Ring Conn Gen 2 Air released today – here's what we think

I tried my first smart ring to see if it made me want to give up on my smartwatch.

I’ve been a smartwatch wearer for quite some time now and was looking to upgrade. That’s when it dawned on me that maybe what I’m looking for is not actually a smartwatch at all.

Confident that I knew what I wanted and didn't want in my next wearable, I got the opportunity to test Ring Conn’s latest creation – the Ring Conn Gen 2 Air, already available for purchase online.

Considering that smart rings have been on the market for a while now, with several brands providing users with different functionalities and the fact that I’m still on the lookout for the best wearable, I wanted to know if this could be my next choice.

First impression and specifications

When it comes to wearables, one of the things that I obsess about is battery life. So when I found out that Ring Conn’s latest model can last up to 12 days, I was glad that I wouldn’t have to take one more charging case or cable everywhere I go, as is usually the case for me.

I’ve been testing the smart ring for a month now, and I only had to charge it twice. To be honest, throughout that time I never let it die completely as the app would let me know a couple of days in advance about the ring’s battery life and show how many days I have left until I had to charge it.

After starting to wear my very first smart ring, I realized how glad I am that wearable technology is expanding and providing people with choices, whether that would be a watch, a tracker, or a ring. Why?

While Ring Conn is lightweight (weighing only two to three grams), it made me realize that I don’t actually like to wear rings in general. So it took me a while (or to be more precise, to lose it at least three times and then frantically look for it everywhere) to get used to it. So, for those who are not into rings, I would suggest looking for another type of wearable or just taking into consideration that it’ll take some time to get used to it.

Even though I had to take my time with the new wearable, I have to say that it’s much more convenient to wear than a watch when it comes to sleep tracking.

There was one more thing that I hadn’t thought about before, but noticed that for others it was quite a big deal. This was the fact that this $200 smart ring comes with an app that doesn’t require a subscription.

Health metrics or how a smart ring made me change my habits

As I’ve already confessed, I’m not much into health statistics, which may not be a good thing, considering that technology can help prevent rather serious health conditions.

Knowing myself, I also thought that since the device has no display, I wouldn’t be that interested in the stats and wouldn’t bother checking it that often. To my surprise, this had a different effect on me.

The app is quite intuitive and easy to use. It provides information on sleep, activity, stress levels, vital signs, and wellness balance.

Since I’ve never had my stress levels tracked before, that was the first thing that got my attention, along with wellness balance, which takes all the measurements into account to determine your overall mental and physical state.

It was interesting to notice that the app would send alerts every time it detected a “vital sign abnormality,” such as a higher temperature or heart rate.

For example, I had a cold for a few days and wasn’t feeling very well, which made me sleep a lot during the day. After I opened my app, it asked me to “pay attention to Sleep Goal Gap,” notifying me of how oversleeping could impact me. It also detected a higher heart rate and provided me with possible reasons why this could be happening.

After a night out, I also opened the app to see that my “sleeping heart rate has shown significant fluctuations.” Since then, the app has asked me to add the “cause of abnormality.” Among these causes were alcohol intake, infection, nervousness, caffeine intake, and such.

AI as a personal wellness assistant

One reason the app may ask these questions is to better determine the cause of these changes. It also provides users with some insights and advice on how to feel better again.

The app also includes an AI tool that provides short updates on sleep, activity, and stress levels, allowing users to ask additional questions.

In general, I’m not much of an AI user, but in this case, I found it to be useful to get your statistics explained to you in a more detailed way. However, since the Ring Conn assistant is still in beta testing, it only allows you to ask certain questions and provides simple answers instead of working as a chat where you can get in-depth explanations.

This got me thinking about how useful the feature would be if it allowed users to have a real-time conversation with AI that could explain their metrics. This would be especially helpful when a user suspects something isn’t right with their health and wants reassurance before going to the doctor or even rushing to the ER.

Activity tracking that played tricks on me

One of the main reasons I wear tech wearables is to track my activity, such as my walks, hikes and runs. During my workouts, I very often glance at my watch to see my pace or how many kilometers I have already hiked or run.

I was looking forward to taking the ring “out” on my hikes as my old Apple Watch often dies in between my workouts, so knowing that the ring can stay on for days, I was glad I wouldn’t have to worry about it.

While I was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly the app works when it comes to health tracking, I got a bit frustrated when it came to measuring my activities. Or at least I needed time to adjust to it and learn how it works.

I decided to track one of my hikes with both the ring and my Apple Watch. When I track my workouts with the watch, I just hit the start button and don’t have to worry about any apps or whether there’s an internet connection.

It’s a bit different with a smart ring. When I chose to track the workout on the app and just turned off the internet connection, the workout somehow got cut off, so instead of tracking my 26-kilometer hike, it stopped at 11 kilometers.

Wanting to understand how the tracking works via the app, I tracked another hike and learned that I could “lock” my workout so I wouldn’t accidentally mess up my statistics. This time, it somehow cut off at almost 17 kilometers.

During my third attempt, on a 5-kilometer run, I learned that the app works best when it's on and there’s internet connectivity.

I did compare the statistics with my smartwatch, noting that the metrics are quite similar. However, it made me realize that a wearable with a display is more convenient when it comes to activity tracking.

As someone who has already owned wearable tech for quite a while, I was glad to have my hands (a finger?) on something new and finally learn what a smart ring is all about.

So what did I learn from a month with the RingConn Gen 2 Air? A user-friendly application can definitely impact my habits – I became more conscious about my health metrics. It also made me prioritize the necessities I feel a wearable has to have, whether that would be long battery life or convenient activity tracking.