One (Smart) Ring to Rule Them All

There is a lot of cool gear in the golf equipment world that doesn’t always fit neatly into Most Wanted Tests or Buyer’s Guides. You still want to know how it performs. In our We Tried It series, we put gear to the test and let you know if it works as advertised.

What We Tried:

The Samsung Galaxy Ring. A smart, wearable fitness tracker in the shape of a ring.

Who Tried It:

Connor. Director of Content and resident sneakerhead. I’ve been a habitual WHOOP user for nearly a year now. That said, I’ve always been intrigued by the thought of a fitness tracking ring. When I heard Samsung was coming out with one, I knew I had to give it a go.

What does it do?

The purpose behind the Samsung Galaxy Ring is to provide fitness tracking in a minuscule, barely noticeable package. This is a great value prop for me because even the WHOOP 4.0 can feel a little bulky at times.

The idea of having something the size of a ring that can monitor your overall health, track sleep, stress and more is very novel. If it works, it’s great. But if it doesn’t, it’s nothing more than a piece of jewelry.

The following is my experience with the Samsung Galaxy Ring.

What I like

Size and Comfort

My initial worry about the Galaxy Ring was the size. I wear a wedding band on a daily basis but the Galaxy Ring is quite a bit thicker than that. As someone who works with their hands (I work at a place with four golf simulators, duh), it’s crucial that the ring not interfere with my daily activities. A fitness tracker is no good if you have to take it off to do the actual activity you want to track (golf, basketball, etc.).

After hitting hundreds of balls in the Galaxy Ring, I can assure you that you’ll have no issue with the girth of the ring. It’s not small by any means but it’s not so bulky that it interferes with golf. Most days, I didn’t even notice I was wearing it.

This is in stark contrast to my WHOOP fitness tracker that tends to choke down on my wrist like an alligator giving the death roll. It’s hardly comfortable, especially in comparison to the Galaxy Ring.

Battery and charging

It’s a small detail but the charging case that the Galaxy Ring comes with is really cool. It’s got fun LED lights and the ring sits inside like it’s on a little throne. It’s very functional and pocketable.

It is worth noting that the battery life has been stellar so far. I’m getting more than a week on each charge.

Sleep tracking

The Galaxy Ring excels at tracking sleep. This is my No. 1 priority for a fitness tracker. When compared to my WHOOP or even my Garmin Approach S70, the Galaxy Ring seems to do a better job at recognizing when I’m awake versus asleep.

We’ve got a three-month old baby right now so, as you can imagine, I’m up quite often at night. Occasionally, my other fitness trackers don’t recognize the awake time while the Galaxy Ring has nailed it each night.

As for comfort while sleeping, the ring is hardly noticeable even if you sleep with your hands under your pillow like I do.

What I don’t like

Energy score

While the Galaxy Ring provides an energy score, the number itself feels pretty vague. With the WHOOP recovery score, I know exactly what went into my recovery (sleep, strain, HRV and resting heart rate). The energy score on the Galaxy Ring seems more ethereal than anything else.

Workout detection

I have the Galaxy Ring set to auto-workout detection. It does OK when I’m going on walks but fails to automatically track my golf like the WHOOP does. Within a few shots, the WHOOP starts to recognize that I’m golfing and will start tracking the activity, heart rate and more.

The Galaxy Ring was supposed to do this but struggled to do so. Manually starting an activity worked just fine, though.

The verdict

The Galaxy Ring is now my go-to fitness wearable. I can’t overlook the small, almost unnoticeable size and the accurate sleep tracking. I’ll take a bit of wonkiness with auto-workout detection and the harder-to-understand metrics if that means I can accurately track my sleep and heart rate with a device that’s 10 percent the size of my WHOOP or Garmin.

It’s non-invasive, nonchalant and, best of all, provides me with actionable health data, all from my index finger. I consider that a win.

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