What is the best Oura ring alternative? The best smart rings in the UK

Have you ever heard of Oura, Circular, Movano and the like?

If your answer to this question is "no", don’t worry.

Smart rings are currently still one of the lesser-known wearables on the market.

At the same time, smart rings offer many useful functions for everyday life. 🥳

In our smart ring review, we were thrilled with the gadgets. We would like to explain why in this article.

But let's first start with what exactly a smart ring is. 👇

An electronic ring with many sensors

In terms of appearance, smart rings are reminiscent of plain old conventional rings.

But rings like the Oura Ring would of course not be smart rings without the right technology.

That's why smart rings come with all kinds of sensors. 🙌

These sensors enable, for example, contactless payment at the checkout, sleep monitoring or fitness and health tracking.

Smart ring apps

Since a smart ring usually does not have a display, you cannot view the recorded data directly on the wearable.

However, most brands offer a practical smartphone app for this purpose. 🤩

In this app, you can access the settings of the wearable and receive reports on the tracked data.

Not all smart rings are the same. Smart wearables can have many different functions.

Of course, a combination of different functions is also possible.

So let’s see what the innovative wearables have to offer. 👇

Monitor your sleep

The most important function of the well-known Oura Ring is, of course, sleep tracking. 😴

But smart rings from other manufacturers also offer you a detailed analysis of your night's sleep.

The sleep trackers provide you with the following information:

• Sleep stages (light, REM and deep sleep)
• Sleep latency (time lying awake in bed until you fall asleep)
• Waking hours
• Movement
• Blood oxygen saturation (SpO2)
• Respiratory rate
• Heart rate variability (HRV)
• Sleep Score for sleep quality

You will receive the recorded data in the corresponding app on your smartphone. 📱

In addition, you will usually also receive recommendations on how you can improve your sleep.

The Go2Sleep sleep tracker can even detect possible sleep apnoea.

Keep an eye on your fitness and health data

Many smart rings also function as fitness trackers. 💪

Thanks to the integrated pedometer and various sensors, such as an accelerometer, the wearables record your daily activity.

Metrics such as resting heart rate and HRV are also measured.

If you want to use the wearable primarily for sports, a smartwatch or fitness tracker is recommended instead of a smart ring.

These fitness trackers not only record more data, but also support you with extensive analysis tools and pre-loaded training plans. 💪

Contactless payment at the checkout

Besides fitness tracking rings, there are also many NFC rings.

These smart pieces of jewellery are equipped with an NFC chip.

So you can simply hold your hand up to the card reader at the checkout and pay for your purchases in seconds. 🙌

Some NFC rings require you to create a virtual credit card via a third party provider.

With an innovative NFC ring, you don't have to rummage around for your wallet or mobile phone.

The credit on the ring and the connected credit cards are managed via the app on your phone. 📱

Open doors and locks with your smart ring

Smart doors with NFC technology are also becoming more widespread.

For doors with such locks, NFC rings can often also be used as smart door openers.

Instead of rummaging in the depths of your pocket for your key, you can simply hold your hand in front of the lock.

Your smart ring as a remote control

Some smart rings also offer the possibility to operate your smartphone as well as other devices. 🙌

Incoming messages and calls, for example, can be transferred directly from your mobile phone to your ring.

Your smart jewellery informs you about notifications by vibrating on your finger.

With gesture control, you can reject calls. This is particularly useful if you are in an important meeting, for example.

In addition, music playing from your smartphone can often also be controlled via the smart ring and an alarm clock can be set. 🥳

The Circular smart ring offers a smart alarm function that is also silent. It will gently wake you up by vibrating during a light sleep phase. You can read more about this function in our review.

Smart rings: new gadgets for more online security

In times when the internet is becoming more and more important, we must of course not forget about security online.

Smart rings in particular have great potential in this regard.

Biometric authentication methods, such as fingerprints or facial recognition, are much more secure than passwords and PINs.

Based on an electrocardiogram (ECG) or walking gait, smart rings can identify their wearer.

Smart rings could provide more security against hackers and identity theft in the future.

In our tests, we were thrilled with what smart rings can do. The wearables offer you a lot of benefits. 🤩

But of course there are always two sides to the coin. And so smart rings also have a few disadvantages, which we’ll get into below.

These are the advantages of a smart ring

But let's start with the good things first!

Here are all the advantages of a smart ring 👇

Many useful functions for everyday life

As you know by now, there are smart rings with many different functions: From fitness trackers to NFC rings, there's everything.

This way, smart wearables can support you in many areas of your life. 🙌

Long battery life of up to several days

Since smart rings don’t have displays, they consume far less power than, for example, smartwatches.

This way, the battery usually lasts for up to a week. 🔋

Top-end smartwatches from Garmin also have a particularly long battery life. By the way, you can find our review of the best Garmin watches here.

Particularly comfortable

Smart rings are not only small, but also super light.

As a result, we hardly felt them once we got used to wearing them for our tests. 🤩

These are the disadvantages of smart rings

Of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows with smart rings.

Here are the disadvantages of wearables. 👇

Unfamiliar feeling for non-ring wearers

If you're someone who doesn't wear rings, a smart ring might feel a bit unusual. 🖐

So in our tests, we definitely felt the smart ring on our neighbouring fingers.

Under certain circumstances, this could definitely bother some people.

Relatively new market

The smart ring market is still relatively young. So far, the gadgets have not been able to establish themselves in the same way as smartwatches and fitness trackers. ⌚️

Therefore, the range of smart rings is still quite limited.

The smart ring market is still relatively new. Consequently, there are not yet many brands offering smart wearables.

However, we have compiled the best-known manufacturers of smart rings for you:

• Oura
• Circular
• Go2Sleep
• Movano Evie (not yet available)
• Token (not yet available in the UK)
• Pago Ring
• McLear

More and more companies are sure to enter the smart ring market in the coming years.

The Oura Ring is currently only available directly from the manufacturer.

The alternatives to the Oura ring are generally the same story. Smart rings can usually only be ordered directly from the retailer's website.

However, ordering on the internet offers you many advantages!

We would like to tell you what they are below. 👇

Easy and comfortable from the sofa

Pick up your phone or laptop, sit on the sofa and you're ready to start shopping!

It couldn't be simpler! 🥳

And a few days later, your order will be delivered directly to your door. 🙌

Access the complete range of products

Don't limit yourself to the limited selection at your local electronics store.

Instead, you can find all the currently available products on the internet. 🤩

This way you can compare the different models and choose the one that suits you best.

Make use of the 14-day right of return

What happens if you are not satisfied with your order?

If this is the case, the Right to Cancel kicks in.

This allows you to return your order within 14 days without giving any reason. 🙌