Best smart ring 2024: compact, lightweight health-tracking wearables

The best smart rings are gaining popularity thanks to their compact and lightweight design, which makes it much easier to wear them continuously. Thanks to recent advancements in sensor and battery technology, you can now access features previously only available in larger devices using a smart ring.

Smart rings have several benefits over the best smartwatches. They are more compact and feel less cumbersome to wear, enabling you to wear them day and night. Smart rings are also excellent sleep trackers. By not wanting to take them off, these clever gadgets can help analyse your slumber in incognito.

Thanks to its widespread use by celebrities and athletes alike, smart rings are becoming more popular with the general public. Plus, big players like Samsung are also helping to spread the word by relating their own take on the concept.

Our current favourite smart ring is the Oura Ring 4. It provides the ultimate smart ring experience, albeit for a small ongoing cost. If you prefer not to pay a monthly fee, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is an excellent alternative. Finally, if you're not too keen on advanced data, RingConn's Smart Ring is the best affordable choice.

Best overall

The fourth-generation Oura Ring integrates the new Smart Sensing platform, improving accuracy in key health metrics like heart rate, sleep, and stress levels.

Notably, the ring now tolerates slight rotations on the finger without compromising data quality, addressing a common issue in prior models.

Oura’s continued focus on holistic health insights is evident through its in-depth sleep tracking, readiness scores, and recovery insights, making it appealing to users who prioritise wellness over intensive fitness data.

The ring’s battery life has also been extended, providing up to a week of usage between charges, a significant advantage for a continuously worn device.

Its focus on health and wellness monitoring makes it ideal for users seeking deep, everyday insights without the bulk of a smartwatch.

The price remains high, reflecting its premium quality and advanced sensors, but the Oura Ring’s minimalist design and data reliability make it a compelling choice for those who value both form and function in health tracking.

Read our full Oura Ring 4 review.

Best for sleep tracking

The Ultrahuman Ring Air is a unique fitness wearable concept, not just because of its lightweight, compact design. Through the accompanying app, this smart ring can help you optimise your life to improve your health and general well-being, as long as you are happy to adhere to the algorithm's recommendations.

Thanks to its many metrics and suggestions, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is the best smart ring for sleep tracking. It monitors your circadian rhythm and suggests a daily window during which you should consume all your stimulants (e.g., tea, coffee) so as not to disturb your sleep.

If you're more interested in keeping a keen eye on your sleep trend and gradual health improvements, you should check out the Ultrahuman Ring Air. Sure, there is an initial cost to buy the ring, but thanks to the lack of subscription fees, you can access any and all future software upgrades – for free.

Read our full Ultrahuman Ring Air review.

Best affordable

It's probably not fair to call Ringconn a new player in the smart ring market, where most companies are only a few years old. The company's smart ring, aptly called Ringconn Smart Ring, is one of the most affordable models and offers basic health metrics coupled with an easy-to-understand app.

The Ringconn Smart Ring connects to smartphones easily and better still, it collects data and provides insights and suggestions as soon as you start wearing it. For comparison, Oura's wearable requires around four weeks of use before it starts suggesting anything.

On the flip side, Ringconn's wearable provides less personalised suggestions on how to improve your health and fitness, similar to some fitness trackers that use general assumptions based on your age, weight, sex, etc., to offer guidance, as opposed to truly personalised insights.

That said, Ringconn is said to be working on adding more features to its Smart Ring, including menstrual cycle sleep apnea and blood pressure monitoring. As long as they can provide free access to this data, we can't wait to see them materialising in the near future.

Read our full RingConn Smart ring review.

We also reviewed the RingConn Smart Ring Gen 2 and were thoroughly impressed with the improvements. The reason why it isn't listed here is that the wearable is still only at the crowd-funding stage, so we're being a bit cautious before replacing the readily available first-generation ring with the new one.

Best hybrid

Weighing just under 4 grams, the Amazfit Helio Ring's design is similar to other smart rings, featuring a BioTracker PPG heart rate sensor, temperature sensor, EDA sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, and gyroscope (the EDA sensor is currently inactive pending FDA approval).

The ring excels in sleep tracking, providing detailed insights into sleep stages, heart rate, and breathing quality. It works best when paired with an Amazfit smartwatch, tracking nighttime metrics while the watch handles daytime activities. However, it lacks standalone functionality, missing features like automatic activity recognition and daytime stress tracking.

A standout feature is the readiness score, based on heart rate variability, training load, and sleep. The Helio Ring also offers Zepp Aura, an AI assistant providing tailored sleep melodies, and Zepp Coach, though both require additional subscriptions.

Priced at $300, the Helio Ring is costly for a device that primarily serves as a sleep tracker. While its hardware is promising, it currently falls short compared to competitors offering more features without extra fees. Ideal for Amazfit smartwatch users seeking enhanced sleep data, others might want to wait for future updates.

Read our full Amazfit Helio Ring review.

Best lightweight

Touted as the 'world's thinnest smart ring', the Circular Ring Slim combines sleek design with advanced features. With no screen or buttons, it discreetly collects health data using PPG sensors, a temperature sensor, and a three-axis accelerometer. Notably, it introduces Kira+, an AI wellness assistant for personalised insights.

Despite its promising features, the Circular Ring Slim faces challenges, most notably occasional connectivity issues and synchronisation delays with its accompanying app. Moreover, its battery life falls short of expectations, with many struggling to achieve even two days of operation despite claims of six days.

Nevertheless, the Circular Ring Slim offers a compelling option for those seeking a subtle and comfortable health-tracking solution. Its intuitive app layout provides comprehensive health and wellness data, albeit with occasional setbacks.

While improvements are needed to address connectivity and battery concerns, its sleek design and advanced features, including Kira+, position it as a promising contender in the wearable technology landscape, appealing to users seeking discrete yet effective health monitoring options.

Read our full Circular Ring Slim review.

How to choose the best smart ring for you

Smart rings are a new phenomenon, and as such, they aren't often specialised in terms of feature sets. That said, there are a few things to bear in mind before you buy your first smart ring.

Sizing is one of these. Smart rings often come only in a few sizes, which, to be fair, usually covers the most popular finger circumferences (apart from the upcoming Amazfiot Helio Ring, which only comes in two sizes, 10 and 12). If your hand size is on the extreme end of the spectrum (either way), it's worth requesting a sizing kit.

Although most smart rings have similar features, there are minor differences. Some, like the Ultrahuman Ring Air, are better at optimising sleep, while others, such as Oura Ring, are best suited as an overall health tracker. Yet others focus on essential sleep and fitness tracking, e.g. RingConn Smart Ring.

Finally, it's worth considering the capabilities of companion apps and potential subscription fees. Oura only grants access to basic stats for free, while Ultrahuman offers a subscription-based extension of its service called Ultrahuman X. Yet others, like Amazfit, will charge you for accessing AI coaching and more.

How we test the best smart rings

There is no way around testing smart rings than wearing them continuously for weeks on end. Similar to wrist wearables, most smart rings need at least a couple of weeks to establish a baseline and provide more accurate estimations and suggestions.

Thankfully, smart rings weigh next to nothing, meaning prolonged wear doesn't irritate you. We tend to test smart rings for a month to ensure all systems are fully functional and have enough time to do all the different health and fitness activities these clever wearables can track.

For more info about testing, check out this explainer: How we test at T3.

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