RingConn Gen 3 Review

Design 

• Now available in five colours
• 10 ring sizes now offered
• Haptic motor added

The RingConn Gen 3 remains a not-quite-fully circular ring, built mainly from titanium like most smart rings, with epoxy resin on the interior where the sensor array sits. That sensor bump doesn’t sit fully flush with the ring’s interior, but it also hasn’t made it uncomfortable to wear and helps ensure the sensors sit in the optimal position.

There are five colour options in total, with brushed silver and rose gold (pictured) now added. I have a few compliments about my rose gold version – it’s not as slim or small as an Oura Ring 5 and is also a touch thicker and heavier than the RingConn Gen 2 – but I’d still put it in the bracket of nice-looking smart rings that thankfully haven’t picked up lots of scuffs and scratches.

RingConn provides a free sizing kit to make sure you get the best fit, and I’m glad I used the kit. I ended up needing to go one size up from what I tried with the Gen 1, Gen 2, and the Air rings. An extra ring size has been added, which brings the size options up to 10. A size 15 ring has been added for those who still found the ring wasn’t the ideal fit.

The Gen 3’s durability credentials are the same as the Gen 2. It’s IP68 and 10 ATM-rated, so it’s safe to submerge in water up to 100 metres. I’ve kept it on for swims and showers, and it’s kept working after a dip.

A vibration motor has been added, letting it trigger alerts when it needs charging, you’ve been inactive for long periods, or it detects a high heart rate. These alerts can be enabled and disabled individually in the RingConn smartphone app.

Charging is done once again via a charging case, which was cut from the Gen 2 Air to keep the price down. Interestingly, this charging case will now work with all ring sizes, with more space around the charging point. That’s ideal if a fellow RingConn owner wants to power up and doesn’t need to search for their size-specific case.

Health and fitness tracking 

• Tracks heart rate, sleep and daily activity 
• New blood pressure trends
• Automatic exercise tracking introduced

RingConn uses an optical heart rate sensor, temperature sensor, and 3-axis accelerometer to track your data. That includes monitoring sleep, stress, daily activity, SpO2 levels and skin temperature. Basically, it covers much of what other smart rings can track.

The Gen 3 offers the sleep apnea monitoring mode first introduced on the Gen 2 and has now added a new blood pressure trends feature. This isn’t letting you continuously monitor blood pressure or take on-the-spot readings. Instead, it generates what RingConn calls vascular insights overnight, using manually logged blood pressure readings to provide them. While this sounds like a health feature, RingConn is keen to tag it as a wellness feature, not for medical purposes.

It’s good to see RingConn add automatic exercise recognition support along with the ability to manually track a workout, including outdoor ones. It’s also taken a leaf out of Oura’s book with a Lab section dedicated to features that are in beta testing. I was able to access a new Sleep Pro mode to access more accurate sleep tracking, though I was too late to enrol in the AI chat feature it’s testing.

There are some interesting features I haven’t seen on other smart rings either. Like looking at ambient light exposure and skin temperature to understand your sun exposure and hydration. A headache alert monitors HRV and temperature shifts in your environment to look for signs of a headache. 

It does, of course, need to do the bread-and-butter stuff first. Daily step counts were within 200-300 steps of two other smartwatches I wore alongside it. Progress is nicely presented in an app that’s been one of the more problematic parts of living with a RingConn. Automatic workout tracking is good for walking, though I’d say you’ll need to switch to manual tracking for more energetic workouts.

For sleep, it’ll track the usual things like total time, track sleep stages and will also look at your stress overnight. I’ve been wearing it alongside the Oura Ring 5 and two other smartwatches. For total sleep, it clocked a similar duration and identified similar times I fell asleep and woke up. Metrics like average heart rate and HRV were similar to Oura on most nights, and the data presentation feels a bit more in line with rival apps.

RingConn also dedicates a spot in the app to review stress data, telling you when you’re calm or maybe focused, which might be contributing to moments of stress in your day. Vital signs collates vitals data and flags changes so you can explore them further.

For blood pressure trends, you’ll need to complete a quick survey before you’re prompted to measure your blood pressure, then record data from the ring to establish a baseline. Once that’s done, you’ll be able to see whether blood pressure trends are described as stable, slight, or noticeable, along with a presentation of your circular stress. For a feature not intended for medical diagnosis, the terminology used certainly makes it sound like one. It also needs further calibration before you start getting the most insightful data.

There’s a clear effort to collate different aspects of your data to make them easier to glance at. That’s mainly done through RingConn’s Wellness Balance widget and Lifestyle Scores, though I actually found I paid more attention to the separate metrics.

A plan section in the app is designed to help you improve your sleep, diet, or exercise habits. These are pretty simple plans, like sticking to the same bedtime each night or hitting a certain number of exercise minutes a week. It’s the kind of simple plan that could help to build better habits.

Battery life

• Up to 14 days of battery life
• Charging case works with all ring sizes
• Charges fully in 90 minutes

RingConn led in smart ring battery life, and Gen 3 promises even more time between charges. You can expect up to 14 days, up from 12 days on Gen 2. The Oura Ring 5 maxes out at 9 days, while the Ultrahuman Ring Pro can hit up to 15 days. Basically, this ring can last up to two weeks as long as you’re not using the sleep apnea monitoring feature or receiving regular vibration alerts. 

Overall, I’ve been very happy with the battery performance. Daily drop was around 6-7%, and that included wearing it at night. I’ve been wearing it alongside the Oura Ring 5 and was definitely reaching for the charger more with the Oura. I also like that the battery status indicates how many days you have left to play with.

The charging case remains a very travel-friendly way to power back up again. It does take well over an hour to go from 0-100% battery, so it’s not exactly the speediest of chargers, however.

Should you buy it?