The best smart rings bring discreet health tracking to your finger in a much less obtrusive way than other health tracking gadgets.
Previously an emerging market, smart rings are very much mainstream in 2025, with giants like Samsung getting in on the action.
The best smart rings on the market deliver great health data when it comes to sleep, heart rate, stress, exercise, and more. The technology is still more limited, but is improving with each passing month. This year we might even see the new Samsung Galaxy Ring 2.
Right now though, our top picks in the market remain the Samsung Galaxy Ring and Oura Ring 4. At TechRadar, we've been reviewing fitness trackers and health gadgets for over a decade, and have tested more than 200 fitness trackers. That means we know a thing or two about what makes a fitness tracker tick, expertise we've effortlessly applied to all the products we've reviewed and curated for this guide.
So here are our top picks for the best smart rings in 2025.
Becca Caddy is a smart ring and digital health expert with over a decade's experience covering consumer tech and popular science. She's reviewed numerous health tracking gadgets including multiple smart rings. She's also the author of a book called Screen Time, dedicated to keeping tech unintrusive, making her the perfect pick for our smart ring buying guide curator.
The quick list
The best overall
This smartwatch is not only the best for Samsung fans but for anyone who wants a smart ring to rule them all.
The best premium
A complete redesign for the best smart ring around, Oura Ring 4 is top tier, but comes at a high price.
Best for comfort
Packed with features and designed to give you insights into sleep, it's our lightest and most comfortable pick at 2.4g.
Best for added features
Best for battery life
The RingConn Gen 2 builds on our great budget pick with industry-leading 12-day battery life.
Best on a budget
A unique design and similar features to rivals at a cheaper price, a good alternative to the top brands, even though there's a second-generation model now available.
Best smart ring overall
This is Samsung's first entry into the smart ring market that was previously dominated by the Oura Ring and it's fair to say they have absolutely nailed it. If the market continues to grow then Samsung will have beaten their rivals, Apple and Google, to it.
We found the Galaxy Ring incredibly comfortable to wear during our two weeks of testing. In fact, our reviewer says it was small enough that he actually forgot he was wearing it at all. We found battery life excellent too, and you'll get around a week of use before a charge is required or if you pair it with a Samsung smart watch then it'll last even longer.
Samsung has focused most of its efforts on creating a ring that excels in sleep tracking and reporting. Hands down, it has achieved something truly special. For the benefit of a top quality ring and great features, you'll have to pay a pretty eye watering sum but if you're keen on being an early adopter, then this is the one to go for.
Read our full Samsung Galaxy Ring review
Best premium smart ring
The most well-known smart ring brand until Samsung got in the ring (sorry), the Oura Ring 4 is a superb health tracker. In our review, we loved its comprehensive coverage of sleep, activity and recovery, and the automatic workout tracking is much improved from the last go-round.
Sleep is where Oura has always truly shined, and the Oura Ring 4 is no exception. Our reviewer found that you get information on not just your night's sleep, but restfulness, allowing you to access trends overtime for granular information like deep sleep and bedtime.
The Oura app also saw a redesign to coincide with the 4's release, and it's a fantastic piece of kit. It's just a shame it comes with an ongoing subscription, and relies on it for so many features. It hampers the value prospect of an otherwise near-perfect smart ring.
Read our full Oura Ring 4 review
Best smart ring for comfort
If you're looking for the lightest ring on the market, the Ultrahuman Ring Air lives up to its name, only weighing in at 2.4g to 3.6g depending on your size.
Offering similar features to the Oura Ring at the top of our list, it uses a range of sensors to track all kinds of data about heart rate, movement, sleep, skin temperature, and more. Like the Oura Ring, it also has a big focus on sleep and recovery, and a handy app that we found to be incredibly thorough in terms of the data it presents, but also easy to use during our testing.
Design-wise, we found it stylish-looking and comfortable to wear, although the matte black version was prone to scratching. Luckily, there are other finishes available now that should fare better. The inside, where the sensors lie against your skin, is covered with see-through hypoallergenic epoxy resin coating, which is velvety smooth.
Read our full Ultrahuman Ring Air review
Best smart ring for battery life
Our budget smart ring pick (below) is the first-gen RingConn. The RingConn was updated in 2024, and the new Gen 2 model is a big improvement. However, it's also more expensive, so the original retains the budget crown, while the Gen 2 gets the go-ahead because of its industry-leading battery life.
You can expect up to 12 days of use from the RingConn Gen 2, which no other smart ring comes close to. That's despite the fact it weighs an astonishing 3 grams and is both thinner and narrower than its predecessor.
It's a titanium alloy available in three colors, and the RingConn Gen 2 features new sleap apnea tracking. We loved the simple score you get for each metric such as Sleep, Stress, Vital Signs, and more. We also enjoy the recommendations it was giving us based on our stress and activity levels.
Fitness tracking is a bit more limited, but the in-depth sleep stats and excellent longevity make this a really excellent choice and a brilliant upgrade over the original. However, it's more costly, hence it doesn't supplant the first-generation RingConn in the budget category.
Read our full RingConn Gen 2 review
Best smart ring on a budget
The RingConn smart ring is a refreshing surprise. It’s a sensor-packed smart ring designed for 24/7 activity and health tracking that’s significantly cheaper than top rival Oura, but after testing it we can confidently say it brings you many of the same features.
