Copyright evoke
I've always been on the fence about wearable tech. After all, I’m not a runner, so was it really worth recording my steps? Looking back, I have to laugh at myself for thinking that was all it was going to take note of. When I was offered a Samsung Galaxy Ring to trial, I figured, why not? Sure, I’m a natural skeptic, but let’s see what it can tell me that I don’t already know. As it turns out, lots. Surprisingly, I even had to admit I’d been lying to myself. For years, I’d wax lyrical about how I only get a few hours of sleep. Well, apparently not according to the Galaxy health app. The ring’s tech First things first, how does the Samsung Galaxy Ring work? The ring has three sensors on the inside, with each monitoring different things. The first monitors heart rate, the second keeps an eye on movements and activity, and the third records skin temperature throughout the day and night. These sensors are seamlessly built into the design, so you can’t feel them on the inside of the ring, although they do light up at times, and every now and again, I got a small surprise seeing a glowing green light on my finger after just waking up. The data recorded by the sensors is shared with the Galaxy health app, which you download on your phone, and is handily available even on iPhone, and is very easy to navigate, but more on this later. The ring’s design On first impression, the ring has a sleek design thanks to its concave shape that makes it comfortable to wear all day, no matter whether you’re at work, holding downward dog at yoga, or relaxing on the sofa. It’s also very light. Made from a titanium frame, the Galaxy Ring is 7mm wide, 2.6mm thick, and weighs 2.3g, but perhaps the best design news is that the ring’s battery lasts for up to 7 days. Colour-wise, the ring comes in three options: black, gold, and silver. I trialed the black ring, but if I were to buy one, I’d go for one of the other options. I’m pale and don’t fake tan, so the black was a bit too jarring against my narrow fingers and pasty skin, in my opinion. My husband, however, liked the black ring and would pick that one to wear. When not on your hand, the ring lives in a clear box that's pretty compact and doubles as a charging station. When charging, a circle lights up. Using the app The Samsung Galaxy Ring pairs with the Galaxy health app, which was surprisingly easy to navigate and was very interactive, showing your results in a variety of graphs and charts. The app and the ring use AI-powered insights, meaning the more you use the ring, the smarter the results get and the more personalised the recommendations can become. After a few days of data, the app can give you wellness tips around what you’re doing and recommend small changes to make big impacts on your health, pretty cool for simply wearing a ring each day. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not a runner or particularly into the gym, so the features about tracking exercise weren’t of too much interest to me, although the step counter was great. Cool features My favourite features on the app were the tracking of stress and sleep. When you set the ring up, you can select what you'd like to focus on, and I chose sleep. The more you wear the ring, the smarter it gets, and after 10 nights of sleeping with it on, you can learn what your 'sleep animal' is and receive tips for improving your sleep. While a sloth jumped to my mind, these actually include the Unconcerned Lion, someone who's a good all-around sleeper, and the Cautious Deer, someone who has a short sleep duration and high awake time. I enjoyed seeing the times of the night I was in each sleep cycle and was baffled in the best of ways when I checked the data each day and saw I'd received good sleep scores in the high 80s or low 90s. Me? Who feels like she constantly wakes up? Apparently not. While my sleep is apparently good, the app told me I do need to work on my sleep latency, that is the time it takes me to fall asleep once going to bed... We'll blame TikTok for that one. Another interesting feature was the energy score, with the app letting me know which days I was more likely to be tired and should take it easy. Sure, if you say so! The skin temperature sensor can also help with tracking periods, with the data being used by Natural Cycles' adapted fertility algorithm. Overall, I was impressed After wearing the ring, I can't deny that it's a cool piece of tech that can provide great insights into our health and would make a fab gift for any fitness fans this Christmas. I'm still amazed by what I learnt about my sleep, and surely learning more about your body can only be a good thing? While I'm on the fence about the black design, I'd be very much up for trying on one of the other colours and seeing how that looked on my hand.
