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 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
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 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
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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