I Wore the Samsung Galaxy Ring for a Year—Here’s Where It Excelled And Fell Short

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The Galaxy Ring is an ideal smart ring for tracking your sleep, walks, and runs—all without adding another monthly bill. But, if you're looking for GPS support or a long-lasting battery, this may not be the smart ring for you.

Smartwatches have been around in their current iteration since the early 2010s, with the MotoActv, but mainly the Pebble smartwatch. And despite their rocky start, they eventually found purpose beyond mere wrist notifications. However, it was inevitable that with constant innovation, we would see an evolution. Enter the smart ring, a ring armed with several sensors that can connect to your smartphone and can achieve everything smartwatches can do with a smaller footprint and no screen.

Samsung introduced its first smart ring, the $400 Galaxy Ring, in July 2024, alongside the Galaxy Watch 7 and Galaxy Watch Ultra. The Galaxy Ring is slim and comfortable to wear. It also doesn’t require a subscription for premium features, but you’ll need a Samsung smartphone to reap all of the benefits. It’s also my first time testing a smart ring from any company. I got my review unit towards the end of last year—around November—and slowly started testing its sleep, heart rate, and step counter. After using the Galaxy Ring for over a year, I’m more than ready to discuss how well its features work (or don’t) and what we’ve learned while using it.

The Galaxy Ring is similar to any other ring, but adds three sensors: an accelerometer, a skin temperature sensor, and an optical bio-signal sensor. The three sensors are combined to track heart rate, skin temperature, blood oxygen levels, and steps and activities. We’ll dive more into that a bit later. However, the ring’s hardware doesn’t include a built-in GPS.

Samsung designed the ring to be worn 24/7 and ensured it was durable. It is crafted from titanium, which is stronger than aluminum while being lighter than steel, iron, copper, and more. It has a lightweight feel, weighing only 3 grams for my ring size and just 2.3 grams for smaller sizes. My ring has held up exceptionally well after a year of daily wear. It only has some slight abrasion around the outer portion of the ring, where some of the black paint is starting to wear away. The ring also has 10 ATM water resistance, which is strong enough to swim but not enough to scuba dive. So you can do nearly everything while wearing it, including washing dishes, showering/bathing, sleeping, etc.

Samsung offers a total of 9 sizes, ranging from 5 to 13, and three color options: black, silver, and gold. When I set up my review unit, I sent my measurement for the larger size 12, but I didn’t realize it’s meant to be worn on your index finger, not the ring finger. Despite the ring being on the wrong finger, wearing it for push-ups, dumbbell exercises, walking, and running felt natural, and it didn’t feel like it was in the way or constricting in any way.

Thanks in part to its titanium build, Samsung's first smart ring is tough, comfortable, and long-lasting—for the most part.

One of the standout features of the Galaxy Ring is the lack of a paid subscription for premium features. However, you will need a Samsung smartphone to take full advantage of the ring’s full features, such as double-pinching to dismiss alarms and notifications. It’s worth noting that you’ll need to connect the ring to two separate Samsung apps to sync and connect your Galaxy Ring: the Samsung Wear Manager and S Health. Both apps are preloaded on all Galaxy smartphones. If you’re using a non-Galaxy phone, you’ll need to grab both apps.

The Samsung Wear Manager app does provide a Find My Ring feature, but unfortunately, it only flashes a green light and doesn’t offer any audible alerts with it. So the feature helps if it falls and rolls underneath a couch or an end table. But if your ring slips in between couch cushions, you’re going to have to thoroughly search high and low until you see that flashing green light. The Samsung Health (or S Health) app provides detailed health information, including sleep tracking, a daily readiness score, and AI-powered recommendations. Essentially, you’ll spend most of your time checking out your data in the S Health app—unless you constantly misplace your ring.

When it comes to tracking, the Galaxy Ring, paired with the S Health app, performs well. The app shows your Energy Score, which provides a daily gauge of your mental and physical readiness by combining your activity, sleeping heart rate, and sleep duration from the night before. Samsung also uses a similar metric to calculate your sleep score. Scores from 0 to 59 require attention, 60 to 74 are considered fair, 75 to 84 are good, and 85 to 100 are excellent. I typically get around 6 to 7 hours of sleep, putting me in the 80s, but when I stay up a little later, my score drops to the mid-50s or high-60s. I find both the energy and sleep scores to be quite accurate regarding how I feel in relation to my actual energy levels and sleep, making the Galaxy Ring another successful device.

I don't know how other smart rings hold up after a year, but from seven days to two days of battery life—that's a pretty steep decline.

The Galaxy Ring comes in two battery sizes, depending on the ring size: sizes 5-7 with a 17 mAh cell, sizes 8-11 with an 18.5 mAh cell, and sizes 12-13 with a 22.5 mAh cell. The ring itself lasted about a week on a single charge. At my peak during the warmer months, I was running several miles up to three times a week, in addition to doing dumbbell exercises twice a week. As we’re approaching the colder months, I’m down to running once a week, with occasional days of walking several miles.

After 6 months, the ring’s battery drops closer to 5 days on a single charge, and currently, it’s down to 2 days. I’m not sure how the other smart rings are holding up after a year, but that’s a steep decline with slightly more than half of its battery life gone. Despite the ring’s battery degradation, the charging case’s battery life hasn’t changed, as it can provide up to 1.5 charges before needing to be recharged. The case also charges fast via USB-C, as a 30-minute charge provides 40% of juice.

The Galaxy Ring makes an ideal smart ring for those getting started with their walking and running fitness journey and looking to track sleep metrics—all without adding another monthly bill. Samsung nails the basics with a durable and comfortable smart ring capable of having a long battery life, accurate sleep and energy metrics, and a good step counter. But if you desire more robust health features, such as real-time heart-rate monitoring, blood pressure measurement, and full fitness and activity tracking, this solution will not be for you.

Samsung’s $400 price tag for the Galaxy Ring, which could replace a smartwatch, costs the same amount as one. Seriously, you can pick up a Pixel Watch 4 or a Samsung Galaxy Watch 8 for nearly the same price. The only upside is that, compared to other smart rings on the market, it won’t require an additional monthly subscription. So if you’re interested, definitely pick one up on sale, and it’s worth mentioning that you can apply your FSA or HSA funds towards the purchase.