Best smart ring 2024: Samsung Galaxy Ring, Oura and other alternatives

Smart rings are relatively new devices that do a variety of things. Equipped with advanced sensors, some monitor vital health statistics, such as heart rate and sleep patterns, while others allow you to make contactless payments thanks to embedded NFC chips. 

Recently, smart rings have gained a lot of attention thanks to the Samsung Galaxy Ring. We've posted our review of the Samsung Galaxy Ring here but it's safe to say that it currently beats them all.

If you're looking to buy a smart ring now, be warned, as plenty of lesser-known brands are trying to bring out poor quality and cheap smart rings that aren't worth your time.

While the selection of top smart rings may be limited so far, our favorite models are impressive technological achievements. We've personally tested most of the smart rings highlighted below, and our evaluations focus on comfort, battery life, and the effectiveness of data collection.

In the list that follows, you'll discover our preferred choices for the best smart rings currently available. Whether you're seeking an alternative to the best smartwatches and best sleep trackers, looking to enhance the data you gather from the best fitness trackers, or want to find a leading NFC ring for seamless payments and more, our guide has you covered.

The quick list

Best smart ring overall

This is Samsung's first entry into the smart ring market that was previously dominated by the Oura Ring and it's fair to say they have absolutely nailed it. If the market continues to grow then Samsung will have beaten their rivals, Apple and Google, to it.

The smart ring is comfortable to wear, small enough to not notice on a day-to-day basis, and has a long enough battery life to forget about it. Speaking of how long it lasts, you'll get around a week of use before a charge is required or if you pair it with a Samsung smart watch then it'll last even longer.

Samsung has focused most of its efforts on creating a ring that excels in sleep tracking and reporting. Hands down, it has achieved something truly special. For the benefit of a top quality ring and great features, you'll have to pay a pretty eye watering sum but if you're keen on being an early adopter, then this is the one to go for.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Ring review

Best smart ring for sleep tracking

The most well-known smart ring brand, Oura's third generation device is improved over previous versions and packed with sensors to track your key metrics, like 24/7 heart rate, temperature, and more. It's particularly geared up to help you track sleep and manage energy levels, which is why it's our top sleep tracking pick. 

The Oura looks like a simple metal ring, but inside it's lined with sensors that sit against your skin. You can order a test kit with dummy rings to find the right size and the final ring is incredibly smooth and light at between 4-6g depending on which size you go for. 

The Oura Ring 3rd Generation collects a vast amount of data, so it's good news that its smartphone app is incredibly comprehensive but intuitive to use, making data easy to understand. The only downside about the Oura Ring is it's very expensive and works based on a new subscription model, which may put off some users. 

Read our full Oura (Generation 3) review

Best smart ring for comfort

If you're looking for the lightest ring on the market, the Ultrahuman Ring Air lives up to its name, only weighing in at 2.4g to 3.6g depending on your size. 

Offering similar features to the Oura Ring at the top of our list, it uses a range of sensors to track all kinds of data about heart rate, movement, sleep, skin temperature, and more. Like the Oura Ring, it also has a big focus on sleep and recovery, and a handy app that we found to be incredibly thorough in terms of the data it presents, but also easy to use during our testing. 

Design-wise, we found it stylish-looking and comfortable to wear, although the matte black version was prone to scratching. Luckily, there are other finishes available now that should fare better. The inside, where the sensors lie against your skin, is covered with see-through hypoallergenic epoxy resin coating, which is velvety smooth.

Read our full Ultrahuman Ring Air review

Best smart ring for payments

The McLear RingPay 2 is a different breed of smart ring to others in our guide because it's designed to help you make payments, not track your vitals. Thanks to NFC tech, it works in the same way a contactless card does. Add a card to your RingPay wallet, then simply place your hand over a payment terminal. Because its features are fairly basic, no charging is required.

We've yet to test this smart ring, but according to McLear, it's not just a contactless card on your finger. You can track spending in the app, set funds to top-up automatically, suspend your account if you lose it, add up to four rings to an account, transfer funds between rings and more. 

This Gen 2 ring has been improved over the first, with a smaller, lighter, and more streamlined design. It weighs 5g and the width of the ring varies based on the size you choose, from 6.7mm to 6.2mm. You can choose from the standard range of ring sizes, or order a kit through McLear. As you'd expect from a device designed to be worn often, it's scratch-resistant, waterproof and hypoallergenic. 

Best smart ring for added features

The Circular Ring Slim is another device designed to track all sorts of metrics about your health and fitness, including blood oxygen levels, heart rate variability, temperature, steps and more. 

It does deliver on all of these counts, serving up a lot of data in its app with a big focus on sleep with detailed insights and recommendations about your sleep cycles, as well as your energy and recovery levels. During testing we felt like we were genuinely learning more about our routine and body each day. 

