• The RingConn Gen3 is now available for pre-order
• It boasts new features including 'Vascular Health Insights, blood pressure and vibration alerts
• At present, vibration alerts are only keyed to health events and reminders, rather than phone notifications

The RingConn Gen 3 is now available for pre-order, and it boasts a range of upgrades and improvements over the RingConn Gen 2. Our reviewer called the slimmer RingConn Gen 2 Air the "perfect entry-level smart ring" and it made our best smart rings list. Clearly RingConn is already doing something right.

While the new model is slightly thicker, it's got a bunch of new features, notably Vascular Health Insights and Smart Vibration Alerts. Vascular Health Insights is RingConn's name for looking at your data longer-term, with the feature said to 'push the ring beyond simple logging and more toward long-term pattern interpretation,' according to the RingConn website. It's 'designed to help users understand broader cardiovascular trends over time'.

RingConn stresses it's turning heart health signals into actionable insight, but at the moment it's unclear how that differs to similar features from Oura and Samsung Health.

Blood pressure monitoring is also on the cards, although RingConn is carefully not framing the ring as a replacement for a blood pressure cuff, as is the case with the best Apple Watches' Hypertension feature. Instead, it's designed as advisory or an estimate only.

Haptic feedback

RingConn's Smart Vibration Alerts are interesting: it's a feature not currently used by the top smart rings like the Oura Ring 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Instead, it represents smart rings adopting an element of interactivity rather than remaining focused, quiet wearables for data collection.

However, rather than get into alerting you to phone notifications, the RingConn Gen 3's Smart Vibration Alerts are only for health events, with the press release stating that 'Gen 3 is not trying to become a noisy mini-smartwatch'.

'The vibration feature is health-first, not message-first. That keeps the ring aligned with what people actually want from this category: helpful guidance without constant distraction.' Presumably, those health events include features similar to the best smartwatches, alerting the user to unusually high or low heart rates. The vibration feature can be toggled on or off.

A solid foundation

The RingConn Gen 3 builds on the Gen 2's solid foundation, with sleep apnea detection, menstrual cycle tracking, and an improved battery life (up to 11 days with vibration on, or 14 with vibration off).

It packs all the usual measuring of wellness metrics such as stress, heart rate variability, blood oxygen, sleep tracking, steps, calories and more. Stay tuned for our full review, and you can preorder the RingConn Gen 3 here for $386 (around £285 / AU$535).

• Ultrahuman may be about to release a new Ring Pro wearable
• That’s hinted at by fresh paperwork filed with the FCC
• It suggests Ultrahuman has worked a way around its past patent woes

Late last year, Ultrahuman’s best smart rings were banned from the US as part of the fallout from a patent dispute with Oura. At the time, Ultrahuman said that “A new ring design is already in development” – and a newly published regulatory filing suggests that this product is almost upon us.

As reported by Gadgets & Wearables, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro has just been revealed in paperwork filed with the FCC in the US. The filing lists several specifications of the new device and suggests that Ultrahuman has made changes to avoid infringing the patents that got its previous products banned in the first place.

According to the regulatory filing, the Ultrahuman Ring Pro will sport multiple colors and finishes, including Pro Raw Titanium, Pro Matte Gray, Pro Silver, Pro Gold and Pro Aster Black. There are options ranging from ring sizes five to 14, and its internal diameter extends up to 24.91mm across.

The Ultrahuman Ring Pro utilizes Bluetooth Low Energy and contains a 2450 MHz chip antenna. There doesn’t appear to be any mention of NFC functionality, although that doesn’t necessarily rule out this feature, as it might have been disabled for testing.

The fact that Ultrahuman is seemingly back with a new device suggests that it has found a way around the patent dispute that led to its previous troubles. That’s hinted at by the fact that Ultrahuman has also submitted filings for a new charger for the Ring Pro, with the new design implying that the company has worked out a new internal design that does not infringe upon Oura’s patents.

An imminent return

As soon as its rings were banned from import into the US, Ultrahuman reassured its users that it would be back with a new product. That appears to be the Ring Pro, which the filing suggests was tested in November 2025 and manufactured a month later. Considering the ban came into effect in October, that’s a fast turnaround for this new product.

At the time of the ban, Ultrahuman also raised the possibility of creating a ‘Made in USA’ version of its Ring Air that could be manufactured in Texas. There’s no indication that this is underway yet, so we’ll have to wait for more news on that front.

Now that the Ultrahuman Ring Pro has filed its paperwork with the FCC, it has cleared the last regulatory hurdle for entering the US market. While we don’t yet have a solid release date, we probably won’t have to wait too long to see Ultrahuman announce the Ring Pro. Gadgets & Wearables points out that the filing’s confidentiality clause expires in May, suggesting that the Ring Pro should launch before then.

When that happens, it should enable Ultrahuman to put its patent woes behind it. That should give more certainty to fans of the brand who have been waiting for news on the company’s future offerings for several months now.

So farewell, 2025 – you were frequently exciting, regularly chaotic, occasionally frustrating but always interesting. And that’s how we like it around here.

It was a year in which often fairly iterative improvements to hardware were overshadowed by rapid and significant advances on the computing side of things. I’m talking, of course, about AI, which is now so dominant within the tech world that it’s increasingly hard to find a device that doesn’t have an AI brain.

Not that I’m complaining, because the leaps made in 2025 by the likes of OpenAI’s Sora and Google’s Gemini were truly astonishing; the pace of change is such that it feels like we’re squeezing about a decade’s worth of advances into each year now, and I wouldn’t like to predict what the state of play will be in 12 months’ time. Well, other than to say that we’ll be taking for granted things which seem almost impossible right now – although as our AI Editor Graham Barlow notes below, maybe we’re already doing that.

In comparison, it often looked in 2025 as though things were slowing down on the hardware side. Could Apple really make its already-excellent MacBooks much better? Could Samsung improve much on the superb Galaxy S series? Was there much scope for OLED TVs or wireless headphones or mirrorless cameras to develop?

The answer was yes, yes and yes. Though the upgrades to many models may not have been as big as those on the software side, they were frequently excellent in their own right. The improvements to battery life, screen tech and camera lenses may not be as flashy as those on the AI front, but they can make a real difference to how we use our devices on a daily basis. In many ways, tech fans have never had it so good.

Whether that will continue in 2026 remains to be seen. AI now looks to be having a direct – and negative – effect on component prices, which could make your favorite new phone or laptop more expensive in the coming year. We might also see stock shortages in some areas, which could further inflate those price tags.

It looks like we’re set for another year of exciting, chaotic, frustrating and interesting news, then – and we’ll be here with you every step of the way. Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading TechRadar in 2025, and have a happy New Year!

My year in tech

I bent reality, but I failed to bend an iPhone

This year was marked by astonishing leaps in AI capabilities, which I tried to not only report on but experience in full. From my first experience with ‘vibe coding’ to wild leaps of fancy with Veo 3 (and later the Sora app) to creating my own digital double, AI’s fast-changing capabilities constantly amazed me.

Never in four decades of covering emerging technologies have I seen anything like it: AI’s rise continues to be a heady mixture of enthusiastic adoption tinged with white-knuckled fear about what it all means for jobs, and for humanity, and nothing we saw in 2025 did much to resolve that anxiety.

However, it was my conversations with those leading the AI and wider innovation charge that stood out. My interviews with Amazon’s Panos Panay about Alexa+ and Google’s Sameer Samat about the future of Android were particularly memorable, as was the moment when one of Apple’s top executives threw his brand-new iPhone Air to me during a video podcast and insisted that I try to bend it.

The rise of humanoid robots was a trend that shocked and pleased me in equal measure, though I’ve tried to temper my enthusiasm with the knowledge that clever marketing and eye-popping videos will only get us so far. We all want the ultimate home robot, but I still don't think many of us are willing to pay $20,000 to get it.

Away from all the AI and robots, I spent much of the year trying new phones, including redesigned iPhones and an incredibly thin folding Samsung phone, along with a wide range of wearable technology that included the Galaxy XR headset, and some very exciting AR glasses from Meta and Google’s Android XR group. Experiencing these felt like peering into our near technological future, which increasingly will be filled with on-demand AI, flexible phones, and maybe those robots.

The year in AI

This was the year we started taking AI for granted 

For all the talk of breakthroughs and hype, 2025 felt less like the year AI changed everything and more like the year it quietly became unavoidable. While the much-hyped arrival of super-powerful artificial general intelligence (AGI), predicted for 2025 by many, simply hasn’t materialized, the year has still been a strong one for companies such as OpenAI, xAI, Anthropic, and Google. That said, there have also been some massive flops; and as for Apple, it feels like yet another year in which it slipped further behind in the AI race.

ChatGPT maintained its vice-like grip as the most popular AI chatbot in the world, though it hasn’t been plain sailing for OpenAI. Legal challenges, particularly the copyright infringement claim brought by The New York Times, have continued to dog the company, and in June its servers crashed for a couple of days, giving the world a brief taste of life without the ubiquitous chatbot.

OpenAI then fumbled the ball with the release of its GPT-5 model, which came across as cold and unemotional compared to the previous GPT-4o. For millions of users who’d come to rely on the chatbot as something closer to a trusted companion it felt like a best friend had undergone a personality transplant overnight, forcing OpenAI to make the legacy 4o model available again.

The company has also lost a little ground to Google’s Gemini in recent months. The arrival of Gemini 3 Pro in November was well received, and on the image front, Gemini’s Nano Banana and Nano Banana Pro proved superior to ChatGPT for image generation. OpenAI responded with a new image-generation model in December.

AI-powered pets and toys also began to appear this year. We took Moflin for a spin, until we accidentally fried its battery. More broadly, the dominant theme of the year was that every product must now have AI built into it in some form, and no company exemplifies this approach better than Microsoft, which has spent the year enthusiastically stuffing Copilot into just about everything it makes.

Finally, the year looks set to end on a high note for Amazon. Alexa+, the AI-powered version of Alexa that Amazon has been promising all year but hasn’t yet managed to fully roll out, may finally be getting a web version, at least in the US.

THE YEAR IN PHONES

Slim pickings for thin phones, and hints of a tri-fold future

2025 was the year of the super-thin phone, writes Roland Moore-Colyer, Managing Editor, Mobile Computing, with the release of the Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge in the first half of the year, and the iPhone Air in the second. These handsets grabbed headlines with their svelte proportions, but so far sales figures have yet to match the hype.

That’s likely due to their relatively high prices in the face of already pretty slim iPhones and Galaxy and Pixel handsets, all of which saw the expected yearly upgrades with the iPhone 17, Galaxy S25 and Pixel 10 lines respectively. While the upgrades to the iPhone 17 family appeared incremental at first glance, I'd argue they're a bigger deal when you dig into the details: there was a new design and cooling system for the Pro phones, the standard model finally got a 120Hz display, and Apple's 48MP 'Fusion' camera came to every iPhone in the lineup, including the Air (the Plus model went the way of the dodo).

AI found its way into more phones and more features, with Google’s Pixel phones in particular boasting a whole host of genuinely useful smart tools. Meanwhile, Apple just about managed to distract us from the shortcomings of Apple Intelligence with its flashy Liquid Glass design and the eye-catching Cosmic Orange iPhone 17 Pro.

Some of the most interesting phones came from smaller brands, with the Nothing Phone 3 offering something a little different without scrimping on flagship features. There was the Oppo Find X9 Pro with its strange but useful camera kit, while the OnePlus 15 was the only phone to earn a maximum five-star review from us this year. There were also a clutch of affordable phones from the likes of Motorola and Xiaomi, proving that you don’t have to pay a lot to get a very capable smartphone these days.

We saw further evolution in the folding phone space, with the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 7 leading the way, and Samsung also unveiled its first tri-folding phone, with the Galaxy Trifold joining Huawei's Mate XT, and teasing a future of devices that truly blend phones and tablets. We may even see a foldable iPhone in 2026, but don’t hold your breath.

THE YEAR IN COMPUTING

RAM drama enlivens a year of evolution over revolution

When it came to computing, 2025 didn't start off as the most promising year. While 2024 felt like a year of revolutionary change, with the explosive growth of AI, the fall of Intel, and the rise of Arm-based laptops that were actually worth buying, this year has felt more like we're in a holding pattern, as the innovations of the past few years are iterated on and refined.

The year kicked off with Nvidia launching its latest generation of consumer graphics cards, the RTX 5000 series, at CES 2025, and they encapsulated the ‘evolution, not revolution’ theme, with some great new features that haven't fundamentally shaken up the industry, as the introduction of ray tracing with the RTX 2000 series did. Of course, making a great product even better is no bad thing, and our components editor and GPU expert John Loeffler was suitably impressed, enthusing in his RTX 5090 review that “If you're a gamer, you'll still get impressive gen-on-gen performance improvements over the celebrated RTX 4090, and the Nvidia RTX 5090 is really the first consumer graphics card I've tested that can get you consistent, high-frame-rate 8K gameplay.”

I have an RTX 5090 and I love it, and I've also been impressed by its 8K performance in modern games, but with the majority of PC gamers still playing at 1080p, this high-end GPU might be a bit too expensive to justify. Other releases from AMD and Intel, plus Apple’s latest M5 chip, continued the theme of impressive releases that don’t massively change the computing landscape.

Perhaps the biggest event in 2025 was the continued rise of AI. Recently, the AI boom has led to a global shortage of memory, which has in turn caused an increase in the prices of devices that use it. All of a sudden, PCs, RAM, and GPUs look set to get increasingly expensive, though some, like our computing editor Christian Guyton, aren’t too worried – yet. Personally, the end-of-year drama is making me nostalgic for those early months when 2025 felt rather boring.

THE YEAR IN TVS

The era of giant, cheap TVs is here

This year saw two really interesting developments in TV technology, with the first being the arrival of a whole new kind of ‘Tandem RGB’ OLED TV panel from LG. This appeared in the LG G5, helping it to score the maximum five stars in our review, and in the fantastic Panasonic Z95B, enabling both TVs to hit stunning levels of brightness and color depth, but with reduced power consumption.

However, this new screen technology didn’t win either of those sets our TV of the Year award – that went to the Samsung S95F, which not only earned its own perfect 5-star review, but was also voted the top TV in the most categories by the judges in our flagship OLED TV showdown, which pitted it against the LG G5, Panasonic Z95B, and Sony Bravia 8 II.

The second big tech development was the arrival of RGB mini-LED tech – and, make no mistake, this is the next big thing. It’s more efficient than current mini-LED tech, and is capable of richer colors and less light leakage from bright areas to dark ones, and it could be the tech to finally knock OLED off its perch.

We know that Samsung, LG, TCL and Hisense will all launch RGB mini-LED TV ranges in 2026, but the Hisense UX116 was the only TV to use it in 2025 – and it was a mixed bag, with performance issues that disappointed given its eye-wateringly high price. Still, we’re excited to see how this tech develops.

But the biggest thing in TVs this year was the TVs themselves – as in, they got big and they got affordable. TCL and Hisense launched 85-inch and 100-inch TVs that were within the budgets of regular mortals, and 75-inch TVs are becoming positively cheap, while still being good. While new tech is exciting, huge TVs like the Hisense U8N and TCL QM7K becoming more affordable is the change that made the biggest difference for customers.

THE YEAR IN VR/AR

Android XR arrives to challenge Meta’s dominance

This year XR or 'extended reality' took center stage, thanks in large part to Android XR hardware finally breaking cover in the shape of the Samsung Galaxy XR headset. We also tested prototype Android XR glasses ahead of their expected release in the coming year, and they’re impressive (the glasses at least, the headset less so right now). Google, along with its Android partners, looks set to seriously challenge Meta in 2026.

For its part Meta debuted several new smart wearables over the past 12 months, including two pairs of Oakley smart glasses – the stylish HSTNs and the sporty Vanguards, the latter of which are perfect for runners when used with a compatible Garmin watch. We also saw a Gen 2 model of the Meta Ray-Bans, and the company's latest step towards full-on AR specs, the Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, which as you can probably guess feature a display for the specs to relay info visually. We’ve tested them, and they’re everything Google Glass wanted to be, but right now they're not easy to get hold of.

