Samsung will release the Galaxy Ring, its first smart ring, this summer. It first showcased the Galaxy Ring at the January Galaxy Unpacked and will fully reveal it at the next Galaxy Unpacked sometime this summer.
Thus far, Samsung has shown off what the Galaxy Ring will look like, but it's remained tight-lipped on what the little wearable tracker will track, aside from sleep. Thankfully, we've spotted tons of leaks and patents that clue us in on the essentials, so you have an idea of what to expect.
Samsung has even sued Oura to prevent the Oura Ring maker from accusing it of patent infringement, as Oura has done to other smart ring rivals. It'll take some time before these legal issues resolve themselves, but Samsung's legal filing actually gave away a ton of information about the Galaxy Ring, including its release window.
Here's what we know about the Samsung Galaxy Ring, from features and pricing to its design.
Samsung Galaxy Ring: Price and availability
The Samsung-Oura lawsuit documents state that it will "commence mass production" of the Samsung Galaxy Ring "by mid-June 2024" before "selling the Galaxy Ring in the United States in or around August of this year."
That makes it all but guaranteed Samsung will reveal the Galaxy Ring at Galaxy Unpacked, alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Z Flip 6, and Galaxy Watch 7. We don't have a specific date yet, but these devices' predecessors typically launch in mid-to-late August.
Samsung allegedly plans to make 400,000 Galaxy Rings in this initial production period. It makes many more Galaxy Watches on an annual basis, but it's an unsurprising choice given that Samsung doesn't know whether consumers will gravitate to smart rings yet.
As for pricing, the current rumor is that Samsung will charge between $300 and $350 for the Galaxy Ring, plus a monthly subscription for access to certain health metrics somewhere "under $10."
For context, most other smart rings cost about $299 upfront, with higher costs for more premium finishes like gold. Some smart rings give you data for free, while brands like Oura charge $6/month. Samsung has made Samsung Health data fully free in the past so that a mandatory subscription would be an unfortunate shift for the company.
In terms of who can use the Galaxy Ring, Samsung explained back in March that it's working on making it compatible with non-Galaxy Android phones, while support for iPhones is "TBD." We don't know how long this "work" will take, so it's possible that the Galaxy Ring will only work on Samsung phones at launch.
Samsung Galaxy Ring: Design
We got our first up-close Galaxy Ring look at MWC 2024; we've included the photos from that shoot throughout this page. It looks quite similar to other smart rings we've tested, though slightly smaller than many competing designs and with a more concave look.
Samsung revealed that the Galaxy Ring comes in black, gold, or silver and weighs anywhere from 2.3g to 3g depending on your ring size. Leaked Galaxy Ring ID numbers suggest that it'll be available in sizes 5–13, matching the traditional American system.
Different sizes will have different battery capacities. The Galaxy Ring passed through the FCC in May, and it appears the Galaxy Ring will have a 17, 18.5, or 22.5mAh battery capacity, with larger sizes requiring more juice to hit Samsung's promised 9-day battery life.
As with many other smart rings, the Galaxy Ring charges by slotting on top of a proprietary "cradle," spotted in the same FCC filings.
Samsung Galaxy Ring: Features and specs
The aforementioned Samsung legal filing against Oura confirms the Galaxy Ring's core features:
"The Galaxy Ring monitors heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen, movement, and sleep to provide users valuable insights and offer guidance to improve their health and wellbeing."
Later in the filing, Samsung mentions that the final Galaxy Ring design includes "temperature sensors" and "LED or light-based sensors." It also notes its intention to include an "Energy score" in the app "based on multiple factors including sleep, activity, heart rate, and heart rate variability."
That last point came up recently, when Samsung announced new Galaxy AI fitness tools coming to the Galaxy Watch 7. Specifically, it'll have an Energy Score, Wellness Tips for hitting personal goals like losing weight and lowering your resting heart rate, and aerobic/anaerobic threshold HR data for workouts.
While Samsung focused on the Galaxy Watch 7 in that announcement, it's safe to assume that the Galaxy Ring will have many of the same AI insights because it tracks the same metrics and uses the same Samsung Health app.
