The Samsung Galaxy Ring is already one of the best smart rings you can buy but there's always improvements to be made on a first generation product.
According to a new report from Money Today out of South Korea (via Phone Arena), there's a pretty big upgrade in store for the Galaxy Ring 2.
As with any smart ring, battery life is negligible due to things like the physical size of the ring you choose as well as degradation over time. But Samsung seems to be experimenting with solid-state batteries for the next iteration — which could have some very beneficial consequences.
Solid-state batteries, as the name suggests, replace the liquid electrolyte with a solid one. This results in a higher energy density and faster charging compared to standard lithium-ion. It's also safer, since you're not packing flammable liquid into an item you're wearing on your finger.
This means we could see a battery life longer than the seven days Samsung quotes for the current Galaxy Ring. Battery capacity on the current ring spans from 18 to 23.5 mAh depending on size and that seven day figure is for sizes 12 and 13.
During our Samsung Galaxy Ring review, my colleague Kate got six days of use but to be conservative, you can expect around five days from your average smart ring.
Solid-state batteries aren't exactly new for Samsung, either. One of its subsidiaries, Samsung Electro-Mechanics, has already reportedly developed mini solid-state batteries for smartwatches with an energy density of 200Wh/L (Watt-hours per liter). The company allegedly wants to improve that to 360Wh/L for the Galaxy Ring 2.
A big advantage
Samsung already offers something of an incentive over rivals like Oura for smart ring buyers: the lack of a monthly subscription. The trade-off is, of course, that you're only going to see the real benefits if you're already using a Samsung Galaxy phone and are all-in on Samsung Health.
And while we still give the Oura Ring 4 the nod over the Galaxy Ring on our list of best smart rings, the arrival of a Galaxy Ring 2 could change that.
If Samsung is able to dramatically improve battery life and charging at the same time as possibly slimming the design and giving users accurate tracking without needing to fork out for a subscription, any Oura Ring 5 is going to have its work cut out for it.
Samsung probably knows this, which is why it's reportedly filed over 40 patent applications on oxide-based, solid-state batteries. And even though wearables would be the obvious candidate, other products in the portfolio could also benefit — such as the next version of the Galaxy Buds Pro.
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