The RingConn ring has a unique design. It’s definitely a ring, but has a slightly squared-off look. Although we weren’t sure about it at first, we grew to prefer it over the designs of its rivals. At 3-5g with a slim fit it’s similar to other smart rings in this list and almost as comfortable as the Ultrahuman Ring Air. It’s made from titanium and we were pleasantly surprised we experienced very little scratching during testing – the same can’t be said for the Circular Ring Slim or Ultrahuman Ring Air.
Ringconn’s app can look a little busy. But get your head around the stats it serves up, and you’ll find everything you need. The device can track all sorts of data, especially sleep and health metrics, like your heart rate SpO2, movement and more. Like most smart rings right now, workout tracking won’t compare to an advanced smartwatch. But you can tag movements and integration with Apple and Google health features means it’ll show workouts, just not in real-time.
Although the RingConn smart ring isn’t the best we’ve tried, it’s good to see a cheaper alternative to the Oura – you don’t need to subscribe either. The RingConn ring is good value, offering a comfortable design, minimal scratching, solid data collection and an app that can be busy and slow to sync, but which ultimately works well. There's a newer RingConn Gen 2 you might be interested in, but this is still pretty good and much cheaper.
Read our full RingConn smart ring review
How to choose the best smart ring for you
The smart ring space is still relatively new, which means there isn’t much choice when it comes to finding the best smart ring for you.
The first consideration needs to be why you want one in the first place. Right now, the main types of smart rings can roughly be divided into three categories: those designed to track all of your vitals with a focus on sleep, those solely for sleep tracking, and several others that enable you to make payments. We imagine that soon these uses will be combined, but for now your first decision is what you’d like one for.
The next consideration is design. You’d be forgiven for assuming all of the best smart rings in the guide above are the same device. But there are some subtle differences, like the finish and colors, as well as the fit and weight. For example, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is lighter than its rivals.
Finally, have a look at the different features on offer. Although many of the rings in each of those categories we’ve outlined above bring you similar features, there are some that are unique in what they offer, like the haptic feedback from the Circular Ring.
If you’re unsure about whether a smart ring is for you, we highly recommend ordering a testing kit – most of the companies in the list above will send one out to you for free. This way you can be sure you’re getting the perfect fit but also wear the test ring for a few days to see if the design is right for you. Just remember the actual ring itself is likely to be a little heavier but will feel much more comfy and premium given the materials it’s made from.
How we test the best smart rings
We've had chance to test several of the best smart rings in this guide. Which means we know what to expect when it comes to key features, design, battery life, accompanying apps and more.
During our testing, we were very keen to truly assess how comfortable each ring is, as we know this is a major concern with the smart ring form factor. We wore the rings for days and even weeks at a time, assessing general comfort, bulkiness, whether we had to remove them for certain activities and how they fare in water.
We used each of the apps extensively, digging into all of the data and assessing them for thoroughness and whether they pair data with generally useful insights and recommendations. It's not handy to simply present a series of graphs without context.
Each of the smart rings above has its own set of unique features, so we made sure to assess each separately based on what they offer and which ring we believe is the best for each purpose.
We've made it clear which of the best smart rings above we've yet to get our hands on and will be adding reviews for those devices as soon as we can. Until then, we've based our recommendations on specs, features, other reviews and how our experience with other smart rings informs these choices.
The best smart rings: FAQ
Should you buy a smart ring instead of a smart watch?
A smart ring is a great alternative to a smartwatch for a number of reasons. You get many of the same features including health and fitness tracking without the intrusion of a display and notifications. They also tend to have better battery life, and are generally built to exist in the background of your life, rather than as a personal assistant on your wrist. It's a personal choice, but if you're focused on health and wellbeing, rather than communication, a smart ring is definitely worth considering.
What features should I expect to see in a smart ring?
All good smart rings should offer heart rate and sleep tracking, as well as exercise monitoring and other wellness features. They're primarily health devices, so these are the most important features to look for. Other extras could include NFC for making contactless payments. Generally, they don't come with a display and aren't built to deliver notifications to you in real time. You should also look for good software, which can deliver insights like scores for energy and daily readiness.
How much does the average smart ring cost?
The most expensive smart rings cost around $399 / £399 / around AU$750. While there are some cheaper options, some of these, like the Oura Ring range, come with follow-up subscriptions that mean you have to pay a monthly fee to use them. Cheaper options come in at $299 / £329 / AU$599 or even as little as $279 / around £220 or AU$420. Any cheaper, and you likely aren't getting a premium product.
Are smart rings reliable compared to fitness trackers?
Smart rings excel at sleep tracking and step count monitoring, and the former is very much an advantage over smartwatches. However, smartwatches provide more reliable data for speed, heart, rate, and laps, so if you're doing a lot of training you might want to consider something like a Garmin.
What are the disadvantages of smart rings?
Smart rings are quite expensive, and don't deliver some of the features of a smartwatch. They don't generally have displays for notifications and don't even vibrate to alert you to things. They're also a bit more fragile than smartwatches, and as noted sometimes require subscriptions to use.
