Smart rings are relatively new devices that serve a range of functions. Some are packed with sensors and track your heart rate, sleep, and other metrics, whereas others have NFC chips for making payments. But smart rings as a format have just been thrust into the spotlight, as Samsung has revealed it is working on its own Samsung Galaxy Ring.
There may not be much choice when it comes to the best smart rings, but our top picks below are marvelous feats of technology. Brands like Ultrahuman and Oura have packed tech into a tiny form factor, which is small and comfortable enough to wear on your hand 24/7.
We’ve had the chance to test some of the best smart rings below – and the ones we haven’t reviewed we’ll be getting our hands (and fingers) on very soon. This means we know what to look for in terms of comfort, battery life, and data collection.
In our list below, you’ll find our current top picks of the best smart rings, whether you want to find an alternative to one of the best smartwatches or best sleep trackers, supplement the data you already collect from one of the best fitness trackers or find one of the best NFC rings for making payments and more.
The best smart rings in this guide are from several smaller brands. The smart ring space is expected to get bigger and better as competition mounts.
The quick list
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Best for night time wear
7. Go2Sleep Ring
Best for night time wear
A ring and device combo that you can wear at night to track all kinds of data about your sleep – we can't wait to test it ourselves.
Read more below
Best smart ring for sleep tracking
(Image credit: Future)
Best smart ring for sleep tracking
Our expert review:
Weight:
4-6g
Battery life:
7 days
Visit Site+
Accurate 24/7 heart rate tracking
+
Impressive sleep monitoring
+
Stats clearly presented
+
Excellent mindfulness sessions
-
More expensive than a smartwatch
-
Some features not yet available
The most well-known smart ring brand, Oura's third generation device is improved over previous versions and packed with sensors to track your key metrics, like 24/7 heart rate, temperature, and more. It's particularly geared up to help you track sleep and manage energy levels, which is why it's our top sleep tracking pick.
The Oura looks like a simple metal ring, but inside it's lined with sensors that sit against your skin. You can order a test kit with dummy rings to find the right size and the final ring is incredibly smooth and light at between 4-6g depending on which size you go for.
The Oura Ring 3rd Generation collects a vast amount of data, so it's good news that its smartphone app is incredibly comprehensive but intuitive to use, making data easy to understand. The only downside about the Oura Ring is it's very expensive and works based on a new subscription model, which may put off some users.
Read our full Oura (Generation 3) review
Best smart ring for comfort
(Image credit: Becca Caddy)
Best smart ring for comfort
Our expert review:
Average Amazon review:
Weight:
2.4-3.6 g
Battery life:
6 days
View at Amazon+
Light and comfortable
+
Detailed insights
+
Lack of screen is appealing
-
Prone to scratches
-
Lots of data to comb through
-
Expensive
If you're looking for the lightest ring on the market, the Ultrahuman Ring Air lives up to its name, only weighing in at 2.4g to 3.6g depending on your size.
Offering similar features to the Oura Ring at the top of our list, it uses a range of sensors to track all kinds of data about heart rate, movement, sleep, skin temperature, and more. Like the Oura Ring, it also has a big focus on sleep and recovery, and a handy app that we found to be incredibly thorough in terms of the data it presents, but also easy to use during our testing.
Design-wise, we found it stylish-looking and comfortable to wear, although the matte black version was prone to scratching. Luckily, there are other finishes available now that should fare better. The inside, where the sensors lie against your skin, is covered with see-through hypoallergenic epoxy resin coating, which is velvety smooth.
Read our full Ultrahuman Ring Air review
Best smart ring for payments
(Image credit: Mclear)
Best smart ring for payments
Weight :
5g
Battery life:
N/A
+
Convenient for payments
+
Slim and light
-
Pricey for one main feature
The McLear RingPay 2 is a different breed of smart ring to others in our guide because it's designed to help you make payments, not track your vitals. Thanks to NFC tech, it works in the same way a contactless card does. Add a card to your RingPay wallet, then simply place your hand over a payment terminal. Because its features are fairly basic, no charging is required.
We've yet to test this smart ring, but according to McLear, it's not just a contactless card on your finger. You can track spending in the app, set funds to top-up automatically, suspend your account if you lose it, add up to four rings to an account, transfer funds between rings and more.
This Gen 2 ring has been improved over the first, with a smaller, lighter, and more streamlined design. It weighs 5g and the width of the ring varies based on the size you choose, from 6.7mm to 6.2mm. You can choose from the standard range of ring sizes, or order a kit through McLear. As you'd expect from a device designed to be worn often, it's scratch-resistant, waterproof and hypoallergenic.
