is a senior reporter focusing on wearables, health tech, and more with 13 years of experience. Before coming to The Verge, she worked for Gizmodo and PC Magazine.
Smart rings are having a moment. After years as a niche gadget, regular people are starting to see the appeal. They’re thinner, more accurate, and more wearable compared to a decade ago — and for some people, they’re a smarter choice than smartwatches.
Related The best smart rings for tracking sleep and health
Smartwatches may dominate the wearable landscape, but they don’t work for everyone. They can be bulky. Daily charging is a pain. Plus, they don’t always work for people with wrist tattoos or those who participate in more niche sports. (Ever try stuffing a Garmin under a boxing glove? It’s not fun.) Conversely, smart rings are discreet and often have multiday battery life, and your finger can be a more accurate place to gather heart rate data.
From left to right, we have the Circular Slim, RingConn, Ultrahuman Ring Air, Galaxy Ring, Oura Ring, and Evie Ring. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
So which smart ring is the best? To find out, I called in six smart rings currently on the market: the Oura Ring, Ultrahuman Ring Air, Circular Slim, Samsung Galaxy Ring, RingConn, and Evie Ring. But side note: this isn’t a traditional review or buying guide. This is a gauntlet where smart rings get eliminated based on my personal experience and preferences, until there’s just one winner left.
With that in mind, for the past few months, I slept with these rings. Showered with them. Exercised with them. Compared a crapton of health data until my eyes bled. For a while, I wore all six simultaneously like a mafia don wearing two pairs of smart ring brass knuckles. I now have six ring tans. All so I could definitively tell you which is the one smart ring to rule them all.
The Circular Slim was my least favorite of the bunch. Photo by Amelia Holowaty Krales / The Verge
Accuracy is a must
Folks, it ain’t the Circular Slim.
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