Samsung has announced the long-rumoured Galaxy Ring heath tracking device as a surprise launch to close its Galaxy Unpacked event in San Jose.
After revealing the Galaxy S24 series of phones, Samsung dropped a ‘one more thing’ on viewers by announcing a rival to the Oura range of smart rings.
Samsung negated to offer up any details on specs, features, pricing or potential release information, but at least (and at last) confirmed the Galaxy Ring is real.
If you weren’t able to tune into the Unpacked event, here’s how Samsung dropped the bombshell Galaxy Ring announcements.
Design and features
From the brief look we got at Unpacked, the design of the Galaxy Ring seems in line with what we’ve seen from other manufacturers, with a sleek appearance and glossy black finish that wouldn’t look out of place as a piece of jewellery.
From the brief preview Samsung allowed us to see in its video, it was possible to see the underside of the device, its charging area and various health tracking sensors.
As for the expected features, we can only speculate and go on those provided by other successful smart ring manufacturers like Oura.
We’d expect the Galaxy Ring to monitor heart rate 24/7, blood oxygen levels, heart rate variability, sleep duration and quality, skin temperature, women’s health, stress, and plenty more.
The Galaxy Ring may offer vibrating alarms through smartphone connectivity, and perhaps even vibration-guided breathing exercises. It may well be equipped with NFC to enable Samsung Pay.
However, you know as much as us at this stage. We have a reporter on the ground with Samsung in San Jose, so we’ll endeavour to find out a little more.
Price and release date
Samsung isn’t telling right now. However, if we had to guess, we’d say the Galaxy Ring will be out this summer alongside the next-generation foldables, Galaxy Watch, and Galaxy Buds.
Not only would it fit the bill for the summer Unpacked event, but it gives Samsung plenty of time to build anticipation for launch.
As for price, the latest generation Oura ring costs starts at £299/$299. We’d expect Samsung to be able to undercut that price. It might even be available as a pre-order bonus with the next Z Fold and Z Flip phones?
We’ll have to wait and see.
