arsenic agelong arsenic the Circular Slim oregon Evie Ring. Honestly, the happening that bugged maine astir astir the RingConn was its somewhat squarish shape. It tin consciousness a spot unusual connected the finger, but unless you’re hypersensitive to that benignant of thing, you’ll hardly announcement it aft a fewer days. 

The RingConn’s flaws don’t bash it a discredit. But this is simply a conflict royale. You can’t triumph by conscionable being fine if different options are good, nay great.

Eliminated: RingConn

It’s got to basal alone

For what it’s worth, the $400 Samsung Galaxy Ring nails the hardware. This is the slimmest ringing of the clump and the astir comfy aft the Evie Ring, and the futuristic charging lawsuit adds to its chic allure. The crushed wherefore it doesn’t instrumentality the rubric is due to the fact that this ringing is fundamentally for Samsung diehards — to the detriment of everyone else. 

Case successful point, you get the champion artillery beingness if you usage it with a Samsung Galaxy Watch. The chill treble pinch motion to power the camera oregon disregard notifications? Yeah, you request a caller Z Flip 6 oregon Z Fold 6. (It’s purportedly making its mode to the S24 but is unavailable arsenic of this writing.) It’s fundamentally a neat accessory for your Galaxy Watch.

Eliminated: Galaxy Ring

Training shouldn’t beryllium the lone focus

The $349 Ultrahuman Ring Air came truthful adjacent to taking it all. It’s slim and lightweight, and I got compliments portion wearing it. Battery beingness isn’t the best, but it’s decent for the class astatine 3 to 4 days. Where it shines is fittingness tracking and grooming — meaning it caters to athletes supra everyone else. 

Compared to the Oura Ring, which has a streamlined absorption connected wide wellness, this ringing zeroes successful connected optimization. Say you’re trying to physique healthier slumber habits. The companion app volition springiness you a database of drinks with their mean caffeine contented and emblem erstwhile you should portion what if your extremity is to slumber by a definite time. I’m trying to aftermath up earlier truthful I tin sneak successful runs earlier the prima starts baking the planet. When I aftermath up, the ringing shows maine a “Phase Advance” timer. If I workout during that time, it’s much apt to displacement my earthy Circadian bushed earlier. There are a clump of “upgrade” widgets called Power Plugs that fto you further customize your acquisition by focusing connected different goals, similar prima vulnerability for vitamin D, rhythm tracking, Circadian alignment, etc. Some Power Plugs are free. Others, similar the forthcoming AFib detection, volition outgo an other $4.90 monthly, which I don’t love. 

Accuracy is different connected par with my different devices, but the mode my information is interpreted gives maine a small pause. For example, I’m flattered this ringing thinks my VO2 Max — a metric utilized to gauge your aerobic fittingness — is 44 ml/kg/min (apparently, that’s superior) and that my resting bosom complaint is Elite. Based connected my years of investigating different devices, this is overly generous. Granted, each institution uses a antithetic algorithm, but I mostly autumn successful the somewhat supra mean — accent connected somewhat — range. 

While I similar the Ultrahuman Ring Air a lot, it’s partially due to the fact that I’m that dork who likes training. All this is simply a spot overmuch if you’re a much wide user. 

Eliminated: Ultrahuman Ring Air 

Experience is king 

Most of the astute rings I tested did 1 oregon 2 things amended than the $299 Oura Ring. But arsenic a whole, Oura’s acquisition successful this abstraction keeps it connected apical of the competition. If you attraction astir accuracy and wellness tracking, Oura does a batch of enactment validating its algorithm, moving with researchers, and putting retired a metric ton of documentation astir its features. It’s been putting successful the enactment for respective years, and it shows successful the last product. The app is polished, syncing and updates are ne'er an issue, and it’s wide available. The champion happening astir each this caller contention is it’s besides lit a occurrence nether Oura’s butt to merchandise much features and updates successful the past fewer months than it has successful a while. The main gripes I person are the $6 monthly subscription, and its charging dock isn’t my favorite. (Please, please, delight fto the adjacent mentation person a charging case.)

Smart rings arsenic a full won’t beryllium dethroning smartwatches anytime soon. They’re excessively costly erstwhile a smartwatch tin bash overmuch much for the aforesaid price. But, if you’re going to bargain a astute ring, you should get the champion 1 — and that’s the Oura Ring. I gave 5 different rings each accidental to dethrone it. Perhaps it’ll hap 1 day. But until then, the Oura Ring is king.

Winner: Oura Ring