GoKawiilI would’ve bought a wearable health tracker a lot sooner if they all weren’t so ugly.
I don’t want a glowing screen on my wrist, and the woven Whoop bracelet looks like something I would’ve made at summer camp. But in the last few months, both RingConn and Oura have launched slimmer hardware that actually blends in with jewelry, so you don’t have to scream to the world that you’re currently monitoring your blood-oxygen level.
So, against my better judgement — and the knowledge that I am giving a tech company my health data for no reason — I bought my first daily wearable health tracker: the RingConn 3. Roughly ten days later, I was relieved to find out that I was still within the two-week return period and dropped it off at the post office.
Image Credits:RingConn
Between the RingConn 3 and the Oura Ring 5, I opted for the RingConn simply because it is less expensive, starting at $349 compared with Oura’s $399 starting price. That’s not a huge difference, but Oura also requires users to pay for a $6 monthly subscription to use a device they already paid for, which is the sort of blatant money-grabbing tactic that I think a CFO devises as he twirls his mustache and cackles. I do not want to appease the mustache-twirling man.
At first glance, the rose gold RingConn 3 surpassed my expectations. It’s actually pretty! Matching the Oura Ring 5 with a thickness of 2.3 mm, it’s still a little bulkier than your standard ring, but it’s still comfortable to wear.
It actually passes as a normal piece of jewelry, especially if you pair it with another stackable ring. When you order the ring, you’re first sent a sizing kit, which is worth the extra step — I was tempted to just order my normal ring size, but I found that I actually had to choose a bigger size for a comfortable fit.
The RingConn 3’s build feels solid. While some people online say their rings quickly showed scratches, I found that the brushed metal version felt more resistant. I didn’t have the ring long enough to confirm its claims that its battery can last 14 days on one charge, but I didn’t run into any battery issues.
While the ring is water-resistant — you can even wear it swimming! — I decided to just plop it in its charging case whenever I took a shower.
Aesthetics aside, the RingConn 3’s screen-less form factor appealed to me because it’s something that I could wear passively, check once a day at most, and reflect on the data later. I’m not alone in having such preferences: American spending on fitness trackers grew 88% year-over-year, largely due to screenless wearables like the Oura ring and Whoop wristband, per market research firm Circana.
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