Heart Rate Monitoring Ring

[Ermelindo Klatt]

Ifthere's a smart ring you've already heard of, it's most likely the Oura Ring. With sleep tracking, nap detection, blood oxygen sensing, workout insights, and 24/7 heart rate monitoring, the features housed in the slim design are endless. There's also more than 50 audio sessions for meditation, sleep, focus, and recovery. Yeah, name something Oura can't do.

Circular's smart ring has impressive health tracking capabilities packed into a simple style. Heart rate monitoring, temperature detection, sleeping tracking, guided breathing, and an alarm clock are all packed into the tiny device. Plus, there's four finishes to choose from.

If you don't care about your daily activity stats and you're looking to just track your sleep states, then this advanced tracker is for you. It analyzes your sleep quality to help you better understand your blood oxygen, heart rate, sleep stages, and other vital indicators. Using this data in conjunction with subjective measurements (an electronic sleep diary), PSQI questionnaires, you can get a comprehensive assessment with steps to fine-tune your lifestyle and improve your sleep quality.

This ring is all about understanding the data that it amasses. The device interprets heart rate, variability, temperature, and sleep into indexes that the wearer can comprehend. In combination with an app, you get a holistic picture of your health. While the battery lasts for up to three days, the portable charging case helps ensure you're never without juice. It's cheaper, sleeker, but might not be a fit for the person looking for the most stats on the market.

Okay, so this one isn't about fitness, but it is smart, so it's worth a mention. Looking for an alternative device to handle your finances? RingPay does just that. Make a transaction by merely waving your hand over a pay terminal. You can also earn cash back at participating retailers, donate with each purchase, and export transactions as a PDF to other devices.

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If you're training for a marathon, taking exercise classes, or working out at the gym, a fitness ring can help you reach your fitness goals and offer you a greater perspective on your overall wellness. It's a handy piece of tech that measures your heart rate, blood oxygen levels, body temperature, and more to provide data-driven guidance on your training regimen, and while they once used to be a niche wearable, major tech brands like Samsung have come out with smart rings of their own.

I love using my smart ring as I exercise, whether I'm riding a bike, doing core exercise, running, or dancing, because I can record my workout heart rate and get hyper-specific data that informs my rest and recovery program. Alongside data on my activity, smart rings also advise me when to take a break, get more rest, and pay attention to my health. They're far less bulky and discreet than a smartwatch, so I don't have to be tied to another screen as I exercise or sleep. However, I wouldn't recommend a smart ring to heavy weightlifters, climbers, or anyone who regularly uses their hands while exercising, given how the ring can pinch your skin as you lift weights or grip things.

Our pick for the best fitness ring overall is the Oura Ring Gen 3 Horizon for its comprehensive health suite, discreet form factor, high-quality materials, and impressive battery life. With Samsung's Galaxy Ring now available for preorder and many other companies throwing their hats in the ring (pun intended), we'll continue to test out all of the new fitness rings on the market and update this list with buying advice. Read on to find out how all the leading fitness ring options on the market compare and how to choose the best one.

The Oura Ring is one of the most popular fitness rings on the market, offering four different color options and various sizes. I wore the Horizon Oura Ring as I trained for a half marathon and am more than happy with its fitness features. You can record your workout heart rate on the app and view your activity score, inactive time, and burned calories. Then, the next day, you get a glance at your recovery scores to see how you bounced back from your intense workout. As it gets to know you, it can detect which activities you perform, whether that's running, walking, pickleball, or tennis, without you having to log it immediately.

As the smart ring market becomes more competitive, Oura has been introducing new features after new feature to keep its top spot. In the past few months alone, the brand has introduced new heart health features, women's health features, and even a collaboration with Target.

The ring is known for its exceptional sleep tracking. It provides insightful data that surpasses what you would receive from a Fitbit or the best smart rings. For instance, it displays your HRV balance, temperature changes during sleep (which can be used to predict menstrual cycles), blood oxygen levels, and the duration of each sleep stage.

In addition to impressive sleep tracking, the Oura Ring excels in activity tracking. It monitors your steps, calories burned (including active calories), heart rate during exercise, and training volume. One new feature that separates Oura from other fitness rings is its resilience feature, which measures how well you bounce back from stress. Another fun Oura feature that runners will love is the ability to sync your Strava data to Oura and vice versa. When you record a run on the running app, it will immediately import into the Oura app. This is a lifesaver for me, an avid runner who sometimes forgets to start recording on one app before my run.

In 2022, Oura introduced the Horizon model, which removes the flat spot at the top of the ring to make it entirely round like a regular ring. You can opt for the Heritage model, which starts at $299, or the new Horizon model, which starts at $349. One downside to note is its tendency to gain scratches and scrapes. Many Reddit users say that while the Oura Ring does sleep tracking well, it comes at a hefty price that may or may not be worth it to some.

If you don't want an Oura Ring, you should get yourself the Ultrahuman Ring Air. It is by far the runner-up in the smart ring race -- and that's no insult. Plus, it's consistently one of the top products ZDNET readers buy month after month; it even earned the number one spot in June, thank you very much.

As I wrote in my review of the Ultrahuman Ring Air, "If the Oura Ring is the girl next door, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is the Silicon Valley-based, Bitcoin-mining neighbor who drinks Soylent." This is the ring for fitness obsessives. The ring monitors all the good stuff: activity, sleep, and recovery. Plus, it prioritizes comfort and a sleek build that doesn't tarnish quickly or interfere with the rote tasks of your day, like carrying heavy bags, washing hands and dishes, and showering.

What's remarkable about the Ultrahuman Ring Air is the notifications you get during or after your activity. For example, I went on a run with this ring one morning, and after my workout, it notified me to delay any caffeine for around an hour to allow the adenosine I built up from my run to flush out of my system. Later in the day, it reminded me to stretch my legs to recover from my morning run and relieve tension.

You can also document your diet, while the ring's app offers AI insights into the health information behind each food you eat. Some of the data becomes excessive, but I can imagine that anyone who is all-in on optimizing their lifestyle for marathon training or some other fitness goal will find the information Ultrahuman offers useful. Plus, the app has a Discover tab with guided workouts for everything from pilates, high-intensity interval training, vinyasa yoga, and more. You can sync other workout app data, like the run you recorded on Strava, to the Ultrahuman app, which helps keep all your various activities in one place.

The battery life is on par with Oura's, as I charged both simultaneously and found that they ran out of juice within hours of each other (about six days). And unlike the Oura Ring, which seemingly scratches when in contact with abrasive material, the Ultrahuman has maintained its sheen sans scratches. I don't have trouble recommending this ring to health-minded individuals honing their workout and recovery regimen. Plus, unlike Oura, the Ultrahuman Ring Air doesn't come with the price of a monthly subscription.

Redditors say the Ultrahuman Ring Air is on par with Oura, but the rings aren't as effective at fitness tracking as a smartwatch or chest strap. The care and drive for improvement with this ring is palpable: Upon reading user reviews on Reddit, I've noticed that Ultrahuman's founder, Mohit Kumar, is on these threads interacting with users who leave reviews or ask questions about the product -- not something I've seen before.

Let me introduce you to the newest smart ring in the game and the first smart ring released by a leading tech brand. The Galaxy Ring was released in July, and it's a wearable any Android user -- that's right, no iOS compatibility on this ring -- could get excited about.

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