Review: Ultrahuman Ring Air smart ring nudges you into a healthier direction

At a glance

Expert’s Rating

Our Verdict

The Ultrahuman Ring Air offers a strong smart ring package with a largely likeable design and software that feels as sleek as Oura’s to make it a smart ring worth putting on.

Price When Reviewed

$349

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The Ultrahuman Ring Air emerges as another smart ring that wants to prove you don’t have to pay for a monthly or annual subscription to put a useful fitness and wellness tracker on your finger.

It aims to take the same sensors we’ve already seen crop up in other rings and wrist-based trackers to use data like sleep, heart rate, and exercise to help you make better decisions about your day.

On paper, the Android and iOS-friendly ring has all the makings of a genuine Oura Ring Gen 3 rival and surprisingly delivers both a similar core experience with a few elements that make it feel unique as well.

Design & Build

• Available in five colours
• Water resistant up to 100 metres
• Free ring sizing kit

The Ring Air is a fully circular smart ring that’s made from titanium with a tungsten carbide carbon coating to toughen up a ring that sadly hasn’t remained as scratch-free as the first time I put it on my finger.

It’s a smart ring that certainly delivers in terms of being something that feels light and discreet to wear

While it’s a pleasingly light ring (2.4-3.6g depending on size), making it comfortable to wear all day and at night, it has noticeably picked up a fair amount of scuffs and scratches over time, which certainly looks worse on the matt black version I had to test. That’s happened despite remembering to take it off before going to the gym for a weights session and generally trying to keep it out of harm’s way.

There are five ring colours in total to pick from here – Raw Titanium, Aster Black, Matte Grey, Bionic Gold and Space Silver, and all are available with a free sizing kit to make sure you get a good fit. Despite taking the sizing kit route, I did find the sizing a little off for me, where the ring had initially come off on a few occasions. That’s been less of an issue over time, but what’s clear is that not all smart rings are built the same when it comes to fit.

On the interior lies the sensor array and a medical-grade resin to prevent the ring from irritating the skin. I’ve had no reason to take the ring off other than to charge it and for gym weights, so it gets the thumbs up in terms of being a ring that feels skin-friendly.

As a package, it’s water resistant up to 100 metres depth and I’ve worn it in the shower and for swims and the ring has kept on tracking without issue. Completing the setup is the proprietary charging cradle to drop the ring on and a Type-C to C cable to connect to that cradle.

It’s a smart ring that certainly delivers in terms of being something that feels light and discreet to wear, though does feel a little plain-looking next to rings like the Oura Ring Gen 3 and cheaper rings like the RingConn Smart Ring.

Fitness Tracking & App

• Tracks steps, heart rate, temperature and sleep
• Works with apps like Strava and MyFitnessPal
• Personalised notification nudges

The Ring Air, like other smart rings, is a fitness tracker at heart and aims to gently prompt you into making better decisions about your day, that can in turn aim to improve aspects like your sleep and even recovery from exercise.

These prompts, while not groundbreaking, help Ultrahuman’s tracking approach feel different to other smart rings.

It does that with some staple fitness tracker sensors, including a 6-axis motion sensor to track steps, general movements during the day and to enable the automatic sleep monitoring. There’s also room for a PPG sensor that can capture heart rate and monitor blood oxygen saturation.

You’re also getting what Ultrahuman refers to as a medical-grade skin temperature sensor that can be used to show how your body is reacting to your fitness or when you might be feeling under the weather.

Once you’ve completed the two-week baseline data period you’ll then really need to start to pay attention to what the ring is trying to tell you. You’ll also receive phone notifications to recommend easing off stimulants like coffee or reducing exposure to bright light to improve your chances of getting a good night’s sleep.

These prompts, while not groundbreaking, help Ultrahuman’s tracking approach feel different to other smart rings.

Crucially, the core tracking feels reliable as well too, I’ve been tracking data like step counts with an Oura Ring Gen 3 and two other fitness tracking smartwatches and the daily counts never felt wildly out from the other devices and on some days were a few hundred steps out from each other.

I also found continuous heart rate readings nicely in line with the tracking with sports watches I know from experience offer reliable wrist-based continuous monitoring on most days. Some real-time readings though felt high, as much as 10bpm out at times, which seemed to be tied to the fit of the ring.

It performs well as a sleep tracker with data like sleep duration, sleep stage breakdowns similar to what I captured with Oura’s reliable sleep tracking. It’s also very good at capturing naps.

What really under