If you wanted to track your workouts and steps in 2013, you probably had a wristband from Fitbit, Jawbone or Nike on your wrist. Now, more than 10 years later, the wearable tech world looks much different.
Gone are the simple, screen-free fitness bands that adorned our wrist long before the Apple Watch arrived. Many early players that dominated the fitness tracking scene have either shifted their focus to smartwatches, been acquired by larger companies making smartwatches or exited the wearables market entirely. The fitness bands that exist today have largely adopted the qualities of smartwatches, offering colorful screens that can show incoming notifications, calls and alerts.
But what if I said simple fitness trackers are poised for a comeback?
Sleek health-tracking devices without screens are gaining interest in 2024, but in a much different form: smart rings. Samsung made headlines in January and again this week at Mobile World Congress with its Galaxy Ring, a new device for monitoring activity, health and sleep that will be launching later this year. It’s yet another sign that there’s merit behind the idea of a device that primarily functions as a standalone health tracker, unlike today’s smartwatches, which can do everything from track your heart rate to serving as a miniature phone or a digital car key.
Samsung is far from being the first to launch a smart ring; early entrants like Oura paved the way. But with CNBC reporting that Chinese tech maker Honor is also working on a smart ring, and Apple experimenting with the idea of a smart ring, according to Bloomberg, there’s more attention than ever on these tiny fitness monitors disguised as jewelry.
Read more: What to Expect From Smartwatches in 2024
The similarities between smart rings and fitness trackers
On a basic level, fitness bands and smart rings serve the same purpose. Devices like the Oura Ring, Evie Ring and Ultrahuman Ring Air aim to deliver metrics about your…
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