In last month’s Galaxy Unpacked event, Samsung showcased for the first time its Galaxy Ring, a ring that aimed to be a wearable that beats Apple in its own field: health. Now we know a little more about this gadget.
Several journalists have been able to test it during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which started last Sunday: they say it is very lightweight and available in three colors, although Samsung insists that the final product is subject to changes.
The objectives that Samsung has for this new line of products are very interesting, as they do not consider it just another wearable, but part of the company’s vision for a future of environmental detection.
What is the Samsung ring?
Dr. Hon Pak, Vice President of Digital Health at Samsung, has not specified what sensors the ring contains, but has mentioned sleep information based on heart rate, movement, and respiratory indicators.
Dr. Pak claims that Samsung’s collaboration with Natural Cycles (which already tracks menstruation and fertility in its Galaxy Watch series) will also extend to the ring, putting it in direct competition with the Oura ring.
In the Galaxy Ring, the battery size increases slightly as it gets bigger, although Dr. Pak couldn’t provide any exact estimate of the battery life.
The Galaxy Ring will serve as the foundation for a new metric that Samsung will soon introduce in the Health app, called My Vitality Score. It is based on a model from the University of Georgia that incorporates four factors: sleep, activity, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability.
Dr. Pak envisions a holistic system that supports individual health goals instead of a single device bombarding users with disconnected data.
