Samsung proved it can still surprise with the announcement of the Galaxy Ring, concluding January's Unpacked. The short teaser is understood to be a key validation of the nascent wearable form factor. While the concept of a smart ring isn't entirely new, the category has so far been dominated by Oura.
At Unpacked 2024, the company revealed more details about the Galaxy Ring, the hardware giant's first foray into the space. Samsung is beating the likes of Apple and Google with a health and fitness device that dovetails with Samsung's other wellness products. It's available to preorder starting Wednesday for $399.
Samsung has experimented with a variety of form factors — remember the IconX earbuds with built-in heart rate monitors? — but throughout that journey, it all seems to lead back to the Galaxy Watch. The addition of the ring to the company's wearables portfolio is promising for a few reasons. First, Oura and products like it have already proven there's plenty of customer interest. Second, the features here enhance, rather than replace, everything that devices like the Galaxy Watch already do.
The ring's design is limited by its small enough footprint and lack of a display, so these devices tend to take a more passive approach to tracking. Samsung describes this as “24/7 health monitoring,” but that's largely down to a generous battery life of up to seven days. Not coincidentally, this is exactly how Oura rates its ring.
The Galaxy Ring starts off with the most passive of health tracking features: sleep. The device gives you a sleep “score” based on a variety of metrics, including movement, heart rate, and breathing rate. It also does cycle tracking based on the wearer's skin temperature while sleeping. The product's small size makes it a less intrusive sleep companion than a larger smartwatch.
Of course, Galaxy AI is involved here too, gathering metrics from sleep, activity, heart rate while asleep, and heart rate variability while asleep to compile what Samsung calls “comprehensive insights and motivational encouragement.” Most interesting of all, all of the aforementioned features are available without a paid subscription. There's no guarantee Samsung won't eventually move in that direction, but for now, it's certainly an advantage over Oura's $6 monthly fee.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring will ship on July 24th.