Samsung announces new Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watch Ultra

At Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked event this morning in Paris, the tech giant announced its new AI-powered offerings, including the new Galaxy Ring designed to collect wearers' health data 24/7 and the Galaxy Watch Ultra with new BioActive Sensors. 

It also announced its Galaxy AI-powered Energy Score via Samsung Health, which provides personalized insight into the body's functions and whether individuals should "take it easy" or "push their limits" by analyzing their sleep metrics and heart rate variability.

The app provides tailored wellness tips to improve a user's Energy Score, including guidance on getting more exercise, sleeping better and achieving a healthy weight. 

Galaxy Ring

The Galaxy Ring, the tech giant's first health ring, provides 24/7 monitoring, tracking, and personalized insights, including analysis of heart health, sleep patterns, cycle tracking and one's Energy Score. 

The AI-powered Ring includes three sensors that measure sleep, activity and heart rate data. 

The Ring includes a sleep AI algorithm that tracks sleep patterns, including snoring analysis, movement during sleep and sleep latency. Cycle tracking is performed by analyzing overnight skin temperature. 

The wearable syncs with the Samsung Health app and alerts a wearer if their heart rate is unusually high or low. 

The device provides other personalized health insights that wearers can view via the company's app without a subscription.

The Galaxy Ring battery lasts up to seven days on a single charge and is made from titanium. 

The company says it conducted extensive research and experimentation to engineer the Ring, which will retail for $399, to withstand varying temperatures, humidity levels and hundreds of charge cycles.  

Galaxy smartwatches

The tech giant also announced its new Galaxy Watch Ultra, which includes new BioActive Sensors for preventative care, capabilities to obtain more accurate health measurements, advanced athletic tracking capabilities and an emergency siren.

The BioActive Sensors include upgrades to the Watch's light-receiving photodiodes, adding colors of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and rearranging them within the device. This means the Watch has more space and is optimized to collect and measure health data more accurately. 

The Sensors allow for more precise health metrics such as blood oxygen levels, sleep quality, stress levels and heart rate. 

"The Samsung Health monitor app provides advanced tracking capabilities, including blood pressure monitoring that is CE marked in the EU and ECG, which has received U.S. FDA clearance," Tom Cullimore, account director of smartphone, tablet, wearables, audio and accessories at Samsung, said during the event. 

"And now it's the first of its kind to be [De Novo] authorized by the U.S. FDA for detecting signs of sleep apnea."

The new Sensor also provides a user's Advanced Glycation End Products (AGEs) Index, a set of biomarkers that indicate one's metabolic health and biological age, as well as a GPS location tracker powered by Google.   

The company touts that the new BioActive Sensor increases the wearer's heart rate measurement accuracy by 30% compared to the Watch's predecessor. 

The Watch Ultra, powered by Wear OS by Google, will retail starting at $649.  

Samsung also announced the Galaxy Watch 7, which has features similar to the Ultra but without advanced athletic tracking features and an emergency siren.

The Watch 7, which includes offerings focused more on wellness, will retail for $299. 

All devices announced by Samsung will be available for purchase on July 24th. 

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