At this point, you’ve probably seen someone wearing an Oura Ring. It’s beloved by our style and tech teams, recently winning a 2026 gadget award. Across the board, Oura is the standard setter for how smart rings should look (stylish) and collect data (accurately).
It also comes at a premium price that includes the annual subscription fee that goes along with it. Believe it or not, it’s not the only smart ring out there. The smart ring is the wearable for the person who can’t part with their stats but wants something more discreet than an Apple Watch.
They don’t want something cumbersome or too noticeable. They want a simple design that they can wear every day to track their health with minimal effort. Until late 2025, it seemed like there were more options than ever.
But last October, Oura won a patent infringement case that changed everything. For a time, the sale of pretty much all competing smart rings was banned in the U.S.. RingConn was the first brand to enter a licensing agreement, which more or less means paying Oura royalty fees to keep being allowed to sell its rings.
Competitors like Ultrahuman and Amazfit have settled, but it’s put future support in jeopardy. You can still snag a Galaxy Ring, for example, but Samsung doesn’t appear to be making more right now so I’d wait to see and only buy if we get a second generation. Due to these ongoing disputes, it’s really only a good idea to buy from Oura or RingConn.
That leaves these four rings from the two companies as your best options, and really, the only smart rings worth buying this year. When I first saw the Oura Ring 5 I was stunned by just how thin it was. Now that it’s in public hands, I don’t have to talk the talk anymore; everyone can see it.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
