One of my favorite devices launched in 2024 was the Samsung Galaxy Ring. It was first teased last January at the Galaxy S24 launch, and then Samsung gave us a sneak peek in February before launching it alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6 in July.
My excitement for it had been building in the first half of the year, and the final product didn’t disappoint. Samsung delivered an excellent smart ring that didn’t cause discomfort or swollen fingers. However, RingConn and then Oura launched their successors, and the Galaxy Ring lost some of its appeal.
Samsung brought innovation to the category with its first smart ring and did a few things differently than the competition, but with so many companies launching smart rings, how does Samsung stand out and secure the top spot on the best smart rings list?
Here are some things I want Samsung to add to the inevitable Galaxy Ring 2.
Sleep apnea and other health features
The Galaxy Ring launch saw a lot of focus on the new Galaxy Watch Ultra and the Galaxy Watch 7, both of which come with a new hero feature: sleep apnea detection. Samsung’s first smart ring, however, doesn’t support this feature, which is even more surprising as the RingConn Gen 2 launched just days later with this feature on board.
There’s a reason for this: the Galaxy Ring is designed to be a companion to the Galaxy Watch, not a replacement for it. As a result, it has fewer overall features than the Oura Ring 4, although it does offer one of the most user-friendly introductions to the smart ring space. Samsung Health has 64 million users worldwide, and while the Galaxy Ring is a good addition to this, you need an additional device to capture the full suite of Samsung Health data.
This is where Samsung took a different approach than the competition, and it’s not necessarily one that will pay off in the long run. There are neat tricks where Samsung Health can automatically pick the better reading when tracking sleep using a Galaxy Watch and a Galaxy Ring, but there’s significant room for improvement here.
Less companion, more standalone
This starts with Samsung’s approach to a smart ring. The company is the only major phone maker to dabble in the smart ring space. It can help shape future industry trends, but it chose to make the Galaxy Ring less feature-rich than its smartwatches. Samsung doesn’t want you just to buy a ring; it would like you to buy a watch and a Samsung phone alongside it.
The competition does things differently. RingConn and Oura both offer a standalone smart ring that has more health features and the hero feature from the latest Galaxy Watch lineup: sleep Apnea detection. RingConn has a similar portable charging case, which offers up to 150 days of battery life versus the additional 14 days provided by Samsung. Meanwhile, Oura has a new integrated sensor design that’s more comfortable than the Galaxy Ring and offers more features (albeit with a subscription).
I’d love to see Samsung launch a second-generation Galaxy Ring that takes a modified approach. Integrating the Galaxy Watch and Galaxy Ring into a single app is unique and user-friendly, but each piece of hardware should work sufficiently on its own. My ideal Galaxy Ring 2 ensures you can take full advantage of every Samsung Health feature in one ring, regardless if you also have a Galaxy Watch or not.
Broader compatibility with other phones
Samsung says that the Galaxy Ring works best when paired with a Galaxy smartphone, but this is only partly true. I’ve tested two Galaxy Rings side by -side — one paired to a Galaxy S24 Ultra and the other to the Motorola Razr Plus 2024 — and for the most part, they work similarly. The key difference is that the latter sometimes kills Samsung’s background processing, and you need to manually open the app when this happens.
This is an area of potential improvement for Samsung. The key issue is that it requires several apps to work, it isn’t the most seamless experience, and it won’t work with the iPhone. The first two are pretty easy to solve; integrating all the Galaxy Ring plug-ins and options into one app will solve both simultaneously.
However, the iPhone represents a big challenge and opportunity for the Galaxy Ring. Requiring an Android phone instantly rules out hundreds of millions of potential customers and instantly makes the Oura Ring 4 and RingConn Gen 2 far more appealing to any customers unsure of which smart ring they should buy.
The old Galaxy Watch 3 and Galaxy Fit are both compatible with the iPhone, but it’s unlikely that Samsung will broaden compatibility for its recent wearables to include the iPhone. It’s a shame as it would almost immediately increase Samsung Health and Samsung wearable users.
A bump-less sensor design
I love the Oura Ring 4 for one key reason: the integrated sensors, which use a bump-less design. It’s made for the most comfortable smart ring I’ve worn this past year, which is a shame as the Galaxy Ring’s overall design is better. I like the concave design, and so far, it’s held up far better than my Oura Ring 4, which is already scratched.
Part of the benefit of an integrated sensor design is greater pathways between different sensors. This results in more accurate data tracking alongside the ability to accurately record data even when the ring is rotated around your finger. It’s also solved a key issue for me, and I am no longer uncomfortable with swollen fingers.
There are still a few different design approaches to smart rings, but I think the Oura Ring 4 could set a standard for the industry to match. The Galaxy Ring has a better overall design and is far more durable, but Samsung needs to improve the sensor design. Further reducing the size of the sensor bumps could be a significant step toward going fully bump-less.
A better charging case
The RingConn Gen 2 has changed my expectations for smart rings, and it also highlights one of my biggest complaints about the Oura Ring 4. The Galaxy Ring introduced the concept of a charging case, which allows you to charge it up to twice on the go. The result is that it can last up to three weeks without needing to recharge the case, making it ideal for longer holidays and work trips.
The RingConn Gen 2 changed the industry standard as it uses a larger case and offers up to 150 days from a fully charged case. That’s an outstanding increase and means that Samsung can make the Galaxy Ring charging case even better. As the case is fairly compact, I’d love to see Samsung increase the size to offer at least 45 days of use from a single charge.
When can you expect the Galaxy Ring 2?
The Galaxy Ring captured the attention and catapulted the smart rings market into the mainstream, and the Galaxy Ring 2 will likely receive just as much attention.
Much will depend on Samsung’s smart ring cadence; it’s a new category, and it’s unclear whether it will follow Oura’s approach of a new ring every three years, something more akin to RingConn with a launch every 18 months, or follow its established phone pattern with minor updates each year.
Regardless of what Samsung does, I hope the next Galaxy Ring is on par with the Oura Ring 4 while also keeping the things that make it unique. It’s already going to be one of the devices I’m most excited about, and I hope we’ll see it in 2025.
