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Samsung Galaxy Ring excites me more than new products from a major technology company. beyond my interest AppleVision Pro As a product that people will actually find a purpose for, Galaxy Ring has found a place in my daily routine for a very simple reason: I don’t like wearing a watch all the time.

Samsung is on to something here with a device that fits into the health and wearable tech ecosystem in a very interesting way. The Galaxy Ring takes the health-smart aspects of the company’s wide range of smartwatches to their core and squeezes them into a tiny ring. The Ring has some health features that the Galaxy Watch doesn’t, but it covers the basics; heart rate, temperature monitoring, sleep and steps. In my opinion, the best feature is sleep tracking, especially since it is much more comfortable to have a ring on my finger in bed instead of a smart watch.

But this is not a full device and although it matches the feature set of the device Oura Ring 4It is very distinctly first generation. While I enjoy spending time with it (and it has made me care about my health and fitness) and I agree with TechRadar’s views Samsung Galaxy Ring reviewWe are talking about a rather expensive device that does not have many practical functions. It’s tempting to say that the reason for its high price and low feature set is that its design is niche, but I think there are changes that could be made to make it a more palatable and ultimately more attractive device.

Let’s narrow this down to three points.

Why does it look like this?

Smart devices, including phones, are largely fashion statements in the right contexts. Of course, some people are more interested in good functionality, but you can’t ignore the style points and aesthetics of any product you need to wear. The Samsung Galaxy Ring is clearly a piece of trendy tech, more so than any other Samsung device before it… So why does it look so simple?

I’m not disputing the style of the ring; The thick shape is essential for its smart features, and the concave design is a clever way to prevent scratches, but the black and silver colorways look like plastic. The ring itself is made of titanium and coated with a paint similar to that of the ring. Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra (with comfortable and partially transparent plastics inside), but the Ultra looks particularly premium with its epic colors, while the Galaxy Ring looks almost cheap in its Titanium Black and Titanium Silver.

The Titanium Gold colorway looks good; It has a very nice polish. Silver and Black almost look like parts of a Hasbro toy lightsaber. For most people, this is probably okay, but we’re talking about a new product that’s stepping into the jewelry space. He needs to look the part.

It wouldn’t take us long to get into this, but the Galaxy Ring’s closest rival, the Oura Ring 4, looks particularly premium. In addition to the Silver, Black, Gold and Rose Gold color variants, the case is also available in a matte black color called Stealth and a raw-looking Brushed Silver color. Although some options are priced higher than others, there is more variety and they have accomplished this task; Oura Ring 4 looks top notch. It looks like jewelry.

Why is it priced like this?

This criticism applies equally to Oura Ring 4, and frankly runs parallel to my third criticism, which we will discuss below, but it cannot be skipped. The Samsung Galaxy Ring is a US$399 / AU$399 / AU$699 device, and is on par with (or slightly above) the Galaxy Watch 7 44mm LTE in most markets, above cheaper Watch options and above the lowest-priced Oura Ring 4 ( $349 / £349 / Not available in Australia).

Samsung justifies the higher price over this rival by not having a subscription service, while Oura bills customers $5.99 per month for all features and health information in its app (charged in US dollars in all regions regardless of local currency), but we we can do this. avoid these pricing strategies in transit; The unique form factor and purpose of these smart rings allow them to charge significant amounts. Development costs would also be quite high, and after all, there is no strong competition in this small market. Things would probably be a little different if Apple, OnePlus, Oppo, and Google joined at the same time.

For a dedicated user obsessed with health tracking, this device might be justified, but at this price, compared to accessories like headphones and smartwatches, it’s too niche a device to be this expensive for a casual user. Maybe if it were a little more attractive as written above or if engraving or markings could be added it would be a different story.

Why doesn’t he do much?

When I talk to people about the Samsung Galaxy Ring, they’re obviously immediately interested in what it actually is. to do – and perhaps unsurprisingly, no matter how much gas I pump into the Galaxy Ring, the end result they’re usually left with is “not much.”

Make no mistake, Samsung’s health tracking technology is amazing and has had a positive impact on how I view my own health; Step tracking, sleep tracking, and heart rate tracking are all things the Galaxy Ring can do. I have no problem recommending it as a device that can positively impact your health, but consumers will also probably want to consider the competition.

Oura Ring 4 has the same features and health trackers, except for deep integration with Samsung’s Health suite. like that Compatible with iOS – Galaxy Ring only works with Android devices.

But according to a common user, when it comes to big tech products, health features are also expected along with regular features.

Galaxy Ring to do make great moves; Pinch your thumb and ring finger and you stop the alarms or trigger the camera to shoot. At the time of this writing, these are the only two move options. There’s no answering calls, media controls, or integration with specific apps, just those two things. It doesn’t help that the gestures are exclusive to Galaxy smartphone users and are also a famous feature of Galaxy smartphones. Galaxy Watch 7 And Watch Ultra Released at the same time as the Galaxy Ring, this watch makes sales even more challenging for watch owners.

And so is this! Before the Galaxy Ring launched, I joked that I expected the feature set to be a bit more elaborate, where I could use different finger gestures like waving a magic finger to control my home’s smart lighting, but nothing much happens here. I’m not sure why, but I’ve also developed the extremely strange habit of checking my ring as if it were a watch; There is no clock on it, but perhaps a digital readout would be useful for some. Other features a future version might include include NFC for payments, automatic phone unlocking based on proximity, capacitive buttons for quick functions, and how about an RGB light strip (though perhaps we’ll leave that last one to ASUS with its ROG series).

However, this bothers my other two points very much; If you cram more features into this gadget, you run the risk of making it obtuse and less attractive. If you do neater tricks, you invite price increases.

So can we strike the right balance?

I’ve been wearing the Samsung Galaxy Ring every day since I first got it, and it truly completes my Samsung device lineup. At the same time, I wish it were just a little bit more like that. More. Samsung has knocked it out of the park throughout 2024 with its newly launched devices, and the Galaxy Ring is certainly the most exciting, but when the Watch already does most of the same things, why would even a sane Samsung user buy it? ?

It is undoubtedly a situation that many companies encounter when entering a new product category. Apple Vision Pro, for example, has received a significant amount of criticism for its limited VR app support, and if last year lousy AI hardware It taught us one thing, and that is that sometimes a new product isn’t better than just having an app.

However, Samsung is on the right track with the Galaxy Ring. I’m looking forward to the company’s next move with this device.

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