Not everyone needs a screen on their wrist. Despite the popularity of smartwatches, they can be distracting and not everyone can even comfortably fit a wearable on their wrist in the first place (screens are only getting bigger, it turns out). So what do you do if you’re worried about your heart health or your quality of sleep? You turn to a fitness ring.
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Offering a small, screen-free design and an emphasis on using all the sensors you can reasonably fit in something that slides around your finger, a fitness ring is a smart ring with all the health and fitness benefits a smartwatch offers. The difference is, it offloads displaying information on a screen to your smartphone rather than a smaller screen. It’s perfect for anyone looking for something more discreet or fashion-forward, and we’ve taken the guesswork out of deciding whether they’re right for you by collecting some of the best fitness rings around below.
The best fitness rings: Our top picks
Oura Ring Gen3 Heritage Smart Ring
1. Best overall fitness ring overall
Small tech with a big impact
The 3rd-generation Oura Ring can track all the health information your smartwatch can, in a far more compact package. You will have to commit to a monthly subscription to use it, however.
- Sleek design
- Easily digestible companion app
- Accurate sensors
The Oura Ring Gen 3 offers the best overall fitness ring experience, featuring an attractive design that can be as discrete or flashy as you’d like — Oura even partnered with Gucci for a high-fashion version — and the ability to track just about anything you’d want to know more about, including your sleep, heart rate, activity, resillience, and readiness for your next workout.
While most of the feature suite does require a monthly subscription and the battery life could improve by lasting more than a week, Oura provides comprehensive insights into your overall health and wellness without over-complicating the data. Additionally, Oura does a nice job adding new software features a few times a year, which we think makes the sensor-equipped hardware worth the investment.
Ultrahuman Ring Air
2. Best premium fitness ring
All the features without extra fees
The Ultrahuman Ring Air is plain for a fashion accessory, but its compact size and mastery of fitness ring basics without the need of an added subscription is worth considering.
- Actually ring-shaped
- No monthly subscription
- Granular data on sleep and activity
- Pricey
- Limited color options
If you’re not willing to deal with a subscription cost in addition to hardware, look to the Ultrahuman Ring Air. This ring gets you all the Oura’s basic features in a fairly similar form factor. The Ring Air currently comes in a polished “Aster” black or a matte black and manages to cram its LEDs, temperature sensor, motion sensors, and Infrared Photoplethysmography sensor (for help with blood-oxygen measurements among other things) into a completely round ring.
Inside the companion app, the Ultrahuman Ring Air offers insights into physical activity and readiness like most fitness rings, alongside other, more unique metrics. For example, Ultrahuman can tell you when you should stop having coffee for the day and still get a good night’s sleep or if certain physical activities throughout the day could affect your circadian rhythm. Beyond that, the app offers access to workout videos and can also sync with Ultrahuman’s glucose monitor. If you’re looking for more of that nitty-gritty health information without a monthly fee, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is worth considering.
RingConn Smart Ring
3. Best value fitness ring
Stress tracking features included
The RingConn Smart Ring adds stress monitoring to the typical sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, and body temperature measuring of most fitness rings.
- Comes with a charging case
- Seven days of battery life
- Budget-friendly
The RingConn Smart Ring is one of the best ways to get fitness ring features like heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and activity tracking at an affordable price. RingConn’s ring is a little larger and squarer than other options, but that’s a fair trade-off for a cheaper price and no mandatory subscription.
Along with the usual charts and graphs on sleep and heart rate variance, RingConn also promises to track stress levels, a unique health metric that’s begun trickling out to more wearables — like Fitbit’s Sense 2 smartwatch and the Pixel Watch 2 — over the last few years. If stress tracking skills aren’t a draw, the RingConn Smart Ring also ships with a charging case that can charge the ring 18 times, something none of our other top picks can claim.
SleepOn Go2Sleep Sleep Tracking Ring
4. Best fitness ring for sleep tracking
Nothing rounds out a fitness routine like good sleep
$89 $129 Save $40
The SleepOn Go2Sleep is bigger than most fitness rings and entirely focused on tracking your sleep and helping you practice healthy sleep habits.
- Budget-friendly
- Vibrations for low SpO2
- Detailed sleep tracking charts
- Kind of large
- Missing sensors
If you’re trying to better understand your sleep habits, fitness rings’ compact size makes them much easier bedtime companions than clunky smartwatches. The SleepOn Go2Sleep is specifically focused on tracking sleep, collecting the same data on your heart health and blood-oxygen levels as other wearables, but processing it through the lens of how it’ll impact your sleep.
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The device’s big, pill-shaped design isn’t the most attractive, but that bigger body hides the ability to vibrate to notify you of specific health events like low blood-oxygen levels. If you’re only interested in keeping tabs on how you sleep, the Go2Sleep is a great, affordable, and streamlined alternative to more feature-packed fitness rings.
BodiMetrics Circul Sleep & Fitness Ring
5. Best fitness ring for blood-oxygen monitoring
A rare, adjustable gem fit for your finger and the gym
The BodiMetrics Circul Sleep & Fitness Ring isn’t a looker, but it covers all the bases you’d want out of a fitness ring, including keeping tabs on your heart health and sleep.
- Continuous heart rate and SpO2 monitoring
- Adjustable sizing
- Budget-friendly
- Short battery life
- Unappealing design
The lower the price, the less a fitness ring is going to look anything like a ring. The BodiMetrics Circul Sleep & Fitness Ring might stretch credibility in terms of looks, but its adjustable size is a nice feature to have when most rings insist on elaborate sizing kits, and it costs less either way.