What about VR headsets proper? Valve surprised no one (because the device was so heavily leaked before launch) with its Steam Frame headset announcement. Key details like the price are still a mystery, but it will be landing in 2026 – and when it does, the spec sheet teases a device that could seriously challenge the reigning champion of VR, the Meta Quest 3. Depending on how Valve handles the launch, I wouldn’t be surprised if it makes all other headsets feel obsolete – even the Galaxy XR and Apple Vision Pro.

Talking of Apple's mixed-reality spatial-computing headset, we got a new version with an M5 chip and comfier strap, but while it's a worthwhile upgrade the price still feels too high.

THE YEAR IN AUDIO

The year the big dogs bit back

If 2024 was the year niche UK hi-fi brands took over the dance floor amid a hiatus from audio's heavy hitters (see Bowers & Wilkins' fantastic Pi8 earbuds or Cambridge Audio's inaugural, affordable, adorable P100 cans), 2025 was the year the big dogs returned to the party and got their groove back.

We got five major headphones releases in 2025, starting with the Beats Powerbeats Pro 2 earbuds in February. The hotly anticipated update to the 2019 Powerbeats Pro proved that Apple could indeed deliver heart-rate monitoring in its earbuds.

Cut to May and Sony's WH-1000XM6 landed, to finally knock the 2020-issue WH-1000XM4 off the top spot in our best headphones guide. It was a similar story with the June arrival of the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen), quickly followed by the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones (2nd Gen) in September – a two-pronged attack on the market that saw Bose reinstated as the king of ANC.

However, this roundup wouldn't be complete without a nod to the biggest launch of them all: the fall arrival of Apple's AirPods Pro 3. The shape's different, the ANC is twice as good, and yes, like the Powerbeats Pro 2 they also keep tabs on your ticker, in a slightly different way, and with increasing third-party fitness-app support. Still the most popular earbuds in the world? Absolutely.

Elsewhere, Spotify Lossless finally landed, at no cost to Premium subscribers, offering almost-as-good-as-Apple-Music resolution at up to 24-bit/44.1kHz. While Lossless wasn't a huge hit with fans initially, the big green streaming machine's popularity continues to grow, despite concerns over artist payments.

Oh, and if you take note of just one audio brand name this year, let it be WiiM. As Sonos continues to tackle trust issues among its once-loyal fanbase, the plucky multi-room underdog unveiled its WiiM Sound (and now the WiiM Sound Lite) premium hi-res speakers – and the firm would love to help you build your wireless sound system around them.

THE YEAR IN CAMERAS

A memorable year for glass as well as for cameras

2025 was full of pleasant surprises for photographers. The Sigma BF was truly out of the ordinary, being dubbed ‘the camera Apple would have made’, while the Caira with its Nano Banana AI skills showed us a glimpse of how on-the-go generative editing can work in an actual camera.

Fujifilm and OM System showed us that user experience matters with the quirky X half and retro OM-3 respectively, while Hasselblad and Nikon delivered strong offerings of their own – my favorite stills camera ever, the X2D II, and a new player in the cinema-camera game, the Nikon Zr. A special shoutout goes to Nikon for becoming the best-value camera brand this year, notably for the excellent Z5 II, which is our Camera of the Year, and Z50 II.

It was arguably an even better year for new lenses than cameras, with Sigma, Sony and Viltrox in particular knocking it out the park with world-first and affordable optics. Canon continues to lock out third parties from its full-frame camera lineup, but that decision feels more justified after it launched the affordable and capable 45mm F1.2 STM prime.

A sense of order was restored towards the end of the year when Canon and Sony launched their anticipated mid-range full-frame cameras: the EOS R6 III and A7 V, both of which are integral to their lineups.

The long-threatened US ban on DJI products finally came into effect, and we saw a couple of major product launches from the brand in the build-up to it: the incredible (sort of) sub-250g Mini 5 Pro, and the DJI Osmo 360 – its first foray into 360 cameras, and rival to both the Insta 360 X5 and GoPro’s new Max 2. DJI is also being tipped to launch its first 360 drone soon, but Insta360 got there first with the truly innovative Antigravity A1.

Overall, it’s been a good year for camera fans, with demand seemingly remaining strong in the face of competition from increasingly capable smartphones. I’m predicting that the consumer and cinema camera spaces will continue converging in 2026, and I hope the likes of Viltrox expand our options with new and affordable autofocus zoom lenses.

The year in gaming

The Switch 2 makes waves, and GTA 6 looms over 2026

Gaming in 2025 was largely dominated by the arrival of the Nintendo Switch 2. It’s a safe improvement on the original Switch, and one that epitomizes the ‘evolution not revolution’ approach to console development.

The specs sheet won’t blow anyone’s socks off, but it’s a superb package that cements the Switch's position as the go-to handheld console; and it was so popular in the pre-order and launch phases that it took months for retailers to catch up with demand. It’s been backed up by some excellent games too, including Mario Kart World, Donkey Kong Bananza, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond, Kirby Air Riders, and Pokémon Legends Z-A.

Sony had its own say in the gaming handheld space, breathing new life into the PlayStation Portal handheld device, which is now capable of excellent cloud streaming. This has elevated the handheld, which we were already big fans of, to impressive new heights.

The PS5’s game library got a bump with Death Stranding 2: On the Beach and Ghost of Yotei, as well as titles including Borderlands 4, Battlefield 6, Arc Raiders and TechRadar Gaming’s Game of the Year, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Elsewhere, indie games ruled, with the likes of Blue Prince, Hades 2, and Hollow Knight: Silksong proving standouts in a strong year for releases.

It’s been a year to forget for Xbox, however, and its woes only accentuated the aforementioned successes for Nintendo and Sony. For starters, more Xbox games – including Gears of War: Reloaded – arrived on PS5, while others are set to follow, including the symbol of Xbox itself, Halo. Meanwhile studios were shuttered and prospective games cancelled, and to make matters worse the Xbox X/S were outsold by a tiny family console, the Nex Playground, over Black Friday. All in all it’s been tough going for Team Green.

As for 2026, it’s beginning to feel like the pace of progress towards next-gen consoles will quicken, and the game release calendar looks well stocked. However, a titan looms: Grand Theft Auto 6 is now slated for release in November after being originally planned for late 2025, and the whole gaming world is going to revolve around its arrival.

THE YEAR IN FITNESS

Time’s finally up for wasteful wearables, thanks to Google

Last year, I ended my contribution to this round-up by predicting a move away from fitness watches towards screenless trackers, such as a new WHOOP model, writes Matt Evans, Senior Editor, Fitness, Wellness & Wearables. Well, we got not one, but two new WHOOPs, and they were… fine. But, as prices rose, I found the ongoing subscription model far too expensive.

However, my prediction that we’d move away from smartwatches hasn’t really been borne out. Wearable tech isn’t changing much in the mainstream, with the highest-profile releases being a slate of new watches from Garmin, Apple, Samsung, Google and OnePlus, and they’ve been as popular as ever.

Look beyond those big releases, however, and interesting new stuff is out there. A subscription-free WHOOP competitor band was launched by Polar, while Core Devices, the resurrected Pebble watch company led by its original founder, unveiled a pair of watches inspired by the original Pebble designs, complete with low-power LCD-style screens, and open-source software that anyone with the know-how can tinker with.

Core Devices also launched a new kind of smart ring with a button and a microphone, which the company says acts as “external memory for the brain”. Elsewhere, the AirPods Pro 3 now have built-in heart rate sensors, and Meta teamed up with Garmin to bring us the Oakley Meta Vanguard sports specs. Cool new wearable innovations are happening, but it all still feels quite fringe.

My innovation of the year, however, came from Google. The Google Pixel Watch 4 is the first properly repairable smartwatch, as you’re able to take it apart and replace the battery and display. This enables you to change individual parts rather than the whole watch, reducing your contribution to e-waste, and saving you money in the long run.

Almost every other piece of wearable tech from every other company is still a sealed unit that will ultimately end up being disposed of, and I hope Google's move could be the catalyst for change that the wasteful wearable tech industry sorely needs.

THE YEAR IN ENTERTAINMENT

Streaming sensations, box-office flops, and merger madness

The biggest story of 2025 broke late in the year, and it concerned off-screen studio machinations rather than on-screen drama. Netflix’s $82.7bn bid for Warner Bros. sent shockwaves through the industry when it was announced in early December, and provoked a counter-bid from Paramount Skydance. There’s still a long way to go before a deal is approved, but should Netflix acquire one of the film world’s most iconic studios it would be a landmark moment for the streaming sector, and would represent a seismic shift for the entertainment industry as a whole.

Turning to the year's big theatrical releases, and numerous new movies flopped at the box office, including some with huge names attached (I’m looking at you, Dwayne Johnson and The Smashing Machine). Heck, with Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps all underperforming, even the usually reliable Marvel Studios didn’t have a money-spinning hit on its hands. I wonder how many people predicted that animated and live-action/CGI hybrids would rule the theatrical roost, led by multi-billion dollar-spinning flicks like Lilo & Stitch, Zootopia 2, and Ne Zha II…

As for the major streaming services, users endured more of the now-customary annual price hikes, while Max raised eyebrows by rebranding itself – again – to HBO Max. On the screen, unexpected hits such as HBO medical drama The Pitt, plus Netflix's ‘one-shot’ drama Adolescence and pop-culture phenomenon Kpop Demon Hunters, proved that not even the savviest industry exec can really be sure what viewers will latch onto. Add in the return of unmissable shows including Severance and Stranger Things amid the glut of great and not-so-great film and TV releases, and there was plenty to keep our eyeballs engaged. Now, what have you got in store for us, 2026?

The Year in Smart Home

If the subscriptions don't get you, the fridge ads will

It's been a slow but not insignificant year in home technology as legacy brands scramble to keep pace with bigger, already tech-savvy players vying for their spot in our homes – whether that's Breville reinventing the toaster with a proprietary optical sensor, IKEA launching new renewable energy solutions, or Eufy and Dreame duking it out to give us the most effective stair-climbing robot vacuum.

Some brands were less innovative than others though. Dyson left some of us feeling snubbed with its 'new' (read: decade-old) vacuum, while Shark's TurboBlade Cool + Heat failed to impress despite its noble attempt at mimicking other SharkNinja product's viral fame.

Elsewhere we saw big plays from Amazon and Google in the smart home space, with the arrival of their AI-bolstered home assistants. Amazon's Alexa+ and Google's Gemini for Home both entered Early Access beta in the US, and while the early reviews for both have been mixed, it's a promising glimpse into the future of the connected home.

Both of those services are subscription-based offerings, and subscriptions look set to become a major battleground for smart-home brands, and a bone of contention between brands and their customers, as companies attempt to lock users into their ecosystems, as we've already seen with video doorbells. Between that, and brands like Samsung using screen-loaded appliances as advertising billboards around the home, now might be a good time to really think about which brands you want want to invest in as you build your smart home.

You'll notice Apple isn't mentioned in our best smart rings guide – but might it be soon? Rumors continue to swirl that the tech giant will decide to launch a ring wearable in the future, and here we've collected together all the leaks and predictions we've heard to date.

There are obvious parallels with the Apple Watch. When the original Apple Watch showed up in 2015, Apple bided its time, waited while other companies launched and refined their smartwatch products, and then entered the market with one of the best examples of the form factor – one that's not radically changed to this day.

We might see a repeat of this pattern with a smart ring, if Apple decides to take on the likes of the Oura Ring 4 and the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Read on for details of all the rumors that have been swirling around regarding the Apple Ring – and maybe start saving up if you want one.

The patent trail

There are no guarantees that patent filings are eventually going to lead to actual consumer products, but they do give us an indication of the ideas that a company is exploring – and they are in the public record. Apple Ring-related patents go back several years, including one for a "wearable electronic ring computing device" that appeared in 2019.

That patent outlined a device that was more of a controller for an iPhone or a Mac computer, with its own tiny touchscreen and an integrated microphone – though there were also biometric sensors included. Overall, it sounded like a mini Apple Watch, which may well be what the Apple Ring ends up being.

The Apple patents have continued to show up down the years: one in 2020 described a smart ring with extensive gesture support, for wirelessly controlling devices such as an Apple TV streaming box, while another in 2023 included details of physical sensors that could be activated to carry out actions on other connected Apple gear.

That connectivity – with iPhones, iPads, Macs, Apple Watches, the Apple AirPods Max headphones, and so on – seems to be crucial for whatever kind of smart ring Apple is currently developing. If and when it does appear, it'll almost certainly be built to interact effortlessly with whatever other Apple devices you've got.

Apple has even been busy filing patents for wearable devices that could extend to anklets and lanyards – so you might not have to necessarily wear the Apple Ring on your finger. The company is clearly thinking about a variety of different types of wearables, intended to be worn for most (if not all) of the day.

Cancelled... or not?

Patents aside, plenty of people in the know have been holding forth on whether or not Apple will actually get around to launching a smart ring. In October 2024, notable Apple tipster Mark Gurman reported that Apple had no near-term plans to develop a smart ring, and we certainly haven't seen one since.

That was quickly backed up by the CEO of Oura, Tom Hale, who said that he didn't think his company would be having to deal with a competing smart ring from Apple anytime soon. Part of the reason for his scepticism was that a smart ring may affect sales of the Apple Watch, which would be measuring a lot of the same metrics.

The TechRadar experts, however, aren't quite convinced by this line of reasoning. Smart rings are distinct from smartwatches in numerous ways, including the battery life you can expect and how unobtrusive they are to wear, so the existence of the Apple Watch doesn't necessarily mean we won't get an Apple Ring. It's not stopped Samsung having a crack at it.

Another well-respected leaker with a decent track record has suggested that a "ring-type wearable" is indeed still in the works, along with several other secret products that are yet to see the light of day – which to be fair is what we'd expect from a tech company of Apple's size and standing.

In other words, don't give up on an Apple Ring just yet. While numerous launch events have come and gone without any sign of the smart ring, we know Apple is heavily invested in health and fitness now, and has been exploring the form factor in patents – it may just be a question of Apple waiting to get the design, features, and price point just right.

• Oura has won a patent case against Ultrahuman
• It means Ultrahuman’s smart rings are now banned from the US
• RingConn has reached a settlement with Oura that ends its ongoing dispute

Bad news, Ultrahuman fans: the popular smart ring maker has been forced to halt sales of its devices in the US after it lost a patent case against rival firm Oura, with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) ruling that Ultrahuman infringed upon Oura’s patents. This now has significant ramifications for Ultrahuman and users of its devices.

According to a blog post by Oura, the “ITC’s final ruling enforces exclusion and cease-and-desist orders.” What this means in practice is that Ultrahuman is now banned from importing and selling its smart rings in the US, strongly restricting a major player from operating in the wearables market – at least for the time being.

On its own website, Ultrahuman explained that existing owners of the Ultrahuman Ring Air device will be able to continue using it “exactly as before – with subscription-free health insights, relentless feature updates, and full warranty support,” provided the product was purchased on or before October 21, 2025. Retailers can continue selling existing inventory after this date, and anyone who buys a Ring Air after October 21 will be supported with diagnostics and tech support.

However, retailers won’t be able to import or stock the Ultrahuman Ring Air beyond what is kept in their existing inventory. Once that runs out, you’ll no longer be able to buy the device if you live in the US.

In response to the patent case, Ultrahuman said that “A new ring design is already in development and will launch in the U.S. as soon as possible,” and that it is also exploring whether a “Made in USA” Ring Air could be produced at its Texas facility.

As well as that, Ultrahuman added: “We also eagerly await the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office’s review of the validity of Oura’s ‘178 patent, which it acquired in 2023, and is central to the ITC ruling. A decision is expected in December.”

