Oura Ring 4 versus Samsung Galaxy Ring: which is the best smart ring for tracking sleep and wellness?
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You can now track your fitness by slipping a small ring on your finger, but which smart ring is best... Copy link. twitter. facebook. whatsapp. email. Price: £349, John Lewis. Our rating: 9/10. We like: the quantity of information it gives you. We don’t like: the monthly subscription fee.
Our rating: 8/10. We like: the slimmer, concave design. We don’t like: the gaps in activity tracking. A smart ring is a wearable health and activity tracker that resembles a regular ring, and the Oura Ring 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Ring are the two most popular examples. They’re designed to be less obtrusive than a chunky smartwatch while still giving users data such as sleep time and quality, daily movement, heart rate and blood oxygen levels, and they’re easier to wear for 24 hours than a watch.
‘The marketing promotes better health for the wearers,’ says Dr Yang Wei, associate professor in wearable technologies at Nottingham Trent University’s Medical Technologies Innovation Facility (MTIF). ‘Some people are motivated by the innovation of rings, while others are interested in the information they provide to help them make positive changes.’.
I looked at the design and comfort of the rings, including whether they look like jewellery or wearable and how they feel to have on a finger for 24 hours a day. To assess the health and fitness tracking, I wore each ring for around nine days to see how accurately it tracked, how it built a picture of me as it became more familiar with my baseline and how accessible information was relayed to me via the smartphone apps. I also assessed ease of set-up and battery life.
