The Samsung Galaxy Ring emerged as the first smart ring from a major tech player, giving the Oura Ring its first big rival.
Oura’s has got a few more years and launches on Samsung and with the arrival of the Oura Ring 4 in 2024, it aimed to cement its place as the pick of the smart rings.
I’ve had positive experiences living with both the Oura Ring 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Ring, so if you only have room for one smart ring in your life and on your hand, here’s how the two compare to help pick.
Design & Build
These are attractive smart rings in slightly different ways. On the one hand, you’ve got the Galaxy Ring with its fully round, more matted titanium finish that comes in fewer colours. Those are gold, silver and black.
Mike Sawh
The Oura Ring 4 has a bit more of a regular ring look to it. There are far more finishes to pick from, and a bit more titanium is used in the overall design.
You’re also getting an extra size to pick from as well. It’s fully round like Samsung’s ring, with both featuring a small etching to indicate how the ring should be worn to ensure sensors are in the best place to get the most accurate data.
Those sensor arrays sit a little differently, with Samsung’s more noticeable when the ring is on while Oura’s sensors sit more discreetly on the ring’s interior. That more noticeable sensor bump doesn’t make the Galaxy Ring awkward to wear and these are two of the most comfortable smart rings you can wear.
What Samsung does have in its favour is that at 2.6mm thick, it’s slimmer than the Oura Ring 4 which is 2.88mm.
Chris Martin / Foundry
Both offer water resistance up to 100 metres depth and have been perfectly fine to swim with and keep on for showering.
I’d say that the charging solution on the Galaxy Ring is more to our liking than Oura’s, which is a cradle kind, while Samsung uses a case that makes charging on the go easier and ensures the ring doesn’t get knocked out of place when powering up.
Specs & Performance
Let’s deal with compatibility first. The Samsung Galaxy Ring will only work with Android phones, while the Oura Ring 4 can be paired to iOS or Android devices.
Mattias Inghe
At their core, these rings want to track the same things. They want to monitor your daily activity, track your sleep, heart rate, stress, skin temperature and blood oxygen levels using optical sensors and use that information to offer insights into your preparedness for your day. Samsung does that through its Energy score and Oura through its Readiness score.
Those scores are only as good as the data that powers them, though and the good news is that on the whole, both perform well on most fronts. They offer pretty reliable sleep stats and I’ve been impressed by heart rate monitoring outside of more intense exercise.
Samsung offers automatic exercise recognition for runs and walks, while Oura does something similar for a few more activities and lets you pull through data from Strava, Apple Health and Google Health if you’re not planning to give up on using a sports watch or using your phone to track workouts.
That helps to make Oura’s Readiness scores a bit more trusting with the ability to pull in data from more sources.
Mike Sawh
Beyond those core metrics, Samsung doesn’t really offer any major extras. While its software is free to access, it requires two apps – Samsung Wearable and Samsung Health, to make best use out of it. There’s a bit more happening in the Samsung Health app, it just doesn’t feel specific to using the Galaxy Ring.
Oura, in contrast, has just one app and it’s all about the ring. You’ve got data aplenty, additional metrics focused around heart health or looking after your mental wellbeing. There’s just a lot more going on with the downside being that you will need to pay to make the most of all of those features.
Other key differences
As mentioned, there is a difference in the ring size options available. For Oura, it goes from 4 to 15 with Samsung offering sizes 5 to 15. Both offer free sizing kits if you’re not sure about which size ring is going to give you the best fit.
If you want the smart ring with some added smart functionality beyond tracking your health and wellbeing, Samsung’s ring does support a double pinch gesture feature that when used with a Samsung Galaxy smartphone allows you to take photos or turn off alarms using that gesture.
When used with a Galaxy Watch, you’ll also get up to 30% longer battery life as the tracking is shared between the two devices. This could be a game-changing perk for some.
Price & Availability
The Samsung Galaxy Ring costs £399/$399 and that applies to all three available colours that are available. Things are a more different with the Oura Ring 4 where the cheapest version sits at £349/$349 and rises to £499/$499 if you go for a gold or rose gold model. Basically, you can get an Oura Ring 4 for less.
That is, until you factor in the subscription you also need for an Oura, with that Oura subscription costing £5.99/$5.99 a month or £69.99/$69.99 a year. Samsung does not charge you anything else beyond the one-off payment for the ring.
I’ve also compared the Oura Ring Gen 3 with the Oura Ring 4.
Verdict
If you own an Android phone and want the all-round more affordable smart ring that offers a likeable design, slimmer look and you mainly want it for a more elegant way to track your sleep, heart rate and daily activity, get the Samsung Galaxy Ring.
If you want the best overall smart ring that gives you an attractive look, strong performance and a more thoughtful approach to software, then the Oura Ring 4 is the one you want. Just remember that you’ll need to pay up for that subscription as well.
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