As the age-old adage goes, health is wealth. Fitness trackers have proven to be useful devices in this quest, by helping people track their activity levels and key body vitals. And even more so in the post-pandemic world, when more folks realised the importance of staying active and fit. That’s old news now though, and even fitness trackers have evolved, with one of the newest form factors being the ring. This shift from the wrist to the finger has piqued the interest of many brands, with Ultrahuman being one of the more prominent ones. This Indian brand came to the fore with its continuous glucose monitoring systems, and now competes on a global level with the likes of Oura and others, as it eyes the coveted spot on your finger with the Ultrahuman Ring AIR. I’ve been wearing one for a few weeks, and here’s how my experience has been.
Design
The Ultrahuman Ring AIR is available in five shades — Raw Titanium, Aster Black, Matte Grey, Bionic Gold and Space Silver — and in 10 different sizes. The sizing kit is optional but in my experience, you should get one to be doubly sure of the size you’d be most comfortable with. I say this because sometimes, aspects like sensors placed inside the ring, the thickness and width of the device etc, could have a bearing on the size, and it’s just better to be absolutely sure. I opted for the Raw Titanium model, which I think looks pretty low-profile and subtle with its brushed metal finish. The ring itself isn’t too wide and weighs a mere 2.4g, sporting a flat design on the outside, with the sensors lined up inside.
Unlike the Gabit Smart Ring which has small nubs on the underside, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR is smooth on the inside, with a raised, flat portion indicating where the sensors are. This makes the Ring AIR comfortable to wear for long periods. However, this also means it’s not very easy to figure out the side which should face the palm, especially since there’s no other indication or ridge on the outside to mark the top.
Also, unlike the Gabit Smart Ring, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR is quite prone to scuffs and scratches, as I discovered on the very second day of wearing it. Quite disappointing, since I simply hate scratches. My OCD gets triggered each time I notice the scratches on the ring. Staying optimistic though, the good thing is that thanks to the scratches on the bottom, I now have a visual indication of the side that should face my palm.
For juicing up, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR comes with a charging puck that has an indicator LED on top, and a Type-C port on the back. Ultrahuman includes a high-quality Type-C to Type-C cable in the box. Speaking of, the box that the ring comes in is amusingly large and bigger than most smartphone boxes — even the ones that come bundled with their chargers.
Features
Features is one area where the Ultrahuman Ring AIR shines. While it’s able to monitor the usual health and activity metrics like steps, heart rate, sleep, temperature, etc, it goes above and beyond in many aspects. For one, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR claims to be the first smart ring in the world that can detect AFib. Unfortunately, this feature isn’t available in India yet (possibly pending regulatory approvals), but the ability to detect arterial fibrillation (the medical term for irregular heartbeats) is something we’ve only seen in premium smartwatches like the Apple Watch and Samsung’s recent range of Galaxy Watches so far. It’s quite interesting to see this feature available on a smart ring
Next, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR also features something called PowerPlugs, which seems to be an app store of sorts. PowerPlugs includes modules (most free, some paid) that one can enable via the companion app to get additional insights, as per their own preferences, health priorities and preferences. As of the time of writing, the available PowerPlugs include Circadian Alignment, Vitamin D, Screentime, and Caffeine Window, along with Pregnancy Insights and Cycle Tracking for women. A few of these, such as Screentime and Caffeine Window, in fact, were only added very recently. A few others are listed as “coming soon”, and these include Jet Lag, Weight Loss, and Ovulation. Based on which of these you choose to enable, you can get corresponding insights and actionable data. The Circadian Alignment PowerPlug for instance, provides suggestions on the ideal times to get some sunlight, work out and wind down.
And as the name suggests, the Screentime PowerPlus tracks screen time and its impact on your sleep. Similarly, the Caffeine Window helps track and optimise your consumption of caffeine throughout the day. All of this sounds very impressive for a ring, and it is too. However, one caveat I’d like to point out is that one needs to actively check the Ultrahuman app multiple times a day to actually make use of these suggestions and insights.
In terms of the core data and metrics offered, the main way the Ultrahuman Ring AIR and its companion app provide insights is by way of scores. Sleep, movement, stress and dynamic recovery, are all measured and represented using scores, and these are displayed prominently in the app. You can dive deeper into any of these to see more details and historical trends. The individual markers that get captured and displayed in the app cover heart rate, VO2 Max, skin temperature, heart rate variability (HRV), and resting heart rate. However, there are no on-demand measurements for any of these, unlike Gabit. The numbers start appearing in the app on their own after you’ve worn the ring for some time. The Ultrahuman Ring AIR does seem to miss out on showing SpO2 data upfront, but I’m told the Ring AIR does measure this crucial aspect while you’re asleep.
