At the end of its Unpacked event back in January, Samsung introduced its Galaxy Ring wearable as the next gadget in its mobile lineup. With no release date or price, the debut was little more than a tease that hints at Samsung’s plans for a new health and wellness product, leading us to wonder — who is the Galaxy Ring for?
To put it in the company’s words, the Galaxy Ring is another device in a network of wearables and phones that feeds data into the Samsung Health app. “I think you should look at the ring as one of many steps toward multi-device engagement,” Samsung VP and head of the digital health team for the mobile business Hon Pak told CNET’s Lisa Eadicicco.
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So it’s another way to track the kinds of personal data that funnel into Samsung Health: sleep, nutrition, activity and stress. Specifically, it’s a product for someone who might not want a Galaxy Watch or other wrist-bound wearable but still want to monitor their own health, and may find a ring less cumbersome to wear.
“A ring can be less intrusive than a watch, and the finger provides a better physiological location for some health metrics than the wrist,” Avi Greengart, president and lead analyst at Techsponential, who also got a preview with Samsung’s Pak, told CNET.
Samsung expects that some consumers may want both a ring and a watch, while others will pick one or the other, Greengart said. Some may even pick up a ring because they like the look, which Eadicicco described as a sleek minimalist band that resembled a groom’s solid-metal ring (the sensors line the inside).
Samsung’s reveal of the Galaxy Ring at its Galaxy Unpacked event.
“Personally, I am very excited about this device because I’ve been looking at rings myself and I find that many are quite bulky and the Galaxy Ring might actually be perfect for me, especially since I already use a Galaxy Watch 6 classic,” said Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy.
Given a smartwatch’s display and suite of sensors, Sag doesn’t see people outright replacing them with fitness rings. Instead, they’ll fill the gaps to provide health data when watches aren’t worn, like when they’re charging overnight. Even better would be if the Galaxy Ring simply works without a lot of setup, and Sag thinks it probably won’t need a new app on Samsung phones and will neatly integrate with other health data.
While fans of smartwatches clamor for sharper, brighter displays to improve interactions, there’s another contingent of tech users who are content with devices that do everything quietly in the background. The Galaxy Ring could appeal to those who want to track their health data but don’t want another mini-phone gadget clamoring for their attention.
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“The idea behind such rings is not so much about being cheaper than smartwatches, but instead being a much smaller and discrete device for use cases like sleep tracking,” said Bryan Ma, VP of devices research at International Data Corporation.
The Galaxy Ring could also be for a more limited group of people who want to track health using the company’s proprietary Samsung Health app but have an iPhone, and thus can’t connect to more modern Samsung wearables and watches. (The Galaxy Watch line has been Android-only since the company partnered with Google in 2021 to use Wear OS 3 software.)
Samsung hasn’t released pricing or given any indication how much the Galaxy Ring will cost, nor what kinds of health features it’ll offer compared to other health wearables. Thus, it’s hard to predict how the Galaxy Ring will distinguish itself and appeal to its core user base — but given the market, we can speculate about who will most want to sign up for Samsung’s next gadget.
