This $299 smart ring is the sleep and fitness tracker I didn’t know I needed

If you’re anything like me, you enjoy keeping track of your fitness and health. That’s why I’m a big fan of smartwatches — they not only let you access notifications, calls, and apps quickly, but they also track fitness. But then, smartwatches are big and uncomfortable to wear, especially to bed for sleep tracking. This left me without a way to track sleep metrics until I started using smart rings.

Many say smart rings are the next big thing in fitness tracking, and I’m starting to believe it’s true. These small gadgets sit on your finger all day long and track your activity, steps, heart rate, body temperature, and sleep, all while blending into your life without causing any sort of obstruction. The most well-known smart ring is the Oura Ring, and soon, you’ll hear a lot about the Samsung Galaxy Ring, too.

While Oura is a well-established name and great for anyone looking for a smart ring, it comes with an added cost of $6 per month — a subscription fee that you have to pay to use the smart ring to its fullest. Even the Amazfit Helio Ring, which my colleague John Biggs reviewed recently, tries to upsell its fitness and sleep coach for a total of $100 per year.

On the other hand, the Ultrahuman Ring Air, a smart ring we reviewed late last year, offers a much more comprehensive package for the price and is, best of all, subscription-free. I have been using the Ultrahuman Ring Air exclusively for the past month to track my fitness, and this smart ring just might have convinced me to ditch my Apple Watch and rely on it for health tracking.

Checking in all day, every day

Smart rings don’t have a display or even a vibration motor, so they can’t physically nudge you to check your progress without relying on your smartphone. They have to rely on widgets and notifications to tell you how you’re doing that day, and Ultrahuman does this just brilliantly.

From the moment you wake up until you sleep, the Ring Air sends notifications throughout the day, be it about the steps taken, your sleep score from the previous night, or just reminding you to stretch your legs when you’ve been sitting for a long time.

Depending on when you wake up, the ring will notify you about the best time for sun exposure. Additionally, about an hour after waking up, Ultrahuman sends a notification about when your “stimulant permissible window” is inactive. I’ll be honest: I had no idea about this before getting the smart ring. This roughly two-hour window is when you shouldn’t consume caffeine — early-morning coffee drinkers, take note. After that, the ring provides a “permissible window” for the best time to consume caffeine products like tea, coffee, and soda to maximize your energy boost.

Throughout the day, Ultrahuman pings me to check my movement, lets me know when to avoid caffeine, informs me about when my heart rate drop after sleeping, and suggests the ideal time to eat for a better night’s sleep. All of this is based on when I woke up, sleep, and recovery data.

Speaking of sleep and recovery data, the Ultrahuman Ring Air tracks heart rate, heart rate variability, skin temperature, and oxygen levels. Based on the data provided by these sensors, it gives you a sleep, movement, stress, and dynamic recovery score. For those wondering, the recovery score is similar to what the readiness score is on the Oura Ring.

The app presents these scores and graphs in a pretty minimal manner, allowing you to dig deeper into what affected them. For example, just yesterday, I wasn’t feeling my best after waking up. After checking the app’s sleep score and its detailed view, I got to know that not only sleep timing “needs attention” (yes, Ultrahuman, I know sleeping at 2 am isn’t ideal), but my heart rate also took time to drop after getting in bed (probably due to the late-night snack I had).

But what’s really caught my eye during the period of testing is the Dynamic Recovery score. Unlike Oura Ring, the recovery score on Ultrahuman Ring Air updates throughout the day. This is particularly impressive because tells you about your body’s current state, and not several hours ago. The Dynamic Recovery score changes based on factors like stress, heart rate variability, sleep index, temperature, and more.

I have found this feature helpful, particularly because I haven’t been able to achieve great sleep scores. Based on the Dynamic Recovery score, the ring suggests actions you can take, such as naps and breathing sessions, to enhance your body’s recovery on any given day. This feature is especially useful for athletes or anyone who has a regular training routine.

What’s worth highlighting — again — is that unlike other smart rings, the Ring Air is that it offers all these features without any additional cost. There are no subscriptions or fees involved. As a matter of fact, the company continues to add more features to the ring every few weeks. Since I started using it, they’ve introduced a ‘find my ring’ option, something that I found lacking during my initial testing. They’ve also launched a new ‘Shift Work Mode’ designed for people with irregular schedules or who work late shifts, offering tailored recommendations based on their specific routines.

But the Ultrahuman Ring Air is in no way a perfect smart ring. While it does have a workout mode, it’s currently in beta and can sometimes be a hit or miss or provide inaccurate readings compared to my Apple Watch. The durability of the ring could also be improved, as my ring has already picked up a few scratches after a few workout sessions. The app could benefit from a few tweaks to make it more user-friendly.

Nonetheless, my overall experience with the Ring Air has been quite positive. I appreciate how the company has adapted to this new product ecosystem already — it’s a solid first-generation product — and I’m already looking forward to what they will bring with the second generation.