The Samsung Galaxy ring is pricey but promising

Summary

• Samsung introduces Galaxy Ring, a health monitoring smart ring with battery life up to 7 days.
• Galaxy Ring available in sizes 5 to 13, three finishes, priced at $400 with no subscription fee.
• Charging case included, allows for weeks of use without need for power source, available for preorder.

Samsung officially announced a lot of stuff at its Unpacked event in Paris today. Along with the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Galaxy Z Flip 6, Galaxy Watch 7, and Galaxy Watch Ultra, we also got our first full look at the Samsung Galaxy Ring, the company’s first-ever smart ring. The Galaxy Ring is sure to raise awareness about the burgeoning smart ring form factor, but a high retail price might stop the ring from being the runaway success Samsung is hoping for.

According to Samsung, the Galaxy Ring is “designed for 24/7 health monitoring.” It’s not the type of wearable you’d buy to, say, train for an ultramarathon (that’s more the Galaxy Watch Ultra’s forte), but rather to get passive, low-effort tracking of basic data about your activity and sleep. It comes in sizes 5 through 13, which should be a wide enough range to accommodate most people’s fingers. The larger sizes offer up to seven days of battery life per charge; the smaller sizes come with smaller batteries and don’t last quite as long.

That might be a little frustrating for small-fingered folks, but it’s mitigated by an included charging case. The case has its own battery that holds enough juice to charge the ring several times over, so you could feasibly go weeks at a time without having to connect the ring to a power source. The case charges over USB-C.

You can choose from three finishes for the Galaxy Ring: black, silver, or gold. But unlike rings from Samsung’s most notable rival in this space, Oura, the Galaxy Ring costs the same $400 regardless of which finish you choose. That price may cause sticker shock — a basic ring from Oura goes for $299 — but Samsung isn’t charging a subscription fee to access any Galaxy Ring features. According to Samsung, some Galaxy AI-branded features will be exclusively available when the ring is paired with a Samsung phone, but the ring is otherwise compatible with all Android phones.

Samsung Galaxy Ring: Hands-on impressions

I’m impressed with this hardware

The Samsung Galaxy Ring (left) next to the third-gen Oura Ring

I got to see the Galaxy Ring at a press event before Unpacked, and while I still have questions about Samsung Health as a smart ring companion app, I’m excited about the ring’s hardware. Compared to the Oura Ring I’ve been wearing for a couple of years, the Galaxy Ring is noticeably thinner and lighter. It’s also got an interesting concave shape — the outside surface of the ring bows inward. It’s a cool visual detail, and it should also make the ring just a bit more comfortable by relieving some pressure on adjacent fingers.

The charging case is great, too. Samsung’s not the first smart ring maker to include a portable charging cradle — the RingConn Smart Ring comes to mind — but Samsung bundling the Galaxy Ring with a case will more or less force competitors to do the same in the future. A Samsung rep told me the case is made with travel in mind; with the case, the Galaxy Ring should be able to make it through even long trips without needing to be plugged into a power source. I was also told it’s meant to emulate the boxes non-smart rings come in (think engagement rings), which I think is a pretty cute detail.

The Galaxy Ring is available for preorder now

All sizes and finishes cost the same $400

The Samsung Galaxy Ring is available for preorder today for $399.99 with general availability starting July 24. That’s a lot to pay for a wearable health tracker, but if Samsung’s software can live up to the Galaxy Ring’s hardware, it might just be my next smart ring.