Better news for RingConn

The patent dispute centers on the design of smart rings that aim to rival Oura, specifically those made by Ultrahuman and competitor RingConn.

The legal judgement – which was first made earlier this year, with the ban set to come into effect on October 21 – declared that Ultrahuman and RingConn had infringed on Oura’s patents relating to the ring’s form factor.

RingConn, however, seems to have fared better than Ultrahuman. That’s because it has reached a settlement with Oura whereby all existing disputes between the two companies in the US have been resolved. Oura has granted RingConn a multi-year patent license, meaning you can continue to buy RingConn wearables in the US.

It’s unknown if this is a route that Ultrahuman will take, but it doesn’t seem to have opted to do so yet. If you’re a fan of the company’s products, you’ll have to watch closely to see what happens in the coming months.

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• Acer, a company best known for computing components, is releasing a new health-tracking smart ring
• The Acer FreeSense Ring comes in Rose Gold or Black, and will pack 'AI enhanced' wellness insights
• Acer hasn't announced a price of the ring, but it has said there will be no additional subscription fee

Acer has announced the Acer FreeSense Ring, a new health-tracking smart ring offering 'AI enhanced' wellness insights.

It was unveiled at this year's Computex conference in Taipei, and we don't yet know how much the Ring will cost, or when it will go on sale – but we do know that it won't come with any additional subscription fees.

With two color options, Rose Gold (a matte finish) or Black (gloss finish), the Ring will be available in sizes 7-13. It'll weigh between 2-3g, and Acer says it's "crafted from ultra-light titanium alloy."

Even the best smart rings have a plastic interior to better accommodate the sensor array, and we imagine that will also be the case here. It's waterproof-rated at 5ATM, which means it's shower- and swim-safe, but likely not suitable for diving.

The Acer FreeSense sounds a lot like other smart rings from Oura and Samsung, specifically in terms of the data it collects. A press release from Acer states that "the ring tracks vital physiological metrics such as heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen levels, and sleep quality.

"The data points are analyzed through a companion mobile app, which generates personalized wellness insights and provides suggestions. With features such as sleep stage analysis and continuous tracking, the Acer FreeSense Ring helps encourage proactive health management and lifestyle awareness."

Back in the health & fitness ring

Acer has released smartwatches and fitness trackers in the past with its Acer Leap range, but none of those devices ranked among the best fitness trackers of the era, and never really caught on. With smart rings now a rapidly growing category of health device, this could prove to be a second chance for Acer in the health space.

Acer is also the latest of several smart-ring manufacturer to make a point of the fact that its device doesn't require an additional subscription, as a key selling point to differentiate it from the likes of the Oura Ring 4. With so many health and fitness services now requiring a subscription, it's refreshing to see more companies embracing the one-time-purchase philosophy.

Acer is already busy at Computex this year – in addition to the FreeSense Ring it's also announced a pair of earbuds specifically for translation, a new range of electric bikes, and computing equipment.

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2024 felt a lot like 1994. Back then it was the internet that was experiencing seemingly exponential growth: the worldwide web had only formally launched three years before, but by ’94 the first browsers and ecommerce platforms were in use, and websites were springing up everywhere.

I was a college student at the time, and it was all very exciting, albeit not yet something which impacted my daily life too much. But by the time I started work a few years later, it was inconceivable that I might do my job without using the internet constantly.

Substitute ‘AI’ for ‘the internet’ and you’ll have a pretty good idea of where we are right now. AI has been everywhere this year, like it was in 2023, but even more so. As you’ll read below, it’s infiltrating every aspect of our lives – and certainly every aspect of tech – and it will soon be impossible to imagine what the world was like before it.

Is that a good thing? That question makes no more sense than it would have if asked about the internet in 1994. The web has been great in many ways, terrible in others – but that’s more about how it's been used than any inherent goodness or badness.

And so it will be with AI. The simple fact is that artificial intelligence will have an utterly transformative impact on the world; the next few years will be a case of holding on for dear life, as our everyday lives are changed in multiple ways.

Of course, there was more to 2024 than AI, and we saw some massive stories elsewhere in the tech world. VR hardware and experiences continued to improve, even if Apple's Vision Pro didn't quite take off as we thought it might, while smartphones gained an extra fold, new and improved smart rings offered fitness tracking without the screen, and gaming handhelds proliferated.

Expect much more AI, and more of everything else, in 2025. Until then, I hope you’ve enjoyed reading TechRadar in 2024, and have a happy New Year!

My year in tech

AI advances apace, but vintage tech still charms

As a chronicler of technology, it’s only natural as the year draws to a close that big moments, larger trends, disappointments, and surprises fill my thoughts – and they are my thoughts, not those of the AI systems I expended thousands of words on.

Graham Barlow has more to say about AI below, but of all the things I wrote about artificial intelligence, it was the stories that showed just how fast these generative platforms have come in a relatively short time that gave me the most joy. When I first asked ChatGPT to help me code and it failed miserably, I hesitated to return to the task. Now I’m glad I did. ChatGPT, like other emerging systems, is now an incredibly effective coding assistant. It was the a similar story with other platforms: Sora can create believable video, image generators now know how to count fingers, and Google’s NotebookLM can replicate realistic-sounding podcasts.

When I wasn’t writing about AI, I was trying out the latest augmented-reality headgear, and if I had to choose a standout device it would be Meta’s Orion. This sunglass-like wearable isn’t consumer-ready yet, but it easily offers the most impressive AR experience to date – and, yes, it integrates AI. At the other end of the spectrum is the Apple Vision Pro; a year after launch, the most impressive wearable technology I’ve ever tried appears to be floundering.

This was also the year I dug into the tech archives and rummaged through drawers to rediscover some old favorites, including my 40-year-old Casio watch and an aging Pebble (an OG smartwatch if there ever was one). I also played on a refurbished Game Boy – that last experience was part of one of my favorite interviews of the year.

Other year-defining moments included the wild CrowdStrike outage, which should still serve as a warning to all people who worry about our infrastructure; new foldables, including one I test-drove in Paris (photographing a folding phone at the Louvre was a bucket-list moment); and capturing the solar eclipse with three smartphones at once – quite the challenge, but totally worth the effort.

The year in AI

If you think 2024 was wild, wait till you hear about 2029…

In 2024 Apple performed a spectacular U-turn away from AR and its Vision Pro headset, and went all-in on AI, doing its bit to push AI into the mainstream in the process.

While the rollout wasn't the smoothest, Apple Intelligence is sprinkled throughout Apple’s operating systems in the form of notification summaries, Image Playground, Visual Intelligence and, my personal favorite, Genmoji, for making your own emojis. Genmoji is a genuinely innovative use of AI, and has the potential to actually get people excited about the technology because it’s so usable and fun (you can base emojis on your friends and family).

While most of the big AI platforms launched in 2023, 2024 was the year they became established. Meta kept pushing AI to its various social media apps, and even added it to its Ray-Ban smart glasses. ChatGPT kept improving, OpenAI added Sora video generation and ChatGPT search, X gave us Grok, Google gave us Gemini 2.0, and AI image generators like Midjourney and Adobe Firefly went from strength to strength.

While Genmoji was a highlight, my favorite moment was my mind-blowing and occasionally unsettling interview with Dr Ben Goertzel, one of the leading thinkers looking to manage the advance of AI towards the smarter-than-human superintelligence known as artificial general intelligence, or AGI, aka the singularity.

Goertzel believes it’s only a matter of years before the machines become smarter than we are, and that we'd better get used to the idea. 2029 is his estimate, at which point all bets are off and AGI will either put an end to disease, aging, and potentially even death, or it might decide that humanity is just a nuisance, and The Matrix / The Terminator becomes a reality. I, for one, welcome our new AI overlords – I just really hope they like us.

THE YEAR IN PHONES

It's not the real deal yet, but AI will do it all eventually

Nowhere did AI dominate the landscape more than in mobile computing. With every phone launch I attended, every product I reviewed, and every Snapdragon Summit I climbed, AI was a foregone conclusion. The disconnect between what phone makers see and what phone buyers want has never been greater; although, that said, the new phones this year were great, in spite of (never because of) the looming presence of AI. We saw impressive new foldables from Samsung and Google, while Huawei went one screen better with the first mainstream tri-folding phone.

But this was AI's year. Just think, we started this year with Circle to Search on the Galaxy S24 Ultra, and now we’re ending it with Apple Intelligence on the iPhone 16 making up fake headlines in its news summaries. Look how far we’ve come! These AI features seem half-baked because they are. The real deal isn’t here yet, and I’m not even talking about artificial general intelligence; I’m just talking about a better Siri, or Bixby, or Gemini.

At Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Summit I saw it take a big leap in mobile processing power and power management with its new Snapdragon 8 Elite chipset, a platform that has the potential to radically change what AI can do. Qualcomm’s vision, which is similar to that of most phone makers, is for AI to become an ‘agent’ that works as a middleman between you and your phone. You won’t need to worry about Settings, or your home screen, or even apps, really – you’ll just tell the AI what you want to do, and it will do the rest.

In the meantime, some of the AI features are already pretty good. Google’s Pixel 9 Pro does a great job of things like transcribing meeting notes or screening your calls. Amazon’s new Kindle Scribe uses AI for the best handwriting recognition ever. And even you’re not thrilled with Apple Intelligence and its summaries, at least we can all appreciate the way AI has pushed smartphone photography past its limits.

So, 2024 was the year for AI on mobile devices, and soon enough it won’t feel like gimmicks and parlor tricks – it will actually help us do the things we need with less effort.

THE YEAR IN COMPUTING

Finally, a reason to get excited about Windows laptops again

Apple has dominated the laptop scene for the past few years, releasing a series of brilliant MacBook models powered by its own chips that offer performance, battery life, and value for money that Windows 11 laptops from the likes of Dell, HP and Lenovo just couldn't compete with.

With the launch of the M3-powered MacBook Airs in March it looked like 2024 was shaping up to be another year in which MacBooks would be the laptops to beat. Instead, we got something of a renaissance in Windows 11 laptops, mainly thanks to Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X chips.

Like Apple’s M3 (and M4, which came to MacBooks later in the year), the Snapdragon X series are ARM-based chips that, unlike traditional chips from Intel and AMD, have been created with efficiency and mobile use in mind.

The result is laptops that offer fast performance and long battery life, and we saw a wave of truly excellent devices, such as the Dell XPS 13 (2024) and Microsoft Surface Laptop 7, that have challenged Apple’s MacBooks in our best laptops list.

This has made Qualcomm a major player in Windows world, challenging the two established titans Intel and AMD. While neither of those two have had a particularly good year, Intel in particular has had a rocky 2024, with CEO Pat Gelsinger standing down after a particularly poor set of results.

Both AMD and Intel have released new chips to take on Qualcomm, and from what I’ve seen so far Intel’s Core Ultra Series 2 chips show a lot of promise, especially when it comes to battery life. However, there’s no getting past the fact that Intel – a company that was so dominant in the processor market for so long – ends the year in a precarious position.

As for 2025, I’m looking forward to seeing what Nvidia has in store. It's tipped to be announcing its next-gen RTX 5000 series graphics cards as soon as CES next month, and they could take PC gaming to new heights – though I do worry about the price tags they’ll come with.

THE YEAR IN TVS

The year that mid-range mini-LED TVs went mainstream

A few years ago, a new high-end technology that goes by the name ‘mini-LED’ launched as a high-end alternative to the best OLED TVs, promising dazzling brightness but with far superior contrast to regular LED TVs. Fast forward a few years, and while OLED TVs basically cost exactly the same as they did before, mini-LED is now taking over the more affordable end of the TV market.

At least, it’s taking over in our list of recommendations. The likes of the Hisense U8N, TCL QM851G, Hisense U6N and TCL C805 all offer amazing value for money at a huge range of screen sizes – those two companies really turned the screws on Samsung in the contest for places on our list of the best mini-LED TVs, and put a lot of pressure on next year’s more expensive TVs to really make a case for themselves.

One elite TV this year that successfully did just that was the Samsung S95D, which won our TV of the Year award, thanks to its new anti-reflection screen, which was a first on an OLED TV. OLED’s low brightness mean it’s prone to distracting reflections – no problem for dark-room movie viewing, but not so great for sports during the day – so Samsung solved this with a light-dissipating layer over the screen; and combined with the amazing picture quality and stunning design it made the S95D our most-talked-about TV of 2024. Samsung told us that this tech could come to more TVs if people like it – here’s hoping we’ll see more at CES 2025.

THE YEAR IN VR/AR

Apple’s Vision fades, but Meta may see real rivals soon

The year kicked off with the launch of what many believed would be the one headset to rule them all: the Apple Vision Pro. Alas, it came, it saw, and it failed to conquer. Once the initial hype wore off, early adopters – including our own Lance Ulanoff – found they simply weren’t using the gadget very often, as the expensive headset failed to offer a substantial productivity or entertainment upgrade over a MacBook or iPad, or feel sufficiently superior to the VR competition.

We also saw the Pico 4 Ultra, which boasts some super foot-tracking tech, and a PC/Standalone hybrid in the shape of the Vive Focus Vision. Unfortunately each device disappointed in its own ways, with a major issuing being lackluster software offerings that fail to compete with the excellent catalog you’ll find on Quest systems, which includes Batman: Arkham Shadow, which I hailed in my review as "an almost flawless VR experience".

As the saying goes, if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em, and this year saw Lenovo, Asus, and Xbox announcing their plans to build Horizon OS headsets – Horizon being the operating system Quest headsets use. This would presumably give those headsets access to the full suite of Quest titles, and while we’re yet to see the devices, their announcement may have been the biggest VR announcement of 2024.

Next in line in terms of major launches was probably the Meta Quest 3S, an affordable Quest 3 alternative with the same brain but a bulkier body and less-crisp displays (though I think the Meta Quest 3 is worth paying extra for), and the Meta Orion AR glasses – they may still only be a prototype for now, but they’ve already blown away many who've tried them, including the aforementioned Mr Ulanoff.

Slipping in just under the 2024 wire, Samsung and Google showcased their Android XR software platform, which will power new headsets and glasses. While what the duo is promising is reminiscent of Apple’s Vision Pro hype, I’m optimistic that their Android offering might finally give Meta some serious competition in 2025.

THE YEAR IN AUDIO

Sonos stumbles, and hearing health is the New Big Thing

2024 in the world of audio has really been about risers and fallers. Let’s start with the rise of open-ear headphones. These weren’t new in 2024, but they suddenly became the hottest category this year. At first, these looked like just a new option for runners, because the way they push sound into the ear yet don’t actually fit in the ear means you can still be aware of your surroundings. But then it turned out that lots of other people would prefer not to put things in their ear too, both for comfort and to protect their long-term hearing. Expect to see a lot more of these in 2025.

Speaking of open-ear buds, though, new AirPods arrived in two flavors. The basic and cheaper AirPods 4 are fine, but the AirPods 4 with Active Noise Cancellation are a very interesting option for iPhone users. Plus, the AirPods Pro 2 got a truly ground-breaking new hearing-aid mode, and we can expect to see, and hear, a lot more of this health-focused tech in the future.

Now we need a faller, and no one took a bigger tumble than Sonos. The company released a truly disastrous change to its app that threw all of its goodwill in the trash overnight, and cast a large cloud over the launch of its first headphones, the Sonos Ace. By the time the Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar came out, it had barely clawed back any ground. It needs to have a really good 2025…
But there’s always space for a comeback story, after all, 2024 was the year we went loopy over a beautiful new cassette player and a stunning portable CD player from FiiO, and a lovely combo player from TEAC.

THE YEAR IN CAMERAS

The retro revolution looks like it's here to stay

Despite feeling like a relatively quiet year for leading camera brands, 2024 has actually served up some real treats. The Canon EOS R5 Mark II scooped TechRadar’s camera of the year award and with good reason – it boasts a speedy 45MP stacked full-frame sensor, incredible autofocus skills including Eye Control AF, plus an innovative in-camera 400% upscale editing function that could end the megapixel race for good.

