Samsung Galaxy Ring Review – stealth technology tracking your sleep and activity.

When Samsung announced the Galaxy Ring at the very start of this year the concept looked sensational. Fast forward almost to the end of the year and it’s now available in Australia and could just be the perfect fitness tracker for people not keen on a Smart Watch, or perhaps even a device to compliment your Smart Watch to get detailed sleep tracking.

This is not a new category. The Oura ring has been around for a little while, heck there are even cheap versions for a fraction of the $699 price Samsung wants for the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Samsung’s advantage over the established Oura is very simple – no subscription, this is a one off purchase. While I haven’t tested any of the cheaper ones (I will), I’d suggest their data accuracy wouldn’t be strong, though still great for tracking performance over time.

Personally, my fascination with the Samsung Galaxy Ring comes from seeing how it can track sleep. Personally, I cannot wear a watch to bed, so while many of the best smart watches do amazing sleep tracking – that’s not for me.

But before I get to that, I look at the Ring’s features and see two other core things. Step/Movement tracking and Heart Rate tracking.

Way back when, I used to love wearing the Jawbone Up, this simple wrist band would report my steps on a daily basis and give a measure over time. For a non fitness freak, this is about always trying to judge how active you’ve been, to see if you’re getting worse or better.

A simple metric. While your phone can track this, you don’t have your phone on your all the time, so a Ring is perhaps the purest tracking location of all.

I can see myself checking the stats every few days to understand if I need to lift my game – simplistically, that’s important.

In my week of testing I’ve found it to be extremely accurate and really impressive – given it’s just a ring!

Then there’s heart rate. Again, not critical for everyone, and for those looking for real health or heart care then I think a Smartwatch wins because of the alerts and things it can detect.

But for bare bones stats, this is again – remarkable.

All from a RING on your finger.

And I looked at each day and could reflect on what caused the jump in heart-rate, it was accurate to the moment.

But again, I’ll say – I think sleep is where this really ticks boxes.

I’ll kick off though with the challenge for Samsung. If someone asks me to recommend a sleep tracking device, I’m going straight to the Withings Sleep Analyser – that thing is $200 and has amazing data including sleep apnea detection.

I’ve had that under my mattress for years, so figured it was the best way to compare and benchmark the Samsung Galaxy Ring.

Here’s one night, on both devices:

For at-a-glance data, I think the Samsung has a greater level of precision. The fluctuations in sleep movement and pattern are more detailed.

However, I would say that the Withings seems to better account for my actual sleep time. Over 4-5 nights of comparison, I think teh Samsung was adding 30-40 minutes per night. Somehow my doom scrolling is being counted as sleep.

I actually don’t think that’s a deal breaker at all, because who really knows your sleep time. What matters is having one device every day consistently to see improvements in time, sleep quality and variations over time.

Battery life is impressive. Samsung says a week, I think I got 6.5 days, but I think it’s useful to look at that over a much longer timeframe.

I love the case it comes in, I love that it’s the charging case

And I love that it shows an LED indicator of battery life when you put it in the case so you can see how well it’s charged.

Does take a good hour to charge, so I’m still thinking the smart move is to keep that charger on your work desk to remind you, or to put it on once a day while you shower perhaps, to keep the levels ongoing.

There’s zero warning on the device itself when on your finger that it’s flat. Last night I realised it was flat only when in the middle of the night I didn’t see the eery green and red lights on my finger (the sensors).

Your Samsung Galaxy smartphone will alert you to battery levels though, I wasn’t carrying that phone around because I wanted to be sure the data collected in Samsung Health was only from the Ring.

My main feedback on the Galaxy Ring though is the look. I chose the Titanium Silver, as my rings currently are a silver or white gold. Frankly, this looks like plastic. It needs a more “chrome” look to really pull off the “ring” concept.

I’d suggest Titanium Black to be the better option overall. Just disappointing given how stunning the charging case is, how well engineered this is, and then how the Ring looks on the hand – in Silver.

And of course, at $699 – it’s not cheap!

Sure, there is a remarkable amount of technology packed into a ring! Wow! But, it’s pricey on an exchange rate basis compared to the states, and it’s pricey when you consider the cost of a Smartwatch, or alternative sleep tracking device.

They will find their market though among Samsung Galaxy loyalists. The addition of sleep data in such an inconspicuous way – is a game-changer, because as someone who travels, I’ve never had good sleep data on the road – now I do.