The Samsung Galaxy Ring 2 may arrive quickly with a denser “Dream Battery.” And for now, that is most likely the most effective we will hope for to make sensible rings longer-lasting. However there is a extra elementary repair — patented by Oura, unsurprisingly — that I believe Samsung wants to think about for the Galaxy Ring’s future.
Based on the report, Samsung is contemplating utilizing stable electrolytes as an alternative of a conventional lithium-ion battery, growing the power density from 200 to 360Wh/L and providing better flexibility that may be excellent for this rounded kind issue.
The Galaxy Ring 2 could possibly be the “first case” of Samsung utilizing this tech, adopted by the Galaxy Buds and Watch in later years. Nevertheless, the report stresses that this battery tech is sort of costly; the Galaxy Ring is already costlier than most sensible rings at $399, and this battery may push the Ring 2 over the sting of what most individuals pays.
However let’s ignore price and say that Samsung can improve its Ring’s battery effectivity. Its capability will nonetheless be restricted by physics and thermals, and the shortage of sensible ring repairability means any battery downside will likely be deadly. That’s except sensible rings begin to develop into extra modular.
The issue with sensible rings
Ultrahuman is among the few sensible ring manufacturers to talk brazenly about battery well being. On its FAQ web page, it guarantees that the Ultrahuman Ring Air lasts 500 charging cycles “earlier than there may be any important decline in battery efficiency,” however that “a gradual discount in battery life might be anticipated after 1 to 2 years” and would not be coated by the guarantee.
Even when different manufacturers do not say it outright, sensible rings are particularly prone to battery points. Most can solely squeeze in about 20–30mAh of capability whereas conserving the design skinny. They’re optimized firstly to go per week on minimal capability, however any lack of capability can have an outsized impact over time. You may most likely discover the identical difficulty with wi-fi earbuds.
Let’s make an unscientific guess that Samsung’s dream battery will increase the Galaxy Ring 2 capability to 50mAh, and even 100mAh. That is nonetheless on a scale effectively under a Galaxy Watch 7 (300–425mAh) or Galaxy S25 (4,000–5,000mAh), with pure drain after a few years however with capability to spare.
Extra importantly, your Galaxy watch or cellphone is repairable; you’ll be able to change a poor battery.
That would not apply to Samsung’s curved electrode battery, shoved right into a dense, complicated design. Usually talking, sensible rings are disposable tech as a result of as soon as they’re constructed, you’ll be able to’t take them aside and put them again collectively once more. This lack of repairability hurts customers and producers.
After I reviewed the Ultrahuman Ring Air, my fiancee determined to purchase one and liked it. However after 3 months, it all of a sudden died, refusing to cost or reconnect to her cellphone.
As a result of it fell beneath guarantee, Ultrahuman needed to mail her a model new one. It could not be repaired and despatched again or refurbished for a brand new sale. It may not even have the ability to work out what went unsuitable with it or if it was her fault (it wasn’t). It simply has to maintain making new rings and throwing out the previous ones — which should be costly, relying on the failure price.
The true sensible ring battery answer
When researching the Oura Ring 5, I found a ton of cool patents for redesigning its ring, largely to make it one-size-fits-all. However I used to be most intrigued by patent US-12177997-B2, “Useful cowl with wi-fi connection for ring wearable.” Because the patent determine above exhibits, the ring may have a detachable module that slides right into a predesigned cavity.
Why design it this fashion? For one factor, the battery is “incessantly the module in a tool that declines in efficiency most shortly,” so when it fails, “a person could also be pressured to improve to a more recent module…despite the fact that the earlier wearable system in any other case operated as meant.”
With Oura’s design, the ring high can be detachable, so customers may slot in a brand new battery module, or slot in modules designed for different functions like health monitoring, contactless funds, location monitoring, and so forth.
Thus, shopping for a substitute module can be inexpensive than shopping for a brand new ring, and you would hypothetically personal two battery modules and swap between them when one dies, so that you by no means need to take the ring off.
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I don’t know how straightforward this could be to implement or if such a module would mix in as a normal-looking ring high. Oura has different patents it may use as an alternative, like US-20240385649-A1 — “Wearable Ring Machine with Battery in Cowl” — that focuses as an alternative on squeezing a skinny, 360º battery layer into the quilt in order that it would not intervene with the interior elements.
It is not about what Oura finally ends up doing; it is that Oura evidently is aware of that the established order — short-lived rings you’ll be able to’t restore or enhance over time — hurts them with customers who do not wish to spend $300–400 each two or three years on a brand new ring. And it is in search of options.
Samsung’s solid-state battery is an intriguing answer, too! However it’s a stop-gap measure. In idea, it will construct up the Galaxy Ring 2 battery life a lot that even when it loses capability, it will nonetheless final lengthy sufficient to keep away from each day prices. However it’s nonetheless a battery shoved into a tool you’ll be able to’t open with out breaking it.
As long as sensible rings can’t be repaired or refurbished, customers will hesitate to purchase one after one other, not understanding how lengthy they’re going to final.
