I tested the Samsung Galaxy Ring for a week to improve my sleep – but my favourite feature has nothing to do with health

SAMSUNG is taking a stab at another health focused wearable with the Galaxy Ring.

There are others around, like Oura, that have already paved the way with smart rings.

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But do people need or want yet another gadget?

Most people who care about fitness and health already have a smartwatch, whether it be a Fitbit, Samsung Galaxy Watch or Apple Watch.

As someone who owns a smartwatch, I decided to give it up for over a week and swap it for the Samsung Galaxy Ring.

Here’s what I thought of the new device – and why I might be ready to give up on my smartwatch for it.

Samsung Galaxy Ring: Review

First thing’s first, you need to get your finger fitted – Samsung will send you a sizing kit in the post when ordering that allows you to get the right size.

They vary from 5 up to 13.

And Samsung recommends you wear the ring on your index finger, which I’ve followed.

I have, I think, pretty average sized men’s hands and 12 felt like the right fit.

There are three colours available:

I’ve got the silver version, which has a metallic finish to it.

Throughout my tests, it has taken some everyday bumps and at the end of it there is a very slight scratch on the underside – and these are not covered by warranty.

Samsung has quite a list of dos and don’ts on its website, which you can see here.

The ring feels pretty light and it fits comfortably on my hand, I have hardly noticed it’s there.

I do own a smartwatch but I quite like keeping my wrists free, especially at night, which is something Samsung is trying to tap into with the sleep tracking elements of the Galaxy Ring.

Samsung Galaxy Ring: Sleep tracking features

The Galaxy Ring works with the Samsung Health app.

It’s important to note that the Galaxy Ring will only work with Android devices – and there are some bonus features exclusive to Galaxy owners too, which we’ll go into detail about later.

This is my first time with the Samsung Health app and I’m pleasantly surprised by how clean and easy it is to use.

Samsung has tried to position the Ring and smartwatches as complementary to each other, but honestly, I just want one wearable, not multiple

It provides me with an energy score, which crunches everything from sleep to heart rate and skin temperature to generate a “daily measurement of your physical and mental readiness”, as Samsung puts it.

There’s a separate sleep score out of ten, which incorporates a lot of detail:

• Sleep time
• Physical recovery
• Restfulness
• Mental recovery
• Sleep stages (Awake, REM, Light, Deep)
• Blood oxygen during sleep
• Snoring
• Skin temperature during sleep
• Heart rate
• Respiratory rate
• Sleep consistency

It’s broken down in a very simple to understand way, and I can clearly see where I’m going wrong – though I must admit I highly suspected this already.

Turns out I’m not sleeping consistently, occasionally staying up quite late and waking up quite a bit to go to the toilet.

There are some sleep coaching tips to help you improve.

However, I’m not entirely sure whether all of them are useful – my awake time said it needs attention and suggested trying not to drink anything three hours before bedtime, which is sadly something I have already tried and it’s not worked.

But my bed/wake time consistency was interesting, suggesting my workdays and days off vary too much and that reducing the time difference can help me sleep better, so something worth trying.

There is also a handy check list to help improve my sleep, giving me a wake up time – but some of these can’t be detected and require your input (such as limiting screen time before bed).

Samsung assigns you a sleep animal to help you better understand where you’re at after a week of use – it turns out I’m a hedgehog as I get enough sleep time but spend too much of that time awake and have inconsistent sleep times from day to day (guilty).

Aside from sleep you can track stress too.

Seeing mine in the red was initially alarming – if not unsurprising – but there were links to Calm’s basic meditating techniques which brought my stress level right back down.

Samsung Galaxy Ring: Fitness tracking features

The Samsung Galaxy Ring will automatically track steps, walks and runs.

This is particularly helpful seeing as the Ring has no screen.

But other types of workouts you will have to start manually in the app.

You also don’t have the full choice of workout types you might be familiar with from a smartwatch – and not all can track heart rate either.

Even more limiting is that Samsung doesn’t recommend you wear the Ring when you’re weight training.

Samsung Galaxy Ring: Other features

Samsung has some other non-health related features too but these are exclusive to Galaxy smartphone owners.

My absolute favourite above everything is the double pinch gesture to take photos.

This proved handy when taking a group photo so I didn’t have to set the timer and do a run.

The other feature is a double pinch to stop your alarm – I was a bit too scared to actually test this one for myself as I feared this could lead to me oversleeping all too easily, but it might come in handy for others.

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