RingConn Gen 2 Air review: The easy smart ring to buy

Smart rings shouldn’t be complicated. If you want a hardcore, complex, and data heavy examination of your workouts and overall health, then a smartwatch is the better choice. But smart rings should still provide valuable insights, otherwise what’s the point in wearing one? The RingConn Gen 2 Air is simpler than the RingConn Gen 2 smart ring, but has the company’s efforts to lower the price and cut back on features caused it to become too basic? I found out in my review.

Specs

RingConn Gen 2 Air: design

The RingConn Gen 2 Air continues RingConn’s established, and very effective “squircle” shape, but like the RingConn Gen 2 it’s less pronounced than the original RingConn smart ring. It works well because you feel the ring less between your fingers. I’ve found it less noticeable than the Oura Ring 4, and consider it a great option for those who aren’t used to wearing rings at all. The smart ring has a lovely sculpted shape to it, and the polished silver really glints in the sun. The slim profile makes it relatively incognito on your finger too.

Unlike other, pricier smart rings the Gen 2 Air is made from stainless steel and not titanium. It means it’s a tiny bit heavier than the RingConn Gen 2 by approximately a single gram depending on the size you choose, but even at its heaviest it doesn’t exceed 4 grams. I’ve been wearing it opposite the Oura Ring 4, and can’t say one feels heavier or lighter than the other. Don’t let the stainless steel put you off, as I think it may be more durable in the long run.

My Brushed Silver Oura Ring 4 is covered in small scratches, and while I’ve been wearing it longer than the RingConn Gen 2 Air, it hasn’t really picked up any significant or immediately visible marks over the past three weeks. It’s a good sign, as within days the Oura Ring 4’s titanium finish was already marred. The smart ring has an IP68 dust and water resistance rating, and is water proof to 10 ATM. It’s available in two finishes, Galaxy Silver or Dune Gold. The decision to use stainless steel rather than titanium has helped reduce the price of the RingConn Gen 2 Air, but it has not adversely affected the look, durability, or weight. I think it looks great, and have been wearing it proudly.

RingConn Gen 2 Air: Health tracking

The RingConn Gen 2 Air connects to RingConn’s own app which is available for iOS and Android. I have been using it with several different Android phones, including the Samsung Galaxy A56, and found the connection to be mostly reliable. It does need careful setting up, as Android can put the app to sleep to conserve battery power if you aren’t mindful of the settings, meaning you don’t get app alerts.

On the underside of the smart ring are the same sensors you get on the RingConn Gen 2 — a PPG heart rate sensor, accelerometer, and temperature sensors — concealed in two nubbins and a flat section, but the ring does not monitor for sleep apnea which is restricted to the more expensive RingConn Gen 2. Whether it matters or not depends on your own circumstances. Other devices also monitor for sleep apnea, including the Apple Watch Series 10 depending on your location, but few are as convenient as a smart ring.

You can track a small selection of exercises — Outdoor running and cycling, indoor running, and outdoor walking. There’s no option to track a one-off exercise routine, and it doesn’t have the Oura Ring’s brilliant automatic activity tracking for things like housework. It counts steps during the day, estimates calorie burn, and the amount of hours spent standing up. It’s a simple activity tracker, and even the Oura Ring 4 provides more comprehensive activity tracking, while a smartwatch is vastly more suitable if you’re a very active person.

It has thrown a few small surprises though. The app reports on “abnormalities” and it has alerted me to several drops in blood oxygen levels overnight, and one instance where it recorded a high heart rate in the evening when I was inactive. The Oura Ring 4 recorded no such issues, and the heart rate tracking for the period shown as abnormal by the RingConn Gen 2 Air was normal.

I don’t know which one is accurate, but I didn’t recall feeling different, and wonder if either it’s a sensor issue or if the app is over-zealous. It was also an instance where the app only alerted me to the issue when I reconnected to sync my sleep data, after I assume Android paused the app running in the background. The RingConn Gen 2 Air is good for anyone wanting basic insight into their actively levels during the day, but isn’t interested in tracking intensive exercise, gym sessions, or monitoring specific health issues. The smart ring also tracks and predicts menstrual cycles.

