Smartwatches, with their versatile features and seamless compatibility with digital devices, have long been a dominant force in the wearable tech market, becoming an essential accessory for many in their daily lives.
During the recent Samsung Unpacked event, which featured various updates to the Galaxy S24 series and Galaxy AI for an enhanced user experience, the company concluded the event with a preview of the Samsung Galaxy Ring. This compact wearable technology, teased as a potential rival to smartwatches, presents a smaller size while retaining similar functionalities. The unveiling of the Galaxy Ring hints at a potential solution to the bulky weight often associated with smartwatches, signalling a noteworthy development in the wearable tech landscape.
What Do We Know About the Galaxy Ring?
During the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event, Samsung unveiled their Galaxy Ring to the public for the first time. In the brief teaser presented after the Galaxy Unpacked event, the Galaxy Ring is showcased, featuring a sleek circular design in a black hue. The lower part of the ring reveals multiple sensors, anticipated to contribute to health and fitness tracking for the user.
In the event and teaser, the gadget was described as a “Potent and user-friendly health and wellness device”, purportedly incorporating advancements from Samsung Health into their features. However, no additional specifics were disclosed. Interestingly, a glimpse of the Galaxy Ring, or at least its silhouette, is discernible towards the conclusion of a promotional video for Samsung Health.
What Does the Galaxy Ring Do?
Looking at the interior, similar to typical health and fitness trackers, it is reasonable to assume that the Galaxy Ring will utilise its built-in sensors to monitor metrics such as heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, skin temperature, step count, calorie expenditure, and stress levels.
A trademark filing suggested that the Galaxy Ring would handle and evaluate “Biometric and physiological data, vital signs, and personal health records”. Additionally, it was purported to provide users with guidance to seek medical advice as necessary, based on the gathered data.
Externally, it appears that the Galaxy Ring will showcase a sleek dark glossy finish, designed to complement various outfits seamlessly. Following the pattern of most Samsung wearable products, the Galaxy Ring is likely to depend on the Samsung Galaxy Wearable app for firmware updates and adjusting device settings. The Samsung Health app could serve as the secondary companion app, facilitating access to health data and generating comprehensive reports featuring graphs and numerical representations.
Despite the initial excitement, the buzz diminished when Samsung added a ‘Coming soon’ tag to the teaser. Nevertheless, delving into this product category remains intriguing.
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Leaks About the Galaxy Ring
Samsung themselves keep their mouths shut about the details of the Galaxy Ring tech, but leaks are revealing more details of the smart ring.
Additional information from a leak indicated that the Samsung Galaxy Ring might come equipped with Electrocardiogram (ECG) and Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors. Anticipated to offer an extended battery life compared to smartwatches, smart rings benefit from not having built-in displays.
Yet, Samsung have not officially verified these features or disclosed any specifics about the smart ring.
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When Will the Galaxy Ring Be Released?
The Samsung teaser video suggests a potential introduction of the Galaxy Ring during the second Galaxy Unpacked event of 2024, typically held in July or August and focusing on foldable devices. This could mean a simultaneous release with the Galaxy Watch 7 series and the successor to the Galaxy Z Flip 5.
Regarding pricing, the absence of a display may enable Samsung to position it at a lower price point compared to its Galaxy Watch models, unless the inclusion of additional sensors raises its overall cost.
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The Galaxy Ring Is Also in Competition
The Galaxy Ring is not the first player in the arena. If you are a bit more familiar with smart rings, the Galaxy Ring may remind you of the Oura Ring. Oura themselves know about this rising competition from the upcoming Galaxy Ring. According to The Verge, the CEO of Oura, Tom Hale, issued the following unsolicited statement to The Verge:
With new features released regularly, Oura has the strongest IP portfolio — in both hardware and software — for the smart ring form factor, with 100 granted patents, 270 pending patent applications, and 130+ registered trademarks. New players entering the space is validation for the category and drives us to aim higher to serve our members and community.
Tom Hale, CEO of Oura
Although Oura claimed that they are better in terms of functions, but one thing is obvious — rivalry serves as a validation, and Oura will soon face numerous new contenders in the arena. The revealing of the Galaxy Ring from the significant player, Samsung in the tech arena may just push smart rings to become the new upcoming tech trend, just like the flippable and foldable smartphones that sprout out from many other smartphone brands since the Galaxy Flip series.
Smart Rings May Become a Growing Trend
As a matter of fact, with the introduction of the Galaxy Ring, we can observe that there’s something to this form factor in their development of tech products. It automatically leads to a discussion between the current smartwatches and smart rings. What’s better about smart rings compared to smartwatches?
Smart rings offer a more discreet and effective solution for sleep tracking compared to smartwatches. Samsung have dedicated efforts over the last two years to enhance its sleep-tracking features. The underside of the finger proves to be a more precise location for monitoring blood oxygen levels and heart rate than the wrist. With the rising popularity of smartwatches, there’s a demand among users for simpler trackers that don’t function as extensions of their phones.
Considering Apple‘s dominance in the smartwatch market, Samsung’s strategic move to establish a presence in a newer form factor, where they face only one significant, albeit still relatively niche, competitor, appears astute.
Final Say
The upcoming Galaxy Ring may bring in a brand new trend of smart rings in the tech arena. The current known details of what the smart ring can bring may prompt us to have high expectations of what the ring may benefit us better compared to smartwatches. However, with such a small size, some people may question what better functions it may bring compared to smartwatches besides health-checking functions.
For this, we’ll have to wait for Samsung to answer lots of our questions as they still have many details of the Galaxy Ring undisclosed. But with the next Galaxy Unpacked coming in the next quarter of 2024, we might just get the answers. In the meantime of waiting, you might want to check out the latest tech news about Microsoft’s Copilot Pro and Meta’s Former COO leaving the board.
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