RingConn Gen 2: A subscription-free option to Oura
Affordable option with detailed health and wellness insights
Hyperdrive Hits
4/5 Medals of Yavin: Highly recommended for people who want a smart ring that is affordable, has no subscription, and provides key health data
Comfortable and stylish design
Affordable price
Long battery life
Limited activity integration
While I have been wearing smartwatches for decades and using them to track my key health and wellness data, such as sleep, heart rate, and activity I am not sure the watch form factor is best for optimal sleep. A couple of years ago I tried out my first smart ring, the Oura Ring, and I enjoyed viewing the data captured so unobtrusively.
Since that first Oura Ring test, I have tried out future models of the Oura Ring, Amazfit Helio Ring, and a model from RingConn. I spent a few months trying out the RingConn Gen 2 and it is definitely a smart ring to consider if the couple of limitations are not applicable to you.
Rating:
As explained in my palmsolo’s Refresh Rating Scale post, I’m awarding the RingConn Gen 2 four (4) Medals of Yavin. If it did a better job of integrating workouts I performed with my watches then I would like still be wearing the ring today. Instead, I purchased an Oura Ring 4 to meet my smart ring needs.
The Good and the Bad
It’s pretty rare for me to not find something that can be improved with a product so here is my summary of the smart ring.
Pros
Attractive colors and plenty of available sizes
Affordable $299 price
Powerful and easily understandable smartphone software
Sleep apnea and abnormal data tracking
10-12 days of battery life and handy power bank charging case
Cons
Limited workout tracking and no automatic activity tracking
Data not as deep as competitors
Ring Hardware
The RingConn Gen 2 ring is available in xx size and three color ways; It is made of a titanium alloy material with PVD coating. It weighs in at just 2-3 grams (depending on size) with a width of 6.8mm and thickness of 2mm. This makes it 1 gram lighter, 1mm thinner, and 0.66mm narrower than the first generation ring and it is nearly perfect for hardware.
RingConn includes a charging case that has an internal battery so it can charge up the ring multiple times without ever needing to connect to a USB-C cable. This case design makes it easy to travel with the RingConn Gen 2 and keep it powered up. RingConn states that the charging case can help provide up to 150 days of battery life for your ring.
The ring has an IP68 rating so you can exercise, shower, or swim with it on. I never took it off while testing it out. I tested the ring on my ring finger since past smart ring tests were on my index finger, but I don’t like having a ring on any finger other than my ring finger so I was sent one that fit perfectly and provided a solid 24/7 connection.
The sensors in the RingConn Gen 2 track heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, step count, HRV, sleep stages, and respiratory rate. It was one of the first rings to launch with support for sleep apnea detection. I am an extremely sound sleeper though so I was almost off the bottom of the scale for sleep apnea risk and can’t comment on its accuracy for people that may have that condition.
Smartphone Software
The RingConn Gen 2 smart ring works with iOS and Android devices so you are not limited by your smartphone. The RingConn app has undergone some nice UI improvements since the last time I used it and it is much more user friendly with a nice Insights display launching as soon as you open up the application.
The Insights tab shows you your wellness balance that is a four leaf clover with sleep, stress level, vitals status, and activity on each leaf that gets colored in the more you “fill” that metric. Other metric blocks include sleep, activity, stress, exercise, and sleep apnea monitoring. You can edit what display cards appear here with period forecasts as an option.
When you tap on a display card, a ton more detail will appear that you can scroll through and view. There are also tabs for Plan, AI, Trends, and Me. The AI tab is in beta, but shows you feedback on your day to share ways you may improve your metrics.
The Me tab is where you manage ring settings, data management, and more. You can sync the RingConn data to Apple Health and Google Fit so that the data collected by your ring is shared out to these services.
Specifications
Specifications alone don’t mean much, but they are useful for comparing similar devices and checking that you are getting value for your money.
Materials: Titanium alloy with PVD coating
Dimensions: 6.88mm width, smallest size is 2mm thin, and weight is 2 to 3 grams (depending on ring size)
Durability: IP68 water resistance
Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
Bottom Line
The RingConn Gen 2 ring is comfortable, regularly lasts me more than a week, and the sleep and heart rate data matches closely with other devices that I compared it with. If I just needed a ring to track my sleep, heart rate, and monitor me for abnormalities then I would like stick with the RingConn Gen2.
However, the Oura Ring smartphone application brings in data collected through Strava, Garmin, and more so that the application provides a complete look at my daily activity. The RingConn shows activity in terms of steps and heart rate, but that data is not tagged for specific workouts and my exercise record is always empty. I am not going to start an activity in a ring application every time I workout.
I would love to see RingConn partner with a company like Garmin, COROS, or Suunto and bring the RingConn sleep and daily life details in to those other ecosystems for a full body analysis.
The RingConn Gen 2 is an affordable smart ring and performs well. It correctly picked up a heart rate anomaly I had in December and the data collected by the ring is accurate.