We’ve reviewed our fair share of smart wearables here at GSMArena but the ring form factor has evaded us until now. Ultrahuman is a young company aiming to establish itself in the smart ring market and Ring Air is its latest product.
This is the lightest smart ring on the market and it promises to deliver the health and activity tracking you’d normally get in a smartwatch but in a form factor that’s far less obtrusive, while still offering multi-day battery life.
Fitting most of the sensors from a smartwatch inside a ring with a diameter of just 8.1mm is an impressive engineering feat, but can this ring really serve as a viable alternative to smartwatches? We’ve been wearing the Ring Air for two weeks now and while we’re left impressed, we are not quite ready to ditch our wrist wearables yet.
Design
Ultrahuman Ring Air’s most remarkable feat is its size. Our review unit is a size 9 and it’s 2.5mm thick, 8.1mm wide, and features an internal diameter of 21mm. It weighs just 3 grams while smaller sizes come in at 2.4 grams. Thanks to its slender profile, Ring Air looks just like a regular ring which is a bonus when dealing with early-generation smart gadgets.
There are no buttons, notifications, or media controls here just a PPG optical sensor for heart rate and blood oxygen saturation measurements as well as a 6-axis motion sensor and a skin temperature sensor. Тhis is a passive wearable that only gathers data and relies on a smartphone app to convey that data to you.
Ultrahuman claims the finger is a better source of heart rate and blood oxygen saturation data due to its higher perfusion index and proximity to key arteries. It’s also much less obtrusive than a smartwatch if you plan to track your sleep.
We picked out the Raw Titanium color option which matches the iPhone 15 Pro’s Natural Titanium. It has the same polished look though it does pick up scuffs when hit against other metals and sharp objects. Our review unit got its first marks around day four of the review after a gym session. Ultrahuman also offers the Ring Air in Aster Black, Matte Grey, Bionic Gold, and Space Silver colors.
Ring Air is water-resistant up to 100m so showering, swimming and diving are on the menu but you should always be mindful since the ring may slip out if you aren’t careful.
Getting used to the Ring Air takes a day or two, especially if you are not accustomed to wearing jewelry. Unlike a smartwatch that sits on your wrist and is away from your fingers, a smart ring will interact with everything you touch and do throughout the day. That requires plenty of alterations like taking it off when cooking, washing, or going to the gym.
Ultrahuman recommends wearing the Ring Air on your index, middle, or ring finger
Ultrahuman recommends you wear the ring on your index, middle, or ring fingers. Between the three, I found the Ring Air best suited to my left-hand ring finger as it had less contact with everything I touched or picked up. You should also remember to adjust the ring so that the small bump is at the bottom of your finger to ensure optimal health tracking.
Picking out the right size is another important topic. Ultrahuman has a Ring Sizer app for iOS that takes a picture of your hand next to a credit card for size reference. This did not prove to be accurate in our experience, so you can opt to order the Ring Air sizing kit if you don’t know your ring size.
The retail box is quite big for such a small device and it doesn’t contain much – just the ring, its charger, and a few quick start guides.
Features
Ultrahuman Ring Air connects to your phone via Bluetooth 5 LE and syncs your health and activity data to the Ultrahuman app which is available on Android and iOS.
Unlike some of its key competitors (ahem Oura Ring), Ultrahuman Ring Air forgoes any additional subscriptions and offers all your health and activity data insights for free. Being a passive health tracker means you have to constantly open the Ultrahuman app on your phone to access your data. The app also requires a constant internet connection which is not the case with other companion apps.
So what can the Ring Air track? It covers all of the key biomarkers you’d get from a smartwatch like heart rate and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) via its infrared PPG sensor. You also have heart rate variability (HRV), which monitors the interval between heartbeats and helps track your recovery and sleep tracking with sleep stages. Ring Air also does VO₂ max readings and has a medical-grade skin temperature sensor and a six-axis motion sensor.
In addition to its health tracking features, Ring Air also counts your steps and supports 22 workout modes including the most popular ones like running, cycling, and strength training. It’s worth noting that the activity tracking features are still in beta and results for heart rate data may be less accurate.
Factoring all of the health and activity tracking features on offer inside the Ring Air’s slender profile shows makes you appreciate the engineering feat that was accomplished by the Ultrahuman team.
Performance
Before we delve into the health and activity tracking performance of the Ring Air, we should point out that like most consumer electronic wearables, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is not a medical-grade device and as such the data it collects should only be viewed as a general measure of your well-being.
The value of these wearables is in the prolonged biomarker data collection which can show you trends for heart rate, blood oxygen saturation, and sleeping patterns while also alerting you for deviations from your baseline. The Ring Air needs up to two weeks to calibrate to your body’s rhythm before you get meaningful data.
We used a Huawei Watch D as a comparison point throughout the review process.
Ultrahuman indices
Data inside the Ultrahuman app is presented in three key categories – a movement index, sleep index, and recovery score. The ring also actively tracks your body’s circadian rhythm giving you insights on the optimal time to exercise, take in stimulants like caffeine, and how to plan your rest for optional energy levels.
The movement index is clever in that it tracks your movement volume throughout the day and not just in short instances like workouts. Your overall movement score is based on the metabolic equivalent of task (MET) which factors the rate of movement relative to your mass and how frequently you moved on a given day. It also factors your daily steps, calories burned, and logged workouts. Each day starts with a 100-point movement score and challenges you to keep up the tempo accordingly with reminders to move and stretch throughout the day.
