Ultrahuman Ring Air review

Fitness trackers, with their small screens and basic UI, are an unobtrusive way of tracking your fitness tracking. Yet, there’s another device that is taking this type of fitness tracking to another level. Yes, we are talking about the smart rings. These wearables take the ‘wear-it-forget-it’ part rather seriously, and it’s no different with the new Ultrahuman Ring Air.

When worn on a finger, it looks like any other wedding band, and yet it can track a whole lot of important health metrics. But with a price tag just under Rs 30,000, is it worth your hard-earned money? And can it really replace a smartwatch or fitness band? Having used it extensively for the past few days, here’s my Ultrahuman Ring Air review.

Ultrahuman Ring Air design

At first glance, the Ring Air can pass off as a traditional ring. It has the minimalism of a wedding band, and no one will be able to tell the difference, especially when worn on the ring finger. There are multiple colour and finish options to choose from – Raw Titanium, Aster Black, Matte Grey, Bionic Gold and Space Silver.

Before you buy it though, you’ll first need to order the kit to see what ring size fits you – ranging from 5-14. The ring is to be worn on either the index, middle or ring finger. While it looks cool on your index finger (also seems to be the trend), practically it is best suited for the ring finger. It not only feels more natural, but there’s also the least chance of it getting scratched in our daily lives.

The Ring Air arrived in a rather large box, which seemed a bit of an overkill for the size of the products inside. But the moment you take the ring out of the box, the thing that hits you is just how lightweight it is. Starting at 2.4 grams, Ultrahuman says that the ring is as much as 11x lighter than a typical smartwatch.

The weight (rather the lack of it) is important as you can wear the ring for days on end without any kind of fatigue. The inner part of the ring is transparent showing off the range of sensors onboard, and is coated with medical-grade hypoallergenic epoxy resin, which avoids any kind or skin irritation.

As for the outer shell, it is made from “fighter jet grade Titanium reinforced with Tungsten Carbide Carbon coating”, which together make it resistant to “everyday wear and tear”. While that has largely stayed true in my experience, the ring did manage to pick up a few minor scratches. This, despite my best efforts to protect it – like removing it while doing household chores or wearing gloves in the gym.

Still, it isn’t all that bad and the ring continues to shine as good as new – unless you’ve the matte finish of course! And there’s no getting past just how comfortable it is to wear for days compared to any other fitness tracking wearables I’ve used so far.

Ultrahuman Ring Air fitness tracking

Coming to what is the ring’s bread and butter – fitness tracking. With the built-in sensors, the ring is able to monitor your heart rate, HRV (heart rate variability), blood oxygen, skin temperature, stress levels, and steps.

But where the wearable truly aces is monitoring your sleep quality. With its wear-it-forget-it design, the ring is easy to wear through the night, helping it monitor the total sleep time, sleep stages, and even the lowest heart rate.

Ultrahuman Ring Air app

Since there’s no display on the ring itself, all your fitness data is collated and visible on the Ultrahuman smartphone app. At first, the amount of information on offer can feel a tad overwhelming, but you won’t take much time to get used to it. It is also worth highlighting that the app is free, and there’s no additional subscription required to access all the health data.

When it comes to the raw data, the Ring Air did a great job at tracking my sleep. It accurately detected when I wasn’t in deep slumber, took a late-night bathroom break, and also my resting heart rate. All this was then taken into consideration for a sleep score, which closely reflected how tired or fresh I was in the morning. Interestingly, it also automatically detected my nap on a lazy Sunday, which helped bring down my sleep debt.

One of my absolute favourite features on the app is what is called the ‘Caffeine Window’, which essentially tells you the right time to consume coffee so as to not affect your sleep. This information has really helped me time my daily coffee breaks, and almost immediately, I’ve noticed a difference.

Other metrics that the ring has been constantly tracking are my movement – basically number of steps – and stress. These scores are also then shared via weekly insights, which gives you an average of all the days.

These aside, the ring also has a workout mode, which can track fitness activities. But almost immediately, the app warns you that this is beta mode and the metrics may not be accurate. And that is the case. Period.

When compared to my smartwatch, the ring wasn’t able to do justice to my weight training sessions in the gym. Hopefully, this is solved via future software updates. What also doesn’t help is that there’s no GPS or a gyroscope on board to accurately track some of the other workout modes like running for instance. Until then, I’ll continue wearing my smartwatch along with the smart ring.

Ultrahuman Ring Air battery life

Unlike most wrist-based smart trackers, this smart ring doesn’t need to be charged every couple of days. On paper, a 24mAh battery may not sound like a lot, but the Ultrahuman Ring Air was consistently able to last 5-6 days on a single charge. Bear in mind, I was wearing the ring at all times.

When the time comes to recharge, there’s a charger that comes bundled in the box. All you need to do is place the ring on it, and it starts charging. If we were to nit-pick though, the ring takes a rather slow 2-3 hours to fully charge. In comparison, a smartwatch generally takes under two hours to fully charge. Fast charging devices have certainly spoilt all of us!

Unboxed Take: Who should buy the Ultrahuman Ring Air?

From its minimal design, comfort to its fitness tracking capabilities, there’s a lot to like about the Ultrahuman Ring Air. It’s the only wearable I’ve used that I don’t feel like taking off, unless the app reminds me that it’s time to recharge.

But can it replace a smartwatch? The answer is no. Period.

Though it can monitor a range of health metrics, especially sleep, the Ultrahuman ring has a long way to go before it can track workouts like the Apple Watches or the Samsung Galaxy Watches of this world. Until then, the idea is to wear the Ring Air at all times, but then also wear my Apple Watch during gym sessions.

At Rs 28,999, the Ultrahuman Ring Air is also not the most affordable wearable on the block. So, if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative for a first-time experience, you can opt for the boAt Active S11 or the Noise Luna smart rings.

For these reasons, we rate the Ultrahuman Ring Air 4/5. Stay tuned to Unboxed by Croma for more in-depth reviews.