DJI had another busy year, with its broad portfolio of new devices including drones, action cameras and vlogging cameras, and it consequently scooped TechRadar's camera brand of the year for the second year running – and for good measure it’s avoided a ban on its drones in the US, for now. Other honorable mentions go to Nikon and its 5-star Z6 III, and Insta360 for doubling down in the pocketable video camera space, in particular with its unmatched X4 360-degree camera.

The people's vote went to the Fujifilm X100VI – a pricey premium compact that nonetheless attracted huge preorder numbers, and which is still on backorder the best part of a year later. I found the highly anticipated retro camera a delight to shoot with at its Tokyo launch. 2024 was also the year that film made a comeback, with the Pentax Film Project delivering the legendary brand’s first film camera in decades, the surprisingly charming half-frame Pentax 17.

2024 was also the year that the humble point-and-shoot camera enjoyed a comeback, particularly with young audiences and thanks in no small part to TikTok. We never expected an old, mediocre and cheap Nikon compact’s popularity to blow up, but the Coolpix S6900 in pink did just that.

So what about 2025? As cameras, and AI image and video generation, get closer to perfection we might see increasing pushback, with demand for simple, flawed, disconnected, retro cameras continuing to grow. 2025 could well be the year that dumb cameras win out over smart tech.

The year in gaming

Sony’s mid-gen upgrade points to the future of consoles

Sony’s PlayStation 5 Pro was the biggest gaming hardware release of 2024, and while it wasn’t unexpected – rumors had been building all year – it did give us a window into what future consoles might offer.

While it brings welcome boosts to storage and connectivity, Sony’s PlayStation Super Spectral Resolution is the headline feature, offering AI-driven upscaling that enables users to enjoy enhanced graphical fidelity and higher frame rates, at the same time. Is this what we might see more of in future console upgrades as the gap between fidelity and performance closes? Perhaps. The new console was supported by a strong lineup of games like multiplayer phenomenon Helldivers 2, and the absolutely joyous Astro Bot, making 2024 another robust year for PlayStation.

Xbox didn’t join the mid-gen-upgrade party this time around, and instead Microsoft iterated on its existing hardware range by offering a larger-capacity Xbox Series S 1TB and releasing a Digital Edition of its existing Series X. Games-wise, Microsoft finished the year much stronger than it started it with the release of the epic Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and action-adventure hit Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.

Nintendo continued to publish excellent games for the Switch, such as The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, and while we did see new hardware, it wasn’t what we were expecting or hoping for: the Nintendo Alarmo! clock took us all by surprise, and you can now be woken up by your favorite Nintendo characters.

Returning to hardware, SteelSeries’ Arctis GameBuds became the new gold standard in what gaming earbuds can offer, Razer’s Wolverine V3 Pro became the new premium Xbox controller to beat, and Secretlab’s Titan Evo NanoGen Edition chair offered a new level of comfort.

The Nintendo Switch 2 will be the biggest thing in gaming in 2025 – should it actually arrive, which feels very likely at the time of writing – but with rumors that Xbox and PlayStation are also looking at building new handheld gaming devices, next year could get very interesting.

THE YEAR IN FITNESS

Ringing the changes as time stands still for smartwatches

What a year 2024 has been. I said last year that I believe we'd reached peak smartwatch, with not much scope left for the form factor to innovate, and that this year's more interesting developments would come in other product fields, such as smart rings.

That prediction has largely been borne out. The Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra looked very similar to the Apple Watch Ultra 2, while the Apple Watch Series 10 and Google Pixel Watch 3 were, like their predecessors, fairly iterative updates, with slightly bigger and slightly thinner displays being the most significant changes. Outside of smartwatches, though, there’s been plenty of action: this has been the year we’ve seen the widespread adoption of previously fringe tech, from smart wearables to continuous glucose monitors (live broadcasting of your blood sugar!) to AI fitness coaches.

As elsewhere, fitness and wearables brands have been eager to embrace the potential of AI (in many cases, before it’s really ready). Strava’s Athlete Intelligence and apps like Runna have been quick out of the gate with AI-generated feedback and workout insights. We asked ChatGPT for workout tips, and Oura got in on the action with its Advisor, a health and fitness chatbot that lives in the Oura app.

Speaking of Oura, 2024 was the year smart rings hit their stride, with the release of the RingConn Gen 2, the Samsung Galaxy Ring and the Oura Ring 4. Fun functionalities like gesture controls, and automatic workout tracking for multiple activities, show how far the technology has come in such a short space of time: check out our best smart rings guide for more on the early leaders in the race to dominate the space.

Looking forward to 2025, I think we’ll see continuing move away from the traditional fitness watches and notification-based devices, and towards smart rings and screenless trackers. A WHOOP 5, anyone?

THE YEAR IN ENTERTAINMENT

Streaming giants entertain and enrage in equal measure

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. Away from the on-screen action, Max, Disney Plus, Hulu, Paramount Plus, and Peacock all raised their prices, Netflix angered customers by scrapping its cheaper tier, Prime Video assailed us with ads unless we paid more, and the Disney Plus password crackdown once again made us feel like we were being taken for a ride.

On a happier note, this year's entertainment calendar was packed with global events that drew in large audiences to the best streaming services: from the Olympics and the Euros to Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras Tour’ on Disney Plus and Olivia Rodrigo’s Guts World Tour concert special on Netflix. When it came to new movies, we were taken on an emotional rollercoaster ride dominated by sequels like Deadpool and Wolverine and Moana 2. Highlights included Pixar’s return to form, with Inside Out 2 becoming the highest-grossing animation movie of all time, while lowlights included Borderlands, which brought a run of impressive video game adaptations to a crashing halt.

On the TV show front, video game adaptations fared much better, with Fallout and Arcane season 2 picking up the torch from The Last of Us to become massive hits. Some of the other most-streamed shows of the year include True Detective: Night Country, Shōgun, The Boys, Bridgerton, Agatha All Along, and my personal favorite, The Penguin.

As we look to the year ahead, make sure to check back in with TechRadar, where we’ll bring you all the latest streaming news, recommendations and tips to get the most out of your services, including how to become more savvy by pausing your subscriptions.

The Year in Smart Home

Matter matters, but features matter more

It's been a middling year for smart home tech, with few major product launches or big developments, but rather lots of iterative improvements to the building blocks of smart-home technology. We've also seen the emergence of some interesting trends that could point to the future of how smart devices are integrated into our homes.

One important yet relatively slow-moving part of this story is the connectivity standard Matter. We've seen versions 1.3 and 1.4 roll out in 2024, introducing support for new device categories across energy management and new household appliances, as well as improvements to features like lighting control and Thread networks. Big news for smart home enthusiasts and product developers, yes, but not exactly a reason to stop the presses. Indeed, Matter continues to be something that matters, but only in the background.

Elsewhere, we've seen trends emerging in terms of user experiences. 2024 began with Samsung upgrading its SmartThings ecosystem with a new TV-centered experience, demonstrating a push to integrate smart home technology into appliances rather than using dedicated hubs like those built into some smart speakers. Much like the trends we've seen in AI adoption, it's becoming increasingly apparent that in order for smart home technology to take off, it has to be a feature, not a product. To that end, Samsung is also putting screens on more and more appliances, kitting each out with SmartThings for whole-home control.

Similarly, in a trend I've catchily labeled "stuff that does other stuff", we've continued to see a focus on multi-functional smart home devices. On the more bizarre end of the spectrum, we saw an air purifier with a mounted cat bed from LG at IFA 2024, a follow-up to its more sensible air-purifying table from a few years ago.

There's still no sign of Apple's long-rumored smart display, and Alexa's big overhaul has quietly been pushed to 2025, so there's plenty to be excited for in the coming year.

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The Apple Ring was a fabled product rumored to be in the company's product pipeline for some time. Sadly, almost all of the signs point to the fact that Apple is not working on a smart ring of any kind.

Rumors have abounded for a few years, but in October, the only person who might know – Bloomberg's Mark Gurman – revealed that Apple "Apple isn’t actively developing a ring and has no plans to launch one."

The top Apple insider notes that an Apple Ring would detract from the Apple Watch, and says the company has "no reason to cannibalize a product that still has room to grow and is the envy of the fitness-tracking industry."

Turns out, those looking for the best smart ring in 2025 and beyond will have to look to the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Ring or the Oura Ring 4 instead.

One ray of hope points to the prospect it might still happen one day, but those chances are slim.

Apple Ring: cut to the chase

• What is it? A rumored smart ring, made by Apple
• When could it launch? Apple is reportedly not working on a smart ring at this time
• How much could it cost? There are no rumors about pricing, but competitors start at $399 / £399 / AU$750 or above

Apple Ring: price and release date predictions

With the news that Apple probably isn't working on a smart ring, there's very little to be said about a potential release time frame. Even if the company does change its mind the device is likely years away.

Pricing is likewise difficult to gauge, competitors are routinely priced at $399 / £399 / AU$750 or above but Apple is often in the business of making its products more expensive (and often better) than its rivals.

The only ray of hope we can offer in this otherwise gloomy outlook is a throwaway comment from a leaker made in late 2024. Yeux1122, who has been right about Apple's future plans before, mentioned that Apple "is also still developing a ring-type wearable." Given this leak came not one month after Mark Gurman revealed Apple wasn't developing a smart ring, there's good cause to treat this with a healthy dose of skepticism. It's really a leak for those who want to keep hoping for an Apple Ring, nothing more.

Apple Ring: leaks and rumors

The Apple Ring rumors stretch back a long way, to at least 2020. A patent Apple filed that year showed a smart ring being used to control other devices – with the idea being that you could maybe change channels on your Apple TV with a tap on your ring. Of course, patents aren't always guarantees of future products, but they show what companies are thinking about and exploring.

Fast forward to 2023, and Apple was once again filing smart ring patents that positioned its possible device as some kind of controller for other gadgets. It seems that any Apple Ring that shows up won't just be focused on health and fitness – it will also give you new ways to control functions on your other Apple devices.

It would seem Apple isn't limiting itself to wearables around your fingers, either. Yet another 2023 patent revealed plans for some kind of Apple Anklet you could wear around your ankle or around your neck. The success of the Apple Watch clearly has Apple thinking about how to get you tracking more fitness metrics.

Meanwhile, an industry report out of South Korea early in 2024 suggested an Apple smart ring was on the way, to take on Samsung and Oura. However, as nothing has emerged in the months since, either the sources of the report got it wrong or Apple changed its mind about its future product launch schedule.

We've seen one further sign that an Apple Ring might be on the way: an Apple survey sent to Apple Watch owners, asking how many of them currently wear a smart ring alongside their smartwatch. It might be a bit of a stretch to use this as evidence of an Apple Ring, but it's not nothing.

Apple Ring: what we wanted to see

In the unlikely event an Apple Ring does ever materialize, how could it beat the competition? If any Apple engineers are reading this, here's what we want to see from an Apple smart ring.

1. Stellar battery life

This shows up in every wishlist for every device, of course, but decent battery life is a must – especially as the standard Apple Watch can't go more than a day or two without a recharge. In fact, that could be a key selling point for the Apple Ring: keep tracking your steps and other activities while your Apple Watch is on charge.

2. Top-tier sleep tracking

Speaking of Apple Watch recharging, many users charge theirs overnight. This means the smartwatch often can't be used for sleep tracking, and we're hoping this means the Apple Ring will be very good at it. Besides, the smaller size and lighter weight of a smart ring makes it more suitable for tracking the tosses and turns of your sleep anyway.

3. Lots of software features without subscription

We've already mentioned Apple Fitness Plus, but we'd hope many of the features of an Apple Ring would be available without a subscription – as they are with Apple Watch. And for those who wanted extra functionality such as fitness videos, customizations around workout plans, in-session metrics and more, there could be an extra subscription option.

4. A superior design

There really are only so many ways you can design a smart ring, but we're hoping Apple brings the same aesthetic tastefulness to the Apple Ring as it's shown with the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. We're thinking a super-slim and super-light form factor, a choice of different colors, and a smart ring that's one of the most comfortable on the market.

5. Seamless Apple ecosystem integration

Apple usually manages this perfectly, with iPhones, iPads, Macs, and Apple Watches getting new integrations and connections all the time – so we hope that extends to the Apple Ring. It's unlikely that Apple will want the smart ring to replace the Apple Watch, and in fact it could be a useful screen for it (bear in mind Oura has an Apple Watch app, too).

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The Samsung Galaxy Ring will be available to buy from July 24, and if you're thinking about picking up the new wearable, take note of some official advice issued by Samsung: avoid magnets and weightlifting.

As spotted by SamMobile, the support page for the Galaxy Ring has some tips for getting the most out of it. Some of these are pretty obvious – high-speed water sports and pressure washers might test the ring's water resistance to the limit, for instance.

Others you might not have thought of. Samsung says "certain features, like step counting, may not work properly if you're holding a magnet or a magnetic object in the hand wearing the ring" – so maybe keep your magnet collection a good distance away.

You should also remove the ring during "exercises that use machines", Samsung says: particularly weights, dumbbells, and iron bars, as this "could cause hand injuries". Meanwhile you should also avoid wearing metal rings on the same finger or adjacent fingers to the Galaxy Ring.

Early impressions

There's plenty of other useful advice on the support page and we'd recommend reading through it in full if you're going to purchase one. There are tips on how your activities might affect the device's battery life too.

We can't find any mention of magnets on the help pages for the Oura ring, but there is a recommendation to "consider removing" the ring in situations where friction is involved – with weightlifting mentioned as a specific example.

While our full review of the Samsung Galaxy Ring is still in the pipeline, we have already spent some time with it, and can report that it's been largely an impressive and positive experience so far – though there's more testing to come.

The device will set you back $399 / £399 (that's around AU$750, though Australian pricing is to be confirmed). You'll get a sizing kit sent out to you before the ring itself, to make sure you choose the right size for your finger, and as we've already mentioned, shipping is scheduled to get underway on July 24.

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While we wait patiently for the Samsung Galaxy Ring to get its full unveiling on July 10 (having been initially teased in January), some screenshots showing the smart ring's various health-tracking capabilities have leaked online.

These images are courtesy of Android Authority, and have been grabbed from a deep dive into the code for the Samsung Health app for Android. This code has been added to the app, but isn't yet enabled or visible to users.

We get a look at the Samsung Health app measuring both heart rate and stress through the Galaxy Ring, so those are two metrics the wearable will be able to monitor. There are also mentions of using the device to predict periods and take skin temperature readings.

Snore detection is also included apparently, through a combination of the Galaxy Ring and your connected Android phone (this is how it works with the Galaxy Watch, too). The phone does the actual audio detection, but it seems the Galaxy Ring adds some extra smarts, too.

Ring or watch?

As far as we can tell from these screenshots, the health-tracking functionality of the Galaxy Ring will be along the same lines as the Galaxy Watch 6 (and presumably the Galaxy Watch 7) – just in a lighter form factor that's potentially more comfortable to wear.

With that in mind, the choice for consumers may well come down to a smart ring vs a smartwatch decision, instead of buying and wearing both (though there's nothing stopping you doing that, if the idea appeals).

Smartwatches clearly offer more in the way of features, with their own dedicated displays. The compact and light form factor of smart rings, meanwhile, generally makes them preferable for scenarios like sleep tracking or high-intensity sports and workouts.

We've already had some hands-on experience with the Galaxy Ring, but we're looking forward to hearing more details about it – most probably at the next Samsung Unpacked on July 10 (when we should also get new foldable phones and smartwatches).

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The Samsung Galaxy Ring is officially coming soon, but there's still a lot we don't know about it – such as, for example, how much it's going to cost. Ahead of the smart ring's full unveiling, a new leak gives us another clue about potential pricing.