Now that we've covered the confirmed Galaxy Ring features, we can dive into less certain details. A recent leak suggests that Samsung plans to add a "Lost Mode" that triggers the ring's LED to blink to help you find it and locks its data until you can re-pair it to your phone.
Some Galaxy Ring patents have shown the device with an electrocardiogram (ECG) and blood pressure monitoring. Most smart rings offer some kind of ECG sensor, so this wouldn't be surprising; as for blood pressure, Samsung has offered this in its watches for years, but it's never managed to get FDA approval for its medical accuracy.
Other patents have shown Samsung using the Galaxy Ring as a controller for other devices, like your smartphone, tablet, or laptop. It's unclear if Samsung actually plans to implement this into its upcoming device, or merely experimented with the idea.
Most likely, this will be a passive device that relies on Galaxy AI algorithms to give you accurate health insights, but that otherwise won't have many on-device "smarts." For example, Samsung allegedly plans to use your Galaxy Ring data to provide nutritional advice, with "optimized recipes and diets based on information such as calorie consumption and body mass index." But you'd have to check those insights in the Samsung Health or Samsung Food app.
We'll have to wait and see whether the Samsung Galaxy Ring can deliver better data accuracy than the best Android smartwatches, as some rumors have suggested, or if this is simply wishful thinking on Samsung's part.
Samsung Galaxy Ring: Wishlist
This will be Samsung's first smart ring, and while it's a relatively niche segment of the wearable market compared to the best fitness trackers, we would love to see Samsung enter it with a bang. Therefore, there are some features and expectations we have if Samsung is to make a splash in the smart ring market, but it requires taking a look at what Oura has accomplished and following up while also exceeding the capabilities of the Oura Ring.
Here's what we'd like to see:
Vibration alerts
While owning a smart ring is a nice, discreet way to track health and fitness, the lack of a display means you have to rely on your phone for notifications. However, when notifications come into the phone from messages, calls, and otherwise, it would be nice for the ring to be able to gently nudge you when this happens.
The vibration doesn't have to be strong, but just enough that you feel it. Of course, this could affect battery life, so it should be up to the user to adjust this feature or turn it off if they don't want it.
Gestures
Patents suggest Samsung plans to let users control other devices with the ring. It would be cool to have some kind of gesture system similar to what the S Pen can do with devices like the Galaxy S23 Ultra. That could include moving the ring in a certain way while you wear it, tapping the ring, or even swiping on it with some sort of touch panel.
This would be the perfect way to add utility to the ring, and Samsung could easily market the feature as a magical way to control your devices.
Long battery life
Wearable battery life is very important, and the Oura Ring has shown us what is possible on such a small device, offering roughly a week's worth of use on a single charge. That's pretty impressive, and Samsung should match this on the Galaxy Ring.
Moreover, Samsung should provide some sort of fast charging so that users aren't waiting around for hours for the device to top up.
Location tracking
One of the biggest downsides of the Oura Ring is that there's no way to locate it if you lose track of it. Without GPS, UWB, or the like, you're pretty much SOL if you misplace it, which is quite unfortunate because this device is not cheap.
Samsung has the SmartThings Find network and should really take advantage of this with the Galaxy Ring. The company should figure out a way to bring location tracking to the ring, which can now only help track workouts but also allow you to find the ring if it's misplaced.
Automatic activity detection
This one is kind of a given, but the ring should not just track your workouts, but it should do it automatically. I continue to gush over how impressive the Oura Ring is when it comes to this, as it once detected that I was dancing while at a house party. Samsung's smartwatches have not been quite as robust when it comes to automatic activity detection/tracking, but hopefully the company can step things up if with the ring.
Accessories
Working out with a hard, rigid ring can be... awkward, particularly when it comes to lifting weights. One thing that could help is a sort of soft case that can be placed over it temporarily to protect the ring from scuffs and scratches, while hopefully making it more comfortable to wear during a workout. Samsung already has great accessories for its products, so it would be a shame to leave out the Galaxy Ring.
