People seem to have polar reactions to smart rings. Some love them, like Digital Trends’ Andy Boxall. Others, like former Digital Trends contributor Joe Maring, found that they simply couldn’t abide wearing one all the time. So when I decided to buy the Samsung Galaxy Ring for a number of reasons, I alays knew it would really be an experiment with whether I would take to wearing a ring or not.
The results are in, and I am firmly in the camp of those who don’t really get smart rings. For the last few months, my Galaxy Ring has largely found itself relegated to its charging box.
I say “largely” because it’s actually been in there less than I had assumed when I gave up wearing it full time. And that’s because I’ve found a whole new use for it, which fits my life perfectly. Only, it’s not a use I really recommend for anyone. Here’s why.
Smart rings aren’t for me
I should have known from the start that wearing a smart ring wouldn’t really be my jam. I don’t wear rings, I’ve never worn rings, and even if I get married, I don’t plan on wearing a ring. So why would a smart ring be any different? Well, dear reader, it’s because I’m an enormous stooge for technology. Want me to do an unpleasant task? Strap a piece of smart tech to it and tell me it’ll track my stats. It’s how I was tricked into taking up running, and it’ll doubtless work again in the future.
My early days with the Galaxy Ring were good. I loved the convenience, the battery life was great, and I loved the gold finish. Despte the color, it was subtle, and often people wouldn’t even realise I was wearing it. I took to wearing a normal watch again. Life was good.
Only, it wasn’t. A few small things kept bugging me. One of them was the design. The Galaxy Ring has a slight concave design that dips in the center, and flares out towards the edge. Except the flared edges tend to catch on things, which isn’t a huge concern — except when it catches on the back of my newborn daughter’s head. Feeling a ring scrape along the back of a beloved child’s head is not an experience I wish on any of you. It didn’t really seem to bother her, but the feeling haunts me to this day.
But even worse than baby-scratching was what it did to my love of stats and data. It killed it stone dead.
The Galaxy Ring is a very smart little doohickey. It collects a lot of data — and not the scary data that Google collects. No, it’s the nice data that tells me how well my ticker is ticking, how slothily I slumbered, and how fast I run when I really want donuts before the stores close for the day. I like those stats, and the Galaxy Ring collects a lot of those.
So it collects a lot of data and stats — but it doesn’t feel like it does. I never glanced at my ring and thought “hm, I should see how many steps I’ve walked today” or “when was the last time I exercised, because that brisk walk almost killed me”. Smartwatches give me that compulsion, and while it might not be an entirely healthy compulsion, it’s one that justifies the data collection. I’m not sure why the Galaxy Ring doesn’t trigger it, but it may be the lack of a screen meant I didn’t feel the need to go digging. The need to find the Samsung Health app was enough of a barrier to stop me from looking at my activity stats.
And really, if I wasn’t looking at that, what was the point of wearing the ring?
I took it off the day I came to that realization, and went back to a smartwatch.
It’s the perfect sleep tracker
But I did look back, and that’s because of the shortcomings of the device I wore instead.
The Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 Classic is a fabulous smartwatch. It’s easily still one of the best smartwatches you can buy, despite having been superseded by the Galaxy Watch 7. It looks great, feels even better to use, and serves as a perfect complement to my Galaxy Z Fold 5.
But it doesn’t suit my nighttime adventures. If you’re sleeping through the entire night, then the Galaxy Watch’s sleep mode works fine. It closes down the display, preventing accidental touches and stopping it from lighting up like a Christmas tree at 3am. But when you’re awake feeding a baby at midnight, and you flick your wrist up to see what time it is — sorry, you need to press a button, or whirl the rotating bezel. And even then, it just asks you if you want to turn off sleep mode.
Do I want to turn off sleep mode? Quite frankly, no. I’d much rather I was in sleep mode myself. It’s patently obvious I’m not asleep, I just want to know what the time is — just let me see the time.
I came to the conclusion that it was better to not have the watch on, rather than have something that would actively infuriate me. But on the flip side, I want to continue tracking my sleep, because lord knows, I’m not getting enough of it.
The Galaxy Ring was the obvious solution. It’s small, convenient, lacks the temptation of a display, and tracks everything I want tracked. Not being reminded to view my data isn’t an issue because I’m, well, asleep, and in the morning, I strap my watch back on and slip the Ring back into its case.
It’s also solved a few other problems I had with the Galaxy Watch. I no longer need to find time to charge it, for instance. My wrist gets chance to breathe. Heck, it just gives me a rest from constantly wearing it.
It’s a win-win. Wearing a smartwatch during the day and a smart ring at night has balanced the issues I’ve had with the both of them, and it’s become the perfect way to add the Galaxy Ring back into my life.
But really, I can’t recommend this method to anyone.
There are much cheaper options
There’s a fly in this ointment, and it’s a big one; money.
The Buy at Amazon costs a princely $400 before any trade-ins. That puts it on the more expensive side for a wearable, even if you’re using it all the time. A comparable smartwatch can set you back much less, and offer more on top, since there’s room fro a display, and more advanced features. A dedicated sleep tracker, like the Withings Sleep , costs only $130. Sure, the Galaxy Ring is a lot more flexible, but is it $270 more flexible? I’m not so sure. Ultimately, the Galaxy Ring is a lot of money to spend on a sleep tracker.
Instead, this is very much a recommendation for people like me; anyone who took the plunge on a smart ring and discovered, to their accountant’s horror, that it simply doesn’t work for them. I’ve been in that exact position, and honestly, it doesn’t feel good, even if you’ve bought the device in question for work.
But all is not lost, as my discovery has proven. The Samsung Galaxy Ring makes an excellent sleep tracker. I feel like Mr. Moneybags saying this, because I’ve effectively spent $400 to track my sleep in a more convenient fashion, and it’s for that reason I can’t recommend you buy one for that reason. However, if you have found you simply don’t gel with a smart ring, try wearing it at night. You may find it works better.
