Samsung Galaxy Ring review: Comfortable fit for fitness and health in everyday life

is Samsung's first smart ring and was announced during Samsung's Summer Unpacked event. This simple and elegant, yet powerful little accessory is your ideal workout and fitness partner in elegant style.

The Galaxy Ring is your fitness and wellness companion, and you won't even know it's there. It's incredibly comfortable to wear, so you'll forget you have it on your finger, and has a variety of health and fitness metrics you can use to help you take better care of yourself.

In addition, its simple and elegant look is ideal for every day – it goes with everything you wear, so you can easily keep it on – whether you are wearing casual or formal clothes. The

is available now for $399.99 and can be purchased from Samsung.com or AT&T (currently AT&T is the only carrier you can buy it from if you want to buy it from a carrier).

is only available with Bluetooth connection, so your phone must be nearby to sync all measurements. It is available in three colors and 9 sizes.

Design, sizes and bracelets of the Samsung Galaxy Ring

So comfortable you don't know it's there

The Galaxy Ring has a beautiful and simple design and is available in three colors: titanium silver, titanium gold and titanium black. We got the titanium black for our test and it certainly looks good with everything I wear. You can wear it on any finger, but Samsung recommends the index finger. And that's where I wear it.

On the outside of the ring is a smooth, matte finish with a small line that's meant to point towards your palm – it shows where the ring's sensors are. On the inside of the ring are three tiny sensors that make it work its magic. They also flash to show battery level when you take it off (green – you have a battery, red – you should charge it, simple and straightforward), and when you wear it, they show when measurements are being taken.

Samsung offers a size kit if you are not sure which size to choose – and this is important because you want the Galaxy Ring so that it fits properly and the measurements are accurate. The ring is available in 9 sizes, from US size 5 to US size 13.

Did I mention how comfortable this thing is? Hands down, it is my favorite device for tracking health and fitness – smartwatches are bulky and fitness bands aren’t for me either (especially in the summer when it’s too hot to want to wear anything on my wrists). The Galaxy Ring is ideal in terms of comfort. And it doesn't warm up my finger as much as some other larger rings (not smart rings) on hot summer days.

A few things worth mentioning about the design. Remember that you should be careful with the Galaxy Ringespecially if you wear it on your dominant hand. Because it's so light and comfortable, I often forget it's there, and because it's on my dominant hand, I've had a few near misses and almost bumped the ring into things. Of course, Samsung touts its ruggedness (IP68 rating), but you'll still want to take it off if you're doing things like lifting heavy things, so if you want to wear it on your index finger, you might want to wear it on your non-dominant hand.

Samsung Galaxy Ring: Software and features

Great health and fitness features

The Galaxy Ring is basically a fitness tracker that sits on your finger. It works with Galaxy phones (you need the Samsung Health app to see the results), and for me the biggest downside is that some of its features are not currently cross-device (iPhones don't support it and non-Galaxy Android phones some functions are missing).

Also, the pinch gesture works with One UI 6.1.1, which is available on the latest foldables and the S24 series. The S23 Plus I paired it with didn't have the feature available yet, which is a shame.

The Galaxy Ring also measures your heart rate throughout the day and your stress levels, which is very useful if you want to monitor things and identify everyday stressors.

Training functions

Mainly the Galaxy Ring focuses on health and fitness and does its job very well. It offers auto-tracking for workouts like walking and running, while the other workouts should be started via the Samsung Health app.

I noticed that it takes a few minutes for my walks to automatically record – around 7-8 to 10 minutes – and then it automatically starts the workout, which is really handy when you don't have your phone in your hand and are just going for a leisurely walk (or run).

Other types of workouts must be started manually via the Samsung Health app. There are numerous exercises to choose from and you can pin three of them in the app for quick access.

Sleep tracking

The Galaxy Ring is the ideal sleep monitoring device. As I said, I could barely feel it there, which means I got more inspiration to wear it every night to get a more complete picture of my sleep patterns. I have tried monitoring sleep with smartwatches before, but since I place a lot of emphasis on comfort when sleeping, I couldn't sleep with a smartwatch for more than a few days. But the Galaxy Ring is something else. I also find the sleep monitoring to be pretty accurate. It measures sleep cycle length, sleep time, and other metrics and gives you a sleep score. It also monitors your blood oxygen levels while you sleep, your skin temperature, your breathing rate, and your heart rate to give you a more comprehensive picture of your sleep quality. The app also offers snore detection, but through the phone rather than the ring.

In the morning, you'll get a pretty accurate energy reading based on your sleep and activity from the previous day. While you can't base your entire day on Samsung Health's recommendations (I mean, it told me to rest a few times, but I still had to work, so that's something), you can take the information provided into account and slowly improve your routine.

Health characteristics

I have already mentioned the Energy Score, a fantastic feature that allows you to keep an eye on your health and closely monitor your condition every day. The Galaxy Ring also continuously monitors your stress levels, which can help you identify and eliminate stressors and better understand your reactions to things.

I have found that I have identified some situations where my stress levels seemed to be high and I didn't even realize it (sometimes I noticed, sometimes not so much). So this is very good for the Galaxi Ring as it gives me information that I may or may not have been aware of..

Battery and charging of the Samsung Galaxy Ring

Thanks to the long battery life, sleeping with the Galaxy Ring is easy and hassle-free

Samsung Galaxy Ring review: Comfortable fit for fitness and health in everyday life

The battery life is great for me and the Galaxy Ring performs quite well in this regard. The ring has a battery life of 18 mAh to 23.5 mAh depending on the size. The charging case has a 361 mAh battery cell. Samsung states a usage time of up to 7 days.

I wore it for five days straight before it dropped to 20%. It could have kept going, but I decided to charge it again. Charging it is also really easy – you just put it back in the case. Side note – the case is absolutely beautiful, so charging the ring felt like more of an experience than a simple “plug and go” scenario.

Charging is a little slow, though: 80 minutes for a full charge. I'd think a device this small could charge faster, but that's what we got (at least this time). Luckily, there are plenty of ways to charge: you can charge the case with the ring via USB-C, you can also charge it wirelessly or with wireless PowerShare, which is awesome.

Should you buy it?

If you are interested in fitness and health tracking but find smartwatches bulky, then the Galaxy Ring could be ideal for you. It is comfortable, has all the necessary health and fitness features and looks very good and stylish.

The only thing to note is that it doesn't work with iPhones (so if you have an iPhone, you're out of luck this time), but if you pair it with an Android phone (you can do that), it doesn't have the useful Energy Score feature and Galaxy AI features. For those, you'll need a Galaxy phone to pair it with.