The obvious advantage of a hoop is that it’s smaller and easier to wear across the clock, including while sleeping and exercising. But there are other benefits. I'm testing the RingConn Gen 2, which competes with the industry-leading Oura Ring. Unlike Oura Ring, Ringconn has no monthly or annual subscription fees.
Unlike most smartwatches, smart rings don't require day by day charging. The Ringconn claims a battery lifetime of 10 to 12 days, which seems about reasonable to me based on my usage. It's liberating to not need to charge it every single day, especially for those who wear it while sleeping. I also sleep with my Pixel Watch 3, so I actually have to search out a time through the day to charge it after I don't depend on the watch to trace my movements.
Unlike a smartwatch, rings don't have displays, so you could have to open the smartphone app to view your data. In most situations I don't find this bothersome, but when walking or doing other exercises it's nice to give you the option to see your heart rate and other metrics just by the watch. This is very true for those who don't like carrying a phone with you or whether it is difficult or dangerous (e.g. while cycling) to have a look at your phone.
Detection of sleep apnea
One reason I wear the ring is to judge my sleep. I suffer from sleep apnea and although my CPAP machine reports nighttime apnea events, I wish to get other readings to confirm its data. Apple just added sleep apnea detection to its latest watch, but most personal fitness devices don't try and report sleep apnea. Ringconn has added this feature to its recent ring. The company claims 90.7% accuracy, however the device is just not FDA-approved and I’m not aware of any peer-reviewed studies that may support this claim. In my experience, apnea events were measured some nights but not others, although my CPAP machine detected some events. Anything lower than five per hour is taken into account normal.
Although the numbers reported by my CPAP and the ring don't match exactly, they were close, suggesting that it appears to be an affordable approximation of what happened on the nights the feature worked.
Not for medical diagnosis
All major fitness equipment manufacturers warn users to not depend on their equipment for diagnostic purposes. You should see a physician if you could have reason to consider that you could have sleep apnea or one other medical condition. Doctors have much more accurate ways to measure apnea. But the advantage of a fitness machine is that it gives you a way of the way you're doing over time, not only an occasional snapshot from a medical sleep study. The same goes for other metrics you possibly can measure at home, including blood pressure and SPO2.
SPO2
Because of my apnea, I sometimes track my SPO2 while sleeping to find out my blood oxygen levels overnight. Fitbit (which is built into Google Watch) gives me a nightly average and range, but doesn't show the way it goes up and down over time. Fitbit only measures SPO2 when you sleep. The Ringconn measures SPO2 through the day and night and displays a graph of its highs and lows over time. There can be the choice to take an quick measurement.
I compared the outcomes to those of a pulse oximeter and to Wellue's medical-grade continuous oxygen monitor O2Ring Oximeter, which might be worn all night. Again, the numbers weren't exact, but they were close and trending in the identical direction. As with other metrics, these are indicators and never diagnostic tools. Sleep Foundation Recommends: “Anyone monitoring their blood oxygen levels should talk to their doctor about what level is right for them and what level should be considered too low.”
The Ringconn app also graphically records heart rate, which closely matches the outcomes from my Google Watch. When you click on the measurement icon, probably the most recent measurement and your current tariff are displayed. With most fitness watches, you don't need to press anything to get your current rate. The average heart rate, resting rate and range are also displayed.
Like many fitness trackers, the Ringconn reports heart rate variability (HRV), i.e. the variation within the time interval between heartbeats. “The variability of your heart reflects how adaptable your body can be,” it says Cleveland Clinic. “If your heart rate fluctuates a lot, this is usually evidence that your body can adapt to many types of changes. People with high heart rate variability are typically less stressed and happier.”
Sleep tracking
Like most sleep trackers, the ring measures total sleep time, time in bed, and sleep stages: awake, REM, light, and deep. It also measures respiratory rate and skin temperature.
Although sleep trackers are generally pretty good at measuring how long you sleep, they have an inclination to be notoriously inaccurate with regards to sleep stages. My results from Ringconn normally differ from those from Fitbit and my sleep tracker app. As Johns Hopkins Medicine points out: “They often measure inactivity as a substitute for sleep estimation. Most sleep monitors give estimates of how much you actually sleep. … Still, tracking devices can be useful for identifying patterns in your sleep habits.”
The ring's activity screen shows steps (very near what Fitbit reported), calories from activities, and basal metabolic rate calories, that are also near what Fitbit estimated for me. It displays the activity intensity ratio as a percentage of inactive, low, moderate, and intense, and permits you to track outdoor and indoor running and outdoor cycling, but not the larger variety of activities that Fitbit and lots of other trackers cover.
Diploma
While there is no such thing as a tracker that tracks all the things and is 100% accurate, the Ringconn seems to deliver pretty good results based on my two weeks of testing. At $299, the value is competitive with smartwatches, although you possibly can get Fitbit and other activity trackers for significantly less. For me, the undeniable fact that I only need to charge it weekly at most is an enormous selling point, and I feel the trending information it incorporates will prove useful over time.
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