RingConn Smart Ring review: Simple yet sharp

Smart rings are on the cusp of having their iPhone moment — finally becoming mainstream after years of struggling and trying to carve a space for themselves. There are many reasons for this, including Samsung’s entry into this nascent market with the Galaxy Ring. Regardless, it’s an interesting time if you care about fitness trackers. The RingConn Smart Ring is one product that hopes to ride this new wave of interest.

If you’re new to this category, I recommend checking out our smart rings guide to familiarize yourself with it. As for RingConn, it is a health tech startup founded in Delaware in 2021 with a single product on the market called the RingConn Smart Ring. For a young brand’s maiden product, it surprisingly gets a lot of things right. In fact, it has secured its place on my finger permanently, replacing the aging fitness tracker I used to rock.

Price and availability

The RingConn Smart ring comes in at $279 — no additional monthly subscription or freemium features. I have often seen rings discounted a bit, so it might be worth keeping an eye on RingConn’s website for offers. It comes in Midnight Black, Moonlit Silver, and Pale Gold. It’s a little cheaper than alternatives such as the Oura Ring 3 and the Ultrahuman Ring Air while offering a similar user experience.

RingConn even sent me a sizing kit because I had no idea what my ring size was. I thought this was a reviewer-exclusive perk, but it turns out that anyone can request a sizing kit while placing an order to be sure of the fit. It’s a small gesture, but it goes a long way in adding consumer delight.

What’s good about the RingConn Smart Ring?

The best part of the experience was how unobtrusive the RingConn Smart Ring felt. It’s quite lightweight and comfortable to wear, and unlike a watch, you can really forget that you have it on. Even as a person not used to wearing rings, it always felt comfortable and non-bothersome. Just ensure you get the right fit, and you’ll be good to go.

The company recommends wearing the ring on the right index finger; somehow, that was the only finger on which the ring fit snugly. It could take a little getting used to wearing it on your dominant hand’s index finger. However, I firmly believe this form factor is best suited for a device whose job is constantly tracking bodily functions without reminding the wearer of its presence.

On the topic of health tracking, the RingConn Smart Ring has a slew of 24/7 monitoring features such as heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, pedometer, sleep tracking, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, and more. You will learn a great deal about the human body by just spending time on the RingConn app.

The company claims that the biometrics tracking has medical-grade accuracy. While I can’t verify that, in my extensive month of testing, I found almost no instance when the ring stated something vastly different from my expected observations.

You will learn a great deal about the human body by just spending time on the RingConn app.

You will need to open the RingConn app to view your tracked data. The app is useful without being overwhelming. The home ‘Summary’ screen shows your wellness balance and tells you if your sleep, stress, activity, or heart rate levels are at acceptable levels or not, along with simple suggestions on what you should focus on to improve the score.

I loved this gamification approach backed with rich graphs. You can click on any of them to get a more detailed look at how well you fared, along with time stamps, anomalies, past trends (it refreshes every week), the implications of a poor score, and how to interpret the data. It covers all bases and is quite beginner-friendly.

The second screen shows trends to see how you’re progressing over various periods of time across various metrics, while the last page has all the settings and toggles. You can also add notes with time stamps to add more nuance to the data. The RingConn Smart Ring also has great battery life, lasting an average of six days per charge with all the tracking options enabled—sufficient to not have to worry about charging.

Unlike most other rings on the market, RingConn doesn’t offer a charging dock. Instead, it has implemented a charging case (similar to wireless earbuds), where you need to drop the ring in the case for about 90 minutes once a week. More than anything, I appreciate not needing to carry an additional charger or cable for the ring. Just chuck it in its case for a bit, and you’re good to go.

I also liked RingConn’s design approach. It isn’t easy to differentiate smart rings in terms of design, but the company has been successful. Instead of the usual circular design, the Smart Ring has a squircle design on the outer side. You might not be able to make that out if you see it on someone’s finger, but you’ll know it’s not a simple circle. The edges are beveled with a glossy finish for a little bit of flair and a lot of comfort. Apart from the occasional unavoidable clacking, there’s really nothing that bothered me from having it on all the time.

The all-titanium construction makes the ring rather scratch-resistant without making it too heavy. The RingConn Smart Ring’s design reminds me of the Tesla Cybertruck — a stainless steel finish that is hard to damage and has an unconventional shape. Depending on the size you select, it weighs between 3 and 5 grams, which is light enough not to constantly remind you of its presence, even on my slender fingers.

What’s bad about the RingConn Smart Ring?

I had low expectations entering this review, but I was pleasantly surprised at how many things it got right.

The biggest limitation of the ring for most people will be the lack of proper exercise tracking. When I asked the company about it a month ago, I was told that exercise tracking would not be made available via eventual OTA updates. However, a surprise update last week added an Outdoor Running mode in beta, along with Outdoor Walking, Indoor Running, and Outdoor Cycling listed as “Coming soon”. This is where the best fitness trackers differentiate themselves, by offering a better exercise tracking experience.

The running option uses your phone’s GPS, so you can’t leave it behind on your runs. Once you’re done, it shows you the path you ran on, the distance, calories burned, duration, and heart rate. There’s also a nifty option to share these runs on social media, but Strava integration is notably absent. In the absence of a screen and vibration motor, the ring does not communicate with you or provide feedback when you’re working out. I am okay with that, but more serious users will probably expect that.

I had low expectations entering this review, but I was pleasantly surprised at how many things it got right.

Another complaint of mine revolves around the data syncing experience. Even when Bluetooth is on, the ring does not offload its measurements to the app in the background. You need to open the RingConn app and wait for half a minute for the entire thing to happen.

Lastly, and this is something I observed only recently, the hinge of the charging case has become a little loose. It’s not significant, and considering that you’ll need to use it only about once a week makes it even less of a problem. But keep in mind that the case is nowhere close to the ring in terms of the build quality.

Should you buy it?

The RingConn Smart Ring was able to do something that many other fitness trackers in the past had failed: getting me to become more health-conscious without being a (literal or figurative) burden. If you’re an average user with similar ambitions and don’t need the most high-end or accurate product, you should consider getting the RingConn Smart Ring. I have never worn rings of any sort in my life, and I was prepared to be bothered by it, but the design choices won me over.

If you feel smartwatches and bands are cumbersome to wear but are still interested in tracking your metrics continuously, consider giving smart rings a try. And looking at where we currently stand, it seems like many more smart rings are headed our way.