When Samsung's Galaxy Ring arrived late last year, I will admit to being caught up in the hype that comes whenever one a tech giant enters a new product category.
While I'd never extensively used a smart ring before, I went into the Galaxy Ring with a pretty good idea of what it would be capable of, having kept an eye on earlier smart rings from companies like Oura and Ultrahuman for years.
There's no doubt these companies have helped steer the category towards mainstream acceptance, but when a company as big as Samsung joins the party, that time has officially come.
As as far as first-gen products go, the Galaxy Ring is incredibly polished, packing a surprising amount of tech into its slim design, but that is that enough to justify its $399 / £399 / AU$699 price point?
Having used the Galaxy Ring almost every day for the last three months, I can see that while it's not quite a smartwatch replacement, especially when it comes to activity tracking, it's had one clear benefit to my health — it has encouraged me to get better sleep.
Sleeping comfortably
It probably won't come as a surprise for you to hear that a small ring is far more comfortable to wear while sleeping than a bulky smartwatch, but sometimes the obvious has to be stated.
I've been curious about tracking my sleep patterns for a while now, but the idea of wearing a wristwatch to bed couldn't be less appealing to me. I'm fully aware that even my older Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 is more than capable of tracking the quality and length of my sleep sessions. However, my goal is to improve my sleep, not disturb it — and a clunky device on my wrist would surely do the latter.
Thankfully, the Galaxy Ring is so small and light, that I'll often forget I'm wearing it. I've worn it to bed almost every night for the last three months, and not once did it bother my sleep or provide any kind of discomfort.
Detailed sleep tracking
I also appreciate the information it's able to provide on my sleep quality — the Galaxy Ring is can track my sleep time, physical recovery, mental recovery, restfulness, number of sleep cycles, skin temperature and blood oxygen readings from within the Samsung Health app.
The Ring is also able to distinguish between different types of sleep, measuring how much light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep I get throughout the night.
Based on my readings, the Samsung Health app will then give me an AI-generated 'energy score' for the day, tracked on a scale from 0 to 100. According to Samsung, your energy score is essentially a "daily measurement of your physical and mental energy and readiness." So far, my energy score over the last three months has ranged from 'Fair' to 'Excellent'.
As for my blood oxygen readings, they seem to consistently hover around the 85-100% range every night, which I suppose is good? Not much information is provided on this reading, and I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to do with it, but I won't fault the ring for showing it to me.
Results after three months
With regards to sleep time, the Samsung Health app is able to show my average bedtime and wake-up time over the last 7 days, 31 days and 12 months.
Based on the data gathered over the last week, I can see that my sleep times have marginally improved since I started using the Galaxy Ring. While I started out with an average of 7 hours and 21 minutes sleep per night, I'm now at an average of 8 hours and 4 minutes per night.
So is the Galaxy Ring an essential part of my sleep routine? It's hard to say — It's certainly made me more aware of when I go to bed, and I will occasionally try to schedule my bed times so that I aim to wake up with a sleep score of 'Excellent'. However, I still find it difficult to achieve consistent sleep patterns when I'm working from home every second day of the week and don't have to factor in travel time.
The Galaxy Ring won't replace your smartwatch
When opting to try the Galaxy Ring, you should first decide whether or not this sleep tracking data is essential to you. If you want full fitness and activity tracking, the Galaxy Ring isn't ideal, as it's really only suited to walking and running exercises.
The main reason I bought my Galaxy Watch 4 was to get real-time heart rate monitoring and blood pressure estimates. Unfortunately, the Galaxy Ring isn't the right choice for these, either — it can measure your heart rate, but doesn't do it continuously, and isn't equipped to measure blood pressure. I know that even the Galaxy Watch's blood pressure readings are based on your calibrations and aren't entirely accurate, but it has been a helpful guide for me in the past.
It's also been stated that more accurate health readings can be achieved when Samsung's Galaxy Ring is paired with a Galaxy Watch. I can't really get behind that proposition — when someone has already shelled out hundreds of dollars on a Samsung smartwatch, the idea of paying an additional $399 / £399 / AU$699 for a smart ring for improved accuracy seems like too much to ask of most people in this economy.
My advice for Samsung users to pick one or the other — if you're looking for a comfortable sleep tracking device which can measure your overall wellness and act as a step counter, the Galaxy Ring is a good option — especially as it doesn't require you to pay an ongoing subscription. If, however, you're more interested in fitness tracking for a large range of activities, you're better off with a Galaxy Watch 7 or Galaxy Watch Ultra.
