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There’s no avoiding the truth – if you want (or need) to track your metrics throughout the day, there are no shortage of options. Many of these take the form of smart watches, and those have a lot of capability. But what if you don’t want to wear a smart watch (or wear two watches, as I sometimes do)? Then you’re looking at something like a smart ring. There are a few options out there on the market, and the latest version of the Circular Ring Slim just released, raising the bar.
Circular Ring Slim: what is it?
Simply put, it’s a health tracker that sits on your finger, rather than on your wrist. Despite the different location and reduced size, it can still keep track of quite a number of things, like your heart rate, blood oxygen level, heart rate variability, stress, body temperature, and even your breathing rate (while you sleep). With the small size, you’re getting 1.5 – 6 days of battery life (depending on what it’s tracking), which seems reasonable for a device of this size.
What’s improved?
Since the original version of the Circular Ring Slim, there have been a number of improvements made, both in the internals and the physical ring itself:
- An improved sleep stages algorithm (which is 80% accurate as compared to the devices used for sleep studies)
- A new “heart rate during activity” algorithm
- An improved scratch-resistant exterior
- Faster sync times
- IP68 dust- and water-resistant rating
- An improved app (Kira+), with new sport and advanced analysis circles
- Wake up Analysis (when smart alarms are used)
What else is there to know?
There really is a lot of capability here, and it seems like the Kira+ app is just as important of a partner to the hardware as the ring itself is. One other thing that you might not expect is that there is a haptic (read: vibrating) feedback in the ring, so you can get alerts/alarms there.
For charging, it should be super-easy to charge the Circular Ring Slim on the go: it’s a compact USB-C charger, which means you could even charge it from your phone or tablet if you wanted to. One last piece to note – while this will track a lot of metrics, this is not going to record your steps. So, you’ll need to rely on your phone for that, or another device, if that’s a piece you want quantified.
How to get yours
The Circular Ring Slim just released today. The prior version with haptic vibrations ran at $281, and this latest version maintains the same price – $281. For more details and to order your own, you can head on over to circular.xyz
Circular Ring Slim Tech Specs
- Thickness: 2.2 mm (The thinnest wearable in the world)
- Weight: 2 grams (The lightest wearable in the world)
- Material: Mat Black Titanium mixed with Carbon fiber PVD for the outside (More resistant), and hypoallergenic epoxy for the inside
- Battery life: Perf mode: 1.5-2 days / Eco mode: 5-6 days
- Haptics: Vibrations for more features than other smart ring +Tap button to stop the vibration (more feature to come)
- Waterproof: IPX68 Water immersion + Dust protected
- Inside memory: Up to 20 days
- Charging pins: improved comfort (smaller and rounded). Holds the ring to prevent it from rotating on the finger
