Despite the fact that the Samsung Galaxy Ring wasn’t mentioned during the Unpacked event in July, the rumour mill has been churning out reports regarding its manufacturing and launch date. Regardless of when it’ll be released to the masses, I’m still not completely sold on the Samsung Galaxy Ring… and here’s why.
Leaked in late 2022, Samsung had reportedly begun development of a smart ring, having applied for a patent for a ring featuring heart rate and ECG monitoring. Since this initial leak, there haven’t been many reports on developments or specifications on the Samsung Galaxy Ring… until now.
According to SamMobile, mass production of the Samsung Galaxy Ring could begin in August of this year. Samsung is reportedly close to a final version of the smart ring and once everything is finalised with suppliers, the Samsung Galaxy Ring could then be signed off for production to begin immediately.
With an August 2023 start date in mind, reports also mention that if this expected timeline comes into fruition, the Samsung Galaxy Ring could be released in 2024. As the Samsung Galaxy Ring will have health, fitness and wellness monitoring and tracking features, it’ll need to obtain a medical device certification which could take several months.
But other than this news on manufacturing, we don’t know much about the Samsung Galaxy Ring at all, other than it might try to take on the already popular Oura Ring. Since its inception in 2013, the Oura Ring is a wellness wearable that’s quickly become one of the best sleep trackers and best fitness trackers on the market today. Similar to a piece of jewellery, it sits on your finger and tracks sleep, activity, recovery, steps, heart rate, menstrual cycle and more.
Given Oura’s popularity, Samsung could find similar success with its own smart ring. As Samsung has its own brilliant range of smartwatches, the company has clearly shown that it’s more than qualified to make smart products with health, fitness and activity tracking… but what about the Samsung Galaxy Ring?
As I mentioned in regards to the Oura Ring 4 potentially getting payment upgrades, I’m not wild about wellness wearables like smart rings becoming more like the best smartwatches. Surely the Samsung Galaxy Ring will overlap or even cancel out its smartwatch range, as they’ll both be packed with health, fitness and sleep features, except one will have a screen and one won’t, if Samsung goes off what Oura has done.
And is this the move Samsung should be making? It’s already taken over the smartphone market with its new flip and folding phones, like the Z Flip 5 and the Z Fold 5. But looking at Apple’s ventures into VR headsets, should Samsung be focusing on this instead?
The two companies are pretty neck and neck in terms of technological advancements and expansion of their many ranges. But as a Samsung user who is unlikely to turn away from the brand anytime soon (or ever!), I'm underwhelmed by Samsung’s choice to create smart rings.
Its smartwatches, like the Samsung Galaxy Watch5, is a strong performer, which already has the features and certifications that the Samsung Galaxy Ring is rumoured to have. While there hasn’t been tons reported on it yet, it seems to me that the Samsung Galaxy Ring will be exactly the same as Samsung smartwatches, just without a screen.
But who knows? Maybe I’m just being too picky and the Samsung Galaxy Ring will blow Oura out of the water. Time will tell what it’ll look like and what it will be able to do. So, will it come out next year? If it does, my prediction is that it’ll be announced at another Galaxy Unpacked event alongside a new line of smartphones. While I’m apprehensive about the Samsung Galaxy Ring, I have to say I’m pretty eager to see what Samsung has up its sleeves.