Movement Index inside the Ultrahuman app
Sleep index combines sleep data with the different types of biomarkers tracked by the ring including your heart rate, HRV, blood oxygen saturation, and skin temperature. As a result, you get a more complete picture of the quality of sleep you’re getting and a reliable way to track your progress. This index also factors components like going to bed at a consistent time, having a quick HR drop while in bed, and prioritizing REM and deep sleep. The app has tips on how to improve each category like avoiding screens, heavy meals, and late workouts.
Sleep Index breakdown
Ring Air tracks sleep stages just like a smartwatch with light and deep sleep, resting eye movement (REM), and time spent awake. You also get time spent in bed, total sleep and sleep efficiency ratings. Go-to sleep and wake-up times were accurate and the ring managed to do a better job at logging naps and short wake-up times during the night than the Huawei Watch D.
The recovery score is based on your resting heart rate, HRV, and sleep index giving you a combined score out of 100. This metric is meant to represent your overall state of well-being and how prepared your body is to tackle your daily routine and workouts.
Recovery Score, Individual Markers, Stimular window and Circadian rhythm tracker
Ultrahuman also offers a stimulant restriction window tailored to your schedule with notifications on optimal periods for caffeine intake. Notifications from the Ultrahuman app will alert you for the optimal caffeine consumption times so you don’t experience energy slumps in the afternoon or have trouble falling asleep at night due to overstimulation.
The app also shows a list of suitable beverages during the day alongside their half-life so you know how long they will take to fully clear from your body. In our experience, this feature was useful as a guide on what beverages to consume during the day and it has the potential to nudge you to be more thoughtful on caffeine consumption.
We also enjoyed the circadian rhythm tracking feature which helped incline this reviewer to take in more sunlight during the morning, try to get to bed earlier, and limit his screen time at night.
Individual biomarkers
The bottom portion of the home page inside the Ultrahuman app features individual biomarkers for heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), resting heart rate, VO₂ Max, and body temperature deviation. Ultrahuman will also send you weekly recap reports with compounded data on your health and fitness progress. The Ultrahuman app allows you to export data to a host of other health apps including Google Fit, Apple Health, Garmin Connect, Fitbit, and Suunto.
Ring Air measures heart rate readings in 30-minute intervals with no way to alter the tracking period. This is understandable as a more frequent period would lead to a higher battery drain. As for accuracy, we got comparable HR readings from the Ring Air to those coming from the Huawei Watch D. After wearing both devices simultaneously for a week, we got an average resting heart rate reading of 49 bpm from the Huawei Watch D and 47 bpm from Ring Air.
We also cross-tested heart rate readings with a dedicated pulse oximeter and blood pressure monitor which fell in line with the readings from the Ring Air.
Ring Air only measures blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) during sleep sessions and we would like to have the option to manually measure this metric like we can on smartwatches. SpO2 readings for sleep sessions from the Ring Air were comparable with those from the Huawei Watch D. Skin temperature and heart rate variability readings are automatically recorded in 5-minute intervals.
The skin temperature readings from Ring Air are not indicative of your body’s core temperature. With the ring on your finger, there are plenty of outside factors that can influence the readings. Despite this, the skin temperature readings are a useful way to track for deviations from your baseline.
Workout Mode
Ring Air is a less-than-stellar option for tracking your workouts as its workout mode is still in beta, and heart rate data is unreliable. That’s more or less a physical fault though as squeezing your finger during a workout while wearing the ring will result in fluctuations in heart rate readings. Ultahuman promised a software update to improve workout data collection but for the time being, you’d be better off with a smartwatch as your primary workout tracker.
Workout Mode
We did try to use the Ring Air during a gym workout but wearing rings on your fingers while handling gym equipment is uncomfortable and can also easily scratch the ring. Step counting was comparable to the Huawei Watch D in our testing so that’s one area where the Ring Air can match wrist wearables.
Battery life
Ultrahuman claims you can get up to six days of active usage from the Ring Air. In our time with the device, we consistently managed up to five days of usage. Our review process included 24/7 use with 1-2 long walks per day logged with the Workout mode.
A full recharge takes just under two hours via the proprietary charging pad. It’s worth noting that the pad is not magnetic and it’s virtually impossible to charge on the go. It would be great to have a battery indicator and a lid on the charger so you can leave it charging in your backpack like on a pair of TWS buds. The other downside is that each charger is limited to the exact ring size you’ve purchased so you wouldn’t be able to swap them with a friend unless you both wear the same size ring.
Conclusion
Ultrahuman Ring Air is a sleek, low-profile health tracker that nearly matches smartwatches in collecting health data and offering key trends on your general well-being. It’s a great tool for logging sleep data without the bulk of a smartwatch and you get generally useful analysis and ways to improve your sleep. Heart rate tracking is comparable to that of a regular smartwatch thanks to the optical PPG sensor.
There’s a great companion app that covers movement, sleep, and recovery which actively pushes you to improve your scores in each area. The circadian rhythm tracker is a neat way to track your body clock and we found the stimulant restriction window to be a great addition to our daily schedule. The best part is that all of your data and stats are presented in a subscription-free model which is not the case with competing smart rings.
As for the cons, some users may find the Ring Air too minimalist. There’s no screen, buttons, gesture controls, or notifications on the ring which means you’ll have to spend even more time on your phone to check on your vitals, go through your sleep session, or start a workout. Activity tracking is still in beta and is not up to the task of competing with smartwatches just yet.
At $350 ($314 with promo code GSM10), Ultrahuman Ring Air is a viable alternative to the Oura Ring and does not require any additional monthly subscriptions, which makes a lot of difference in the long run. At the same time, you can get a smartwatch that offers added utility outside of health and activity tracking.
If you don’t yet own a smartwatch or want to try a different and less obtrusive way to track your health, then the Ring Air is a solid choice and gets our recommendation.
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