Verdict
The Pin Pulse is a comfortable, lightweight smart ring that delivers solid sleep, activity and wellness tracking, backed by a mostly well-designed app and no subscription fees. Its more ambitious features, including blood glucose risk insights, sleep apnea monitoring and AI coaching, feel less polished and don’t fully justify the high full retail price.
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Comfortable and lightweight ring design
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Mostly well-designed app
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Capable of good core sleep and fitness tracking
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Blood glucose risk feature doesn’t track glucose levels directly
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Battery drain when using sleep apnea monitoring
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AI assistant doesn’t feel very personable
Key Features
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Review Price:
£369
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Featherlight titanium design
The Pin Pulse keeps things sleek, slim and comfortable, making it an easy smart ring to wear all day and all night.
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Strong everyday tracking
From sleep and steps to heart rate, SpO2 and temperature, it nails the core health stats most people actually care about.
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Big swing on advanced health
Blood pressure trends, blood glucose risk insights and AI-powered coaching give the Pin Pulse standout ambition, even if some features feel early.
Introduction
The Pin Pulse is a smart ring that smashed its Kickstarter crowdfunding goal and claims to be the first to monitor trends in your blood pressure and blood glucose data.
It also offers more familiar smart ring features like the ability to track sleep, heart rate and daily steps. It’s also embracing AI to power a coach mode that helps you make better decisions about your health and overall well-being.
If the Pin Pulse can really deliver these major health features, it marks a major breakthrough for smart rings. Is it too good to be true? I’ve been wearing it for a few weeks to find out.
Pricing and availability
The Pin Pulse launched on Kickstarter in March 2026, with backers able to pick up the ring for $249 (£188), making it one of the more affordable smart rings available.
When it goes on sale for anyone to pick up, that price jumps up to $499, making it one of the most expensive smart rings you can buy. To put that pricing into perspective, the cheapest Oura Ring 4 model costs $349/£349 and the Samsung Galaxy Ring is also cheaper at $399/£349.
You’ve then got a bunch of rings that sit just below the Pin Pulse. The Ultrahuman Ring Pro costs $419 and the RingConn Gen 2 sits at $418.60.
To soften the blow of that one-off price, the Pin Pulse software and app are free to access and will remain so, according to The Pin Universe.
Design
- Black, silver and gold colours available
- Made from titanium
- Uses a charging dock instead of a case
The Pin Pulse approach to ring design is to pretty much go with the crowd. You’re getting a minimalist-looking ring made from titanium. It features a small logo on the exterior as a reminder of the correct position to wear it and get those sensors into an optimal monitoring position.
It’s slim at just 2.7mm and lightweight, weighing in around 3g. It doesn’t feel too far off from the feel of wearing an Oura Ring 4. The sensor array in the interior is noticeable, but I’d say it mostly helps to make sure you get a good fit, which in turn should help get the most accurate data tracking from it.
When the ring needs to come off to charge, there’s a charging dock to drop it onto. I’m a bit disappointed that it’s not a charging case that can offer some additional battery reserves.
In terms of durability, the ring comes with a 5 ATM water resistance rating, making it suitable for showering, swimming and keeping on for sweatier workouts. I’ve taken it for a dip on a few occasions, and the Pulse has survived being submerged in a swimming pool or staying on during a shower.
Pretty much all of the smart rings I’ve tested have an issue with picking up scratches. I’m happy to see that the Pin Pulse has done a good job of fending off those scratches in general.
Health and fitness tracking
- Promised non-invasive blood glucose and blood pressure insights
- Features an AI coach
- Can track workouts using phone’s GPS and motion sensors
The Pin Pulse has the sensors to monitor sleep, daily activity, heart rate, heart rate variability, SpO2 levels and temperature. A look at that core data against other smart rings and smartwatches I wore at the same time showed data like sleep, daily step counts and temperature trend data told largely a similar story to those other devices.
Heart rate tracking felt good in places, particularly when generating minimum heart rate readings. Maximum and average heart rate readings, however, tended to trend higher than other devices. I also saw gaps in my heart rate graphs at times.
The headline tracking features here promise non-invasive blood glucose risk assessments and blood pressure trend insights.
I’ll start with the blood pressure insights by saying that this feature wasn’t available for me to test. I’ve been told that the feature is ready and will be included in the app for backers to use when the ring is shipped. This will require a one-time calibration with a cuff-style monitor before it can start estimating blood pressure trends using the built-in optical sensors.
