The upcoming Galaxy Ring is one of the most exciting products of the year for Samsung Health fans who have been waiting for a discreet and screen-free health and fitness tracker. But it is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and what will be the Ring's greatest quality in the eyes of some users could become its weakest point for others.

Some people love the idea of ditching the smartwatch in favor of a smart ring because Galaxy Watches have a few issues and UI design problems. These customers also hope that wearing a smart ring will free their wrists so they can once again wear their prized collection of classic and diverse analog watches, all without giving up health and fitness tracking through Samsung Health.

Galaxy Watches are sometimes sluggish, the UI doesn't seem greatly optimized for the circular screen, and battery life is decent but not stellar if you're using all the fitness and health trackers at once. Besides, smartwatches can sometimes look too toyish and cheap. Plus, having one more screen to worry about can add to the daily frustration.

Meanwhile, the Galaxy Ring is focused entirely on tracking the wearer's health, fitness, and sleep without any distractions. There are no extra bells and whistles, no apps to worry about, no screens to catch your eye, and no wristbands to discomfort you when you sleep.

So, what's even the point of wearing a Galaxy Watch anymore? Well, if you don't know, you'll want to hear this out.

Why you may want to wear a Watch instead of a Galaxy Ring

Assuming the Galaxy Ring and Galaxy Watches will have the same tracking capabilities, we narrowed it down to two main reasons why you might still prefer a Galaxy Watch over a Galaxy Ring, especially if you're new to Samsung Health and have to pick one device over the other but can't or don't want to have both:

• Music playback without a phone in your pocket.
• Live fitness monitoring when you work out.

If you enjoy the idea of leaving your phone at home when you go for a jog and listening to music in your earbuds, the Galaxy Watch will probably be the best way to go. Galaxy Ring specs are scarce as of now, but we're guessing it won't offer music playback capabilities through your Galaxy Buds.

As for the second reason, a watch might be a better fitness companion in high-intensity situations. You see, the Galaxy Ring will be able to record the wearer's health, fitness, and sleep data, but the primary way for users to check that recorded information is through the Samsung Health app on their phones. And that's not something you may want to do during a workout.

Because it doesn't have a screen, the Galaxy Ring doesn't have a way for you to check things like your heart rate, distance traveled, and reps live when you're out jogging or working out. You can't monitor any parameters during your active time. Or, at least, not conveniently without looking at your phone.

When wearing a Galaxy Watch, you can check those parameters at a glance from your wrist while you're being active. But at best, a Galaxy Ring will only post that information to the Samsung Health mobile app so you can consult it later, preferably after your fitness session.

Know what kind of fitness tracking experience you want

In conclusion, the Galaxy Ring might be the best wearable if you want to collect fitness and health data in the background and don't care about things like music playback and keeping an eye on your vitals when you're working out. Furthermore, it will probably be the best and least distracting device capable of tracking your sleep.

On the other hand, a Galaxy Watch will still be the superior fitness companion if you want to leave your phone at home when you go out running and want to play music in your headphones or track live health and fitness parameters from your wrist during those active moments.

Ideally, if you want to combine the best of all worlds and wear classic watches without abandoning Samsung Health, you'll probably want to use the Galaxy Ring at all times and pop the Galaxy Watch on your wrist only when you're working out. Then, once you're done, you can remove the Galaxy Watch or replace it with a classic timepiece but keep the Galaxy Ring on your finger for continuous background tracking.

If you have to choose between them, you'll have to figure out which aspects are more important to you. Would you prefer the comfortable and distraction-free background tracking of the Galaxy Ring? Or do you want to benefit from live fitness and health monitoring as you work out and smartphone-free music playback through your Watch and wireless headset?

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Samsung kicked off the month of March with new challenges for Samsung Health and PENUP users. As usual, the new Samsung Health challenge is a month-long, and PENUP artists can participate in a two-week contest before the theme changes in mid-March.

Here are the current live challenges. For Samsung Health, the March theme is “Jungle.” Samsung asks participants if they've become too dependent on high-tech devices and invites them to “Imagine getting lost in a jungle where you're totally unplugged from technology. Things may be uncomfortable, but think of it as an adventure.”

As for the PENUP challenge, it began on March 1 and will end on March 15. The theme is “Let's Draw School,” and as usual, Samsung wrote a fairly lengthy introduction to the challenge to set the mood and inspire digital painters.

There's always room for interpretation with these PENUP challenges, but Samsung encourages PENUP users to “Take on this month's challenge by drawing schools you attended in the past, the memories you have from school, or schools from our future.”

If you want to participate in these March challenges, open Samsung Health on your Galaxy phone, access the “Together” tab, and accept the Jungle challenge.

As for PENUP, you can access the “Challenges” tab from the app's main screen, tap the “Let's Draw School” banner at the top, and tap the cup-shaped button in the lower right corner. Before you start drawing, as usual, you can also view submissions from other PENUP users and read the challenge's description by tapping “Introduction.”

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Samsung's Galaxy Book laptops and Galaxy mobile devices are getting better integrated every year. Features like Second Screen work great across One UI for tablets and Windows OS on Galaxy Books. And recently, the Galaxy Buds 2 Pro earbuds received a firmware update that enabled Auto Switch for the new Galaxy Book 4 series.

Meanwhile, Samsung is now making big moves to become a better health and fitness-oriented mobile device brand, and to this end, the company will release its first smart ring, the Galaxy Ring, later this year.

This new wearable has health and fitness tracking capabilities like a Galaxy Watch and even enables additional sleep-tracking features that are not yet available to Galaxy Watch users, i.e., respiratory rate tracking, heart, night movement, and sleep latency tracking.

With such a powerful push into the health and fitness market and cross-device features becoming more prevalent, I think it might be time for Samsung to expand the Health platform to include Galaxy Books laptops.

Samsung Health for laptops would even outsmart Apple

It took a long while for Samsung to bring its Health app to tablets, but it happened with the Galaxy Tab S9 series. Now, Samsung is expanding its wearable lineup with new Galaxy Fit and Galaxy Ring devices. And as Galaxy Book laptops are seemingly becoming more interconnected with mobile devices, it makes sense, in my mind, for the Health platform to expand its reach even further.

The Galaxy Ring should be a no-nonsense fitness and health tracker for all. It has the opportunity to become ubiquitous among health and fitness enthusiasts, as it works seamlessly in the background and doesn't have unnecessary gimmicks or distractions. And I think it would only be fitting for Galaxy Ring users to have the option to check their health and fitness data through their Galaxy Book laptops.

In doing so, Samsung would prove that the Galaxy Ring and its Health platform are designed for every type of user. It seems fitting for Samsung, an official sponsor of the Olympic Games, to overcome platform-specific limitations.

This move could even attract customers from Apple's camp. The Cupertino giant's Health app doesn't work on MacBooks, possibly to lure customers into buying iPhones and iPads. Samsung could, and should, in my opinion, show Apple how it's done.

Editor's Note: The mobile Samsung Health app can be accessed on the Galaxy Book series through the Phone Link software. However, it's not a native solution for Windows OS. It's more like mirroring your mobile Health app to your laptop. Nevertheless, you can technically access Samsung Health on a Galaxy Book via Phone Link if you connect your Galaxy laptop and phone. That's better than nothing, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

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