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The best smart rings we saw at CES 2024
It's been a long time coming, but smart rings are slowly yet surely gaining mainstream popularity and interest. Take the rings unveiled at this year's CES, the tech industry's largest consumer technology convention of the year: We saw rings that track your menstrual cycle and use AI to offer relevant health insights, rings that hone in on athletic recovery data, and rings that make tracking health information more simple and efficient.
Also: CES 2024: What's next in tech
Smart rings are the future wrapped around your finger: They can track your sleep, function as a form of NFC payment, and provide by-the-minute health insights without the bulkiness and additional screen of a smartwatch. Plus, they're far more discreet than other wearables.
"Smart rings offer an opportunity to seamlessly track one's health with a small, screenless form factor," says Stacy Salvi, vice president of product and strategy at Movano Health, makers of the Evie smart ring. "Consumers want an easy way to wear a device for an extended period without having to charge daily, which is the case with many smart watches. Because there is no screen on a ring, data is viewed exclusively on an app, which has more real estate to communicate the critical metrics in an engaging and fun way while also being informative."
With all these new products unveiling and launching, 2024 is ramping up to be the year of the smart ring. And we're just getting started: The smart ring market size is expected to grow to an over $1 billion industry by 2032, according to a recent report by DataHorizzon Research. Expect more smart rings to hit the market this year and next, with larger tech brands (did we see that Samsung might be entering the smart ring race with a new Galaxy Ring?) throwing their hat in the ring -- pun intended.
Also: The best smart rings
I've rounded up the most notable smart rings on display at CES that ZDNET's team got to check out, and that are worthy of your attention this year. Some are available to buy now, and some are available for purchase later this year.
The top smart rings of CES
We've been excited about the Evie Ring since last year, when Movano unveiled its product concept at CES 2023. The Evie Ring is the first women-focused smart ring that uses the health data it tracks to offer up a holistic view of overall health and wellness -- and it just earned a 2024 CES Innovation Honoree Award.
What differentiates the Evie Ring from other smart rings on the market is its women-specific data that pairs with an AI engine to offer predictive insights into a women's menstrual health, mood, sleep, physical activity, and more. Plus, the ring includes a notable smart metric, called Daily Summary, which offers up an at-a-glance activity and recovery graphic for succinct health data visualization (so you can spend less time parsing rogue graphs together and more time digging into health solutions with tangible results).
Also: This women's smart health ring uses AI to analyze menstrual and sleep data
No additional subscription nor membership is necessary with this $269 ring. Get the smart ring in silver, gold, or rose gold. The product is expected to ship later this month.
Most smart rings come with a subscription you have to buy in addition to the already-expensive smart ring itself. The subscriptions, like the Oura Ring membership, tend to offer supplementary insights on sleep data, personalized health insights, and a glance at your health trends over time.
Like the Evie Ring, RingConn's smart ring sidesteps the subscriptions and offers you comprehensive health data without the additional cost of a subscription. At $279, RingConn's Smart Ring comes in Moonlit Silver, Midnight Black, and Pale Gold, with a titanium build and a matte finish. Along with a one-week battery life, the ring also comes with a portable charging case that can keep your ring powered for up to 150 days.
Also: RingConn takes on Oura with an impressive subscription-free smart ring
ZDNET contributing writer Matt Miller got his hands on the RingConn smart ring, and praised it for its substantial battery life and powerful smartphone app.
With Amazfit's Helio Ring, all your sleep and health data is stored in one app -- no smartwatch necessary. "When you wake up, you can put on the watch while wearing the ring -- or not -- and all of your health, wellness, and sports activity data will be synced and available in the Zepp app (formerly Amazfit) on your smartphone,"ZDNET contributing writer Matt Miller reported.
Using a smart watch and the ring together is the real deal, since a watch can better measure activities and track your exercise through GPS, while the ring can monitor your sleep and resting modes. For these reasons, the ring seems optimal for someone who's already plugged into the wearable ecosystem and looking to wear both a watch and a ring for health data tracking.
Also: One ring, one app: Amazfit's new smart ring integrates sleep and fitness data
The ring will launch with ring sizes 10 and 12, with more ring sizes and colors coming later this year.