Smart rings are set to be the on-trend wearable device this year and beyond but if this leaked information about the Samsung Galaxy Ring is correct, I won’t be buying one.
Although Samsung has already announced the Galaxy Ring twice, there are still a lot of details yet to be discovered. Price is one of them and a leak suggests that the ring will cost $300-$350 in the US.
This isn’t overly surprising as it was always likely that Samsung would position it close to its key rival, the Oura Ring Gen 3 which is priced from $299. But it’s not the RRP that’s the issue.
I was keeping my fingers crossed that Samsung would avoid one of the key reasons that we didn’t score the Oura higher in our review – and that’s a subscription model.
A subscription to Samsung Health will cost “under $10” a month, according to GSMArena, so I fully expect it to be $9.99pm matching Fitbit Premium and Apple Fitness+ (and similar pricing in the UK).
Samsung may, like its rivals, offer an annual fee of around $80 to save you some cash but that won’t swing it for me.
Chris Martin / Foundry
Chris Martin / Foundry
Chris Martin / Foundry
What features and data will be hidden behind the effective paywall of Samsung Health is unclear but it’s immediately going to put me off getting a Galaxy Ring.
I’ve already got enough subscription fees flying out of my bank account on a monthly basis with the likes of Spotify and Amazon Prime to be adding another one to the list.
I should mention that I wouldn’t call myself a ‘fitness fanatic’ or anything along those lines but Samsung could withhold even basic stats for those with a Samsung Health subscription.
And if the price of around $10 per month is correct, then Oura will suddenly look like a good value option at $5.99 monthly.
We will no doubt find out this information when Samsung holds its next Unpacked event, rumoured to be on 10 July. It is expected to fully launch the Galaxy Ring alongside plenty of other new devices.
Among those will be the Galaxy Watch 7 range and possibly a cheaper Galaxy Watch FE, the latter could be a good alternative for me I suppose – unless Samsung, God forbid, decides to add a Samsung Health subscription to it smartwatches too.