A couple of very useful features that also deserve special mention are automatic activity detection and nap detection. The Ultrahuman Ring AIR can detect, and throw up alerts via the app if you’ve been partaking in a physical activity, or have indulged in a nap. These alerts pop up on the app after the fact and indicate the timings of the activity or nap as well. Truthfully, it does throw up quite a few false alerts too, but you can choose to add the ones you think are legit, in which case the timings get added to your movement score or sleep score (as the case may be) for that day. In fact, you can even categorise the activity and map it to a specific type of workout (say walking or running) as well. What’s more, you can adjust the timings of these activities and naps too, if you think the ring’s auto-detection didn’t capture them accurately enough.
App and connectivity
The Ultrahuman app, available on both iOS and Android, is what you’d need to see everything the Ring AIR captures. With the UI divided into tabs, the Home tab is where you’ll find all your health and activity data. There’s another tab called Metabolism that looks like it’s made for Ultrahuman M1 users, which is the brand’s continuous glucose monitoring sensor. A tab called Zones allows you to share your scores with others, while the tab labelled Vision incorporates data from blood tests that you can book and order via the app. The last tab is called Profile and lets you chat with product experts and connect with third-party apps for syncing health data.
The latter is one more highlight worth mentioning, as the Ultrahuman app allows you to sync data with quite a few external platforms. These include Google’s Health Connect, along with the likes of Garmin, Fitbit, Suunto, Withings, and others.
The Home tab is where most of the action is, and it’s mainly dominated by large cards that show scores for movement, stress, dynamic recovery and sleep. Tapping on each card shows historical trends and more details on that specific parameter. Scrolling down past these cards brings you to individual markers like heart rate, VO2 Max, temperature, HRV, and Resting HR, with the figures displayed up front, and more details available with a tap. Next, there are Smart Goals, which cover various aspects like steps, active hours, sleep duration etc, with the respective goals set for you automatically. You can go ahead and edit these goals if you wish.
The app also includes a bunch of breathing protocols you could use. Some of these are meant for relaxation, while others promise to help reduce stress and anxiety, promote sleep, energise your body, improve focus, and even aid your digestive function.
Intermittently, the app displays buttons labelled Body Signals. Tapping on these brings up brief descriptions that aim to offer some insight or suggestions based on recent trends derived from your sleep patterns and physical activity.
Handily, the app also offers a weekly report that presents a bird’s eye view of your sleep, movement and recovery metrics (including all the aspects that form part of these and the details thereof), and how they fared as compared to the previous week, neatly showing what has improved and what needs improvement. The report is quite detailed and uses charts and graphs to show the data in a visual, easy-to-understand manner.
Some of the other features included in the app include the option to buy a subscription package called UltrahumanX, which is a membership plan that offers various benefits like theft and loss coverage on your ring, extra value on trade-in, and more. Ultrahuman also sells a bunch of different health supplements via the app. There’s also access to fitness content — covering guides, videos, podcasts, workouts, etc, that the users can refer to as part of their health and fitness journey. These are all found under the Ultrahuman Digital section within the Profile tab, and neatly categorised into headings like workouts, weight loss, meditate, productivity and focus, sleep, etc. You can also locate the ring if it’s within Bluetooth range via the app, and see its last known location. In addition, the app also allows to toggle a power saving mode on the ring that promises to save battery by disabling a few features.
Performance and battery life
The Ultrahuman app packs in a ton of data on the Home tab, and you always have the option of diving deeper to see trends based on your vitals, physical activity and sleep, as captured by the ring over time. If you’ve enabled a few PowerPlugs, there’s even more data to sift through. While access to all this info is good to have, sometimes the data overload seems a bit overwhelming to handle. So it’s best to enable only the PowerPlugs you need and pay attention to only the aspects you want to focus on, say sleep for instance.
Speaking of, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR is great for monitoring your sleep patterns. It’s quite accurate and presents detailed info on various related aspects. It doesn’t just tell you the duration, and the usual aspects like details on REM sleep, light sleep and deep sleep, but also how many times you tossed and turned in your sleep, restfulness, sleep consistency, and more.
