Circular Ring Slim review: Skinny competition to Samsung and Oura

The Round Ring Slim is one other sensible ring that desires to carry health and wellness monitoring to your finger and is at the moment the slimmest sensible ring you slip onto considered one of your digits.

The subscription-free ring additionally is available in cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Ring and the Oura Ring Gen 3 and guarantees to trace related metrics together with coronary heart price, temperature, sleep and every day steps.

It’s additionally contains an AI assistant to make suggestions based mostly in your information that will help you stick with more healthy habits. It’s a lovely prospect because it is available in lower than the big-name sensible ring competitors, and does put in a superb monitoring efficiency with some issues that have to be labored on.

Design & Construct

• Slimmest sensible ring accessible
• IP68 water resistance ranking
• Small charging dongle

To massively confuse issues, Round has three sensible rings and two of these three sensible rings are slim variations. There’s the Round Ring Professional, which options interchangeable outer shells, then there’s the Round Ring Slim Mild, which I’ve additionally examined, and primarily lacks the haptic vibrations you do get on the Round Ring Slim examined on this overview.

The mannequin has been round for a short time however the agency has upgraded it with out altering the identify – not even with a ‘2024’ moniker. Relaxation assured, this overview is of the brand-new model.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

The Round Ring Slim weighs simply 2g, so it’s satisfyingly gentle and measures 2.2mm thick, which makes it thinner than the Samsung Galaxy Ring (2.6mm) and the Oura Ring Gen 3 (2.5mm), which is pictured under alongside the Round Slim.

It is available in only one matte black look and in contrast to different titanium-based rings, Round has opted for a mixture of aluminium and carbon fiber with a non-metallic interior the place the sensors lie. It’s a little bit of a plain ring to have a look at and doesn’t scream trendy in the identical approach that Oura and Samsung’s ring clearly do however it’s going to go well with if you’d like one thing refined.

It does, nevertheless, appear to have dealt with keeping off scratches higher than the Round Ring Slim Mild and fortunately additionally lacks the extra distinguished Round brand that I discovered made the ring look a bit cheesy.

It is available in eight totally different ring sizes, starting from US 6-13, and you’ve got the choice to buy it with the sizing package or print out one of many 3D sizing kits alternatively. I’ve discovered that opting for a similar measurement because the Oura Ring ensured I obtained a really dependable match that didn’t budge and likewise didn’t really feel too tight to put on.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Together with the optical sensors baked inside, Round additionally builds in a vibration motor, which is used for the alarm characteristic, which you’ll be able to arrange within the companion app. As soon as the alarm is ready, you’ll be able to double-tap on the emblem to show it off.

When it’s good to cost the ring, it comes with a really moveable charger which you can clip onto your keys. The USB-C dongle design does make it a little bit simpler to misplace than different sensible ring chargers and plugging it into one thing like a laptop computer will be fiddly as adjoining ports seemingly have to be empty with a view to match the ring on.

However in case you like the concept of a small charger setup, that is by far the smallest accessible on a sensible ring proper now. Word that the Samsung and RingConn include charging circumstances (like wi-fi earbuds) so you’ll be able to cost wherever and a number of occasions over.

From a sturdiness perspective, the Ring Slim carries an IP68 ranking, which suggests it may be submerged in water as much as 5m for half-hour. So consider this one as one to maintain on for showers and washing your arms. It’s not the strongest water resistance you’ll discover on a sensible ring.

Health & Monitoring 

• Tracks steps, sleep, coronary heart price and stress
• Kira+ sensible assistant
• Devoted sports activities monitoring mode

The Round Ring Slim packs in acquainted sensible ring sensors. There’s an infrared one together with one purple and one inexperienced LED sensor. These are used for coronary heart price and blood oxygen monitoring as effectively monitoring metrics like respiration price.

There’s additionally a pores and skin temperature sensor that will help you monitor, effectively, temperature variations. To cowl motion, there’s a 3-axis accelerometer to trace exercise similar to steps and allow sleep monitoring.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

All of that information is synced to the Round companion smartphone app, which is on the market for each iPhone and Android and as talked about, doesn’t require a subscription to entry all the options and insights accessible – in contrast to some rivals similar to Oura.

The app is a bit on the busy aspect and whereas the setup course of was fairly faultless (though Tech Advisor Critiques Editor, Chris struggled to get his paired for some time), elements like information syncing can take some time.

There’s storage capability on the ring for as much as 20 days price of information, however finally you’re going to wish to have interaction with that app each day to get a way of what your information is saying about your common well-being. Ready round for that information to seem is a bore.

While you do get the info, there’s rather a lot occurring right here. You’ve obtained Circles on the high of the app, to supply shortcuts to totally different monitoring information for starters.

There’s a dashboard of your newest stats under that and now Round has added area for telling you when is an efficient time for productiveness or taking stimulants like espresso. There’s additionally Kira+, an AI sensible assistant that gives suggestions and ideas based mostly in your information.