Best smart ring for added features
(Image credit: Circular)
Best for added features
Weight:
5g
Battery life:
4 days
+
Features rivals don't offer
+
Different finishes
-
More basic data tracking than rivals
The Circular Ring is another device designed to track all sorts of data about your health and fitness, including blood oxygen levels, heart rate variability, temperature, steps and more.
We haven't had chance to test the Circular ring yet, but from what we can tell it's like the rings from Oura and Ultrahuman, with a big focus on sleep with detailed insights and recommendations about your sleep cycles, as well as your energy and recovery levels. Unlike most other rings, there's haptic feedback (vibrations) that brings additional features, like a timer, smart alarm, and even notifications, as well as a physical button.
Like other options on this list, the ring weighs 5g and has a thickness of 2.75mm. But another standout design feature is that you can change the outer shell to a different color or finish. The inner material that sits against your finger is clinical grade and hypoallergenic.
Best smart ring on a budget
(Image credit: Gloring)
Best on a budget
Weight:
4g
Battery life:
Not stated
+
Cheaper than rivals
+
Tracks all essential metrics
-
Looks a little more basic than other options on the list
One of the picks on our list we haven't had the chance to test ourselves yet, the Gloring Ring has a similar design and proposition to the Ultrahuman Ring Air. It can monitor temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen and more, with Apple Health integration.
It has a slim and lightweight design with a wide choice of ring sizes and comes in black, silver and gold finishes. It's considerably cheaper than rivals, despite offering a similar suite of features, so we'll be testing it soon to see how it compares.
Best budget NFC smart ring
(Image credit: Hecere)
Best budget NFC smart ring
Weight:
Not stated
Battery life:
N/A
+
Customization options
+
Fun to program
-
Only NFC functions
This smart ring from Hecere is filled with an NFC chip, like the McLear ring higher in our list. But the difference is it's not just for payments, it comes with a rewritable chip and you can download an NFC app for free and program the ring to function in any way you'd like. It can open your phone, share a contact, make a call and more.
It has an incredibly simple and slim design at 2mm thick. It's made from zirconia ceramic and epoxy resin, so it's very smooth, too. It comes in the usual range of ring sizes and it's also waterproof.
We haven't had chance to test the Hecere NFC Ring for ourselves yet, but we think it's clear this is the best pick for customization and NFC on a budget.
Best smart ring for night time wear
(Image credit: Go2Sleep)
Best for night time wear
Weight:
<10g
Battery life:
3 days
+
Collects a lot of sleep data
+
A good option if you don't want it on in the day
-
Bulky
Most of the smart rings in this guide focus primarily on sleep tracking. But the Go2Sleep Ring is only about sleep. This is why it looks a little different to rivals in this list. It's much bigger with a design that consists of a simple silicon ring and a device made from acrylic and plastic that fits onto it.
The Go2Sleep Ring tracks your heart rate, HRV, and blood oxygen (SpO2), sending all of that data to a minimal app. It features integration with Apple Health, a smart alarm function, and day and night modes – you can wear it during the day, but given its bulky design and focus on sleep it's our top pick for nighttime use.
How to choose the best smart ring for you
The smart ring space is still relatively new, which means there isn’t much choice when it comes to finding the best smart ring for you.
The first consideration needs to be why you want one in the first place. Right now, the main types of smart rings can roughly be divided into three categories: those designed to track all of your vitals with a focus on sleep, those solely for sleep tracking, and several others that enable you to make payments. We imagine that soon these uses will be combined, but for now your first decision is what you’d like one for.
The next consideration is design. You’d be forgiven for assuming all of the best smart rings in the guide above are the same device. But there are some subtle differences, like the finish and colors, as well as the fit and weight. For example, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is lighter than its rivals.
Finally, have a look at the different features on offer. Although many of the rings in each of those categories we’ve outlined above bring you similar features, there are some that are unique in what they offer, like the haptic feedback from the Circular Ring.
If you’re unsure about whether a smart ring is for you, we highly recommend ordering a testing kit – most of the companies in the list above will send one out to you for free. This way you can be sure you’re getting the perfect fit but also wear the test ring for a few days to see if the design is right for you. Just remember the actual ring itself is likely to be a little heavier but will feel much more comfy and premium given the materials it’s made from.
How we test the best smart rings
We've had chance to test several of the best smart rings in this guide. Which means we know what to expect when it comes to key features, design, battery life, accompanying apps and more.
During our testing, we were very keen to truly assess how comfortable each ring is, as we know this is a major concern with the smart ring form factor. We wore the rings for days and even weeks at a time, assessing general comfort, bulkiness, whether we had to remove them for certain activities and how they fare in water.
We used each of the apps extensively, digging into all of the data and assessing them for thoroughness and whether they pair data with generally useful insights and recommendations. It's not handy to simply present a series of graphs without context.
