RingConn Gen 2 Air Review

Price and availability

Price is absolutely a factor in why the RingConn Gen 2 Air exists. If you found the $359 it cost to buy a RingConn Gen 2 too steep or felt similar about the Samsung Galaxy Ring (£399/$399) or the Oura Ring 4 ($349/£349), then the $238.80 price tag attached to the Gen 2 Air might be more to your liking. 

That’s not actually the cheapest smart ring available. The Amazfit Helio Ring costs £269/$199. Like the Helio Ring, you don’t need to pay for an extra subscription to make full use of the Gen 2 Air.

Design 

• Available in 2 colours
• 9 sizes available
• Charging dock instead of case included

Ringconn does its best not to compromise the sleek design offered on the Gen 2, but there are some differences between the two.

There’s a stainless steel body instead of a lighter titanium one, which nudges the weight up a little, but in no noticeable way. There are two colour options (gold and silver) as opposed to the four available on the Gen 2.

It also loses out on the portable charging case, as the Air gets a charging dock similar to the one included with rings like the Oura Ring 4.

The Gen 2 Air is still a really nice ring to look at and wear though.

You still have access to the free sizing kit to make sure you get a ring size that fits right. There is a bit of a sensor bump in the interior of the ring to make sure you don’t forget the ring is there, but it’s never felt like an awkward ring to wear during the day or to take to bed to track sleep.

The waterproof rating is the same as the Gen 2, so that’s an IP68/10 ATM one, which makes it suitable for being submerged in water up to 100 metres depth. That also means it matches all other major smart rings for protection against moisture.

Health and fitness tracking 

• Same PPG optical sensor as Gen 2
• Doesn’t include sleep apnea mode
• Wellness Balance widget and four sports modes 

While there are some differences in the design materials used, colour options and charging setup included, the Air actually includes the same sensors as the Gen 2 and essentially tracks the same things.

The only feature it lacks is the new sleep apnea mode. Outside of that, this is a ring that can track your steps, sleep, heart rate, stress and temperature.

This is a ring that’s set up through the free RingConn companion smartphone app, which is available for both Android and iOS.

I’ve used this ring across both apps, and the experience, by and large, has been straightforward. I do find that syncing data if you’ve not done it for a couple of days, can take a long time, but even Oura experiences a similar situation if you’ve not synced in a while.

Beyond that, it’s really about how the app looks and how it feels to use. This is arguably the biggest drawback of using the RingConn. The app lacks the polish of Oura and Ultrahuman’s companion apps.

In terms of tracking performance, there’s not a huge amount different to report from my time with the Gen 2. I found that daily step tracking was largely in line with other smart rings and wrist-based smartwatches I wore alongside it. There’s not a lot happening in terms of motivating you to move, but at least the data from an accuracy point of view looks good. 

When you go to sleep, you can expect to see the kind of post-sleep data generated by most smart rings, fitness trackers, and smartwatches. It captures sleep duration, sleep stages and metrics like heart rate and temperature.

I found, much like the Gen 2, that the sleep tracking performance has held up well to the likes of Oura and the Apple Watch. It’s just when going through the data that things feel a bit clunky.

While smart rings aren’t one you’d want to keep on when tackling a weights session, there are some dedicated exercise modes for a limited number of activities. Those are running, cycling and walking. During those modes, the focus is on tracking heart rate, which I think the ring does a good job of.

It did have a habit of reporting lower heart rate readings during some workouts where the intensity and effort levels were a lot higher. It’s a bit more of a reliable performer when monitoring heart rate during sleep and outside of exercise.

Like the Gen 2, you have access to RingConn’s Wellness Balance feature as well as the new AI-powered chatbot. These are features designed to go beyond simply presenting your data in graphs and charts. This is where advice and suggestions are on offer to make better sense of your data.

In reality, these features need some work. They feel like early-stage AI features, and while no doubt they’ll get better in serving up recommendations, the approach right now needs refining.

Battery life

• Up to 10 days of battery life 
• No charging case
• Fully charges in 1 hour and 30 minutes

The RingConn Gen 2 Air promises up to 10 days of battery life, which is two days short of the maximum battery offered on the Gen 2. That’s still more than what’s offered on the Oura Ring 4 (eight days) and the Samsung Galaxy Ring (seven days).

So it’s still good and better than most of the competition. It does manage to deliver well over a week of battery, and you can easily monitor the daily battery drop from the companion app. With no sleep apnea mode included, you also don’t have to concern yourself about that feature draining power like it does on the Gen 2.

While I can live with the slight drop in battery life, I’m more disappointed that RingConn’s more travel-friendly charging case isn’t included. Its omission seems to be a way to keep the price down, but as a result, you have a less convenient way to charge the ring on the move.

When you do need to drop it on the charging dock to charge, it will go from 0%-100% in an hour and 30 minutes, which isn’t super snappy, but at least sticks to the same charging rate as the Gen 2.

Should you buy it?