During my time with the Ring AIR, I discovered that HR drop could be an important factor to consider over the long term. As per the app, HR drop is the time the heart rate takes to drop to the lowest level during sleep. This is supposed to be an indicator of rest and recovery, and the sooner the heart rate drops when you sleep, the more rested you will be. And if you see this parameter indicated in red regularly in the Ultrahuman app, you could take corrective measures by adjusting meal times, ensuring a calm sleep environment, using relaxation techniques like deep breathing etc. Another useful thing the app shows is called Sleep Debt, and this indicates the shortfall (if any) in your sleep duration as compared to the optimum level. Shown in hours and minutes, it also mentions the time you should aim to sleep by, to be able to get the minimum recommended sleep.
Based on my usage, I think the Ultrahuman Ring AIR is also fairly accurate when it comes to tracking metrics like heart rate. However, one aspect where it needs improvement is step count — as it seems to undercount steps taken. Also, there’s a bit of a time lag in terms of the data syncing and showing up in the app.
For logging workouts, I did mention the auto-detect feature. However, to ensure that the activity data gets captured properly, you can manually start a workout via the app. A bunch of sports activities are supported, and for outdoor activities like walking and running, the app also captures your route, using positioning data from your phone. Auto pause isn’t supported for workouts for now. Speaking of workouts, it’s worth mentioning that smart rings aren’t the ideal tracking device for many of these. Especially those that involve active use of the hands. Weightlifting and boxing are good examples — a ring would just get in the way. Also, while smart rings usually have some waterproof rating, they aren’t ideal for swimming, since there’s a chance of the ring slipping off your finger and taking a dive into the drink. Finding a dropped ring could still be possible in a pool, but it’d be almost impossible to find if you lose one while swimming in the sea.
As far as the battery life is concerned, it’s a bit underwhelming frankly. During my usage, I got about 3 to 4 days off a single charge, having to charge it a couple of times every week. The charging puck takes a little less than 2 hours to juice it up fully.
Verdict
For me, the name Ultrahuman invokes visions of lithe human forms. And the Ultrahuman Ring AIR maybe aims to achieve that in some sense. It packs in quite a bit, aiming to deliver enough insights for its users and take them a few steps closer to their health goals. This device made me realise that while a smart ring is supposed to be a subtle and almost invisible activity tracker, it does require the user to be quite involved and committed to the process. This would involve not only syncing the activity data with the app multiple times a day and checking the insights offered, but also following those suggestions and taking corrective action to ensure the trends improve over time.
As far as the competition is concerned, there’s Boat which has recently launched a smart ring priced very affordably at Rs 2,999. I haven’t tried that one yet, so I can’t say how good or bad it is. The Noise Luna Ring is another option, and one that has evolved and added newer features since the time I last tried it. The Gabit Smart Ring (review) comes across as a strong rival too, especially considering it offers better battery life and better step tracking, and at Rs 13,110, is priced half of what the Ultrahuman Ring AIR costs. At that price, you can’t go wrong with the Gabit ring. However, the Ultrahuman offering is significantly more loaded in terms of features and capabilities. Possibly the biggest competition for Ultrahuman will come from Samsung, which recently unveiled its Galaxy Smart Ring (first impressions). However, this is only available in a handful of countries for now, and India isn’t one of them.
With its asking price of Rs 28,499, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR is a slightly pricey proposition that warrants careful consideration before you hit the Buy Now button. It does need improvement when it comes to aspects like battery life, resistance to scratches, step counting accuracy, and presenting the data in a more concise, easy-to-understand manner. However, it shines in stuff like sleep tracking, the level of detail it offers, and features like auto activity detection etc. And then there are areas where it’s absolutely unmatched, such as the ability to detect AFib (yet to come to India), data sync with third-party apps, and how it has implemented feature modules in the form of PowerPlugs. All things considered, the Ultrahuman Ring AIR has left me impressed with what it can do and the potential it promises. I’d say that if you’re considering a smart ring and can afford its asking price, you should give the Ultrahuman Ring AIR a close, hard look. Your turn, Samsung.
Editor’s rating: 8 / 10
Pros:
- Lightweight & comfortable
- Loaded with features
- Lots of detailed insights
- Good sleep tracking
Cons:
- Step count not so accurate
- Battery life could be better
- No on-demand measurements
- Prone to scratches
Nguồn: 91mobiles.com
