Editors’ Choice Health

RingConn Gen 2 Air

Review by Angie Kibiloski

Health Tracking Close at Hand

There are several options on the market when it comes to smart rings, and though I’ve never felt the need to get one that notifies me of texts and emails, I’ve always been interested in one that tracks my vitals and other daily metrics. RingConn Gen 2 Air is the latest in this type of wearable from RingConn, featuring enough health tracking data to suit my basic needs, and coming in at a decently affordable price point of $199. Having slightly less functionality than the previous RingConn Gen 2 model, but also being slightly less expensive, the Air hits the mark for the budget-conscious wearer, while still providing useful insights into everyday health and wellbeing.

A Union of Strength, Comfort, and Technology

The RingConn Gen 2 Air is made from durable stainless steel, available in either silver or gold, with 9 different sizes to perfectly fit most fingers. It’s very lightweight at just 2.5 grams, with smooth, beveled edges for comfort, and an IP68 rating for all day wear during most conditions and normal activities, though it is recommended to remove it when heavy lifting, prolonged submersion in water, or working with harsh chemicals. The inside circumference of the ring is mostly smooth and circular, with a flattened section bracketed by 2 small protrusions at the base, which houses the magnetic charging points, LED mode indicators, and sensors. These sensors detect a wide variety of metrics, including heart rate and variability, blood oxygen saturation, movement, skin temperature, and more. The outer circumference of the ring is slightly squared off on its 4 sides, providing a slimmer, more unobtrusive fit than a true circle. Finally, on the palm-facing outer rim, there’s a discrete cut-out to provide a visual reference for the ring’s position on your finger, in case it gets twisted and you need to resituate the sensors to their correct spot at your finger’s base.

RingConn Gen 2 Air has a conveniently long battery life, with up to 10 days of continuous wear before needing to be charged. When you do need to charge it, just plop it onto the cylinder in the middle of the included charging base where the magnetic connections are, and 1.5 hours later, you’ll be ready for another 10 days of health tracking. The charging base can’t store a charge like the previous RingConn Gen 2 model, so it’ll need to be plugged into a wall socket or computer via USB-C while charging the ring. This is also how you’ll create the initial pairing with the RingConn app, which is your hub for adjusting settings on the ring, seeing all of the metrics it has collected, and gaining helpful health insights. Tip: Turn on your phone’s Bluetooth and locations before dropping the ring onto the charging base for pairing, or your ring might switch itself out of pairing mode when it gets tired of waiting for you to turn them on via the app. If this happens, just lift it off and plop it back on the charger again to reset. Despite my initial user error moment of not having my Bluetooth and locations already on, I had zero issues with connectivity between my ring and the app every time I opened it thereafter.

The Brain Contained Within

Now let’s get into the very smart RingConn app itself, your hub for tracking and analyzing all of the data that the RingConn Gen 2 Air detects every day. The ring itself can store up to 7 days of data, so you don’t always need to be connected to the app, though I usually connect once a day out of curiosity over my sleep cycles and stress factors, which were the points I found most interesting to monitor. The sleep tracking feature will monitor your total sleep time through heart rate, skin temp, and movement, detecting how long you were in each sleep stage, and at which times during the night. The stress monitor will display your variable heart rate throughout the day, chart at which times it spiked, and measure what percentage of the day you were at a heightened stress level. You can also view your individual vital stats, taken at regular intervals during the day, with charts for heart rate, heart rate variability, blood oxygen level, respiratory rate, and skin temp. Monitor your activity through step count, distance travelled, calories burned, and what percentage of your day was spent at low to vigorous activity levels, or totally inactive if you’re a part-time potato like me. If you’re a person with a period, you can track your cycle’s start and end dates, and even predict your ovulation dates, through skin temperature and your own input on your cycle’s regularity.

All of these data metrics are clearly displayed through text descriptions, graphics, and charts, but if you want a little more explanation, you can ask the AI chatbot. I had no trouble reading the comprehensive charts myself, and didn’t find the AI chat to be a necessary element of the app, but it’s there if you want to utilize it, and easy to ignore if you don’t. The underlying AI algorithms that fill in the charts and descriptions will also let you know how your vitals and habits are stacking up to the recommended norms in each section. You can browse through each separate metric under Insights, where you’ll also get an overall health score, follow along with your goals in the Plan section, and see your averages in each metric over time under Trends. Use the smart health tips from the integrated AI in each area to improve your health with sleep, stress, and activity, and fine tune these insights even further by adding your own notes on how you feel after sleeping, your stress levels, and which type of exercise you participated in each day. You can also manually start the testing cycle for heart rate and blood oxygen, if you need to see your immediate results in any given moment.

There are a number of adjustable settings to suit your needs and improve the quality of data interpretation, like your personal height, weight, and age stats, your activity, sleep, and overall fitness goals, and how you’d like your data to be displayed or shared to other apps, widgets, or trusted parties. Choose between various workout modes to ensure the ring differentiates these periods of intentional strenuous activity from spiking anomalies in your regular vitals, for a more accurate and comprehensive analysis of your health. You can also choose how often each metric is tested, and the display unit of each measurement. The best thing about this app is that you get all of the data tracking, AI-collated analysis and insights, AI chat and health plan coaching, and external sharing features for free, no subscription required, which can’t be said for all competing brands. It’s available for Android and iOS.

If You Like It, Put a RingConn On It

I’ll admit that I’ve never felt much need to constantly monitor my vitals, as a fairly healthy person most of the time, but after wearing the RingConn Gen 2 Air for a couple weeks, I understand the appeal of having that data at your fingertips…or finger base to be exact. If you’re a person who cares about yourself and your health, even if you don’t have current issues that need watching daily, I’d recommend adding this device to your life as an extra bit of self-care for your long-term wellbeing. I really like my RingConn Gen 2 Air, and I’ve enjoyed getting daily insights into my heart, sleep, stress, and fitness metrics. It’s super comfortable to wear throughout the entire day and night, with no rubbing or pinching, and so light that I forgot I was wearing it most times. It does have a waterproof rating of up to 100 meters, so I could’ve worn it while showering and doing the dishes, but I did prefer to remove it during those moments so it didn’t get in the way. I found the app to be quite in-depth, offering an interesting snapshot of my overall daily wellbeing, though I do wish that it had one feature that the previous RingConn Gen 2 model had, which is the ability to detect periods of sleep apnea. I don’t suffer from that myself, as far as I know, but I have family members who would benefit from this function. The previous Gen 2 is a little pricier, though, at $299, so the sleep apnea tracking isn’t too big of a sacrifice to save $100 on the Air.

Grab Some Fresh Air

If you’re ready to take the daily tracking of your vitals, activity, stress, and sleep cycles in hand, head over to RingConn‘s website and order a RingConn Gen 2 Air for yourself. Sizes vary a little from traditional ring sizes (I wear a size 7 normally, but an 8 here), so you might want to add on their free sizing kit, which will be shipped to you with mock-ups of all the available sizes before you place your final order. Or, if you happen to have a 3D printer at home, you can skip some time and download the blueprints for the sizers immediately. If you think you may want the sleep apnea tracking, a few more days of battery life, and a titanium ring instead of a stainless steel one, check out the RingConn Gen 2 as a slightly pricier option before committing to the Air as well. For the time being, head over to our YouTube channel where I’ve done a brief video to show how the ring looks and fits in real life.