Samsung launches first Galaxy Ring wearable with AI-enabled health tracking
Samsung is jumping into the smart ring race with the debut of its Galaxy Ring at its Galaxy Unpacked event in Paris, France, on Wednesday. Smart rings are a category of connected devices designed to track your health and fitness more discreetly than a smartwatch or fitness band.
Oura's eponymously named Oura Ring is perhaps the most well-known smart ring, offering users insights into everything from sleep and heart rate variability to skin temperature and automatic workout detection. But the overall market is still relatively small compared to the smartphone space. Now Samsung is looking to get in on the action, making it the largest tech company to offer a smart ring.
The Galaxy Ring, which Samsung says gets a shot of generative AI capabilities via its Galaxy AI platform, starts at $399 and will be available in nine sizes. Customers can visit their nearest Samsung retailer to try out different sizes in person or order sizing kits online.
My wedding ring is a 10.5, but I opted for a size 12 when trying on the Galaxy Ring as it was the most comfortable option. I'll blame that on swollen fingers from my flight to Paris, the summer heat, and the wine I had the night before my demo.
The ring itself is rather fashionable and unassuming. You wouldn't look at it and immediately assume it was a piece of technology. Available in three colors — black, silver, and gold — the Galaxy Ring felt comfortable during the brief time I wore it. Samsung says you should get upward of seven days of battery life depending on the size of your ring. The company says smaller sizes will get five days of battery life.
The Galaxy Rings' built-in sensors provide sleep-tracking features, including heart and respiratory rate tracking, and monitor movement and skin temperature changes throughout the night for cycle tracking. The ring also offers heart-rate alerts when your heart rate gets too high, auto walking and running workout detection, and an inactivity alert that lets you know when you've been stationary for too long.
Samsung says it combines all of these metrics using its Galaxy AI platform into what it calls its Energy Score, which is essentially a numerical representation from 0 to 100 of your health and fitness. For example, if you worked out for a long time but didn't get a good night's sleep, your Energy Score will be on the lower side.
Sleep well and get in a shorter workout, and your score will be higher. Samsung is pairing this with AI-powered Wellness Tips that provide tailored suggestions to improve your metrics, such as getting to bed sooner.
Samsung isn't the only company with a health scoring system, Oura uses a similar feature it calls its Readiness score, while Fitbit has its Daily Readiness Score. Both Oura and Fitbit's offerings are meant to give you a sense of whether you can exercise or if you should take a break for the day.
It's still not clear if the smart ring market will become as popular as the modern smartwatch market or if Samsung will remain the largest company in the space for long. According to Bloomberg, Apple (AAPL) has mulled building its own smart ring in the past, and some within the organization are pushing for it to move forward with the concept.
For now, though, it looks like Samsung will soon be the biggest player in the up-and-coming market.
Email Daniel Howley at dhowley@yahoofinance.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanielHowley.
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