Seasoned tipster Yogesh Brar and Android Authority have done some digging with their sources and put the US price of the Galaxy Ring at $300-350 – that's about £235-275 or AU$450-525, though Samsung won't use a straight currency conversion.

Perhaps deliberately, that's roughly the same price you'll pay for a 3rd-gen Oura Ring too: that smart ring, which is currently the main competitor to Samsung's device, starts at $299 / £299 (the Oura Ring isn't sold directly in Australia).

The Oura Ring also has a subscription option for accessing more advanced features – yours for $5.99 / £5.99 a month. It gives you more detailed insights and analysis, blood oxygen sensing, and more, and according to Brar, Samsung has plans for a similar subscription.

Sign up, sign up

It's perhaps not surprising that Samsung is looking to add an optional subscription to go alongside the Galaxy Ring – it's something that Apple does, and Google doesit too (via Fitbit). Tech companies know recurring subscriptions are where the money is.

Brar says the monthly cost would be less than $10, which is to be expected considering how much people are already paying out every month for their digital subscriptions. However, it's not certain that a subscription package will be launched.

There's currently no extra subscription required to use the health and fitness features on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6, but that could change once the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 shows up – like the Galaxy Ring, it's expected to be unveiled on July 10.

We've already spent some hands-on time with a Galaxy Ring prototype, but this is the first rumor we've heard when it comes to pricing. Samsung will know its smart ring needs to be priced competitively – and we should find out the official cost of this device soon.

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The Amazfit Helio Ring, the new smart ring from Zepp Health, will be on sale in the US from May 15. 

The ring will cost $299.99, although will be available for $149.99 “when paired with [Amazfit] smartwatches” as part of a ring-and-smartwatch bundle deal. The full details of these bundles are yet to be announced, but we know it will pair the ring with an Amazfit Cheetah or Amazfit T-Rex Ultra.

The Helio Ring, unveiled at CES 2024 in January, is slightly different than the rest of the best smart ring contenders out this year, such as the Samsung Galaxy Ring and the already-available Oura Ring. While those devices are focused on sleep and holistic health for everyday users, the AmazFit Helio Ring is said to be designed with elite athletic performance in mind. However, in a press release published on 30 April, the Ring is said to generate a ‘recovery score’ – just like Oura does, and Samsung’s ring will do. 

At the moment, it’s unclear when the Helio Ring will launch in the UK or Australia or what it will cost in those regions, but we expect the full details to be announced after the ring goes on sale in the US.

The Amazfit Helio Ring is said to weigh less than 4g. It’s not quite the lightest ring out there – that prize goes to the Ultrahuman Ring Air – but certainly looks pretty slick, being made of “skin-friendly” titanium. 

It promises to be very accurate when it comes to heart rate monitoring too. The press release states: “the sensor's proximity to the user's pulse enables even more accurate health data measurement”, making similar claims to Oura when it comes to a smart ring’s accuracy over even the best smartwatches.  

 Analysis: A sign of things to come

While the release date means the Amazfit Helio Ring will be out before the Samsung Galaxy Ring, I’m more interested in the price. $300 in the US is essentially the starting price of an Oura Ring, before you take into account any premium finishes or subscriptions. 

It’s potentially a sign that we can expect most of the upcoming smart rings, including the Samsung Galaxy Ring, to follow suit with similar pricing. 

Amazfit is bundling its watches and Helio Ring into package deals, which is another interesting insight into the way rings might be available to purchase. Samsung, like Amazfit (but unlike Oura), will also expect users to be locked into its own ecosystem – chances are, users getting a Samsung Ring may also want to own one of the best Samsung phones and potentially a watch such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6. Therefore, we may see a ring/phone/watch discount bundle cropping up when the Galaxy Ring finally lands on shelves. 

Expect a full review of the Amazfit Helio Ring when it lands later in the month. 

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The Samsung Galaxy Ring has officially been announced, but there's still a lot we don't know about it – including how much it'll cost and when it's going to go on sale – but now a new Galaxy Ring leak gives us some idea about the size options that will be available.

The team of tipsters over at GalaxyClub (via Android Authority) say they've been able to confirm eight model numbers for the Galaxy Ring: SM-Q500, SM-Q501, SM-Q502, SM-Q505, SM-Q506, SM-Q507, SM-Q508, and SM-Q509.

That suggests eight size options at least – but you'll notice that there's room in that list for SM-Q503 and SM-Q504 entries, so we might eventually get up to 10. However, there are nine standard US ring sizes (from 5 to 13) that the Galaxy Ring is expected to match up with, so it's not entirely clear where a tenth variant might fit in.

It's possible that there are more model numbers to come, and these could cover different sizes for men and women. Whatever the options end up being, there should certainly be a Galaxy Ring model to suit every finger size.

Advanced sleep tracking

We were able to spend some time with a Galaxy Ring prototype at MWC 2024 back in February, after Samsung had teased the smart ring the month before. There were nine sizes on show there, with the smallest weighing in at 2.3 grams.

However, at that stage Samsung said it was still "refining" the device, and we weren't given any information about how users might decide on the right size for them. With the Oura Ring, for example, you're sent a sizing guide in the mail before making a purchase.

Health and fitness is clearly going to be the main focus of the Samsung Galaxy Ring, and especially in terms of sleep tracking: resting heart rate, respiratory rate, night movement, and sleep latency will all be measured overnight, Samsung says, all via a device that's more comfortable to wear in bed than a smartwatch.

We should hear about pricing and other details at a Samsung Unpacked launch event sometime in July, with the device expected to go on sale in August – it's already shown up in some of Samsung's apps, hinting that an arrival isn't too far off.

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Oura has long been topping the charts when it comes to the best smart rings – its first ring launched in 2015 – and its 4th-generation model has now launched. If you're after a complete guide to the Oura Ring 4 and everything it offers, you've come to the right place.

Check out our Oura Ring 3 review and you'll see that this 2024 model had a lot to live up to: we awarded the 3rd-gen edition four stars out of five, praising its advanced sensor setup and the significant improvements that it offered across the board over its predecessor.

Now the Oura Ring 4 is here, ready to take on the Samsung Galaxy Ring and the other smart rings on the market (and maybe the Apple Ring, one day). Read on for a full rundown of this wearable, including its price, features, and key specs.

Oura Ring 4: cut to the chase

• What is it? Oura's 4th-gen smart ring
• When is it on sale? October 15, 2024
• How much will it cost? $349 / £349
• What will it feature? Improved design, better battery life, larger sizes

Oura Ring 4: specifications

Oura Ring 4: price and release date

Oura announced its 4th-generation smart ring on October 3, 2024, and opened preorders for the device on the same date. Shipping and a full on-sale date are scheduled for October 15 in the US and the UK. Like the Oura Ring 3, the Oura Ring 4 isn't available to buy directly in Australia.

The starting price for the Oura Ring 4 is $349 / £349, but certain sizes and finishes will cost you more. On top of that there's the $5.99 / £5.99 per month (or $69.99 / £69.99 per year) price of Oura Ring Membership, which you really need in order to use it properly.

Without the subscription add-on you'll only see three daily scores, for activity, sleep, and readiness, with no detailed stats at all – so you're missing out on most of the ring's features. You do get a free one-month trial of an Oura Ring Membership when you buy an Oura Ring 4, so you can see everything it has to offer before committing.

Oura Ring 4: design

The Oura Ring 4 looks similar to its predecessor, but there are some important tweaks to the design that are worth talking about. First up, the ring is available in six finishes: Silver, Black, Brushed Silver, Stealth, Gold, and Rose Gold. That's the same as the Oura Ring 3, except Brushed Titanium is now Brushed Silver.

That name change isn't because there's no titanium – it's because all these finishes are fully titanium for the first time, with no plastic on the inside, so there's no need to specify it. Meanwhile, size options go all the way from 4 to 15 (the previous model started at 6 and stopped at 13), with the weight ranging from 3.3 grams to 5.2 grams (0.12 ounces to 0.18 ounces) depending on size.

With a width of 7.9 mm (0.31 inches) and a thickness of 2.88 mm (0.11 inches), it's a close match to the ring its replacing (which was available in two slightly different form factors of varying dimensions – something that isn't available this time around).

Perhaps most significantly, Oura has managed to fit the sensor nodes inside the shell of the ring, rather than having them protrude slightly. That should mean a more comfortable fit on the finger, and it gives the ring a slimmer profile overall.

Oura Ring 4: sensors and hardware

The "research-grade sensors" that Oura has fitted into its 4th-gen smart ring match up with the ones on the Oura Ring 3: you've got sensors for blood oxygen levels, heart rate, heart-rate variability, respiration rate, and skin temperature, as well as movement and activity monitoring, and sleep tracking.

New this time around is what Oura is calling Smart Sensing: with some help from new algorithms, these sensors are now better at detecting signals in any position on your finger. The ring can twist 30 degrees in either direction (which tends to happen as you wear it), and the data collection won't be interrupted.

According to Oura's own research, that leads to big boosts in blood oxygen sensing accuracy, as well as fewer gaps in daytime and nighttime heart-rate tracking. The sensors should also learn how to best take readings based on your own finger physiology (including finger shape and skin tone).

Another improvement is in the area of automatic workout detection. There are now over 40 different types supported – up from just a handful previously – so most of the time the Oura Ring 4  should be able to figure out what you're doing, whether it's jogging or rowing for example, without you specifically having to tell it.

Even with these changes, Oura has managed to boost the battery life on the Oura Ring 4: it should now last for up to eight days between charges, which is a day longer than you could expect with the Oura Ring 3. The charger gets a bit of a redesign too – it's now more of a squarer shape, but still has rounded edges.

Oura Ring 4: app and features

Alongside the launch of the Oura Ring 4, Oura has revamped its companion app for Android and iOS, and Oura Ring 3 owners can take advantage of the new-look app too. The interface is simpler than before, with three main sections – Today, Vitals, and My Health – and a rotating series of summary cards presenting your stats to you.

You can of course dig deeper into these stats at any point, and Oura says it's made some minor improvements to the way data is presented and linked together. For example, you can now get physical activity and stress logged together on the same graph, giving you a better idea of how they interact with each other.

One small but notable change is that Oura Labs has now arrived on the Android version of the app, whereas it was previously exclusive to iOS. That means everyone can experiment with the newest Oura app features ahead of time (such as Symptom Radar, which suggests when you might be getting sick), no matter what type of phone they're using.

For Oura Ring 4 owners who are trying to conceive, the Oura Cycle section of the app has been improved as well: there's now a new Fertile Window section in addition to the existing features, designed to help you identify fertile days and showing estimates for a daily chance of conception and ovulation timings.

There is, of course, some artificial intelligence here too: Oura Advisor is a new AI chatbot that will essentially talk to you about the data you've collected in the app. If you don't want to review the charts and graphs yourself, you can ask the Oura Advisor about them, and get personalized feedback on your health and fitness goals.

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It looks as though our best smart rings list is going to be needing an overhaul sooner rather than later, because not only is the Samsung Galaxy Ring about to be launched, it appears that Black Shark is planning a smart ring too.

Black Shark is a Xiaomi sub-brand that's best known for its gaming phones, such as the Xiaomi Black Shark 5 Pro, but IT Home (via Notebookcheck) has shared some promotional images and details of what it claims is the new wearable.

As our Chinese isn't up to scratch we can't tell whether these promo materials have been officially provided by Black Shark or have been leaked. Google Translate suggests they're official, and that's the line Notebookcheck is taking, but we can't find much information about them elsewhere online.

Draw your own conclusions, then, but given the buzz around smart rings at the moment and the quality of the imagery on show here, we can well believe that a Black Shark smart ring is on the way, even if it's not yet been officially announced.

Getting in the ring

As well as the images we also get some details about this smart ring: apparently it's going to be a mere 2.2mm thick, and offer battery life of up to 180 days. Considering that the Oura Ring 3 lasts for a week between charges that's very impressive, although we're assuming that the figure is for when the ring is in standby mode, i.e., when it's not actively being used.

As for the capabilities of the smart ring, there are mentions of heart rate, blood oxygen, and body temperature tracking. Black Shark (via Google Translate) is promising to put "health at your fingertips" with this wearable.

So far there are no indications as to when the wearable might go on sale, or what the  price might be when it does. Given Xiaomi's involvement, it's possible that availability might be limited outside of China, but we'll have to wait and see.

As for what the Black Shark smart ring will be up against, there's still a lot we don't know about the Samsung Galaxy Ring. Samsung has confirmed that it exists, and that it's coming this year, but other than that we're still mostly in the dark – though rumors suggest it's going to get a full unveiling in July.

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The Samsung Galaxy Ring is one of the most hotly-anticipated gadgets of 2024 – and the smart ring has dropped another strong hint that it's launching soon.

As spotted by SamMobile, the Galaxy Ring has now appeared inside of Samsung's stock Battery Widget (below). To see it yourself, you can add the widget to your Samsung phone's homescreen and see the Galaxy Ring option in widget's Settings menu – although it's obviously pretty useless without the smart ring itself.

So what does this tell us about the Galaxy Ring's launch date? Not a lot, apart from the fact that it's seemingly still on track. SamMobile made the broad guess that it'll be here in "a few weeks or months", but some recent rumors have been a little more specific.

A recent report from The Elec outlined the rough timescale we're expecting. According to its sources, mass production of the Samsung Galaxy Ring will begin in May, with a full unveiling in July, followed by on-sale availability sometime in August.

That seems like a pretty likely timescale, given that Samsung's next Unpacked 2024 is expected to take place in July and will also probably see in the arrival of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Z Flip 6. But even as an iPhone owner, it's the Galaxy Ring I'm most excited about...

What will the Ring actually do?

In recent weeks we've heard a few more hints about the Samsung Galaxy Ring's potential talents, including integration with the Samsung Food app to help it serve up dietary suggestions based on your body mass index (BMI) and calorie consumption. That means we might need to go behind its back to maintain our biscuit habit.

But like most of the best smart rings, the Galaxy Ring's main feature is likely to be sleep-tracking. This was pretty clear from our early hands-on with Samsung's wearable, with our briefing highlighting some of the metrics that smartwatches don't typically cover, including resting heart rate during sleep, night movement, and sleep latency (or how quickly you doze off). 

The real benefit of smart rings is that they can track your sleep – in some respects, even better than smartwatches – but in a far less bulky, uncomfortable form factor than a watch. Samsung reckons this is about more than just figuring out how to get better shut-eye. 

The company's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Hon Pak, told us in February that "sleep is a window to your health" and that "deep and REM sleep correlate strongly with dementia". All of this sleep data will, as well as keep an eye on sleep health, also feed into a Vitality score to serve up insights about your physical and mental readiness for the day ahead.

For me, this justifies the hype around smart rings – it's not a new wearable form factor for the sake of it, but one that has a purpose. I've long used basic smartphone apps like Sleep Recorder on iOS for basic sleep insights, but have never liked the idea of wearing my Apple Watch during the night.

Unfortunately for me, it looks unlikely that the Samsung Galaxy Ring will work with iPhones (initially, at least). So I'll either need to switch to Android, get an Oura Ring or wait for Apple to develop a rival. 

Right now, there are no rumors to suggest that an Apple Ring is at all imminent, but the early promise of the Galaxy Ring's health-tracking powers hopefully do make an Apple rival inevitable. It's certainly filed enough patents around the concept, but we all know that means very little. The likely success of the Galaxy Ring this year might, though, change Apple's mind.

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If you’re like me, you might never have heard of continuous glucose monitors (CGMs) until the last few months, if at all. However, if your online presence has found its way on to any health or wellness algorithms, you’ve almost certainly encountered at least one or two advertisements or endorsements for the technology.

That’s because these smart glucose sensors are being touted by manufacturers and lifestyle brands as the key to unlocking and improving metabolic health, despite having been invented primarily to provide diabetes patients with real-time glucose readings.

From Zoe and Lingo in the UK to Nutrisense and Levels in the US, new brands offering CGM-based lifestyle plans and health-tracking apps are everywhere. Even Apple and Samsung are racing to develop noninvasive glucose monitors to incorporate in some of the best smartwatches.