RingConn Gen 2 Air: sleep and stress tracking

The RingConn Gen 2 Air’s app is the same as the RingConn Gen 2’s app, and it uses a petal-like graph to show sleep, activity, relaxation, and vital sign stats at a glance. It also returns a score to indicate how your body is set for the day, and provides a sentence giving you a quick overview. It’s neat and informative, but light on actionable data. If you want more there’s an AI advisor, but it only responds to canned questions about sleep, activity, and stress, and isn’t especially helpful.

It uses sleep to inform a lot of its advice. The sleep data screen is full of information presented in a single, scrolling page including time asleep, sleep stages, heart rate, Heart Rate Variability (HRV), blood oxygen, skin temperature, and respiratory rate. It also compares your sleep to previous nights. It shows everything you could want, and in a way that’s easy to understand, with graphs that are clear and logical.

For the most part the RingConn Gen 2 Air and the Oura Ring 4 agree on sleep data points, without any major outliers causing concern. Neither are medical devices so the data shouldn’t be taken as absolute fact, but the general agreement suggests they’re both accurate enough for everyday use. I haven’t experienced any comfort issues overnight, the smart ring hasn’t failed to record data, and the app and ring sync within seconds of connecting in the morning. It’s an excellent sleep tracker.

The app also places some emphasis on stress levels. It shows a graph with a Stress Index score, a ratio showing different stress stages, historical data on stress before and during sleep, plus a summary of stress during the week. It’s a lot more information than you get with the Oura Ring 4, and while it doesn’t offer much guidance on what to do or what it means, you can personally take action to reduce stress and see if it works. I like the focus on stress levels, and the RingConn Gen 2 Air presents it in a far more in-depth way than many other wearables. The RingConn itself is stress-free, and requires very little looking after, with no notifications to deal with, and once it’s set up, very little needs to be done to keep it going.

RingConn Gen 2 Air: battery and charging

RingConn says the Gen 2 Air’s battery should last for 10 days on a single charge, and this seems to be accurate so far. Its staying power has perhaps even been a little downplayed. I’m three weeks into use and have charged it one additional time after starting out with 100%. It now has 50% remaining for an estimated five days of use.

This is longer battery life than the Oura Ring 4, which is around seven days, and the Samsung Galaxy Ring’s four-to-six days. It’s charged using a small, metal and plastic puck which holds the smart ring magnetically just above the base. It looks good, and it has proven to be very secure too. Unfortunately the Gen 2 Air does not come with the travel charging case you get with the RingConn Gen 2, and it does not appear you can purchase one separately.

RingConn Gen 2 Air: price and availability

The RingConn Gen 2 Air costs $238 and is available through RingConn’s website today. This is a much lower price than the RingConn Gen 2, which costs $359. It’s worth noting the RingConn Gen 2 was $299 when we reviewed it, and the increase in price brings it closer to the Oura Ring 4, which starts at $349. The Samsung Galaxy Ring costs $400. The RingConn Gen 2 Air is one of the lowest cost ways of getting a reliable, well-made, good-looking smart ring on your finger.

The other benefit of the RingConn Gen 2 Air compared to the Oura Ring 4 is it does not require a subscription to see all the data in the app. The price of the smart ring is all you pay. It makes it a far more cost-effective purchase than the much more expensive competition, and a great way to get started with a smart ring.

Should you buy the RingConn Gen 2 Air?

The RingConn Gen 2 Air is an easy recommendation. I’ve worn it alongside my Oura Ring 4, and aside from the basic activity tracking, it has done almost the same job. The odd alerts I saw once during my test haven’t returned, and as the smart ring is only just at the end of its “getting to know me” period, they may have just been outliers.

It’s not for hardcore sports people though, at least not as the sole method of health tracking. Anything more than a jog, cycle, or walk is beyond its ability, and you’ll get more benefit from an advanced smart ring or smartwatch. Everyone else, especially those who just want to track sleep, will find the smart ring a lovely companion, with an app that’s easy to use, informative, and clearly laid out.

The RingConn Gen 2 Air is an excellent smart ring at a reasonable price, with no ongoing costs to make buying it a long-term commitment. RingConn has kept it simple and made a smart ring with enough ability to make wearing it worthwhile, that’s so low maintenance it won’t end up complicating your life.