Samsung Galaxy Ring Ultra 2: The Health Tracker That Actually Knows You

I have been wearing the Samsung Galaxy Ring Ultra 2 for six months. I have also, during that same period, worn an Apple Watch Ultra 2, a Garmin Fenix 8, and an Oura Ring Gen 4 on rotation.

The Galaxy Ring Ultra 2 is the only one I reach for first in the morning. That’s the review, in a sentence.

<h2>What It Does Differently</h2>

Most health wearables are sensors attached to logging software. The Galaxy Ring Ultra 2 is building a personalised physiological model. Over six months, the ring has learned the difference between my stressed HRV baseline and my rested HRV baseline. It has identified that my deep sleep duration is the single strongest predictor of my cognitive performance the following day.

The predictive fatigue modelling cross-references five days of biometric history to flag days when my performance is likely to be degraded before I’ve noticed it subjectively. In four out of six months, it warned me about illness 36-48 hours before I felt sick.

<h2>Battery Life</h2>

The original Galaxy Ring had a five-day battery. The Ultra 2 has nine days in standard mode, six days with continuous ECG monitoring enabled. In a category where Apple Watch requires nightly charging, nine days is a different product category.

<h2>The Caveats</h2>

The ring requires a Samsung account and works best with a Galaxy smartphone. Health data lives in Samsung Health, which is not interoperable with Apple Health without third-party bridging. The price ($499) is aggressive for a single-purpose device.

But it is the best health wearable I have used. By a distance.