But what is metabolic health, and does the information generated by these devices provide any insight that can provably help non-diabetic users? These are the questions I sought to answer when I began my journey trialing CGMs this year. 

So, in addition to testing out Lingo by Abbott and the Zoe diet, I’ve spoken with nutritionists, diabetes experts and CGM gurus to find out what all the fuss is about.

What is a CGM, and who’s it for?

CGMs pack some pretty fascinating technology. Once applied, they look pretty nondescript; just a white disc stuck onto your arm and rarely larger than 1.4-inches / 3.5cm in diameter. Under the hood, however, there’s a lot going on.

CGMs insert a subcutaneous (under the skin at the layer closest to your muscle) sensor, using an algorithm to estimate blood glucose concentration based on the levels they find in the interstitial fluid (found in the spaces between cells). They do it in almost real-time, with a delay of just 15-30 minutes depending on the sensor. This data is then transmitted to a companion app and translated into a glucose reading to show how your body responds to recently eaten foods.

I spoke with Dr. Mark J. O’Connor, Assistant Professor of Medicine and practicing endocrinologist, to learn more about how these devices are used in a clinical setting.

He explains: “A CGM is a useful tool for people with diabetes, because it gives them a lot more insight into their blood sugar levels, and it gives us as healthcare providers more insight so that we can make the best recommendations. 

“It also helps people make better decisions about exercise, food, and other factors that affect blood sugar levels. For many people with diabetes, it's a Godsend.”

The technology has come a long way since 1999, when it gained Food and Drug Association approval for clinical use in the US. Abbott, one of three US companies manufacturing the majority of CGMs worldwide, is one of the first to take its technology into the consumer space; its consumer offering, Lingo, arrived in the UK in January, and pending FDA clearance is set to be released in the US later this year. 

I spoke with Olivier Ropars, Division VP of Lingo Biowearables, about the company’s expansion into direct-to-consumer CGMs. 

The key benefit to direct-to-consumer CGMs, says Ropars, lies in understanding your metabolic health – which, broadly speaking, is the absence of metabolic disorders, including conditions such as type 1 diabetes, obesity, and inflammatory bowel diseases. They can also be vital tools in measuring the long-term effects of hypoglycemia (low blood glucose) and hyperglycemia (high glucose levels).

As Ropar explains, a series of studies conducted by Abbott employees and consultants found post-meal glucose spikes correlate to sleep and mental health difficulties and increased hunger. More worryingly, they were also associated with the development of type 2 diabetes and an “increased risk of seven out of the 10 leading causes of death in the US; that's expected to be the same in the UK.” These include cardiovascular disease, liver failure, kidney failure, and increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

CGMs: Fad or fact

“The current healthcare system is entirely focused on curing diseases or trying to catch diseases early. There's very little focus on disease prevention,” says Ropars, citing findings that health trackers such as pedometers have an “overwhelmingly positive” impact on people’s lifestyles. CGMs, he argues, will have the same effect.

Ropars says three groups of people have been particularly receptive to Lingo. The first is people, particularly athletes, looking to optimize their health and performance. These bio-hackers are a core demographic across many CGM offerings; the recently shuttered Supersapiens CGM-based platform (which also used Abbott sensors) enticed users with the promise they’d “never bonk again”, referring to the exercise-induced hypoglycemia endurance athletes can experience when they haven’t eaten enough carbohydrates. Indeed, early studies have shown CGMs might be useful for athletes in determining ideal carbohydrate intake – but as of yet, this isn’t proven.

The second and third groups are more general; people wanting to resolve age- or health-related issues who haven’t seen success in one-size-fits-all solutions; and those with a family history of disease wanting to monitor health and take preventative measures.

O’Connor can likewise see the benefits: “To me, it does make sense that giving people access to more information would be helpful. To see the effect on your blood sugar of routine exercise or a healthy diet is positive reinforcement to continue to make healthy behavioral changes.” A small study funded by Dexcom, another major CGM manufacturer, supports this, seeing a small group of people generally improve their lifestyle after using a CGM.

Lauren Johnson Reynolds, AKA the London Wellness Coach, is a homeopath, nutritionist, and health coach with a special interest in hormone balance following her own experience with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Early studies have shown a correlation between glucose tolerance, diabetes, and PCOS, which is why Reynolds tried out CGMs after giving birth led her HBA1-C to elevate to a near pre-diabetic range.

“There were certain foods and combinations that I felt wouldn’t cause any issues, but were spiking my blood sugar quite badly,” she says. “It was very eye-opening, and I became very aware of how stress impacted my blood sugar.”

A double-edged needle

While there’s plenty of buzz around the potential for CGMs, there’s perhaps not significant enough proof to convince some practitioners. Katherine Metzelaar, MSN, RDN, CD, founder and CEO of Bravespace Nutrition, is one of many concerned parties. “There's this general desire to want to know what's going on inside of our bodies – but it's not as simple as that.

“We have yet to hear about any positive impacts of continuous glucose monitoring outside of the management of diabetes, and I think they cause more harm than good.”

Metzelaar specializes in disordered eating and food positivity, and fears CGMs are another chapter in a legacy of illusory diet and wellness fads that contribute to an ineffective approach to health.

“It could lead to oversimplifying nutrition, increased stress and anxiety around food, and unnecessary restriction or inaccurate and inadequate advice around what to do with that information,” she says. “My recommendation is usually not to do it. Even for clients I work with that have diabetes, it leads to them feeling anxious when they see their glucose spike.”

She’s also broadly unconvinced by the usefulness of the data provided, especially the difficulty in parsing what specifically might have elevated glucose levels when eating different foods.

Despite her own positive experience, Reynolds has similar concerns about the broader use of CGMs. “I recommend them to a few clients but not the majority… When you step back and look at it, it's quite extreme, but we're so used to monitoring our sleep and our recovery, it's become very normalized.”

“Modern society has lost track of hunger signals and thirst signals. We're told to drink eight glasses of water a day and eat three meals and two snacks, and so that's what we do. It's taking away from that mind-body connection. So, although I think they are extremely useful for people who have blood-sugar issues, have a condition like PCOS, or want to try CGMs for a short amount of time, for the average person I don't think it's necessary.”

Metzelaar also has concerns about the self-led nature of many CGM platforms. “To my understanding, there's no oversight from a doctor or a dietitian to interpret that information and add clarity to it.” This, she says, could lead users to change their behaviors based on what could simply be the normal curve of what happens during digestion.

Knowledge is power – until it’s not

As of right now, there are numerous consumer-based studies underway, including large-scale efforts being conducted by CGM platforms including Levels and Signos. In the UK, Zoe Health combines gut microbiome, blood sample, and bowel movement data with its CGM readings, the results of which can be discussed with a Zoe nutritionist. Clearly, there’s plenty of confidence from these providers that there’s something in this CGM craze worth fighting for. 

That’s certainly the resounding take of Ropars, who says we’re only just beginning to unlock the potential of CGMs: “It's not like buying a diet book; that may not work for everyone. A CGM provides personalized information, so you can make the adjustments that matter the most for you.”

So, are CGMs a fad or the future of wellbeing? As of right now, they don’t definitively support non-diabetics to improve their lifestyle, nor can studies fully demonstrate the biomarkers they track have a measurable impact on long-term health and wellbeing. 

Still, the appetite for the technology and the research being conducted into metabolic health, blood glucose, and the relationship with long-term health means, for better or worse, we’re likely going to be seeing a lot more about CGMs in the coming years.

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Details about the Samsung Galaxy Ring continue to slowly drip out, and a new report backs up what we've previously heard about a full launch date, as well as suggesting when we might actually be able to go and buy this wearable.

This report comes from The Elec (via @Tech_Reve), and says that mass production of the smart ring will begin in May. A full unveiling is then scheduled for July (most likely at another Unpacked event), before the device goes on sale sometime in August.

We've already seen rumors that July would be the month that the Galaxy Ring would be launched fully. The Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 5 were introduced at an Unpacked event in July 2023, and the thinking is that the same will happen this year – with a new smart ring and new smartwatches on show, too.

As far as we can tell though, this is the first time someone has mentioned the Galaxy Ring going on sale in August. It was teased back in January, and we got some hands-on time with a prototype at the MWC 2024 expo at the end of February.

Sizes and features

We're relying on the magic of Google Translate here, but The Elec's sources say that 400,000 units of the Galaxy Ring are being produced for starters, and that production will be adjusted depending on the market response.

There will be up to nine sizes of the smart ring apparently, which backs up what we've already heard, and it's said to focus on "wellness" rather than offering any kind of medical device functionality like blood pressure readings – though that might come later.

Battery life is going to be up to nine days, according to a Samsung exec, and Samsung has already told us that it will be available to buy at some point this year. Pricing will be crucial to the success of the wearable, and as yet we haven't heard anything on that.

Samsung's new device has reinvigorated interest in the product category, and there are now other smart rings on the way to take on the likes of Oura. The big unknown is whether or not Apple will launch a smart ring too, as has been rumored.

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The Samsung Galaxy Ring is in something of a launch limbo at the moment, because it officially exists, we've had some brief hands-on time with it, and yet there's still a lot we don't know about the device – like how long it's going to last between battery charges.

Speaking to FNNews (via 9to5Google), Samsung's Hon Pak said that battery life is somewhere between five and nine days, depending on how you use it – though it's worth bearing in mind that the wearable isn't quite in its finished form yet.

That sounds comparable to the week or so you get with the Oura smart ring, one of Samsung's main competitors in this product category. You won't have to charge it every night, which is handy for those sleep tracking capabilities.

Samsung is slowly telling us more and more about its Galaxy Ring. A couple of days ago, for example, we heard that the company is working to make the device compatible with a broad range of Android phones – but it won't work with the iPhone from the off.

Sleep and AI

The ring that we got to spend some time with at MWC 2024 earlier this week was a non-functioning prototype, which gives you an idea of where Samsung is up to in terms of the development. We've got a good idea of what it looks like, at least.

What Samsung has told us is quite a bit about what the Galaxy Ring is designed to do: to track your sleep in a more intelligent and less obtrusive way than a smartwatch, for example, and to crunch stats to assess physical and mental readiness.

A lot of the legwork will be done by AI, and though the Galaxy Ring obviously doesn't have a display of its own, everything gets synced to the Samsung Health app on your phone (assuming you have an Android phone, of course).

Based on everything we've heard so far, our best guess is that the Galaxy Ring will launch in full sometime in July at an Unpacked event – alongside the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, and the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7.

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We got our first proper look at the Samsung Galaxy Ring at the MWC 2024 show this week, but we still don't have all the details about the upcoming wearable. Now Samsung exec Hon Pak has revealed a bit more with regard to smartphone compatibility.

As reported by CNET, Pak revealed that Samsung was working to make the Galaxy Ring compatible with a broad range of Android handsets, beyond Samsung's own Galaxy series – as it will of course be supported by phones like the Samsung Galaxy S24 out of the box.

However, iPhone owners are going to be out of luck, because Samsung doesn't have any plans to make the Galaxy Ring compatible with Apple's handsets, in line with the decision it previously made with the Samsung Galaxy Watch 6.

"We ultimately hope that our devices are of such caliber that people will be willing to switch," Pak said, though it seems more likely that iPhone owners will go for the Oura smart ring or wait for Apple's own effort instead.

Sizes matter

Another tidbit from the CNET article is that the battery capacity of the Galaxy Ring changes with the different sizes (there are currently nine sizes in total). That doesn't tell us much about battery life, but it seems that some variants of the Galaxy Ring may do better than others in this department.

Bear in mind that we're still at a relatively early stage with the Galaxy Ring: Samsung made it clear at MWC 2024 that the models on show were still prototypes. There's no official word on a date for a full launch yet, though July is looking likely.

In our own hands-on time with the Galaxy Ring, we heard that sleep tracking would be one of the main features offered by the wearable, with Samsung keen to appeal to people who want a lightweight, simple, screen-free way of monitoring their slumber.

Of course, all the data the smart ring collects will be accessible through an accompanying app – though not, it sounds like, on the iPhone. Within the next few months we should get full details about Samsung's new product, including the all-important price points that it'll be selling at.

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Gadget launches are getting more drawn out than ever, with the Samsung Galaxy Ring the latest example. The smart ring was teased last month, and now Samsung says we'll get a full reveal at MWC 2024 this week – though it still won't be going on sale for a while yet.

MWC (or Mobile World Congress) is the biggest mobile tech expo of the year, and in its pre-event press release, Samsung says that the Galaxy Ring "is being unveiled as a new health form factor that simplifies everyday wellness".

We'll also be hearing about "upcoming intelligent health features" tied to the Samsung Health app, including more detailed insights into the data that's being collected – sleep patterns, activity times, heart rate, and so on.

The overall aim of the smart ring is to support "smarter and healthier living via a more connected digital wellness platform", Samsung says, and the current Samsung Galaxy Watch 6 and Samsung Galaxy S24 devices will also be on show. The event officially runs from Monday, February 26 to Thursday, February 29.

So what will we find out?

It's not clear exactly what Samsung means when it says "unveiled", but we're assuming that the Galaxy Ring will be on show at MWC 2024 for people to take a look at. Up until now, all we've had officially is a teaser video.

Based on the wording of the press statement, it's also likely that we'll hear a bit about what the Samsung Galaxy Ring can do: the sort of stats it can track, and how all of that data gets presented in the Samsung Health app on a phone.

However, the statement also says that the smart ring won't be publicly available until "later this year". With that in mind, it's not clear if we're going to find out how much the Galaxy Ring costs, or when we'll actually be able to buy it.

As we said at the start, it's stretching the definition of the "product launch", but that's not uncommon these days – we had eight months between the Apple Vision Pro being announced and going on sale, for example, and 13 months to wait for the same period with the Google Pixel Tablet.

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Apple has just launched an entirely new product with its Vision Pro headset, but a new report claims the company could be about to do it again with an entirely different device – a smart ring. However, despite how intriguing that might sound, we have plenty of doubts.

According to a report from Korean outlet ETNews (machine translated version), Apple is on the brink of launching a new smart ring to compete with the likes of Oura and Samsung’s own upcoming device. That could see Apple gaining a relatively early entry into a market that is still developing, potentially giving it a chance to score another hit product.

ETNews quoted an “industry insider” who claimed that Apple’s smart ring is almost upon us: “Apple has consistently released smart ring-related patents for several years, so advanced development for commercialization appears to be imminent.”

It’s true that Apple has been firing off smart ring patents left, right and center. Those patents have covered ideas like connecting to other Apple devices using the ring and embedding a touchscreen for quick controls. That seems to give the impression that something major is afoot.

Reasons for doubt

That might all appear to be pretty convincing. But does it mean that the ring is any closer to being ready than it was, say, a year ago? We’re not so sure.

For one thing, filing patents does not necessarily indicate that a product is about to launch. Apple has been applying for smart ring patents for years, and rumors that the device was in development have been circling since at least 2007. In fact, a patent is no guarantee that a product will ever get released at all – Apple could simply be exploring ideas and eventually decide not to go ahead with the project.

As well as that, Apple has been going hell-for-leather on the Vision Pro in recent years. In 2023, a reputable leaker claimed that the company pulled employees away from multiple different areas of the business in order to focus on the headset (that’s one reason why last year’s software releases were so pared back). It’s hard to imagine that a smart ring could be anywhere near ready when the behemoth that is the Vision Pro has been sucking up all of Apple’s resources.

Still, that doesn’t mean we can totally rule out Apple gearing up its work on a smart ring, and you never know, we might see it sooner than expected. Just don’t bet the bank on it happening this year.

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Last month we got confirmation from Samsung that the Samsung Galaxy Ring was real and on the way, but there's still a lot we don't know about it, including its launch date. Now a new report suggests we can expect to see a full unveiling in July.