Unlike most other rings, there's haptic feedback (vibrations) that brings additional features, like a timer, smart alarm, and even notifications, as well as a physical button. 

Like other options on this list, the ring weighs 5g and has a thickness of 2.75mm. But another standout design feature is that you can change the outer shell to a different color or finish. The inner material that sits against your finger is clinical grade and hypoallergenic.

We were excited to test the Circular Ring Slim but unfortunately it falls short compared to the competition. It scratches easily, has a poor battery life lasting only 2 days with all of the main features switched on and has an overcomplicated app with poor wording and user experience.

We don’t hate this smart ring and think some of the additional features are cool, but unless you’re sold by the things that set it apart from the rest you’d be better off choosing the RingConn smart ring below instead. 

Read our full Circular Ring Slim review 

Best smart ring on a budget

The RingConn smart ring is a refreshing surprise. It’s a sensor-packed smart ring designed for 24/7 activity and health tracking that’s significantly cheaper than top rival Oura, but after testing it we can confidently say it brings you many of the same features.

The RingConn ring has a unique design. It’s definitely a ring, but has a slightly squared-off look. Although we weren’t sure about it at first, we grew to prefer it over the designs of its rivals. At 3-5g with a slim fit it’s similar to other smart rings in this list and almost as comfortable as the Ultrahuman Ring Air. It’s made from titanium and we were pleasantly surprised we experienced very little scratching during testing – the same can’t be said for the Circular Ring Slim or Ultrahuman Ring Air. 

Ringconn’s app can look a little busy. But get your head around the stats it serves up, and you’ll find everything you need. The device can track all sorts of data, especially sleep and health metrics, like your heart rate SpO2, movement and more. Like most smart rings right now, workout tracking won’t compare to an advanced smartwatch. But you can tag movements and integration with Apple and Google health features means it’ll show workouts, just not in real-time.

Although the RingConn smart ring isn’t the best we’ve tried, it’s good to see a cheaper alternative to the Oura (Gen 3) – you don’t need to subscribe either. The RingConn ring is good value, offering a comfortable design, minimal scratching, solid data collection and an app that can be busy and slow to sync, but which ultimately works well. 

Read our full RingConn smart ring review

Best budget NFC smart ring

This smart ring from Hecere is filled with an NFC chip, like the McLear ring higher in our list. But the difference is it's not just for payments, it comes with a rewritable chip and you can download an NFC app for free and program the ring to function in any way you'd like. It can open your phone, share a contact, make a call and more. 

It has an incredibly simple and slim design at 2mm thick. It's made from zirconia ceramic and epoxy resin, so it's very smooth, too. It comes in the usual range of ring sizes and it's also waterproof.

We haven't had chance to test the Hecere NFC Ring for ourselves yet, but we think it's clear this is the best pick for customization and NFC on a budget.

How to choose the best smart ring for you

The smart ring space is still relatively new, which means there isn’t much choice when it comes to finding the best smart ring for you. 

The first consideration needs to be why you want one in the first place. Right now, the main types of smart rings can roughly be divided into three categories: those designed to track all of your vitals with a focus on sleep, those solely for sleep tracking, and several others that enable you to make payments. We imagine that soon these uses will be combined, but for now your first decision is what you’d like one for. 

The next consideration is design. You’d be forgiven for assuming all of the best smart rings in the guide above are the same device. But there are some subtle differences, like the finish and colors, as well as the fit and weight. For example, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is lighter than its rivals. 

Finally, have a look at the different features on offer. Although many of the rings in each of those categories we’ve outlined above bring you similar features, there are some that are unique in what they offer, like the haptic feedback from the Circular Ring. 

If you’re unsure about whether a smart ring is for you, we highly recommend ordering a testing kit – most of the companies in the list above will send one out to you for free. This way you can be sure you’re getting the perfect fit but also wear the test ring for a few days to see if the design is right for you. Just remember the actual ring itself is likely to be a little heavier but will feel much more comfy and premium given the materials it’s made from.

How we test the best smart rings

We've had chance to test several of the best smart rings in this guide. Which means we know what to expect when it comes to key features, design, battery life, accompanying apps and more. 

During our testing, we were very keen to truly assess how comfortable each ring is, as we know this is a major concern with the smart ring form factor. We wore the rings for days and even weeks at a time, assessing general comfort, bulkiness, whether we had to remove them for certain activities and how they fare in water.

We used each of the apps extensively, digging into all of the data and assessing them for thoroughness and whether they pair data with generally useful insights and recommendations. It's not handy to simply present a series of graphs without context. 

Each of the smart rings above has its own set of unique features, so we made sure to  assess each separately based on what they offer and which ring we believe is the best for each purpose. 

We've made it clear which of the best smart rings above we've yet to get our hands on and will be adding reviews for those devices as soon as we can. Until then, we've based our recommendations on specs, features, other reviews and how our experience with other smart rings informs these choices.