Over the past few years, the Oura Ring has been the most popular smart ring on the market. After what I saw at CES, it’s about to get some real competition.
The smart ring is a promising form factor, but it’s hard to get it right. It is more discreet and convenient for sleep tracking than a smart watch. The underside of your finger is also a better place to measure your heart rate and blood oxygen readings than your wrist. The downside is that it is difficult to create an elegant device due to the small size and flexibility of the components. Additionally, they tend to be more expensive, with fewer features than a smartwatch.
There’s every reason I was surprised to see so many working prototypes and products at CES. I really can’t remember the last time that happened.
The closest to launch is Movano’s Evie Ring. It debuted at CES in 2022, and since then I’ve watched it evolve from a concept into an actual product that will launch later this month. It will cost $269 and is designed to be the first wearable device for women. (Although the company has told me multiple times that anyone can wear one if they want to.) It will have a streamlined app that puts data in context, while tracking health metrics like blood oxygen, heart rate, activity, and menstrual cycles. The goal is to eventually incorporate AI-powered insights. It looks beautiful and has a clever design that allows the ring to flex when your fingers are swollen.
This sounds a lot like what the Oura Ring and beyond do. Additionally, Movano is taking an additional step to obtain FDA approval for the device. Not because the built-in features require it, but because it wants to show customers how much care has gone into ensuring the accuracy of the sensors.
It’s not just Evie’s ring either. I also saw a prototype of the Amazfit Helio ring. This smart ring is geared toward athletes who want greater visibility into recovery. Once again, there’s a familiar premise like the Oura Ring also Recovery tracker. It includes daily standby and the ability to use it with other Amazfit smartwatches. Meaning, you can safely wear the smartwatch during the day and take it off when it’s time to sleep, knowing that the ring will take care of sleep tracking. Additionally, it has an EDA sensor to track stress and access to an AI chatbot.
The other thing about Amazfit: it offers wearables at an amazing budget. I’ve tested many of their devices over the years and am amazed at how many features you get for the price. For example, the $200 Amazfit GTR 4 is our current pick for best overall fitness tracker. The Helio Ring doesn’t have a price yet, but judging by all the other Amazfit products? When it arrives this spring, it will be competitively priced.
These are just the two things I find most pressing. I saw plenty of other products, some of which were more specialized or made questionable claims about health tracking. Another thing that stood out was the dhikr ring, which is a smart ring for Muslims. The ring provides five daily reminders when it is time to pray and has a digital tasbeeh counter. There was also the RingConn, another smart ring with similar features to the Oura Ring at a slightly more reasonable price. (Albeit from a less efficient company.) There were more, but at a certain point the rest started to blend together.
Smart rings certainly haven’t completely disappeared. The Motiv loop may have crashed and burned, but smaller companies like Ultrahuman and Circular have been working on fixing it for a while. Samsung is also rumored to be working on a Galaxy Ring. It’s more about seeing so many smart rings in one place hitting home that this space is gaining momentum. It is only a matter of time before the Intelligent Ring meaningfully challenges Aura’s dominance. And you know what? It’s not even a question of outdoing the Oura ring. More importantly, this space has been too quiet for too long – a little competition might be what it needs to move forward.