I put the Galaxy Ring to the test – and it’s better than my Apple Watch in one critical area

ZDNET’s key takeaways

• The Samsung Galaxy Ring is a brilliant ring that excels at wellness monitoring, particularly for delivering actionable insights that will help you enhance areas of your well being that might use some consideration.
• Folks taken with digital well being monitoring will admire the Galaxy Ring’s minimalism, consolation, lengthy battery life, and minimal notifications.
• At $399, the Galaxy Ring is dearer than a few of its rivals, nevertheless it doesn’t require a $5.99-per-month subscription like its greatest rival, Oura.

extra shopping for decisions

Wearable applied sciences made 2024 their second to shine, with the stunning recognition of the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, the long-awaited arrival of the Apple Vision Pro, and the then-runaway hit of the Samsung Galaxy Ring.

Additionally: This subscription-free smart ring gave my Oura a run for its money (and it’s cheaper too)

For the previous decade, the good ring market has been dominated by startups like Oura and former pioneer Motiv, however Samsung was one of many first huge tech firms to launch a hoop of its personal, taking the good ring to new heights.

I’ve used a matte black measurement 10 Galaxy Ring ($399) on my index finger for about two weeks in 2024 — after testing the matte black Oura Horizon Stealth ($449) for roughly a month and the Motiv ring for about six months again in 2018. I’ve additionally been a perennial Apple Watch consumer because it launched in 2015 and a Fitbit consumer for a number of years earlier than that.

I have been very stunned at how polished and helpful the Galaxy Ring is. It does not really feel in any respect like a 1.0 product. Samsung has clearly taken the teachings from different good rings and smartwatches and delivered a tool that’s superbly designed, straightforward to make use of, and communicates well being info in methods which might be as helpful as any health tracker available on the market.

In truth, I assumed the Galaxy AI stamp on the Galaxy Ring was principally Samsung advertising and marketing, however in terms of the general “Vitality” rating that the ring offers you — in addition to the sleep and stress reporting within the Samsung Well being app — it delivers far more actionable insights than I’ve ever gotten from the Apple Watch.

For instance, in the future I checked out my Vitality rating of 78 within the app, and it was “Good” however on the decrease finish of excellent, which was according to my notion of how I felt that morning. After I clicked into the Vitality rating, I discovered numerous metrics that contributed to it. Most of them have been associated to sleep, however my lowest one was “Earlier day exercise.” It famous that my “moderate-to-vigorous train time” was solely six minutes and really useful that I enhance that to 33 to 87 minutes. So I acquired extra disciplined about constantly rising my cardio, which had the supposed impact of giving me an vitality increase — albeit for the quick interval I examined the product.

Additionally: Why I wear this $150 smartwatch even after testing competing Samsung and Garmin models

I additionally discovered that the Galaxy Ring tracks stress precisely. It makes use of coronary heart price variability (HRV) from its optical bio-signal sensor — a really fancy identify for its coronary heart sensor. After I see my stress degree spiking within the app, I can open a guided deep respiratory session instantly throughout the app. In that “Breathe” part of the app, you too can set the variety of respiratory cycles and the time per cycle, which helps you to customise how lengthy you wish to do the workout routines and the way a lot you wish to decelerate your coronary heart price to hack your stress degree. 

The Apple Watch also can observe HRV and has a helpful guided respiratory train in its Mindfulness app. In truth, I’ve written about how these Apple Watch tools helped me uncover my toxic stress level and improve it. Apple, nonetheless, has by no means constructed these options into its smartwatch software program, doesn’t particularly name out stress, and does not tie its knowledge into helpful well being insights or teaching ideas. 

The design and construct high quality of the Samsung Galaxy Ring additionally impressed me. It is slightly bit thinner and lighter than the Oura ring and a lot of the different good rings. The Ultrahuman Ring Air is essentially the most comparable in measurement and weight.

The opposite distinctive design function of the Galaxy Ring is that it is barely concave, which ought to assist defend it towards long-term scuffs and scratches. The Galaxy Ring additionally comes with a singular case and charging resolution. The case is obvious, has a battery, and fees independently of the ring as a way to recharge wirelessly on the go — in comparison with different ring chargers which might be all docks that have to be charged through a wired cable.

Additionally: I spent a weekend with Meta’s new Oakley smart glasses – they beat my Ray-Bans in every way

Like most different good rings, the Galaxy Ring is each a fancy piece of expertise miniaturized into an impossibly small package deal whereas additionally being a comparatively easy machine that options three sensors which were round for a very long time: an accelerometer, a pores and skin temperature sensor, and a coronary heart price sensor. As talked about above, Samsung’s coronary heart sensor known as an optical bio-signal sensor and is among the most superior coronary heart sensors available on the market, as Samsung has been investing in well being tech for years in its numerous smartwatches.

That additionally brings us to one of many Galaxy Ring’s greatest drawbacks: the truth that its exercise sensor tends to overestimate steps by about 10%, in my testing. It was off by much more within the first few days I attempted the ring, overestimating steps by 20% in comparison with what was tracked by the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and the Oura Ring I wore on the identical time to gut-check it. The Galaxy Ring appeared to regulate over time, and there have been days when it was solely about 5% larger, nevertheless it was nonetheless all the time above the step depend of the Apple Watch and the Oura Ring. An exercise tracker that overestimates your exercise may make you’re feeling higher and extra assured, however may negatively influence your progress towards your total well being and health objectives. 

The opposite huge disadvantage of the Galaxy Ring is that it’s Android-only and most built-in with Samsung smartphones and smartwatches. Android customers on non-Samsung telephones will nonetheless profit from the very best options of the Galaxy Ring, however iOS customers might want to go in a distinct route. Fortunately, we’ve got a couple of recommendations in that realm.

ZDNET’s shopping for recommendation

The software program on the Galaxy Ring is smarter than my Apple Watch — and I by no means anticipated that may be considered one of my conclusions from this evaluation. The AI-powered insights within the Samsung Well being app present extra instantly actionable info from the Galaxy Ring than I’ve ever gotten from Apple. So, if you would like extra actionable well being and wellness insights than you get from the preferred smartwatch — and you’ve got an Android telephone — then the Galaxy Ring might be the product you’ve got been ready for. It additionally does not have a show to distract you and solely must be charged each 4 to seven days. 

Should you’re studying a couple of good ring, then there is a good probability that you simply’re as a result of 1.) you’d slightly put on a hoop than a smartwatch, or 2.) you want to trace your sleep (and good rings are typically higher sleep trackers than smartwatches), or 3.) you are a girl who wish to use a sensible ring for cycle monitoring to optimize your well being. The Galaxy Ring is a superb alternative for the primary two choices. Whereas the Galaxy Ring does present cycle monitoring, it solely affords a basic overview and is susceptible to miscalculations, as ZDNET’s good ring professional Nina Raemont factors out.

Should you’re an iPhone consumer and also you need the advantages of a tool much like the Galaxy Ring, ZDNET recommends the Ultrahuman Ring Air or the Oura Ring, since each work effectively with Apple’s iOS. 

The way it compares

Newest updates:

August 1, 2025: Added a brand new comparability chart evaluating the Samsung Galaxy Ring to its most up-to-date rival: the Oura Ring 4. Oura’s wearable is extra reasonably priced, homes sensors that the Galaxy Ring lacks, and has an extended battery life (though this declare is disputed in ZDNET’s review). Outdated hyperlinks have been additionally changed.