Review: Ultrahuman Ring Air smart ring nudges you into a healthier direction

The Ultrahuman Ring Air emerges as one other good ring that wishes to show you don’t need to pay for a month-to-month or annual subscription to place a helpful health and wellness tracker in your finger.

It goals to take the identical sensors we’ve already seen crop up in different rings and wrist-based trackers to make use of information like sleep, coronary heart price, and train that can assist you make higher choices about your day.

On paper, the Android and iOS-friendly ring has all of the makings of a real Oura Ring Gen 3 rival and surprisingly delivers each an analogous core expertise with a number of parts that make it really feel distinctive as properly.

Design & Construct

• Out there in 5 colors
• Water-resistant as much as 100 metres 
• Free ring sizing package

The Ring Air is a totally round good ring that’s constituted of titanium with a tungsten carbide carbon coating to toughen up a hoop that sadly hasn’t remained as scratch-free as the primary time I put it on my finger.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Whereas it’s a pleasingly mild ring (2.4-3.6g relying on measurement), making it comfy to put on all day and at evening, it has noticeably picked up a good quantity of scuffs and scratches over time, which actually seems to be worse on the matt black model I needed to take a look at. That’s occurred regardless of remembering to take it off earlier than going to the fitness center for a weights session and customarily making an attempt to maintain it out of hurt’s manner.

There are 5 ring colors in complete to select from right here – Uncooked Titanium, Aster Black, Matte Gray, Bionic Gold and Area Silver, and all can be found with a free sizing package to ensure you get a very good match. Regardless of taking the sizing package route, I did discover the sizing a bit of off for me, the place the ring had initially come off on a number of events. That’s been much less of a problem over time, however what’s clear is that not all good rings are constructed the identical with regards to match.

On the inside lies the sensor array and a medical-grade resin to stop the ring from irritating the pores and skin. I’ve had no cause to take the ring off aside from to cost it and for fitness center weights, so it will get the thumbs up by way of being a hoop that feels skin-friendly.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

As a package deal, it’s water-resistant as much as 100 metres depth and I’ve worn it within the bathe and for swims and the ring has stored on monitoring with out difficulty. Finishing the setup is the proprietary charging cradle to drop the ring on and a Sort-C to C cable to connect with that cradle.

It’s a sensible ring that actually delivers by way of being one thing that feels mild and discreet to put on, although does really feel a bit of plain-looking subsequent to rings just like the Oura Ring Gen 3 and cheaper rings just like the RingConn Sensible Ring.

Health Monitoring & App 

• Tracks steps, coronary heart price, temperature and sleep
• Works with apps like Strava and MyFitnessPal
• Personalised notification nudges

The Ring Air, like different good rings, is a health tracker at coronary heart and goals to softly immediate you into making higher choices about your day, that may in flip purpose to enhance facets like your sleep and even restoration from train.

Mike Sawh

It does that with some staple health tracker sensors, together with a 6-axis movement sensor to trace steps, normal actions through the day and to allow the automated sleep monitoring. There’s additionally room for a PPG sensor that may seize coronary heart price and monitor blood oxygen saturation.

You’re additionally getting what Ultrahuman refers to as a medical-grade pores and skin temperature sensor that can be utilized to point out how your physique is reacting to your health or if you may be feeling beneath the climate.

When you’ve accomplished the two-week baseline information interval you’ll then actually need to begin to concentrate to what the ring is making an attempt to inform you. You’ll additionally obtain cellphone notifications to suggest easing off stimulants like espresso or lowering publicity to vibrant mild to enhance your probabilities of getting a very good evening’s sleep.

These prompts, whereas not groundbreaking, assist Ultrahuman’s monitoring method really feel totally different to different good rings.

Crucially, the core monitoring feels dependable as properly too, I’ve been monitoring information like step counts with an Oura Ring Gen 3 and two different health monitoring smartwatches and the each day counts by no means felt wildly out from the opposite gadgets and on some days have been a number of hundred steps out from one another.

I additionally discovered steady coronary heart price readings properly in keeping with the monitoring with sports activities watches I do know from expertise provide dependable wrist-based steady monitoring on most days. Some real-time readings although felt excessive, as a lot as 10bpm out at instances, which gave the impression to be tied to the match of the ring.

It performs properly as a sleep tracker with information like sleep length, sleep stage breakdowns just like what I captured with Oura’s dependable sleep monitoring. It’s additionally superb at capturing naps.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

What actually underpins the sturdy expertise is the companion smartphone app, which is slick and whereas is getting busier as Ultrahuman provides extra options, continues to be very nice to have interaction with and largely presents essentially the most helpful information in a user-friendly manner.

Like different good rings, exercise monitoring isn’t a energy. There’s at the moment a exercise mode in beta testing the place it’s acknowledged coronary heart price monitoring won’t be as correct as at relaxation. That’s completely my expertise of utilizing it. The excellent news is that Ultrahuman gives already fairly in depth third get together app integration with apps like Strava and Garmin Join supported to assist fill within the train monitoring information gaps.

Total, the method to monitoring and placing that monitoring information into context feels similar to what I’ve skilled with Oura. It feels totally different sufficient to not really feel like an actual clone. The app is well-designed, although there’s additionally a good bit of bloat that could possibly be ditched or higher hidden to make it unnecessarily busy.

Battery Life & Charging

• As much as 6 days battery life 
• Makes use of Oura-style charging cradle 
• Prices in 2-3 hours

The Ring Air features a 24mAh that Ultrahuman claims can keep powered for as much as 6 days from a single cost.

These claims nevertheless are beneficiant based mostly on my testing. I discovered it averaged 3 days with scope to push to 4 days, however by no means on any event made it to six days.

The app will hearth notifications to your cellphone to remind you when the battery is working low, and you then’ll must seize a proprietary charging cradle that clearly takes some design inspiration from the cradle that accompanies the Oura Ring Gen 3.

Mike Sawh

Powering it up from 0-100% is a bit sluggish and may take so long as 3 hours, which is greater than another good rings. Whereas it doesn’t higher the RingConn, which gives the most effective good ring battery life on the market, it does at the least go toe-to-toe with Oura.

Worth & Availability

The Ultrahuman Ring AIR is in the stores now and is being offered on Amazon and the official retailer (additionally fulfilled by Amazon).

It’s a subscription-free good ring, which suggests you solely must pay for the ring itself and that may value you £329/$349.

That offers it a extra pricey standalone value than the Oura Ring Gen 3 (£238/$299). It’s additionally dearer than the RingConn Sensible Ring (£220/$279) and the Round Ring Slim, which prices £225 and like Ultrahuman and RingConn, doesn’t require a further subscription.

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Mike Sawh

Do you have to purchase the Ultrahuman Ring Air?

The Ultrahuman Ring Air is the good ring that comes closest to the Oura Ring by way of what it gives in {hardware} and software program up to now (in fact Samsung will need to change that with the Galaxy Ring quickly).

It supplies sturdy core monitoring and a companion app the place information and insights are properly offered and continues to enhance as Ultrahuman provides options to make the Ring Air extra helpful. It additionally does it with barely higher battery life than the Oura Ring Gen 3.

It’s not resistant to the identical kind of points as different good rings, although, like retaining the outside wanting pristine and having to lean on third-party app integration to fill in some information gaps. 

In the end although, that is the standout different to Oura the place you don’t want a subscription to reap the total good ring advantages.

Specs