Smart rings have really emerged in the past few years as an attractive alternative to smart watches, as they offer the same great health tracking (such as sleep, steps and active minutes) that you’d expect from a watch or fitness tracker, but in a more discreet form factor that minimises the potential discomfort of an all-day wristpiece.
I’m certainly a fan of smart rings for this very reason – having used a Samsung Galaxy Ring over the past year and fallen in love with it for its sleep tracking – but with a budget in mind, it’s hard to ignore the RingConn Gen 2, especially with a substantial AU$97.80 discount on Amazon right now.
The RingConn Gen 2 is very attractive for its base price alone, offering step, heart and sleep tracking with an impressive 12-day battery life (earning its spot as the top smart ring for battery longevity among the best smart rings we’ve tested). It’s available in three colours (Matte Black, Royal Gold and Future Silver), each of which comes in nine sizes, and all variants are currently discounted by 20% – down to AU$391.20, which is an excellent price for a smart ring. In comparison, you’re looking at spending upwards of AU$500 for other options like the aforementioned Samsung and the Ultrahuman Ring Air.
When purchasing a smart ring, however, it’s very important to note that you should size your finger with the official RingConn Sizing Kit before making a purchase – this needs to be purchased separately and costs AU$2.99. RingConn recommends wearing a comfortable size for 12 hours before committing to a purchase.
One of the more impressive things about the RingConn Gen 2 is that it completely lacks a subscription fee – which is fairly welcome, given that competing smart rings from Oura tack one on for even basic features, while others like Ultrahuman have some metrics behind a paywall. IP68/ATM 10 resistance ratings are also included, which means you can wash your hands with the ring on or even go swimming. Plus there’s compatibility across both Apple and Android devices.
In our RingConn Gen 2 review, we awarded the health tracker four stars for being a neat package for somebody craving an affordable option. It’s certainly worth considering if a long battery life is attractive to you, and ultimately it’s a fairly safe device to get started with if you’re not too familiar with smart rings yet.
All of this said, the Gen 2 is not a fitness tracker, but a health tracker. It might be capable of logging sleep apnea, steps and rest, but its workout options are fairly limited – and the fact that you need to manually tell the ring to switch on tracking for specific fitness routines might prove tedious if you’re after something to keep tabs on your fitness routine.
