Review: RingConn Smart Ring

Likely inspired by the success of Oura, a new wave of crowdsourced smart rings has washed ashore. The latest to land on my finger is the oddly-named RingConn Smart Ring. Starting from just $279 (no subscription required), it may tempt you to try this fledgling category.

Smart rings are an easy, unobtrusive way to track your health. Slip one on, and you can easily forget you are wearing it while it quietly records your heart rate, steps, sleep stages, and more. Sync occasionally with the phone app to review your data, and remember to charge every few days. It has never been easier to keep tabs on your vitals.

After a month or so of wearing the RingConn Smart Ring, I have been impressed by its comprehensive stat gathering in the straightforward app. Good-looking and durable, it collects plenty of data and allows you to configure your goals. And it does all this without the need for a subscription. But this is a hands-off gadget that is light on actionable insight, and I did run into some issues.

Photograph: RingConn

The RingConn Smart Ring comes in three finishes: black, silver, and gold. Instead of a traditional ring shape, it has a slightly squared-off design, with a matte finish and shiny beveled edges that give it a unique look. Made from titanium, it seems to be very durable. My silver size 10 review unit weighs in at just over 4 grams. You can pick from nine sizes (6–14), but I recommend trying the free sizing kit before you buy.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Photograph: Simon Hill

While it is comfortable, you definitely know that you are wearing the RingConn. It is chunky, and the sensor array packed around the inside seems to protrude a little more than other smart rings. It also has a couple of wee knobbly bits. The red and green light from those sensors when they fire up is eye-catching, and there is a surprising amount of light leakage in a dark room, which can be slightly annoying at night. It was much more noticeable than the Ultrahuman Ring Air (7/10, WIRED Recommends).

My silver ring still looks good after a month, unlike the black version of the Ultrahuman Ring Air, which quickly picked up some scrapes. I suspect this is largely because scratches don’t show so easily on silver. But I discovered, to my dismay, that titanium can damage porcelain after the RingConn left scratches on my favorite coffee mug and the bathroom sink. I suggest removing it when you are cleaning. Since the ring is IP68-rated, you can wear it in the shower and swimming pool.

Photograph: Simon Hill

It comes with a very nicely designed portable charging case. The case looks smart and has a 500-mAh battery inside, enough power to keep your ring charged for up to 150 days. To fully charge the ring’s battery from empty takes 90 minutes. There is a USB-C port in the back of the case and a cable in the box for when you need to recharge it, though you will need to find your own charger.

Speaking of battery life, RingConn suggests a week between charges, but I found I had to charge it roughly every five days. It is not very good at reminding you. Twice after loading the app, I wondered why it wasn’t connecting to sync, only to discover that the battery had died. It gives you in-app warnings, so if you don’t open the app, it doesn’t seem to warn you. A push notification or two would be welcome.

The RingConn syncs with your Android phone or iPhone via Bluetooth. I tested it with a Google Pixel 8 (7/10, WIRED Review) and found it slow to sync, but it depends on how often you open the app. The data upload can take a while if it has a few days’ worth to sync. I expected automatic syncing, as I have background data usage enabled in Android, but it does not seem to work (this could also account for my trouble with notifications). The connectivity range is also limited, so you must keep your phone close to the ring when syncing.

The app is clearly laid out and easy to read. It opens to the summary page with a Wellness Balance at the top that collates vital signs, sleep, activity, and stress to provide one of three ratings: Excellent, Good, or Improvable. If you tap, there are some basic suggestions on what areas need improvement and how you might do it, but it’s pretty shallow stuff.

Below that, you have your sleep, activity, and stress stats, and each category has its own tab if you want to dive deeper. At the bottom, the Health Timeline records milestones throughout the day, such as waking time, stress spikes, and step goals. There’s a lot of data here that you can find extrapolated on the Trends tab, but the RingConn Smart Ring is mostly a quiet observer. It does not prod you with a lot of suggestions.

You can customize your goals a little, choosing hours of sleep, steps, and how many calories you aim to burn each day. You can also receive notifications if you have not moved for 50 minutes (sedentary reminder) and if your heart rate goes beyond a set value (120 bpm by default) for more than 10 minutes outside of exercise. Despite enabling these notifications in the app and Android settings, I have only ever received a couple.

There is no workout tracking to speak of. The RingConn does record your activity intensity and can tell you are working out based on heart rate and oxygen saturation, but cannot determine whether you are running or pumping iron. You will likely still want one of the best fitness trackers for workouts. This is a common weakness with smart rings, though they get around it somewhat by syncing with third-party apps, and RingConn can sync with Google Fit and Apple Health. You can manually tag activities in the timeline, but it’s a bit hassly.

The accuracy of the data is hard to assess. Comparing it with my Apple Watch Series 9 (7/10, WIRED Recommends), the heart rate and stress tracking tallied closely. But, much like the Ultrahuman Ring Air, I found that the heart rate tracking got far less accurate during high-intensity workouts. The RingConn’s sleep tracking was often optimistic, suggesting I had slept for longer than I had.

While broadly similar, my step count had weird variances on certain days, where the RingConn would be several hundred steps over or under what the Apple Watch reported (it was sometimes more than 1,000 steps out). Though RingConn has updated the firmware a couple of times since I got the ring, and the accuracy seems to be improving, it is cause for concern.

If you are looking for one ring to rule them all, you have more choice than ever. The Oura Ring Gen 3 (6/10, WIRED Review) is the priciest and requires a monthly subscription. The Ultrahuman Ring Air is a more affordable, subscription-free option. There are also several new releases on the way. The recently unveiled Amazfit Helio Ring looks interesting, and Samsung’s Galaxy Ring will arrive soon. I will also be surprised if we do not see an Apple smart ring at some point.

Right now, the RingConn Smart Ring is the most affordable option with a broadly similar feature set to the Oura. It is not as polished, and the company is still tinkering with its tracking algorithms, but this is a promising debut. If Ringconn can step up its accuracy and sort out its notifications, it could be a contender.