Inside Scoop: The Apple Ring's Expected Cost, Availability Timeline & Cutting-Edge Gadgets

Inside Scoop: The Apple Ring’s Expected Cost, Availability Timeline & Cutting-Edge Gadgets

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A ring to complement or take the place of your Apple Watch? Let’s look at all the Apple Ring rumors and get a feel for what this new wearable could bring.

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When Will Apple Ring Be Released?

Samsung released theGalaxy Ring , so it’s no surprise we’re hearing rumors about a so-called Apple Ring. The problem is, unlike Samsung’s ring, Apple’s has yet to be announced or even hinted at by the company.

Beyond patents, the existence of the Galaxy Ring is why we think the Apple Ring is real. Samsung is a huge competitor, so it follows that Apple would want to avoid giving fans any reason to contact Samsung for their smart ring itch.

In addition to health-tracking features, a ring could easily attract fans already secured in the Apple ecosystem if positioned as a controller (of sorts) for the iPhone or Vision Pro.

Lifewire’s Release Date Estimate

We guess the Apple Ring will arrive in 2026. There aren’t enough leaks or rumors to support a release date that’s any earlier.

Apple Ring Price Rumors

One reason there could be an Apple smart ring is to offer a low-cost wearable to users who don’t want to splurge for an Apple Watch. But if you’re familiar with Apple products, you know they are anything but cheap.

If this ring is marketed as a sort of Apple Watch alternative, it could cost less than the Apple Watch SE; so, it might be priced lower than $250. We’ll keep our fingers crossed but, realistically, it probably won’t be that affordable.

We’ll guess the Apple Ring will cost anywhere from $300 to $500. For some perspective, the Galaxy Ring is $400. Oura launched their ring in 2015 andthe cheapest model is still $300 .

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Pre-Order Information

You can’t pre-order the Apple Ring just yet. We’ll drop the link here when (and if) it becomes available for purchase.

Apple Ring Features

There’s a limit to what a smart ring can do because only so much hardware can be squeezed into a piece of tech meant to wrap around a finger. What Apple does with that hardware, however, could be pretty neat.

All we can base our ideas on this early are rumors, dreams, and expectations based on existing smart rings. Here are some examples of the features we could see in the Apple Ring:

Sleep tracking : Wear it to bed to see how long and well you slept.
Action button : Like the Apple Watch Ultra, the Apple Ring could provide quick access to phone features. A swipe or tap could silence your phone’s ringer, trigger an emergency call, or control camera zoom for selfies.
Phone feedback : Unique vibrations for specific callers could identify who’s on the other end without reaching for your phone.
Fitness & health tracking : Record walking steps, swimming laps, heart rate, and body temperature.
Mobile payments : If it’s tied directly to your iPhone, Apple Pay is just a tap away.
Vision Pro remote : The Apple Ring might serve as a sort of mouse for navigating theVision Pro headset . Built-in movement tracking could also help make the headset more accurate, especially in a dark room.

We have little confidence that_all_ these features will be available at launch, so some might be reserved for the second-gen Apple Ring.

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Apple Ring Specs and Hardware

These details aren’t yet known because, of course, the Apple Ring is only a rumor. If we look at how other companies make their version of a smart ring, we can get an idea of how Apple’s will probably work.

The ring will undoubtedly have an accelerometer to measure movement.Similar to the Apple Watch , this might be how it knows if you’ve fallen and need help. It could also track your steps, identify when you’re working out, and log poor sleeping habits.

Other sensors will be embedded on the underside of the ring (the part that touches your skin) to track your heart rate and body temperature.

This data will be sent to your phone and presented as charts and summaries in the Apple Health app.

One big advantage to a smart ring is they don’t require as much power to run as a smartwatch or a smartphone. We’re unsure about the Apple Ring’s battery capacity, but if other wearables like the Oura Ring are comparable, you can expect it to last around a week on a full charge.

In early 2024, Apple was granted a patent for an “expandable ring device.” The purpose is to gather input from the wearer and transmit that data to another device. That sounds like a mini controller for virtual reality environments. Reading between the lines, it’s clear that the ring would be paired with the Vision Pro or some otherVR/AR glasses from Apple .

There’s alsothis patent we can examine . Although it doesn’t call the wearable an Apple Ring, the patent was filed by Apple, so it could indicate what they’re working on. According to the patent, the illustration below is a “cross-sectional view of an illustrative finger-mounted device on a user’s finger in accordance with an embodiment.” It says it could have “force sensors, accelerometers, and other sensors” for haptic output devices.

Apple

If you can believe it, apatent was filed for an Apple smart ring as early as 2015 . The idea presented in that patent is for a device with a “finger-ring-mounted touchscreen,” so it’s a bit different than the ring we’re expecting these days. If anything, though, the patent shows that a smart ring has been on the company’s radar for a while.

If the Apple Ring is real, we’ll start hearing more rumors and uncovering leaks as it moves through its various development stages. We’ll keep an eye out for those details and add them here.

The Latest News About Apple Ring

You can always get thelatest wearable and other smart gadget news here on Lifewire. Below is the latest on Apple’s potential smart ring.

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