I was able to try out the blood glucose risk assessment feature. This uses the ring’s sensors, including temperature and motion sensors, to monitor metabolism-related signals and estimate glucose trends. This isn’t taking measurements like a standard glucose monitor, and also isn’t providing clinical-grade readings, so that’s worth keeping in mind.
Measurements take five minutes and should ideally be conducted after eight hours of fasting or two hours after eating a meal. I did a mixture of both, and the first issue I ran into was that after some of those measurements, the assessments weren’t provided. The app will prompt you whether the ring is in the correct place, so this perhaps has something to do with what’s happening when processing the data.
On the times it did work, I was told that my measurements were considered normal. The issue I have is gauging how accurate the measurements are. The feature has been tested against reference datasets to see how signal patterns match up with known glucose trends. This isn’t a feature designed to treat or diagnose diabetes and seems more for those interested in what this type of data could be telling you about your general well-being.
There is also a sleep apnea risk included, and it’s worth stating that this feature, along with ones like the blood glucose and blood pressure assessments, are not deemed as medical features or having the regulatory clearance to offer clinical-grade measurements. These are features that serve as prompts indicating that something might not be quite right.
Using the sleep apnea monitoring feature does make the sensors work much harder and causes the optical sensors to shine much brighter at night, which was distracting at times. Thankfully, my data considered my breathing patterns and oxygen variation data during the night as normal and showed no signs of potential sleep apnea.
Pin Pulse joins a host of smart rings that are bringing an AI coach into play. You have a Dr Vita to chat about your health data, ask to analyse sleep data or ask for health and fitness program recommendations. I’d say this particular AI coach falls into the category of ones that are a bit robotic. It’s also very slow when typing out responses to queries. It didn’t impress me enough to make this a feature I wanted to use on a regular basis.
The accompanying AI health analysis the ring can provide is also a bit slow to process and presents data like a big collection of numbers.
Battery life
- Up to seven days of battery life
- Sleep apnea monitoring drains battery
- Quick charging rate
The Pin Pulse should give you up to seven days of battery life, but that’ll depend on whether you decide to put all available features to use on a regular basis.
For example, if you’re planning to use sleep apnea risk monitoring, you will need to charge the ring the following day and likely again before you go to bed to continue monitoring.
If you can live without the sleep apnea risk monitoring, you’ll get a better battery performance in return and be much closer to that maximum of seven days. That’s still less battery than what you’ll get from most other leading smart rings though.
What it does have in its favour is a very speedy charging rate. Typically it needed less than an hour to get back up to 100% from a fully flat battery.
Should you buy it?
You want a smart ring that’s comfortable to wear and offers good core data
If you’re looking for a smart ring with an understated look that can dish out useful data like sleep and daily activity, the Pin Pulse has you well covered.
You want a smart ring that can track blood glucose levels
This ring offers blood glucose features, but it might not be the kind those seeking that support are looking for.
Final Thoughts
The Pin Pulse promises to break new ground and, in some ways, has achieved that.
There are some aspects I do think need refining. Particularly with matching more polished apps you’ll find associated with smart rings like Oura, Ultrahuman, Luna and Leep.
Yes, it’s a good smart ring with some unique features, but I never felt there was enough of a draw for me to say this is the standout subscription-free smart ring to opt for. Especially at the higher price it sits at compared to most of the competition.
For better options, take a look at our selection of the best smart rings.
How We Test
We thoroughly test every smart ring we review. We use industry-standard testing to compare features properly and we use the ring as our main device over the review period. We’ll always tell you what we find and we never, ever, accept money to review a product.
- Tested for a week
- Thorough health and fitness tracking testing
- Worn as our main tracker during the testing period
FAQs
The Pin Pulse can monitor blood pressure trends once you’ve calibrated it with a traditional blood pressure monitor cuff. It can look at blood glucose trends, but doesn’t track blood glucose levels like a typical blood glucose monitor.
Full Specs
| Pin Pulse Review | |
|---|---|
| UK RRP | £369 |
| USA RRP | $499 |
| Manufacturer | – |
| IP rating | IP68 |
| Waterproof | 5ATM |
| Size (Dimensions) | x x INCHES |
| Weight | 3 G |
| Release Date | 2026 |
| First Reviewed Date | 28/04/2026 |
| Colours | Titanium |
