It doesn’t happen often, but Samsung managed to pull off an Apple-style “one more thing” announcement at its Unpacked launch event last night.
Almost everything is leaked before events like this, leaving nothing to the imagination, but the total surprise announcement was the Galaxy Ring, a new health and wellness device that you’ll wear on your finger.
Perhaps the reason Samsung has managed to avoid leaks on this device is that we know almost nothing about it. Essentially, it’s called the Galaxy Ring and it’s a smart ring similar to the Oura Ring Gen 3.
Samsung simply stated on stage: “Today, we are taking Samsung’s possibilities to the next level. By integrating Samsung Health’s cutting-edge innovations into an all-new form factor. Here we have created a powerful and accessible health and wellness device to change the shape of future health as only Samsung can.
It might not even launch this year and Samsung hasn’t even said when we’ll hear more about the device, so your guess is as good as ours. Fingers crossed this isn’t a Galaxy Home situation – Samsung announced its smart speaker in 2018 and it never came to market.
What we can do is make some assumptions about what it will be able to do, as it seems likely that Samsung is targeting competitors like the Oura, which announced in March 2022 that it had sold as many as a million of rings.
From Unpacked’s brief preview of the Galaxy Ring, we can see that the ring has multiple sensors inside. One of them has to be a heart rate sensor, which can measure your heart rate 24 hours a day.
The focus on health and wellness suggests the device will track your steps and exercises much like a smartwatch. The other sensors could measure blood oxygen and skin temperature.
If Samsung wants to match Oura’s flagship Ring, the Galaxy Ring will need to have seven days of battery life and be waterproof to 100m. The Ring Gen 3 is made partly from titanium and is available in eight sizes and a range of finishes.
Despite the focus on health, it’s also safe to assume that the Galaxy Ring will come with an NFC chip making it easier to make contactless payments or unlock your phone without needing the fingerprint sensor.
As for price, it’s impossible to say, but the Oura Ring Gen 3 costs $299, which gives a good indication if Samsung were to make the Galaxy Ring to similar specifications.
