Fitness trackers come in all shapes and sizes, with smart rings leading the way in diversifying the category from strictly wrist-based options. At PCMag, we’ve been covering smart rings since the Ringly and Kovert Designs Altruis launched roughly a decade ago, well before anyone knew the name Oura. Smart rings are obviously smaller and can thus feel more comfortable to wear day and night than a smartwatch, but the growing variety of choices can lead to confusion about which to pick. After extensive testing, the Oura Ring 4 earns our top recommendation thanks to its accurate and detailed activity, sleep, and stress tracking and its emphasis on long-term holistic health. That said, if Oura’s monthly subscription cost rubs you the wrong way, we offer several compelling alternatives below, so read on to find the best smart ring for you.
Deeper Dive: Our Top Tested Picks
EDITORS’ NOTE
Jan. 23, 2026: With this update, we removed the Ultrahuman Ring Air, which is no longer available. Our remaining picks have been vetted for currency and availability.
- Comfortable
- Informative, well-organized app
- Accurate activity and sleep data
- Personalized health guidance
- Tracks numerous workouts
- Weeklong battery life
- Expensive
- Requires a monthly fee for most features
- Fewer workout details than wrist-based trackers
In terms of accuracy, features, and the overall user experience, the Oura Ring 4 is the best smart ring we’ve tested. With its comfortable, stylish design, it accurately tracks activity, sleep, and stress. Oura’s well-organized app analyzes the collected data and provides activity, readiness, and sleep scores, along with helpful tips for improving each. Redesigned sensors from the previous generation help the Oura 4 maintain accuracy as the ring naturally rotates on your finger throughout the day and night, avoiding data gaps.
Since the Oura Ring 3, the company has continually added features, such as period predictions and pregnancy insights, as well as metrics like cardio capacity, cardiovascular age, stress resilience, and more. The Ring can track 40 different types of exercise, has a battery that lasts for over seven days on a charge, and its app provides a holistic overview of your data with a long-term outlook.
People on the go: The Oura Ring 4 tracks your holistic health from its unobtrusive spot on your finger and rarely needs charging. It lasted just over a week on a single charge in our testing, so you can travel for a long weekend and leave the case at home without worrying about battery anxiety. Because it’s so sleek and comfortable, you can wear it 24/7 without it getting in the way as it continues to monitor your wellness.
Fitness beginners: The Oura Ring 4 doesn’t offer as many details about exercise as a wrist-based wearable, but it still gets the basics right with accurate, but broad, heart rate data. It’ll also help you kickstart a new fitness routine, with its activity and readiness data showing how hard to push yourself on a given day. Long-term assessments, like cardio capacity, will let you know if you’re on the right track.
People who don’t want another screen: If you want a health tracker that eschews the distractions of yet another screen, the Oura Ring 4 fits the bill. It works on Android and iOS and runs in the background.
Display Type
N/A
Compatibility
Android, iOS
Battery Life
7.25 days (tested)
Learn More
Oura Ring 4 Review
- Affordable
- No subscription required
- 10-day battery life
- Detailed sleep tracking
- Minimal exercise tracking
- Some inaccurate heart rate readings in testing
- Slow app syncing
The RingConn Gen 2 Air Smart Ring is the most affordable smart ring we’ve tested so far, and it doesn’t charge a monthly fee for its data. It tracks calories burned, heart rate, steps, stress level, time standing, and more during waking hours, plus sleep stages, skin temperature, SpO2, and respiratory rate at night. Its sleep data, in particular, proved accurate in testing, with a level of detail similar to that of our other favorites. Its battery lasted for an impressive, class-leading 10.5 days in our testing.
People who want to avoid membership fees: If you’re looking for a competent smart ring on a budget, the RingConn Gen 2 Air Smart Ring is worth your consideration, as it’s affordable and doesn’t require a monthly fee.
First-time buyers: The RingConn Gen 2 Air is a good option for those looking to try their first smart ring, as it covers the basics at a reasonable price. It doesn’t offer the most detailed exercise tracking or AI insights, but it has enough health and sleep monitoring features to help you stay on track with your wellness-based goals.
Display Type
N/A
Compatibility
Android, iOS
Battery Life
10.5 days (tested)
Learn More
RingConn Gen 2 Air Review
- Attractive
- Lightweight and comfortable
- Good health insights
- No monthly app fee
- Long battery life
- Case holds an extra charge
- Expensive
- Some accuracy issues in testing
- Limitations with non-Samsung phones
The Galaxy Ring’s sleek concave design is the most stylish we’ve seen. It measures various aspects of activity and stress while you’re awake and then tracks your sleep and more at night, including blood oxygen, heart rate, movement, and respiration. If paired with a Samsung phone, the Galaxy Ring will also track your snoring, which is unique. Samsung’s Galaxy AI takes all of the Ring’s captured data and turns it into a holistic Energy Score and a customized wellness tip based on your stats. In our tests, the largest size lasted 6.5 days on a charge.
Samsung fans: The Galaxy Ring is best for those who have already invested in Samsung devices. It works with most Android phones, but features like snore tracking and AI health assessments are only available when it’s paired with a Samsung handset. If you’re already a Samsung fan, the Galaxy Ring will fit right in. It can work with recent Samsung watches, such as the Galaxy Watch 8, to track additional health metrics while extending the ring’s battery life.
