Samsung’s Galaxy Ring launch has started to get more people paying attention to this area of wearables tech, with one possible effect being a new smart ring Kickstarter that’s smashing funding records – though there are other, better reasons to pay attention to this campaign.
The RingConn Gen 2, which has raised over $1.6 million since its campaign launched at the start of the month – it’s also the fastest smart ring campaign to reach the $1 million mark and beat its previous campaign’s funding in just 36 hours (via Reddit) – is boasting some impressive upgrades over what came before.
There are the usual minor design changes with the new model featuring a sleeker form, but you’ll also find an extended battery life – now 12 days compared to a previous max of seven – as well as sleep apnea tracking (RingConn claims its new device can detect the sleep-disrupting issue with 90% accuracy).
That’s on top of all the features of the original that allow you to track sleep, activity, stress, and heart rate. Best of all, the Gen 2 Ring follows the original’s lead on affordability.
Its full-retail price is a little higher – $299 (£234 / AU$460) compared to $279 (about £219 and AU$418, though if you back the project you can pick the ring up for $209 (£164 / AU$322) – however, it’s a lot cheaper than its rivals. The Galaxy Ring, for example, will set you back $399 / £399 (around AU$750).
We usually don’t talk much about Kickstarter campaigns because they’re so unpredictable, but RingConn has a good history in the smart ring world.
We tested the company’s original smart ring, and in our four-star RingConn Smart Ring review we called it a “solid alternative to the Oura smart ring.” Sure, we noticed it lacked a little polish with a few syncing hiccups and some subpar workout tracking, but it boasts plenty of accurate data tracking, and a great five to seven-day battery life at just $279 (about £219 and AU$418, and it’s often on sale for less).
You can find cheaper smart rings, but they won’t offer anything like the performance of this gadget, making it one of the best smart rings out there from a value perspective.
So while we’ll still have to test this second-gen model out for ourselves to know its performance, RingConn has a really solid jumping-off point – and we seriously wouldn’t be surprised if the RingConn Gen 2 smart ring was in contention for the best budget smart ring of 2024 – and could even rival the Galaxy Ring.
We’ll have to see how it shapes up when RingConn Gen 2 launches in September.
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