Sure, sleep apps could help improve your sleeping habits, but potentially a more enjoyable (and accurate) way to track progress is through a wearable. And not just any wearable, but one that is so thin, it seamlessly blends in with your day-to-day. Enter: the smart ring. Appearing as a regular ring, they are actually filled with sensors and technology that make tracking your steps, sleep, heart rate, body temperature, and other vitals super easy.
Personally, I’ve worn an Oura Ring for close to two years and constantly forget I’m even wearing one. I’ve worn it while working out, showering, dancing, sleeping, and flying — it’s been one of my best health decisions over the years.
Smart rings come packed with hyper-specific data that can inform your rest and recovery regimens — great for athletes and the average person looking to improve their routines. Plus, smart rings are far less bulky and discreet than smartwatches and bulkier fitness trackers. Smart rings also don’t need to be charged daily, extending your access to daily statistics without interruption.
If you’re in the market to make the most optimal health choices in 2025, the smart ring is the way to go. Ahead, the top four smart rings to invest in this year.
RingConn Gen 2 ($299)
Comfortability is king when it comes to smart rings. You want it to be secure on the finger but not so tight that you have trouble removing it. Like many other ring manufacturers, RingConn offers a free sizing kit to test the size before you make your final purchase. This ensures you’ll receive your perfect fit. The wearable is available in silver, black, and gold and has a seven-day battery life. The best thing about RingConn is the free access to all your metrics — heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep, stress, and activity tracking — sans a subscription.
Oura Ring 4 ($349-$499)
The Oura Ring is one of the most popular fitness rings on the market. The Finnish brand offers six different colors and various sizes for any type of user. The Oura Ring 4 has been on the market for less than four months and has already won a lot of hearts. Some of it’s best features include: improved sensor technology for more accurate data capture, skin temperature sensors that can detect when you’re sick or drinking alcohol, resilient scores to see how you bounce back from intense workouts, menstrual cycle insights, meal logging, and cardiovascular age that helps you see how old or young your heart is.
Among all this, Oura is best known for its exceptional sleep tracking. Surpassing FitBit and other smart rings, it displays your HRV balance, temperature changes while sleeping, blood oxygen levels, and the duration of each sleep stage. From a fitness standpoint, like the other generations, as Oura Ring 4 gets to know your habits, it will detect which activities you perform (running, swimming, tennis, or others) without you having to log it immediately. Although it has incredible features, you’ll want to consider the monthly subscription that’s attached to an Oura Ring. The $6 membership allows you to access the accompanying app that displays all your vitals, but might not be the friendliest for your budget. You can read our review of the Oura Ring 3 for comparison.
Ultrahuman Ring Air ($349)
The Ultrahuman Ring Air is quite possibly the best ring for fitness enthusiasts. Although you need to manually record workouts before starting, the ring will notify you during or after an activity with tips on how to maintain your energy level or how best to recover (like reminding you to stretch your legs to relieve tension from your morning run). The app component also offers AI insights into the health information of the food you eat — great for those that are either training for a marathon, big sports event, or looking to achieve major goals this year.
The app also has a discover tab where you can find guided workouts like HIIT, yoga, Pilates, and more. Like Oura, you can sync all your data to other workout apps like Strava to keep all your activities in one place. Fans of Ultrahuman also praise the material of the ring, deeming it tarnish- and scratch-free. And as an added bonus, this one is not subscription-based either.
Samsung Galaxy Ring ($400)
Leave it to tech giant Samsung to create one of the most innovative smart rings out there, the Galaxy Ring. The ring comes in three different finishes: gold, silver, or black. Like all the rings on the list, it does a phenomenal job at sleep and activity tracking, but really wins with its AI-driven algorithm that helps determine lifestyle patterns like a snoring analysis, respiratory rate tracking, and more.
Potentially its one drawback, the Galaxy is only compatible with Androids. However, this is a major pro for Android users as you can see all data collected in the master Samsung Health app. You can also record workouts on a Samsung Galaxy smartwatch or log sleep on the smart ring and see all your data stored together in the parent app. Lastly, the ring also comes in a pretty, clear charging case that has an LED displaying how much battery life is left.
Natasha Marsh (she/her) is a freelance writer who writes about fashion, beauty, and lifestyle. Prior to freelancing, she held styling staff positions at The Wall Street Journal, Burberry, Cosmopolitan, British GQ, and Harper’s Bazaar.
