The Best Smart Rings & Health Trackers

Do you remember many years ago now when fitness trackers such as the Apple watch series, and the Fitbit charge watch came into existence? The ones that only had step count monitors… Well now, these appear to be a thing of the past as many are being replaced by various other types of wearable technology such as health tracking rings. OK, so health tracking rings and fitness watches aren’t exactly the same thing but they are becoming more popular with health and fitness enthusiasts.

Over the years, many different types of water-resistant wearable technology have come and gone, however, the smart rings seem to be sticking around.

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So what are health tracking rings, and what are the best smart rings available at the moment?

What Are Health Trackers?

Health tracking rings and smart rings are slightly different. A smart ring can also be used as a form of contactless payment, whereas most health tracking rings don’t have this feature. However, health tracking rings can do a plethora of things from…

• Track your sleep patterns
• Analyse how you balance rest and activity
• Stress tracking analysis
• Optimises your overall health
• Measures your heart rate
• Measures body temperature

Of course, this depends on the type of ring you go for but most will do a combination of the above. These health tracking rings are primarily there to analyse the rhythm of your body and give you an overall outlook on how you’re doing. It can tell you if your body is feeling stressed, if you had enough sleep, and even how ready your body is for exercise or the day in general.

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Unlike a fitness watch such as the Fitbit, health tracking rings don’t have a visible display on them. Instead, all the data collected can be viewed via the app on your smartphone.

The Benefits Of GPS Trackers

GPS trackers are ideal if you like to exercise outdoors – running, swimming, hiking, cycling…etc. You can track your pace, distance, time and often even the elevation of your workout. Meaning each time you go out, you can compare your time and distance to help you improve over time.

GPS trackers also mean the step count on your smart watch is likely to be more accurate. In fact, most GPS trackers are accurate to within 3 meters. Of course, GPS trackers can give out incorrect information. However, this is very unlikely and often due to poor installation, or a cheap knock-off of the real thing.

Why Choose A Smart Ring Over A Smart Watch?

Essentially, smart rings provide more accurate health information than smart watches. A smart watch, such as the Fitbit, focuses more on the fitness tracking side of things, and a smart ring focuses more on the health side of things. So, although similar in many ways, they are very different pieces of fitness technology. What you’d use your Fitbit for, isn’t necessarily what you’d use a ring for, and vice-versa.

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For example, if you wanted to track a workout or any outdoor activities in real-time, you’d use a fitness tracking watch. This is because you can see it in real-time on the face of the watch. Whereas with the smart ring, you couldn’t see it unless you had the Fitbit app open.

The ring collects data throughout the day, whereas the watch is a more instant form of data collection. Something like the Fitbit or Apple watch make great running watches, whereas you wouldn’t use a smart ring for this.

The Best Smart Rings

With so many smart rings on the market, it can be hard to know which one is the right one for you. So let’s break it down for you to make it a bit easier to decide.

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The Oura Gen 3 Ring

The Oura ring is probably the best known of all the health tracking rings. It’s earned countless 4 and 5-star reviews on tech websites across the world.

What’s great about it is that it’s not just a health tracking ring, it’s also an excellent fitness tracker as well. Analysing both health and activity to check the two are in alliance, it’s a great all-rounder. It monitors your heart rate continuously, as well as tracking blood oxygen levels and can even give you advice on how to get a better night’s sleep.

Tech-wise, the Oura ring is still the one to beat. However, the pricey $6.99 a month subscription means is not a cheap option and comes in way above the rest.

The Circular Ring

The name of this one can be quite confusing as it’s definitely more of a health tracking ring than a smart ring. However, it does come with an assistant called Kira who will try to make your life better and easier. Suggesting what to change in your daily routine, and when to put in more effort.

The specially designed hypoallergenic plastic ring contains a multitude of health tracking capabilities and unlike the Oura ring, doesn’t come with a subscription package on top of the price of the device.

The Movano Smart Ring

Yet to be released is the Movano health tracking ring. Due to be released in the latter part of 2022. Unlike the Circular and the Oura ring, the Movano ring has been designed specifically for women. It is due to come in a much slimmer design to better suit women’s smaller fingers, to make it more wearable.

However, the fact that it’s aimed towards women shouldn’t put you off as it comes with many features that put it head-to-head with the Oura ring.

Final Thoughts

So, it’s pretty slim pickings when it comes to health tracking rings available to purchase right now so don’t throw away your Fitbit, or Apple watch just yet. However, if you wait until the end of the year, possibly a little earlier, there will be some more amazing ones to choose from.

Personally, I would choose the smart watch over a smart ring as I think you can get more from a watch. However, this will differ from person to person, so it’s really down to you to decide what would work better for you and your needs. Plus, the watch comes with a variety of workout modes and even a built-in GPS to track your movements – perfect if your main reason for using it is to exercise outdoors.

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Which would you choose – a fitness watch such as a Fitbit, or an Apple watch. Or does something like an Oura ring sound more your style? Do you think buying this kind of tech means being smarter with your money – or are they a waste of money?