I can see from the primary dashboard when metrics like resting coronary heart price has spiked or there’s been an enormous variation in pores and skin temperature. The Circles can provide an indicator of when sleep or power ranges are good with easy scoring. The issue is that this all lives on the identical web page and never in a really user-friendly approach.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

While you flip to it for every day exercise monitoring like counting steps, constantly monitoring coronary heart price and sleep monitoring, there’s some good and dangerous.

Step counts felt rather a lot larger on most days in comparison with two different health trackers I wore alongside it. Steady and resting coronary heart price readings had their good and dangerous days too, although at occasions reported fairly low coronary heart price readings, which Oura does even have a behavior of doing at occasions. It carried out effectively for sleep monitoring matching the Oura for sleep length, sleep coronary heart price and providing related sleep stage breakdowns.

For insights, that’s largely led by your Vitality rating, which amongst metrics appears to be like at your sleep to inform you what your power ranges are. It’s scored on proportion, with above 90% seen as optimum and under 80% seen as poor. So on a day of getting up early to run a race after which spending a good few hours within the pub watching soccer plus an affected evening’s sleep, I had a rating of under 80%. My Oura Ring was telling me an analogous story. 

There’s additionally the Kira+ AI insights, which provides you a protracted stream of copy detailing your information after which providing ideas, however these are fairly staple items. You can even log actions every time you sync the app, so given I logged that I had some alcohol it explains how that can have affected my sleep high quality.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

It tells me issues like to make use of the in-app guided respiration options or to do some meditation to maintain my stress ranges low. There’s nothing groundbreaking right here, it feels fairly common by way of its usefulness so branding it as AI may set expectations too excessive.

There are some additional options right here like the power to take on-the-spot coronary heart price, coronary heart price variability and SpO2 readings. You possibly can arrange medicine reminders, obtain vitals alerts and there’s additionally a devoted sports activities monitoring mode, which helps you to lean in your telephone’s GPS to trace outside actions.

Sadly, the monitoring isn’t good in any respect. Distance monitoring didn’t work and coronary heart price monitoring was extremely unreliable, even for stationary exercises.

Battery Life & Charging

• As much as 5-day battery life
• Efficiency and Eco battery modes
• Expenses absolutely in 45 minutes

The Round Ring Slim claims it could possibly final for as much as 5 days in between fees.

It additionally gives two battery modes with a Efficiency one supplying you with the very best and most correct monitoring accuracy and an Eco one the place coronary heart price monitoring is tracked at a much less frequent price and also you’ll miss out on sleep stats like sleep phases.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

I discovered that within the Efficiency mode, the Slim lasted two days. For those who go for the Eco mode it pushes a little bit nearer to that 5 days, however within the course of, you’re sacrificing the extent of accuracy and information, which isn’t precisely faultless in that Efficiency mode anyway.

As talked about earlier, relating to charging, it’s a unique course of to charging different sensible rings. I believe the concept of the case that RingConn and now Samsung has opted for looks like the best resolution.

As a substitute, Round has opted for one thing smaller that does absolutely cost the ring in below an hour however will be barely awkward charger to seek out an ideal spot and whereas it’s a magnetic setup, it’s simply knocked misplaced.

Worth & Availability

The Round Ring Slim is priced at £226/$281/€294 and you should purchase it from the official Round retailer.

In comparison with different sensible rings, it’s significantly cheaper than the £399/$399 you’ll must pay for a Samsung Galaxy Ring, whereas the Oura Ring Gen 3 prices £299. Nonetheless, that does require a £5.99/$5.99 month-to-month subscription on high.

The subscription-free RingConn Good Ring prices $279 (approx (£220), whereas the Ultrahuman Ring Air is priced at £329/$349. 

So, it’s not the most affordable sensible ring accessible, nevertheless it’s actually not one of many priciest both.

Must you purchase the Round Ring Slim?

Once I take a look at all the different sensible rings which are accessible and I’ve examined and take a look at the place the Round Good Ring Slim sits amongst them, I don’t really feel prefer it beats the very best within the type of the Oura Ring Gen 3 and it doesn’t higher the opposite subscription-free choices which are accessible just like the RingConn Good Ring and Ultrahuman Ring Air.

It lacks a extra memorable design (although some could like it) and whereas a few of its core monitoring abilities work effectively, the package deal doesn’t fairly put it there with the very best. The software program is simply too busy and it doesn’t provide a characteristic set that betters what else is on the market from different sensible rings.

It is likely to be the thinnest sensible ring, nevertheless it’s not the very best one to place in your finger proper now.

Specs

• 2.2mm thickness
• 5-day battery life
• Works with Android and iOS (free subscription)
• IP68 waterproof
• Weighs 2g
• PPG sensor for coronary heart price and SpO2 monitoring
• Temperature sensor
• 3D accelerometer movement sensor
• Bluetooth Good low power