Each of the smart rings above has its own set of unique features, so we made sure to assess each separately based on what they offer and which ring we believe is the best for each purpose.
We've made it clear which of the best smart rings above we've yet to get our hands on and will be adding reviews for those devices as soon as we can. Until then, we've based our recommendations on specs, features, other reviews and how our experience with other smart rings informs these choices.
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6 min read
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Nov 29, 2022
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Recently, I published two articles comparing the features of Oura ring 3 and Circular ring and the same with Ultrahuman ring. Everything from paper-based expectations.
RingConn Smart Ring is a new smart ring that monitors and evaluates your health metrics. I find it interesting what direction the segment of these smart wearable accessories is heading, how it is growing, and what countries are active in it. After the Finnish established brand Oura, others are joining quite quickly, the French Circular Ring, the Indian Ultrahuman Ring, and now the Chinese RingConn… The cards may be shuffled next year by the American Movano Ring.
I am currently an Oura Gen 3 owner, Circular and Ultrahuman are still “on the way”. So I can still only compare paper assumptions.
RingConn was founded in 2021, but apparently, they use the research and development (R&D) of its founder, Prof. Guoxing Wang, since 2010. The entire project is currently on the Indiegogo platform, with the concept and prototype phases complete and production of the finished rings now set to take place.
A sizing kit is a piece of standard equipment for the right choice of the ring size, which you will receive in advance.
Oura vs Circular vs Ultrahuman vs RingconnRingConn has 9 sizes (6–14), which makes him the current winner in this discipline.
In terms of HW we find they have a lot in common again, so I add the updated table below and highlighted only what is worth highlighting for RingConn.
The sensor equipment is pretty standard, i.e. de facto the same, at least on paper. RingConn says, however, that their R&D team has managed to optimize the PPG module (sensors using light to measure HR/SP02) so that they have reduced their power consumption. As a result, the RingConn is supposed to last 7 days while supporting multiple measurements throughout the day (more in the SW part below).
RingConn is betting heavily on this competitive advantage, as can be seen in the prospectus — e.g. on Indiegogo, where you can even find samples of scientific papers co-authored by the project founder, such as this one — Low-Power High-Sensitivity Photoplethysmography Sensor for Wearable Health Monitoring System.
Other HW parameters are similar to the Oura ring, there is no significant difference in the form of the button or vibration (Circular) or the extremely durable material (Ultrahuman R1).
Worth mentioning this time is the charger.
Ringconn has a portable charging case that can charge the ring up to 18 times, which is almost an off-grid solution :)
Speaking of charging and batteries, one thing I didn't realize — Oura’s battery capacity varies by size. This seems unfair to users of small-size rings because smaller battery capacity means shorter battery life. RingConn has the same capacity across sizes.
Ringconn is following the trend and is supposed to have apps for both iOS and Android. It should be added that the current version is still BETA and we will probably see the final one in early 2023.
However, the current version of the app looks very clear, at first glance subjectively better than for example Circular and Ultrahuman. I think the inspiration from the Oura app is evident here.
Again, when interpreting the available sources, I see different terminology of manufacturers, so I tried to aggregate the available information into the following sub-areas.
From the available reviews, I like the data processing in the app very much, the data is clear, allows comparison with the general population (e.g. in sleep stages), and also allows a drill-down into greater detail not known with Oura (e.g. the SP02 nighttime progression graph).
It can be said that there is not much difference from Oura in terms of basic sleep metrics, the basics being the determination (or estimation) of sleep stages, sleep duration, efficiency, SP02, and HRV. Temperature, as with Ultrahuman, should be shown in absolute value, not just a deviation from baseline as it is with Oura.
In daily tracking, RingConn sees an advantage compared with Oura. With the more economical PPG sensors, RingConn should allow daily monitoring 24/7 — of HRV, SP02, and temperature. This is probably followed by the Stress Index, which I expect to be calculated primarily from more frequent HR tracking.
Oura ring, on the other hand, goes further in the form of AAD (Automatic Activity Detection) and menstrual cycle tracking.
And now the most important thing, where Ringconn currently dominates, is price. It is currently available for €144 with no subscription required. Product shipments are expected to take place in February 2023.
It’s clear where RingConn company got its inspiration and who it targets most. This is, of course, extremely evident just by the fact that he added his take on the Oura ring comparison to the initial feed on Indiegogo:
It is not possible to evaluate the accuracy of the measurements and the user experience at this time, but at least the start of the RingConn is very good. I must also praise the communication (especially the quality and speed) of the customer service center, which is primarily on the Facebook group they have set up.
I think it has a chance to succeed especially with the combination: