Are you ready for your first smart ring? Here’s a subscription-free one I recommend

I’ve tested dozens of smart rings, and most claim to have batteries that last about a week, but on mine, they last five or six days before dying. Part of the appeal of smart rings compared to smartwatches is their long battery life, so what gives?

Also: Finally, I Found a Smart Ring That Looks Like Real Jewelry (Without the Deal)

If you want a smart ring with really competitive battery life then I have one for you. i am testing ringcone gen 2 Smart ring that claims to last 10 to 12 days – significantly longer than some of the most popular rings on the market. Furthermore, it comes with other features and some drawbacks that set it apart.

Right off the bat, RingCon 2 has some green flags. Unlike competing smart ring brands, whose products start at $350 and go up to $400 or even $450, this smart ring costs $300 — and there’s no subscription to your health data. Sizes start at six and go up to size 14, and you can get the ring in three colors: silver, black, and gold.

The construction of the ring is more square than circular, but I didn’t find myself bothered by this unique shape. It fits comfortably on my finger without any problems. Despite healthy and frequent wear, the ring does not wear out easily.

Also: Ora Ring vs. Apple Watch: Here’s which health tracker is right for you

The RingCon Gen 2 comes with a case that extends its already impressive long battery life, powering the smart ring’s empty battery for over 150+ days. As someone who’s constantly charging multiple wearable devices at one time, this long-lasting charging case that you can use untethered from an outlet is a big plus.

The RingCon Gen 2 measures your vital health, sleep, activity, and stress, but does not measure readiness – a common metric included in most health tracks these days. Instead, it offers the Wellness Balance feature. It takes all your data and displays it in a flower-like graph, with longer petals for biometrics that are meeting or exceeding recommended benchmarks and shorter petals for those that aren’t.

When all your petals are the same length, it indicates that your health is in balance. It’s a creative approach, and I liked that as soon as I opened the app, I could see all the important data displayed in such a digestible and visual way.

Also: I should have listened to my Aura Ring when it warned me about my health.

Hardcore trainers use the readiness or energy feature on their smart ring apps to figure out how intense their exercise should be for the day. If that’s you, you may be unhappy with the Wellness Balance functionality, and I would recommend the Aura Ring, Ultrahuman Ring, or Galaxy Ring instead.

The app also provides context as well as scores, which is helpful. One day while testing the ring I felt ill and slept the whole day. Because of the amount of time I spent in bed, she warned me that sleeping too much could slow my metabolism or cause weight gain.

Also: Best Smart Rings of 2025: I Tested and Found a Clear Winner

RingCon says its second-generation Ring’s battery lasts for 10 to 12 days, but in my testing, I found it only lasted about seven days. Still, that’s much longer than the battery life of other smart rings I’ve tried, which last four to five days on a single charge. I can say without a doubt that the battery life of this smart ring is the most impressive out of all the brands I’ve tried.

According to its website, the RingCon Gen 2 also has a sleep apnea detection feature with 90.7% accuracy. If you’re a chronic snore and want to know how your breathing is affecting you throughout the night, the sleep apnea feature can help you monitor your condition.

It tells you when there were significant or minor outliers in your sleep throughout the night, providing not only a graph detailing this but also a timeline showing when your SpO2 fluctuated during the night.

I wore the Ora Ring 4 alongside the RingCon Gen 2 and found that the RingCon Gen 2 underestimated both my sleep time and the number of steps I took throughout the day.

Also: Why Oura Rings Made Team USA’s Olympic Gear List — And It’s Good News for You

On a healthy night’s sleep, the Ora recorded eight hours and two minutes, with a sleep efficiency of 94% and a sleep score of 90. The RingCon recorded a sleep score of 84, seven hours and 45 minutes of sleep, and a sleep efficiency of 91%. In both cases, RingCon is shaving about 15 minutes off my night’s sleep.

One area where I feel Ringkon’s smart ring is lacking is its user interface. The app seemed underdeveloped, and some messages lacked the personal context that would prove they were being generated from my own data. On a day with a good sleep score, when I clicked on the sleep tab all it said was: “Good sleep makes you happy.” I hope the recommendations can become more tailored and informative in future updates.

ZDNET’s shopping advice

I enjoyed most aspects of wearing it Subscription-free smart ringAnd at $300, I’d recommend it to those looking for an alternative to Ora’s subscription-based services. Especially if you want battery life that will last you a week.

The user interface is a bit underdeveloped, and some of the health insights feel a bit impersonal. but otherwise, ringcone gen 2 At the cheaper end of the spectrum is an impressive smart ring.