Circular confirms its $259 smart ring is coming to the U.S.

By Peter Hunt Szpytek February 21, 2022

The Circular smart ring is finally going to be available for pre-order on Sunday, February 27, via the Circular website and will cost $259. The wearable tech will be available for presale in European countries (France, Germany, the U.K., and Italy,) the United States, Australia, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Pre-orders will go live at 1:30 p.m. ET on Sunday, February 27. Those who pre-order the smart ring should expect delivery between April and June 2022, according to a Circular press release.

Circular doesn’t clarify what ring sizes will be available when presales go live, however, the company has said that seven sizes for both men and women will be available. Digital Trends has reached out for clarification on the available sizes, and will update this article when we hear back. The Circular smart ring also comes in four different colors that can be switched out with replaceable outer shells: Black, rose gold, silver, and gold.

The Circular ring was a highlight reveal from CES 2022 as the company looks to innovate the wearable health technology market. The smart ring is a device that aims to provide users with personal health insights through its accompanying app, which should help better inform owners about their body signals. Body signals that the device will help monitor include “heart rate variability, blood oxygenation, breathing rate, body temperature, and more,” according to Circular.

The Circular ring is meant to help users interpret the bodily functions that it monitors while guiding users toward “better sleep” and “heart recovery.” Although Circular isn’t the first company to provide wearable tech owners with health insights, as seen with such devices like the Fitbit or Apple Watch, but the company hopes to give users an understanding of what specifically their body is doing instead of simply providing “raw data.”

Those worried about health privacy can transfer the data collected by the Circular smart ring directly to medical professionals while their information stays “strictly confidential.”

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Peter Hunt Szpytek

Mobile Writer

A podcast host and journalist, Peter covers mobile news with Digital Trends and gaming news, reviews, and guides for sites…

Mobile

5G rollout has been a disaster in the U.S. Here’s why

Passenger airlines flying past a large radio communications tower.

After several weeks of false starts and dire warnings from the aviation industry, today marks the day that AT&T and Verizon go live with their new C-band 5G spectrum.

Today’s rollout marks the culmination of more than a year of work by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the carriers to allocate and auction off the new spectrum, after both AT&T and Verizon won record-breaking bids to secure large chunks of it.

Mobile

Movano unveils an affordable, woman-friendly health-tracking ring at CES 2022

Oura Ring on finger. Credits: Oura official.

Several smartwatches and health devices were unveiled as a part of wearables push at the CES 2022 exhibition. However, one product stood out thanks to its superior health-tracking technology and convenient form factor: The Movano Ring. The Movano Ring, a wearable ring in the same vein as Oura ring, has been designed for people of all ages with a women-centered focus. Health tech for women has largely been ignored by the medical tech industry, and Movano strives to change that. The Movano Ring provides actionable insights to people with a deep focus on keeping a track of their daily fitness and those with chronic illnesses.
The Movano health ring is similar to the Oura ring, which was launched in 2015.
The Movano Ring measures a user's heart rate, temperature, SpO2, calories consumed, and steps taken, among other parameters generally tracked by smart wear. However, Movano's app is the killer feature, as it can give actionable insights to users into their health so that they can make short-term, as well as long-term, changes. For example, it can share insights on how a person sleeps, so they can have better sleep hygiene. If you've been working out a lot, the app will pair that with your heart health to show a correlation, and so on. From the screenshots shared on Movano's site, it's nothing too groundbreaking, but it is presented to be more immediately actionable than the decontextualized data other fitness-focused devices share. Movano describes itself as a "non-invasive radio frequency technology platform." It is currently conducting trials on testing noninvasive glucose levels and cuffless blood pressure using this technology. It completed its third trials on 110 participants in the final quarter of 2021, with another trial scheduled forthe first quarter of 2022. At the moment, Movano is currently pursuing Class II designation to add vital medical data to its products, according to CEO John Mastrototaro. However, he revealed that the initial Ring would probably not have Food and Drug Administration clearance at launch.Although the Ring is currently still in development, its first edition is expected to launch by the second half of 2022, and that would only be a beta version. As per the company's website, it would be available in four colors - black, silver, gold, and copper. The pricing has not yet been revealed.

Mobile

French startup Circular unveils promising Oura fitness-tracking competitor

Movano Ring. Credits: Movano official.

Several smartwear products took the center stage at CES 2022. Apart from the heavy hitters such as Garmin and Skagen, a Movano ring was also unveiled, with a design that specifically has female users in mind. Finally, a French company called Circular also unveiled its first product, simply called the Circular Ring. The Circular Ring has changeable outer shells for user customization. The ring is extremely lightweight at only 4 grams. It is also water-resistant up to 5 meters. It also offers up to 22 days of built-in data storage without a Bluetooth connection. The biocompatible resin-based product will be available in different sizes.
The circular ring could give stiff competition to the Movano ring in the coming years. Movano official.
Tracking and features
A 14-day calibration period begins as soon as the user wears the ring for the first time. During this period, the ring establishes the user's baseline health parameters, which helps it to give them personalized and actionable recommendations to make healthy changes in their lives. Circular tracks multiple health metrics, including temperature, heart rate variability, energy levels, and VO2 Max. Circular has a dual PPG sensor in its ring combined with the Circular app that allows it to read heart signals and blood oxygen. It detects if the heart rate shows any signs of cardiac arrhythmia, and if the heart rhythm is steady. The data tracked is purported to be clinically accurate and can be shared with a professional for further advice. Wearing it both during the day and the night can help Circular to correlate the data using machine learning.Circular also seems to be extremely efficient while tracking sleep. It can tell a user how much time they spend in each sleep stage -- light sleep, deep sleep, REM sleep, and when they are lying awake. More importantly, it also calculates how efficiently a user has slept. The app shares data on a number of important criteria to examine sleep quality, including time taken to fall asleep, sleep debt, real sleep time, disturbances while sleeping, etc. It also provides silent vibrations to users in their light sleep stage if they wish to be awakened, without disturbing their surroundings.
Price and availability
A single charge of the ring gives it four days of battery life. A single charge from 0% to 100% can be completed in one hour. Pre-orders, which will begin soon, will run until February 27, 202. The device will have a cost of 259 euros ($293) during that time. Starting February 28, the price will jump to 289 euros ($327). Shipping and other details are expected to be announced soon by the company.