The main focus of the Galaxy Unpacked 2024 event was the S24 series, One UI 6.1, and the introduction of Galaxy AI. However, it also shows us a glimpse into Samsung’s future smart wearable ambitions. The event teases a new Galaxy Ring. Similar products exist on the market, but this is Samsung’s take.
There’s a chance that we could find out more at MWC 2024. Smartwatches help us with health, sleep, and fitness tracking. Rings are a logical next step and seem like a genuinely next-generation product. They might eventually replace smartwatches since they can do everything those watches do in a much more compact form factor. Considering you don’t need a screen to use these, they keep you distraction-free.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring Teaser
We got a mini teaser of the Galaxy Ring at the Galaxy Unpacked event. Patents relating to a smart ring date ages back, and more recent ones from 2022 show that it’s truly innovative. It aligns with several leaks that mentioned that Samsung is working on new wearable technology.
The leaks do not reveal anything about the features and capabilities of the ring. We’re looking forward to further teasers from Samsung since very little is known about it. We can tell that it’s a metallic smart ring, and we see a bunch of sensors of identical sizes inside it.
Samsung Galaxy Ring: Expected Release Window
- We don’t have concrete information about a launch date yet. The event video doesn’t mention it. According to Patrick Chomet, the head of Samsung’s customer experience department, we might get a release date later in 2024. It’s not coming anytime in Q1 or Q2 2024.
Patrick tells TechRadar they have much work left to do before releasing the ring. They must refine the hardware and sensors; the software isn’t ready yet. The software is apparently currently usable, but it’s not as consistent or reliable as people would like it to be. The report mentions that it’ll launch later in the year. While later in the year could mean the end of the year, it makes sense to launch it around June or July 2024.
Samsung holds one Galaxy Unpacked event for the S series flagships and the other for the Fold and Flip phones. There’s another mini-event for One UI sometimes, but it doesn’t make sense to announce a major wearable breakthrough product at a software-focused event.
We expect the Galaxy Fold 6 and Flip 6 to launch around July at the second Galaxy Unpacked event of the year. We’ll probably see the Galaxy Ring around the same time. We know nothing about it from interviews and statements except that the ring is “Ridiculously light.”
Samsung Galaxy Ring: Expected Price
This is a new category for Samsung, and there’s a lot of R&D cost to recover here. Since microscopic technology and ultra-compact sensors aren’t cheap to manufacture, we can expect around 300$ for the Galaxy Ring.
The current smart ring market, Oura, has the Oura Ring 3 up for sale at around 300$. It makes it necessary to either price the Galaxy Ring the same or undercut it for better sales. We don’t expect the ring to carry an affordable price tag. Samsung might consider releasing a budget version depending on the sales and reception.
Samsung Galaxy Ring: Expected Features
We can expect various health, fitness, and sleep-tracking features from the Galaxy Ring. This feature set matches the famous Oura Ring 3. The sensors can mainly monitor temperature, heart rate, etc. We’re not sure if blood oxygen SPO2 monitoring is possible with this. We expect the ring to appear in 4 sizes, which will fit most fingers. We have 8 sizes for the Oura Ring, but Samsung isn’t going that far yet.
The Galaxy Ring might also get Blood Pressure monitoring and ovulation cycle tracking. If it gets government and FDA approval, it might track heartbeat irregularities and warn you about atrial fibrillation. However, the reliability of the first generation remains a major question mark.
Since Samsung products are designed to work better with each other, we expect some Samsung-exclusive ecosystem perks. We might get Smart TV control and Smart Home controls. The ring will mainly function independently of your smartphone, though you might need to sync occasionally. We’re unsure whether it can make calls or control your media playback and volume.
Samsung’s sleep tracking with Galaxy Watches is already class-leading. However, many people don’t like wearing a watch when sleeping. Many more are comfortable with a ring and will no longer miss out on sleep-tracking features. Some patents show Samsung is working on this, and also some investments. If the detection is accurate enough, it could warn users about sleep apnea.
The Galaxy Ring will use Bluetooth. We have to wait for numbers on battery life since multiple sensors running simultaneously could drain quite a bit.
