Activity trackers in the form of wristbands became popular about 10 years ago. Since then, little has been changed and most wearables are worn around the wrist.

As nothing is as steady as change, some companies have attempted to mold the concept of fitness trackers into ring form. So far, the market has been relatively quiet, with Oura, the company behind the eponymous ring, causing a stir.

RingConn Smart Ring in Moonlit Silver and Pale Gold

RingConn’s Smart Ring challenges Oura’s smart ring, which currently holds the pole position. In this review, I will delve into the features, advantages, disadvantages, and comfort of RingConn’s wearable.

Sizing Kit for the right size

Unlike fitness trackers and sports watches worn on the wrist, a smart ring cannot flexibly adjust its size. Because the correct ring size must be known before purchase, RingConn offers a free sizing kit that contains plastic blanks in nine different sizes.

RingConn’s Free Sizing Kit

This not only allows you to try out the correct ring size but also get in touch with the small sensors on the inside of the ring.

Even though they are only blanks, they have the same dimensions as the smart ring, and wearing such a blank for a day to see which size fits was invaluable to me – otherwise, I would have chosen a size too large.

Samples of different ring sizes

Additionally, the sizing kit includes three small metal plates in the colors in which the Smart Ring can be ordered. This way you get a pretty good impression of how the ring will look like. The available options are:

• Pale Gold
• Moonlit Silver
• Midnight Black

The sizing kit can be ordered for free from RingConn.

Unboxing and First Impressions

Since the product reached me directly from the Asia, there were a few days between providing the ring size and the arrival of the smart ring itself. These were days during which my anticipation and curiosity about my first steps with a smart ring started to grow.

Appealing Packaging of the RingConn Smart Ring

RingConn delivers the Smart Ring in an appealing 10 x 10 x 9 cm black cardboard box.

Upon opening, the first thing you see is the Smart Ring. Beneath it is the charging case, a quick guide, and the USB charging cable (USB-A to USB-C).

RingConn’s Smart Ring in the packaging

The product is presented in an attractive manner, showcasing the ring nicely.

Of course, appearance is a very subjective feeling, but the Smart Ring from RingConn convinces me in this regard. It has a square-round shape, with the outer part being more square with generously rounded corners, but the inner part is almost circular.

Square-round shape of the RingConn Smart Ring

It’s the sensors and charging connectors inside the ring that require a little space and prevent a perfectly circular shape.

However, you don’t notice this when wearing it, and the ring is so light, weighing only 3-5 grams (depending on the size), that you hardly notice it after a couple of days.

For me, it took a few days to forget about the ring as such, mainly because the ring is almost twice as wide as my wedding bainnd. You can feel it at the beginning mostly due to habit but you get used to it quite quickly. If I could wish for something, I would find a slimmer smart ring even more appealing.

There’s nothing to fault about the ring, as the craftsmanship is flawless. While I initially had concerns about the finish and the material’s surface, I now handle the ring much more casually. Gardening, DIY, washing dishes, showering – none of these activities have harmed the material or the ring so far.

Thanks to its IP68 rating, the ring is well protected against water and dust.

Packed with Technology

What you can’t see from the outside, is the smart ring’s technological interior. The RingConn team has integrated LEDs (1x red, 2x green), photodiodes, and an accelerometer into this slim band.

Optical sensors and charging port

Additionally, the ring houses a memory that can store data for up to 7 days. A small battery powers the ring for the same period. If the battery ever runs low, it can be fully charged within about an hour in the charging case. Because the charging case itself has a 500 mAh battery, the RingConn Smart Ring can be charged without a USB power source.

In order to check the battery level, you have to use the app. The ring itself has neither an status LED nor a vibration motor to provide any information to the user.

Since I recently came across the Misfit Shine 2, I immediately wished to somehow find such tiny LEDs in a smart ring.

I’m confident that over the years, we’ll see significantly smaller smart rings with more feedback options.

RingConn Smart Ring vs. Oura Ring

I haven’t had the opportunity to try out the Oura Ring yet, but I can compare both product spec-wise:

As you can see, both rings are quite similar in terms of technical specifications, but differ considerably in price. The RingConn Smart Ring is not only $20 cheaper, but also does not require a subscription, which costs an additional $5.99 per month for the Oura Ring.

RingConn Smart Ring in Everyday Life

Setup

Before diving into the features of the Smart Ring from RingConn, I’d like to briefly discuss the initial steps with the ring. Despite there not being much to report, that’s precisely the point: dealing with the ring and the app is incredibly straightforward.

The ring doesn’t offer any form of user interaction. Therefore, the only thing left to do is to charge the ring and then put it on your finger. You are free to choose any finger that the ring does fit on. The only limitation is that the ring’s sensors rest against the inside of the hand.

