I wasn't impressed at all circular ring thinIt wasn't accurate, felt like it was made of 3D-printed plastic, took time to sync foreverBattery life wasn't great, and honestly, we'd be here all day if I listed everything that went wrong during testing. But for CES 2025, the company behind the ring says it's here to redeem itself with the $380 circular Ring 2.
“Obviously we had some issues with the previous ring,” says Amaury Kossmann, co-founder and CEO of Circular. “Mostly electronic, but more than that, we wanted to rebrand the company around two main points. One being accuracy, and the other being a more luxurious, quality-built product.
This is immediately apparent when looking at the design and specifications of the Circular Ring 2. For starters, it's no longer plastic. The Ring 2 is now made from titanium in four finishes: gold, silver, rose gold and black. It also features an advanced EKG sensor that allows for FDA-cleared atrial fibrillation detection – a first for this category. Additionally, the new ring has additional photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors for more accurate readings. Kosman says the advanced sensor array provides more accurate health tracking than the Slim. (This is also a good thing; in my testing the Slim was sometimes 5,000 steps behind.)
“We also reflected on what we learned from what we were told [by customers]The biggest things were connectivity issues, battery life, and initially, the Ring was not completely waterproof. Slim tried to fix some of those, but obviously we weren’t doing it perfectly,” says Kosman, noting that these issues have also been rectified in the new ring.
As mentioned, syncing with the Slim was an extremely difficult task – so much so, that I would often just give up on pairing with the device. Now, Kosman says, there should be no problems with background syncing in Circular Ring 2. They also assured me that the battery life has doubled. In demo mode (where all tracking features are on), users should get about four days. In battery-saving mode, the ring lasts for up to eight days. Also, instead of a small, easy-to-lose USB charger, Circulator has switched to a charging dock.
Circular's AI chatbot Kira has also been redesigned. Previously, it took 14 days to test, was time consuming to generate questionable advice and was overall cumbersome to use. With Ring 2, Kosman says it will only take four days to calibrate and the overall experience will be easier. Recommendations should become more accurate and complex as algorithms and sensors improve.
Another nice update is that Circularity will add digital sizes. Kosman says the company's website will let customers use their smartphone cameras to compare the shape of their hand to a card-sized object. From there, Kosman says the company will be able to calculate what size ring a person needs for each finger. smart ring sizing This is a big problem for this category, and most companies require customers to order a physical size kit before they can actually purchase the product.
On paper, it seems like Circulator has taken the laundry list of issues with Slim and corrected them one by one. However, to do this some sacrifices had to be made. One of the Slim's unique features was the built-in haptic motor that worked as a silent alarm. In the future, the circular promised that the motor could also alert you to notifications. Unfortunately, Kosman says the haptic motor had to go to accommodate the improved health sensor.
That said, Kosman isn't completely abandoning the idea of haptics in smart rings. The goal is to create two product lines – the Circular Ring 2, a more health-focused ring in line with what is currently available on the market, and an upcoming improvement to the existing haptics-enabled Circular Ring Slim.
The Circular Ring 2 will cost $380 and is expected to launch in February or March of 2025. We will have to see (and test) for ourselves whether the circular can deliver on all these improvements. Given that, it's certainly a big goal. Increasing competition in smart ring sectorbut if this can doThis will be one hell of a redemption arc.