Style gurus: If you want a smart ring that’s also a fashion statement, the Galaxy Ring has a unique, elegant look that will work with many outfits. The smooth, simple Galaxy Ring has a slightly concave outer surface. It looks sleek at a glance and feels lightweight and comfortable to wear.
Display Type
None
Compatibility
Android
Battery Life
6 days
Learn More
Samsung Galaxy Ring Review
Get Our Best Stories!
All the Latest Tech, Tested by Our Experts
By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy
Policy.
Thanks for signing up!
Your subscription has been confirmed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
Buying Guide: The Best Smart Rings for 2026
What Is a Smart Ring?
At a glance, a smart ring looks like a simple piece of jewelry. Remove the ring, and you’ll see the telltale signs that the metallic band has more going on than a sense of style. Most smart rings have red and green LED sensors that are visible on the inner band. Other than the blinking lights, the sensors take different physical forms.
Sensors on the Galaxy Ring (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
Most have sensor bumps that jut out slightly from the interior. These tiny bumps against your finger can help rings calibrate the signals from their sensors. While they might sound uncomfortable, the bumps are generally small enough that you won’t notice them.
These sensors measure a wide variety of health-related metrics. Variation exists from model to model, but most smart rings track blood oxygen, heart rate, respiration, and skin temperature. They generally have some form of accelerometer built in to calculate movement. The heart rate sensors can also usually calculate heart rate variability (HRV), a measure of your nervous system activity and an indicator of stress and recovery.
From these measurements, smart rings can track general activity, exercise, sleep, and stress. None have a display, so you’ll need to check collected data in the associated app, where most smart rings also offer charts to track each category over time, as well as assessments of each metric and recommendations to improve your health.
Oura app (Credit: Oura/PCMag)
Aside from the discontinued Amazon Echo Loop, we’ve yet to test a smart ring that vibrates or does anything else to send you an alert using the actual hardware. They’re meant to be unobtrusive measuring devices, collecting info quietly in the background. That said, most can send notifications to your phone through the app if you allow them, letting the ring tell you of an abnormal heart rate or low battery, depending on the app.
While the form factor looks the part of ordinary jewelry, in terms of function, they’re quite similar to wrist-based fitness trackers. Smart rings are wearables meant to help you track your health over time.
Smart Rings vs. Smartwatches
Given that smart rings serve a similar function as wrist-based wearables like fitness trackers and smartwatches, you might wonder which form works best for you. Each has pros and cons, of course, and you can always get both.
Smart Rings: 3 Reasons to Buy One, 3 Reasons to Think Twice
Generally speaking, wrist-based trackers are better than smart rings at measuring exercise. And if you’re trying to check your heart rate or elapsed time during a run, having a device with a screen is more convenient than a ring, which makes you pull out your phone and open the relevant app. A built-in screen also enables wrist-based trackers to offer extra niceties that aren’t available on smart rings, such as apps, games, and lifestyle features like texting and mobile payments.
On the other hand, smart rings are smaller, lighter, and less obtrusive. Since they don’t have a screen, they won’t do anything to bother you during the day unless you look at your phone as well. While most smartwatches and fitness trackers look high-tech, smart rings can blend into your outfit for a night on the town, allowing you to break out your favorite analog watch without missing out on your health data for the evening.
The small form factor also has its advantages when tracking sleep. You don’t have to worry about turning on a sleep mode or stopping a screen from illuminating. It’s also more comfortable to wear for extended periods of time than a wrist-based wearable, especially during sleep.
Sleep tracking in the RingConn app (Credit: RingConn/PCMag)
Battery life is generally better on smart rings than on fitness trackers, and much better when comparing rings to smartwatches. All of our favorite smart rings last five to seven days on a charge. Our favorite fitness tracker, the Fitbit Charge 6, lasted 4.5 days in testing with the always-on display mode disabled. All of our favorite flagship smartwatches last just over a single day on a charge.
Recommended by Our Editors
Between the comfort level and the longer battery life, smart rings are better than wrist-based trackers at holistic health tracking by measuring similar criteria with fewer gaps in data. Simply put, since you’ll be wearing the device more often (and removing it less often for charging), it will gather a more complete picture of your data.
Smart Ring Sizing: How to Find Your Fit
When ordering a smart ring, you can get a sizing kit from the company in advance. These kits include plastic bands in all available sizes, so you can try them on and find the one that fits best. Most companies advise wearing the trial ring for a day or two to confirm that it fits and feels comfortable before ordering a ring in that size.
Oura’s sizing kit (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
If you make the purchase, expect the sizing kit to be free, or essentially free. Samsung charges $10 to order its sizing kit, for example, but then discounts the purchase of the ring by $10.
Smart Ring Prices and Compatibility
Other than the Samsung Galaxy Ring, all of our favorite smart rings work with both Android and iOS phones. The Galaxy Ring is Android-only, and you really need a Samsung phone to get the most out of it. For the others, you’ll get the same experience regardless of your phone brand.
Samsung Galaxy Ring (Credit: Andrew Gebhart)
The price range for smart rings is relatively narrow. The RingConn Gen 2 Air Smart Ring is the most affordable at $199, and the Samsung Galaxy Ring is the most expensive at $399. The Oura Ring 4 sits in the middle at $349. The Oura is the only model on this list that requires a fee ($5.99 per month or $69.99 per year) for access to your health stats.