The app is available for free on both iOS and Android. Before setting the ring up, you have to create an account with RingConn. To ensure everything is in compliance with data protection regulations, you must also specify your country. Subsequently, the data is stored in compliance with the GDPR as I live in Germany.

Creating and confirming the user account takes just 2-3 minutes, and then the magic begins.

Features

After almost 10 years of dealing with various wearables, the RingConn Smart Ring stands out because it’s refreshingly different – mainly because you can’t interact with the ring or even directly obtain information from it.

It is a purely passive companion in daily life. Occasionally, it quietly shares its data with the app. This includes:

• Heart rate
• Heart rate variability (HRV)
• Resting heart rate
• Blood oxygen saturation (SpO2)
• Activity data
• Sleep duration and phases
• Skin temperature

Though this seem pretty basic for fitness trackers, it is the current state of the art for smart rings. Fairly, the ring has less space and sensors available.

Regarding activity data, it’s mainly steps, the calorie consumption, and the hours of being active that complement the metrics.

The app, currently available in English and Chinese only, is divided into two sections.

Analysis of Daily Data in the “Insights” Section

In the “Insights” section, you can delve into the metrics of a specific day, grouped by:

• Sleep data
• Activity data
• Stress

Although this section revolves around the values of the selected day, you can see the activity and sleep data compared to the averages of the previous week..

On the dashboard, you can also find the timeline, which contains automatically generated messages but can also be supplemented with your own notes.

Tapping on one of the categories takes you to the detailed views. RingConn tries to combine numerous individual values into one score, but the very detailed graphics and values quickly outweigh them.

What might seem overwhelming at first gradually reveals a structured layout over time. However, you need to immerse yourself a bit in the app. If you only want to work with a handful of metrics, you’ll need to quickly learn where to look in the app.

For those who are not familiar with every health metric, RingConn has provided a brief explanation for almost every metric. So, if you’re unsure about what “heart rate variability” means, you’ll find the appropriate explanation in the app. The English translation is flawless.

Analysis in the “Trends” section

In the “Trends” section, the values of longer periods (weeks, months, years) are compared with each other.

On the dashboard, you can find metrics like the number of steps, sleep duration, stress level, and heart rate. If you want to delve deeper, the details are just a tap away.

Here, the app categorizes the sections as follows:

• Sleep
• Activities
• Stress
• Other

If you look into one of the sections, you will get numerous analyses that other companies might shy away from.

Here are a few examples:

• Stress level (average)
• Morning stress level
• Afternoon stress level
• Evening stress level

These qualitative analyses are complemented by quantitative analyses:

• Duration of low-stress periods
• Duration of normal stress periods
• Duration of moderate stress periods
• Duration of high-stress periods

As you can see, the level of detail is very high, covering almost every aspect of the collected values.

It would be great if the notes added to the timeline could somehow be reconciled with the analyses. For example, if you had a few drinks with friends, you can enter it, but currently there is no indication in the analyses that the subsequent poor sleep could be due to alcohol consumption.

Accuracy of data

What makes the comparison of data a bit challenging is that RingConn doesn’t provide a way to export the data. However, the company has implemented data transfer to Google Fit and Apple Health.

So, I looked at the aggregated values rather than the trends:

Notably, the “simple” heart rate measurements are quite close to each other. In the case of heart rate variability, the RingConn app consistently shows higher values. I’ll be monitoring this more closely in the coming weeks and months.

This is necessary because RingConn is continuously providing improvements and extensions in the form of firmware updates. The company has already announced an update that will bring a new “Activity Tracking” feature. It remains to be seen whether this will result in more accurate heart rate data during exercise, as the ring consistently reports low values in this context.

I will continue wearing the ring for some time to see where it leads.

RingConn Smart Ring Review – Conclusion

The RingConn Smart Ring is a small but impressive wearable. For a debut product, it performs quite remarkable. This compact ring is not only solidly constructed and lives up to its promised 7-day battery life but also captures metrics that you would expect from good fitness trackers.

The recorded values are not significantly better or worse than those of sports watches or fitness bands in the same price range. Of course, there are variations here and there, but that also happens when comparing fitness trackers and sports watches. Each company seems to have its own way of doing things.

What I particularly like about the RingConn Smart Ring is its unobtrusiveness and passivity. Few other wearables require so little attention or offer so little distraction. For those who find fitness trackers and sports watches too intrusive but are still interested in metrics related to health and activity, the RingConn Smart Ring provides a great alternative.

It is to be hoped that the development of smart rings does not stop and that the many emerging products make it to market readiness.

Disclosure: The RingConn Smart Ring to me by RingConn, free of charge, at my request for testing. No conditions were attached to this review, and the opinions and experiences shared here reflect my entirely unbiased assessment of the product.

Der Beitrag RingConn Smart Ring Review – Unobtrusive fitness tracking for 7 days erschien zuerst auf Fitness Tracker Test.