The report comes from ET News (via Android Authority), which says July is the month when Samsung is planning another Unpacked launch event, and that the Galaxy Ring is going to be one of the devices that gets shown off.

The wearable will apparently be able to measure blood flow (for stats such as heart rate), and come with electrocardiogram functions too – the tech that's useful for detecting various cardiovascular issues, including atrial fibrillation.

One other tidbit from the report is that there are apparently going to be around eight different sizes of the Galaxy Ring to choose from. That backs up what we'd previously heard from someone who says they've seen the smart ring in person.

A gadget bonanza

Considering what we saw at the July 2023 Unpacked event, it's reasonable to assume that this year's event will also see the unveiling of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6, the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, and quite probably the Samsung Galaxy Watch 7 as well.

That would be quite a busy show then – and those are all important devices for Samsung, as is the new Galaxy Ring. If you're planning to watch the event this year, you might want to set aside an hour or two, if Samsung gives all of these gadgets a proper introduction.

Samsung Head of Customer Experience Patrick Chomet had previously told us that the Galaxy Ring would be out at some point this year, and there have been other signs that the wearable would be breaking cover in the not-too-distant future.

The Galaxy Ring will be launching into a market that isn't hugely congested at the moment – Oura is perhaps the best-known smart ring maker right now, though there are others. Apple is rumored to be planning a smart ring too, but it's unlikely to appear soon.

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We got a surprise reveal for the Samsung Galaxy Ring at the big Unpacked event last month, though we didn't get much in the way of details. Now though, we have a slightly better idea of when this new device is actually going to go on sale.

Samsung exec Patrick Chomet had previously told TechRadar that the Galaxy Ring launch would be later this year, and Daniel Seung of Samsung Electronics has just gone on the record mentioning a full unveiling in the second half of 2024.

Well, that's according to SamMobile, anyway – the original LinkedIn post from Seung has now been removed, so we're guessing that Samsung wasn't actually ready to narrow down the Galaxy Ring on sale date to six specific months.

The post was clearly there at some point, so we can take it as a hint as to when you'll actually be able to get a Galaxy Ring, but it's also worth bearing in mind that production schedules are often fluid – Samsung itself might not have decided on a launch date yet.

The waiting game

Last month, we were told that Samsung was "getting there" with the development of the wearable product, but that the company still had "a lot" to do in terms of finalizing the device for its debut. That suggests it's several months away, at least.

On the other hand, mentions of the Galaxy Ring have already started appearing in Samsung's own Good Lock app, so that makes us think that all the pieces are falling into place for the smart ring to actually go on sale.

There's still a lot we don't know about the specifications and functions of the device. It seems as though a select number of people have already had some time with it, and we're expecting a lightweight device available in multiple sizes and colors.

Samsung usually has an Unpacked event around the middle of the year, so that could well be when the Galaxy Ring launches fully – perhaps alongside the Galaxy Z Fold 6, the Galaxy Z Flip 6, the Galaxy Watch 7, and the Galaxy Watch 7 Classic.

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The Samsung Galaxy Ring looks likely to be at the forefront of a new health tracking drive from Samsung, and it could be one of the devices that beats Apple to breakthrough features such as continuous blood pressure monitoring and blood glucose readings.

Those two features are currently beyond the reach of consumer-level smartwatches and fitness trackers, and require a proper clinical device – but in an interview with Bloomberg, Samsung health executive Hon Pak says the company is working hard to develop them. Apparently, noninvasive glucose monitoring could arrive "in some form within five years", Samsung said.

"If we can do continuous blood pressure and glucose, we're in a whole different ball game," Pak said. "I think that's where everyone is trying to get to. We're putting significant investment toward that."

Getting these features in a tiny wrist-based device isn't easy – people with diabetes have traditionally needed to use a finger-prick test for measuring glucose levels, for example. Continuous, non-invasive glucose monitors that stick to the skin are now available, but they need to be replaced every 7-14 days, which isn't an option for a smartwatch.

Give me a ring

Pak also mentioned the upcoming Galaxy Ring in the interview. It's expected to launch at some point in 2024, with activity and sleep tracking built in, but the Bloomberg report says "more health features" are planned for the future.

"The ring represents that community of people who want health tracking that is more comfortable and less obtrusive," Pak said. "It's meeting a need of a specific population of people who want to track and measure, but in a different way."

Pak also went on record as saying that future versions of the Samsung Galaxy Buds could well have more health sensors integrated into them, and that the company was exploring meditation and mental health options for virtual reality headsets.

Apple, meanwhile, certainly isn't standing still: we've heard that it's working hard to make blood glucose monitoring tech available in upcoming Apple Watches, though its ongoing patent dispute may mean those plans are delayed for the foreseeable future.

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Even though the Galaxy S24 phones dominated Samsung's Unpacked launch event last week, we were also intrigued by the brief reveal of the Samsung Galaxy Ring at the end of the show – and some more details about the upcoming wearable are now leaking out.

According to industry analyst Avi Greengart (via SamMobile), who claims to have had some hands-on time with the smart ring, it is "ridiculously light". It shouldn't be a problem keeping this device on your finger around the clock, it sounds like.

Greengart also says the Galaxy Ring is coming in "three finishes" and "sizes up to 13", which we're assuming is a reference to the US ring size measurement – an inside diameter of 0.874 inches or 22.20mm.

The wearable is coming "later this year" Greengart says, which we would've expected, but there was no word from this source on the price: that's still "TBD". It's quite possible Samsung still hasn't decided how much this new piece of hardware is going to cost to buy.

Coming soon

Greengart goes on to say the ring is "aimed at tracking health, wellness, and sleep metrics", so this is very much a rival to existing smart rings such as the Oura. It sounds as though the Samsung Galaxy Ring will be able to track similar metrics to those logged by a smartwatch or a fitness tracker.

These are some welcome extra details about the Galaxy Ring, because Samsung has told us very little so far. Samsung's Patrick Chomet did tell TechRadar that the hardware is "beautiful" and "ready" – but it won't actually be out until "a bit later in the year".

The smart money would be on the Samsung Galaxy Ring launching around July time, as per previous rumors. That would put it at the same unveiling as the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6 and the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 6, which would make sense.

We will of course bring you all the official announcements as they're made – and in the meantime keep you up to date with any tidbits of information that slip out about the latest new product category Samsung is taking on.

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The smart ring producer and Oura Ring rival, Circular, has revealed its new Circular Ring Slim, reportedly the world’s “thinnest and lightest health ring”, with a host of new features - including its own AI assistant. 

The Oura Ring Generation 3, top of our list of the best smart rings and the one to beat right now, weighs between 4-6 grams depending on the size you choose. The Circular Ring Slim reportedly measures 2.2m in thickness and weighs only 2 grams, making it the lightest, slimmest ring available right now. 

It boasts six days of battery life (one day fewer than Oura), a three-axis accelerometer that records activity and movement, a skin temperature sensor, and LED sensors to pick up heart rate and blood oxygen information. This also allows it to track circadian rhythm and sleep quality information at night. This technology isn’t new - in fact, coupled with their minimalist form factor, this sort of tracking makes smart rings some of the best sleep trackers available right now. 

What is new is the concept of haptic vibrations in a smart ring, which allows it to offer a smart alarm functionality to wake with vibrations instead of sound. The vibrations also offer prompts during meditation, signaling when you should breathe in or out, or other notification functionalities. 

The ring is connected to Kira Plus, a new “AI-powered conversational health and wellness assistant” said to be “leveraging the latest generative AI language models”. Kira Plus takes on the role of a personal health coach, where you can ask it questions and it will respond based on your personal data. 

The Circular Ring Slim is available to pre-order now for $245 in the US and £199 in the UK (Australia pricing TBC) and will ship on December 15. After that date, the Slim will be priced at $275 / £225. Unlike Oura, there is no subscription fee with Circular. 

 Analysis: Another smart ring moves into orbit 

As the Samsung Galaxy Ring gears up for an expected Q1 2024 launch date, the Circular Slim joins Oura, the Ultrahuman Ring Air, and other tiny smart devices to fill out the category of finger-borne wellness wearables, which is gathering pace. 

Just like smartphones, there are a lot of cheap imitation knock-off rings online, which are difficult to muddle through even for experts like ourselves, and this combined with the relative newness of smart rings can make the category seem somewhat impenetrable. However, Oura, Ultrahuman, and (hopefully) now Circular seem to be leading the charge with a few quality products, with Samsung soon to follow. 

I’m interested in the concept of haptic feedback via your ring, but I’m incredibly skeptical about the idea of an AI health coach trained on other people’s data points, especially one from a relatively new company. AI as a whole is very trendy right now and tacked onto everything to make sure it sells, and the rush to get it ready for a quick launch means sometimes due diligence hasn’t been done.

While AI gaffs are funny to post on X (formerly Twitter, etc), having an AI-powered chatbot designed for health purposes without proper boundaries creates all sorts of potential problems if the technology doesn’t work as designed. I wouldn’t trust a doctor, personal trainer, or physiotherapist without proper qualifications, and I certainly wouldn’t put my health in the hands of an autonomous machine without proper assurance it’s going to perform as described. 

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The best smart rings give you advanced health tracking in a much more discreet way than a smartwatch. You get detailed sleep tracking, workout data, and increasingly smart AI insights, all from something you can wear all day without really noticing it.

Right now, the Oura Ring 5 and the Samsung Galaxy Ring are the main players. If you already use a Samsung phone and want to avoid a subscription, the Galaxy Ring makes a lot of sense. If you want deeper insights and do not mind paying a monthly fee, Oura is a very strong contender.

There are cheaper options too. The Amazfit Helio Ring and RingConn models are more affordable and work across different phones, while the Ultrahuman Ring Air is a good Oura alternative if you want detailed wellness tracking without the ongoing subscription.

We have tested every smart ring in this guide for at least two weeks. That means wearing them all day and night, running the battery flat, and using features like sleep tracking, heart rate monitoring, workouts, and recovery scores to see how they actually hold up in real life. We then score each one for performance, design, features, and value, and only the top-rated models make it into this guide.

Best smart ring overall

Some smart rings are great at collecting data. The Oura Ring 5 is great at making sense of it. Rather than leaving you to decipher endless charts, it turns your sleep, recovery and activity into insights that are easy to understand and, more importantly, easy to act on.

It also disappears on your finger in a way few wearables manage. In testing, our reviewer Amelia quickly forgot she was wearing it, thanks in part to a redesigned titanium body that's 40% smaller than the previous model. It looks more like a piece of jewellery than a fitness tracker, lasts around a week between charges and takes roughly an hour to recharge.

Sleep tracking remains the star of the show. The Ring 5 monitors more than 50 health and wellness metrics while you sleep, before turning them into Sleep and Readiness Scores that tell you how well you've recovered. Amelia also compared its heart rate readings against the Polar H10 chest strap and found they closely matched, giving us confidence that those insights are based on reliable data rather than clever guesswork.

None of this comes cheap. The Ring 5 is one of the most expensive smart rings you can buy, and you'll also need an Oura membership to unlock many of its best features. But unlike other options in this guide, it offers the same excellent experience on both iPhone and Android, making it an easy recommendation for almost anyone. If you're happy with the ongoing subscription, we think it's the strongest smart ring on the market currently.

Read our full Oura Ring 5 review

Best Samsung smart ring

Already have a Samsung Galaxy phone? We'd point you towards the Galaxy Ring. It delivers reliable sleep tracking, skips the monthly subscription you'll pay with the Oura Ring and integrates seamlessly with Samsung Health. Over time, that makes it the more affordable option if you're already part of Samsung's ecosystem.

Comfort is every bit as impressive as the Oura Ring 5. During testing, our reviewer often forgot he was wearing the Galaxy Ring, making it easy to keep on day and night. Battery life is another plus, lasting around a week between charges. If you also own a compatible Galaxy Watch, Samsung can even share health tracking between the two devices to eke out a little more battery life, although most people won't need to rely on it.

The sleep tracking is impressive. We found the overnight reports reliable, with insights that feel like having the sleep features of a Galaxy Watch without wearing one to bed. Samsung Health also does a pretty great job of explaining what your data means, rather than leaving you to interpret endless graphs on your own.

The trade-off is flexibility. The Galaxy Ring works with many Android phones, but Samsung owners get the fullest experience, with some features reserved for Galaxy devices. There's no iPhone support either. That's why the Oura Ring 5 remains our best overall pick, but if you're already using a Samsung phone, we'd happily save the subscription fee and choose the Galaxy Ring instead.

Read our full Samsung Galaxy Ring review

Best premium smart ring

The Oura Ring 5 is the most premium smart ring we've tested, combining a beautifully refined design with some of the most comprehensive wellness tracking available. Its redesigned titanium body is 40% smaller than the previous model, making it light enough to disappear on your finger while still looking more like a piece of jewellery than a health tracker.

During testing, our reviewer Amelia Schwanke found it so comfortable she quickly forgot she was wearing it. The seven-day battery life meant there was rarely any need to think about charging it, and when it did run low, it reached a full charge in around an hour.

Sleep tracking is one of the Ring 5's biggest strengths. It tracks more than 50 health and wellness metrics overnight, using them to generate detailed Sleep and Readiness Scores. During testing, Amelia found its heart rate readings closely matched those from the Polar H10 chest strap, giving us confidence in the accuracy of those insights, which she said she found useful and motivating.

The companion app is equally polished. Instead of bombarding you with charts and numbers, it presents your health data in a clean, intuitive way that's easy to understand while still offering plenty of depth if you want to dig into your long-term trends.

The biggest drawback is the price. Not only is the Ring 5 one of the most expensive smart rings you can buy, but unlocking its full feature set requires an Oura membership. If you're willing to stomach the ongoing cost, however, you'll be rewarded with the most polished smart ring we've tested and one that's genuinely easy to wear every day.

Read our full Oura Ring 5 review

Best smart ring on a budget

If you want a smart ring that's cheap and don't mind a bit of compromise in other areas, the Amazfit Helio Ring is a great choice.

Amazfit is well known for making affordable but reliable gadgets, such as the five-star Amazfit Active 2 smartwatch. The ring has a nice finish and design, standing out against some of the other picks on the market. It's very comfortable, so won't be a pain to wear in bed, and the sleep tracking metrics held up well in our testing.

We were really impressed by the extensive sleep tracking metrics including sleep stages, duration, and metrics that are presented as easy-to-read charts. You also get data for your breathing, temperature, and heart rate while you sleep, which is combined to produce a morning readiness score.

It's not perfect, the sizing and colors are limited, as are the workout modes, and the battery life is much less than you'll get from more expensive picks.

Read our full Amazfit Helio Ring review

Best smart ring for comfort

If you're looking for the lightest ring on the market, the Ultrahuman Ring Air lives up to its name, only weighing in at 2.4g to 3.6g depending on your size.

Offering similar features to the Oura Ring, it uses a range of sensors to track all kinds of data about heart rate, movement, sleep, skin temperature, and more. Like the Oura Ring, it also has a big focus on sleep and recovery, and a handy app that we found to be incredibly thorough in terms of the data it presents, but also easy to use during our testing.

Design-wise, we found it stylish-looking and comfortable to wear, although the matte black version was prone to scratching. Luckily, there are other finishes available now that should fare better. The inside, where the sensors lie against your skin, is covered with see-through hypoallergenic epoxy resin coating, which is velvety smooth.

One caveat for those interested in this ring is its availability. Following a patent dispute with Oura, the Ring Air has had a complicated relationship with the U.S. market, although it remains available in regions including the U.K. and Europe.

Read our full Ultrahuman Ring Air review

Best smart ring for battery life

While the RingConn Gen 2 Air is our budget pick (see below), the heftier Gen 2 gets the go-ahead here because of its industry-leading battery life.

You can expect up to 12 days of use from the RingConn Gen 2, which no other smart ring comes close to. That's despite the fact it weighs an astonishing three grams and is both thinner and narrower than its predecessor.