With the Circul, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and blood-oxygen monitoring are all a given, but unfortunately, the ring’s companion app is very bare bones in comparison to the user-friendly and readable information of Oura and Ultrahuman. You won’t find many things to learn beyond what you yourself or your doctor can interpret. Whether the lower price makes up for it is up to the individual wearer, but it’s something to keep in mind.
Circular Ring Slim
6. Best fitness ring for vibration notifications
Works as a vibrating alarm clock
The Circular Ring Slim is a smaller version of the original Circular Ring. It’s capable of health and fitness tracking and vibration-based notifications.
- Slim
- Capable activity, heart, and sleep tracking
- Fully-featured companion app
The Circular Ring Slim technically isn’t widely available yet and confusingly shares a lot of similarities with the original Circular Ring, which is now called the Circular Ring Pro. Still, the ring has some potentially attractive features worth considering if you’re willing to wait, especially at the price. Besides the expected heart health, sleep tracking, and workout features, the Circular Ring Slim can also use it’s haptic motor to act as a timer or alarm clock.
There are reasons to be cautious about the Circular Ring Slim, considering the original Circular Ring started as a crowdfunding project, and it’s not clear how many people actually bought them outside that initial backing period. Neither ring has been widely reviewed, either. What’s clear, however, is that it’s got some genuinely interesting ideas about what a fitness ring could be used for and that’s worth considering if you’re looking for a total smartwatch swap.
Movano Health Evie Ring
7. Best fitness ring for cycle tracking
Detailed monthly information, at your fingertip
The Evie Ring tracks heart rate, body temperature, and sleep, all through the lens of menstrual health.
- Unique design
- Menstrual cycle tracking
- Heart rate, SpO2, activity, and temperature tracking
- Might not be as general purpose as other rings
Movano Health’s Evie Ring is designed with a special focus on menstrual cycle tracking and overall health. In terms of sensors, it’s not doing anything radically different from other fitness rings, though it does have an eye-catching “open” design. And like the Oura Ring already does, the Evie Ring plans on using the body temperature and heart health information it collects to offer insights into user’s menstrual cycle and, eventually, menopause.
Considering smartwatches are just now trying to do any kind of period tracking, Evie makes a strong case for itself as the go-to wearable for women, or at the very least a strong alternative to the Oura Ring Gen 3. And that could be a meaningful difference for some.
The bottom line: What’s the best fitness ring?
If you’re looking for a way to stay on top of your health without having to strap a smartwatch to your wrist, it’s worthwhile to invest in a fitness ring. We think the Oura Ring Gen 3 offers the best overall experience, with an attractive design that comes in plenty of finishes, is packed with sensors, and offers easily digestible insights into your health. In-depth information requires a monthly subscription, but it’s worth it for the growing list of features Oura offers, including period predictions.
Oura Ring Gen3 Heritage Smart Ring
Editor’s Choice
Something for everyone
The 3rd-generation Oura Ring can track all the health information your smartwatch can, in a far more compact package. You will have to commit to a monthly subscription to use it, however.
The Ultrahuman Ring Air costs more but offers many of the same features without the need for a subscription. If you’re specifically interested in working out with your ring, Ultrahuman’s more granular information about sleep and activity, and in-app video workouts could make it a great pick. But if you’re looking for all the basic features, including insights into stress management, at a much more affordable price, the RingConn Smart Ring should be at the top of your list.
How did we choose the best fitness rings?
I’ve personally used multiple wearables focused on tracking your health and fitness, including the Oura Ring Gen 3. Additionally, Pocket-lint has extensively reviewed smartwatches, fitness trackers, and fitness rings, including several of our top picks. I combined what I liked best in the fitness rings I’ve worn with what features I identified as important in past reviews to come up with a method for singling out the rings featured in this guide. Specifically, that was the look of the rings, their features (what they tracked primarily), and how they feel to wear.
How do I know if a fitness ring will fit me?
In the case of rings like the Bodimetrics Circul, your ring might be re-sizable, designed to adapt to your finger. In most cases, ring manufacturers will send you a sizing kit with multiple different sized rings that you’ll then have to try on and choose from. Getting a fitness ring that’s the right size is not only good for your own personal comfort, it’s also critical to the sensors on the inside of the ring capturing accurate data, so you can get the most accurate insights.
Why should I choose a fitness ring over a fitness tracker?
First and foremost, style. Some people don’t like wearing normal watches, so a smartwatch or wrist-based fitness tracker won’t fit their personal aesthetic. Second is comfort. For sleep tracking, having a way to keep the tracker on your body the entire time you’re asleep is key to figuring out how much rest you’re getting. Most people aren’t used to wearing a watch to sleep, and it could legitimately bother light sleepers. A ring is smaller, hugs your finger closer, and is easy to keep on for longer periods of time. The goal with any kind of tracker, whether it’s a fitness ring or something else, is to keep it on your body for as long as possible. The more data it collects, the easier time it’ll have giving you insights into your health or tracking your workouts. Smaller trackers are just easier to wear.
A third benefit, is that, largely, smart rings and fitness rings are agnostic to whatever smartphone you’re using, something you can’t really say about smartwatches at this point. You can use almost all of these rings with Android and iOS without breaking a sweat. With Samsung’s Galaxy Ring on the way, that could change eventually, but for now it’s a real plus.
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