It's a titanium alloy available in three colors, and the RingConn Gen 2 features new sleep apnea tracking. We loved the simple score you get for each metric such as Sleep, Stress, Vital Signs, and more. We also enjoyed the recommendations it gave us based on our stress and activity levels.

Fitness tracking is a bit more limited, but the in-depth sleep stats and excellent longevity make this a really excellent choice and a brilliant upgrade over the original. However, it's more costly, hence it doesn't supplant the first-generation RingConn in the budget category.

Read our full RingConn Gen 2 review

Also tested

Not every ring can be a winner. Here are the models we've tested but wouldn't recommend over our top picks.

How to choose the best smart ring for you

The smart ring space is still relatively new, which means there isn’t much choice when it comes to finding the best smart ring for you.

The first consideration needs to be why you want one in the first place. Right now, the main types of smart rings can roughly be divided into three categories: those designed to track all of your vitals with a focus on sleep, those solely for sleep tracking, and several others that enable you to make payments. We imagine that soon these uses will be combined, but for now your first decision is what you’d like one for.

The next consideration is design. You’d be forgiven for assuming all of the best smart rings in the guide above are the same device. But there are some subtle differences, like the finish and colours, as well as the fit and weight. For example, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is lighter than its rivals in our list. That gap could narrow following the announcement of the Oura Ring 5, which is being marketed as the world’s smallest smart ring.

Finally, have a look at the different features on offer. Although many of the rings in each of those categories we’ve outlined above bring you similar features, there are some that are unique in what they offer.

If you’re unsure about whether a smart ring is for you, we highly recommend ordering a testing kit – most of the companies in the list above will send one out to you for free. This way you can be sure you’re getting the perfect fit but also wear the test ring for a few days to see if the design is right for you. Just remember the actual ring itself is likely to be a little heavier but will feel much more comfy and premium given the materials it’s made from.

How we test the best smart rings

We've had chance to test several of the best smart rings in this guide. Which means we know what to expect when it comes to key features, design, battery life, accompanying apps and more.

During our testing, we were very keen to truly assess how comfortable each ring is, as we know this is a major concern with the smart ring form factor. We wore the rings for days and even weeks at a time, assessing general comfort, bulkiness, whether we had to remove them for certain activities and how they fare in water.

We used each of the apps extensively, digging into all of the data and assessing them for thoroughness and whether they pair data with generally useful insights and recommendations. It's not handy to simply present a series of graphs without context.

Each of the smart rings above has its own set of unique features, so we made sure to assess each separately based on what they offer and which ring we believe is the best for each purpose.

We've made it clear which of the best smart rings above we've yet to get our hands on and will be adding reviews for those devices as soon as we can. Until then, we've based our recommendations on specs, features, other reviews and how our experience with other smart rings informs these choices.

The best smart rings: FAQ

Rumors of an incoming Samsung Galaxy Ring continue to gain momentum, but it may not be here for a few months yet – the latest indication is that the smart ring won't be seeing the light of day until the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 6.

This is according to South Korean outlet The Elec (via Android Authority). We know that the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5 was launched in July 2023, so you would think the Z Fold 6 and the Galaxy Ring will be arriving around July 2024.

Perhaps not: as well as suggesting the smart ring will arrive at the same time as the foldable, it also mentions the third quarter of 2024, which indicates both these devices may be launched in August, September or October.

In fact, The Elec then goes on to say that an early 2025 launch for the Galaxy Ring is also a possibility. It would seem that there's still a lot of uncertainty about how soon the device is going to be ready for the consumer market.

Four sizes

The second half of 2024 or early 2025 is somewhat later than we were expecting. Previous rumors had pegged the launch date to January 2024, which would've meant the smart ring launching at the same time as the Samsung Galaxy S24 series.

We've also seen pictures of the wearable inside Samsung apps, another indication that it could be about to appear. That said, other reports of the Galaxy Ring being at the production stage have also mentioned a 2024 appearance.

There are a few more tidbits to pull out of the article on The Elec. Apparently only one model of the Samsung Galaxy Ring is in production, though it will come in four sizes to fit as many finger types as possible.

What's more, Samsung is also considering seeking medical approval for the device, it seems: that would mean regulatory approval for readings taken by various sensors (like a heart rate sensor), and could push the launch date back further.

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The Oura Ring is already one of the best sleep trackers you can buy and now it's adding a new social feature to help you connect (or perhaps compete) with your fellow Oura wearers.

The new Oura Circles feature lets you share your sleep, readiness and activity scores with up to 20 people, as long as they're also Oura members (a subscription that costs $5.99 per month, or around £5.15 / AU$9.60 a month).

If you're worried about oversharing health data with friends or family, you can customize what you share in Circles. For example, you could decide to share two weeks' worth of all of your Oura Scores, or just your nightly Sleep Score. You can also take breaks with the option to leave or rejoin Circles whenever you like.

The feature effectively turns the Oura app into a social fitness hub like Strava, only for broader health rather than specific sports. Like Strava, you'll be able to react to data shared in Oura Circles with emojis like crowns or fire, to help give them a virtual high-five. There are also more subtle and supportive reactions for lower scores, though there's no way to message someone directly within the app.

The graphs for each Circle member show a two-week range of their scores, but you can press and hold on a graph and drag sideways to view one of your friend's scores for previous days. Oura says it's also planning to let Circle members share more data beyond those three main scores (for sleep, readiness and activity) in future.

Unfortunately, Circles doesn't play nice with the first-gen Oura ring – only owners of the Oura Ring Generation 2 and Oura Ring Generation 3 can share their scores and react to other members. You can also only join up to 10 Circles, although that's likely more than enough for most people.

To start making your new Circle and invite other members to it, you can either tap the promo card that'll appear in the latest version of the app, or find it in the menu in the upper left-hand corner of the Oura's Home tab.

Analysis: Fellowship of the ring

The arrival of Oura Circles makes a lot of sense for the popular, but still pretty niche, Oura Ring. Naturally, Oura's blog post says the feature has been designed to help provide social connection and combat post-pandemic loneliness issues.

It provides the example of seeing your significant other’s Readiness Score drop over the week, allowing you to check in with them and lend a bit of support. While that's true, it is also about creating mini clubs for competitive sharing – and ultimately making the Oura ring more attractive to people outside those clubs.

Fortunately, you do have control over the kinds of data you share, so you don't have to lay bare your nightly sleep quality to a circle of friends. That said, while living with the Oura ring we found sleep-tracking to be its main appeal – the lack of GPS and other sensors means it isn't ready to replace the best Apple Watch or Garmin just yet.

While some may prefer to keep their health data private rather than opened up to social peer pressure, Circles is an entirely optional feature – even if you may need to turn down the odd Circles invitation. And with the rumored Oura Ring 4 potentially bringing contactless payments to your finger, smart rings are only going to get smarter from here.

While most of us have smartwatches or trackers wrapped around our wrists to monitor stats such as daily steps and heart rate, smart rings offer a convenient and lightweight alternative – and it looks as though we might soon have a new product in the category.

A Samsung patent for a smart ring-style device has been reported on the Naver forum in South Korea (via Notebookcheck), and the thinking is that the device could offer a suite of features similar to those available on the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5.

The usual caveats with patent applications apply: these only indicate the research and development projects happening inside a company, and don't guarantee the appearance of an actual device. However, it seems Samsung is at least exploring its options when it comes to smart rings.

One ring to rule them all

At the moment, the biggest name in the smart ring game is Oura, with the third-generation Oura smart ring offering features such as 24/7 heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and even some mindfulness exercises. It retails for $299, which at the time of writing works out at about £265 / AU$470.

According to those in the know, Samsung is planning to squeeze an optical heart rate monitor and ECG capabilities into the smart ring. An ECG (electrocardiogram) reading looks for irregularities in heartbeat rhythms.

It doesn't sound as though the device is going to be appearing any time soon, if indeed it makes it to the consumer market at all – but the signs are that Samsung is planning on expanding its Galaxy range of devices even further.

Analysis: smart ring vs smartwatch

If you've not come across the idea of a smart ring before, it may seem a bit of an oddity. However, these wearables can beat smartwatches in several areas, not least battery life – the Oura ring can last for a whole week between charges.

A ring is also a more discreet device compared with smartwatches or even more basic fitness trackers that are worn around the wrist. If you engage in intense sports and workouts then you might find you prefer the more lightweight and fixed feel of a smart ring compared to the alternatives.

When it comes to sleep monitoring, again the more unobtrusive the device the better. Many of us are already used to wearing rings – whether for engagements, marriages or just decoration – and so a smart ring isn't all that much more to wear (though we'd be surprised if anyone proposed using one).

Samsung is clearly going to do its research before it decides to launch a smart ring, and it's not the only company looking to fill the niche in the market: Fitbit is also said to be working on a smart ring, while a variety of other options are also appearing.

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The power of artificial intelligence has let wearables evolve from measuring simple stats like step count or your pulse to broader concepts such as “readiness” or “alertness.” But why stop at health? What about your mood?

That’s the concept behind the Happy Ring, a new gadget from Happy Health and Tinder founder Sean Rad – yes, really! The co-founder and current Chairman of the largest dating site in the world has a new vision for the wearable world, based on custom biometric sensors and proprietary algorithms that can measure your sleep, stress, and ultimately mood. The company says this simple ceramic and resin band can capture brain signals from the peripheral nervous system and translate them into real-time, objective measures of mood state.

No, this ring won't connect you with your next life partner. But it will let you know if you're happy right now.

“There are many wearables that help you on your fitness journey,” says Paul Berns, Co-Founder and Chairman of Happy Health. “[But] they widely ignore the mind and its effect on your overall well-being. The ability to measure and understand our emotional state will help us identify the habits that result in better health."

The team behind the ring has science chops to be sure. Berns is joined at the helm of Happy Health by Sue Smalley, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, where she founded the Mindful Awareness Research Center (MARC), and Dr. Dustin Freckleton, a serial entrepreneur with more than 15 patents to his name. Sean Rad, meanwhile, invented the concept of swiping right.

The most well-known smart ring on the market is the Oura, of course, a very well-regarded wearable that focuses on sleep, measuring the stages of your sleep, your pulse, breathing, and so on to bring you a robust picture of what you do during the night. The Happy Ring employs a similar set of sensors on its inside edge, which press against your skin to capture brain signals from peripheral nervous system activity.

Like the Oura, the Happy Ring sits on a custom obelisk to wirelessly charge, shaped sort of like a cowboy hat. It comes in either glossy black or glossy white. And like much of the technology space, the focus here is on service rather than the device. The Happy Ring itself comes free with your subscription, and what you pay per month depends on how long you subscribe. A 24-month plan costs $480, or $20 per month, while a one year plan is $300 ($25/month). Or pay as you go at $30 per month. 

All levels include sleep analysis and reporting, heart rate monitoring, guided breathing exercises, and CBT-backed journal prompts through the Happy app, which syncs with Apple Health. An Android-compatible version will be released “in the near future,” the company tells me.

While the concept of measuring mood is fascinating, the cost of the device is worthy of comment. The Oura Ring sells for $300 to $400, depending on finish, and a subscription costs $5 per month. The Happy Ring lowers upfront costs to zero, but a year of the service itself will cost at least $240, for example. And higher levels of services add up quickly.

The company tells TechRadar that the Happy Ring’s battery will last two to three days, with continuous sampling of data from its various sensors, and it will recharge in about an hour. In contrast, the Oura Ring can last five to six days, although its sensors are not continually in operation. It’s easy enough to integrate either device into a regular routine to ensure it remains fully charged: Simply place the ring on the custom charging base before you hop into the shower or during your evening bed-prep and you shouldn’t have to worry twice.

The Happy Ring is now available for purchase via a waitlist, although it won't begin shipping until later this year. and we look forward to bringing you our detailed review.

Those of you who own a smartwatch will be familiar with a major drawback of any wearable device that has a smaller screen than a smartphone – text input is a real pain.

But a team of wearable computing engineers at Georgia Tech has developed what looks like a potential solution. It's a smart ring that lets you trace letters and numbers with your thumb, allowing easy, silent text input on even the tiniest screens.

“A ring augments the fingers in a way that is fairly non-obstructive during daily activities. A ring is also socially acceptable, unlike other wearable input devices,” said Cheng Zhang, the Georgia Tech graduate student who created the technology.

How it works

The system, which is called Fingersound, works pretty simply. The ring has an on-board gyroscope and microphone which detect when the user places their thumb over their fingers and begins to draw a shape. Once the shape is recognized, it can give tactile feedback. 

“Our system uses sound and movement to identify intended gestures, which improves the accuracy compared to a system just looking for movements,” said Zhang. 

“For instance, to a gyroscope, random finger movements during walking may look very similar to the thumb gestures. But based on our investigation, the sounds caused by these daily activities are quite different from each other.”  

Easy to use

The team says that the result is a system that is always available and easy to use. “When a person grabs their phone during a meeting, even if trying to silence it, the gesture can infringe on the conversation or be distracting,” explained Thad Starner, the Georgia Tech School of Interactive Computing professor leading the project. 

“But if they can simply send the call to voicemail, perhaps by writing an ‘x’ on their hand below the table, there isn’t an interruption.”

The full details of the project were presented at Unicomp and the ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computing earlier this year.

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Whenever you’re in danger, usually the last thing you're able to do is get to your phone and call your friends and family – that’s why the Nimb has put a panic button in a much easier to reach place.

The device has a button at the back of the ring so you can alert loved ones of your location when you feel in danger.

The small button can be pressed with your thumb on the same hand and if you hold it for three seconds it will send your location and an alert to preset responders. 

Hit it in a panic

It may sound like you would be able to hit this button by mistake, but we used the Nimb ring at the Wearable Technology Show 2017 in London and it’s certainly difficult to press by accident.

The device will also vibrate when the button is being pressed, so you’ll feel it on your finger if you're holding it down by accident.  There's also the option to cancel the alert within 15 seconds if you've pressed it by mistake.

The obvious flaw: the Nimb ring is a large device that many could find uncomfortable on the finger, although in terms of aesthetics there's the choice of either black or white, and a variety of sizes to choose from.

Surprisingly, it'll only need recharging every two weeks, so in order to feel safe you’ll need to remember to recharge this every fortnight.

Nimb has an app that will work on your iPhone or Android device to share your location and includes your medical profile too, so is especially useful for the elderly or anyone with a serious medical condition.

You can pre-order the ring in the US now from the official Nimb website for $129.99 (about £105, AU$170) with the company aiming to ship orders in the next few weeks. The company wants to release in the UK soon but there's no word on an Australian launch.

Despite Samsung launching a new wave of Gear S3 smartwatches at IFA 2016, it's fair to say that the smartwatch revolution has got off to a slow start. But watches might not be the only wearable at the end of Samsung's sleeves – a new patent suggests the company is taking smart rings seriously too.

A patent filed by the company (spotted by Galaxyclub.nl) shows a tech-filled loop worn on the finger by its user, complete with buttons and sensors, presumably to control other connected devices.

Plus and minus buttons on the ring point towards media volume controls, while a set of dots on the underside could indicate some sort of fitness monitoring functions, such as a heart rate sensor.

Ring VR?

As a patent showing a specific design, rather than concept functions, it's clearly an area that Samsung's keeping a keen eye on. A patent is never a guarantee of a final product, but it's worth exploring what Samsung could be planning for such a device.

Could the smart ring be used to control Samsung's nascent Gear VR virtual reality experiences? As a mobile VR viewer, obscuring peripheral vision, a low-profile controller for use on the go could be useful. Samsung's SmartThings IoT home automation hub could be a potential pairing, too.

Potential fitness functions aside however, it's hard to see why anyone would use a smart ring merely for smartphone control.

Though there's not much competition out there, existing smart rings have hardly set the world on fire. The Mota Kickstarter never got off the ground and the Ring, when it eventually materialised, barely worked at all.

• For something a little more familiar, check out Samsung's new Gear S3 smartwatches