Colmi smart ring is a budget-friendly smart wearable which offers essential health tracking such as sleep, body metric, step and activity features in small non-intrusive compact ring. The world of smart rings had always been an expensive market, with device typically ruled by incumbents with sub S$500 pricing, even with a monthly subscription to work. Colmi aims to change that with a subscription free ring without the frills and priced under S$30 (USD$23.30). Is this too good to be true? lets check out the ring in an in-depth review.
Quick lowdown- Colmi R10 smart ring
A budget-friendly smart wearable with good health, activity and sleep tracking.
- Very affordable smart ring under S$30
- Steps, Heart rate, O2 levels, temperature and activity tracking
- Offers reliable sleep tracking
- Over a week battery life
Comparisons in Colmi Ring (R) range
We be looking at Colmi’s R10 version of the ring in this review, but first let’s talk about Colmi entire confusing range of models. Besides their smart watches, Colmi has quite a number of different Smart ring models on sale on their website catalogue. They have an “R” prefix with seven different models starting with the R2, R3, R6, followed by the R9, R10, R11 and R12. Despite the different model names, they are more alike under the hood than different, with only minor external cosmetic finishes. Let’s delve deeper and demystify the range for you.
A recommendation is to avoid any models R6 and below as it is a dated model with basic health tracking features. The R6 also uses and older BlueX Micro RF03 chipset. The R9 model and above models uses the Realtek RTL8762 ESF chip. All ring models retains the Vcare VC30F heart rate sensor and STK8321 accelerometer for activity tracking.
Go for the R9 smart ring model and above
Colmi R9 onwards introduced hardware improvements over the R6, including better sensors and design and 5-ATM water resistance, so you can even submerge the ring underwater. Hardware wise, the R9, R10 and R11 have the exact same electronics innards, with the R9 having a plastic body with a concave edge design. The R10 has a stainless-steel metal body. This gives the R10 a more premium feel, which Colmi claims is 20% lighter than previous models. You can’t go wrong either with the R9 or R10, the choice being a plastic or metal body.
Moving on, the Colmi R11 model has a gimmicky fidget spinner which Colmi claims to “allows you to channel stress and anxiety into a calming, tactile experience… for moments of focus or relaxation, wherever you are”. Lastly, and interestingly the Colmi R12 builds off the R9 as the base model. It has an integrated LCD screen showing time and steps, though I find it too gimmicky and tad bit too much for a watch replacement.
In all, if you desire a quality smart ring only without the screen or fidgety spinner gimmicks, the R9 and R10 are solid choices, with the R10 having a better metal body finish.
Design and Build
With the entire Colmi range run-through aside, lets get back to the review proper. The ring comes packaged in a compact, matte-finished white box. Out of the box, the package includes the Colmi R10 ring, a magnetic charging case, and a USB-C to Type-A cable. Inside is a matte black pill-shaped charging case with the Colmi logo on it. The case is small enough to fit in your pocket and has a clean, understated design. It opens smoothly and holds the ring securely in place with small magnets during charging.
The Colmi R10 smart ring has a sleek, minimalist design made of stainless steel. It comes in black, silver, or gold finishes, with the black version pictured here. It comes in sizes 7 to 13. The ring is lightweight and comfortable for daily wear.
The ring itself weighs 3.9g and the charge case with the ring within weights 23.3g. The case is a lot smaller than what you expect, much smaller than earbud cases you are accustomed too. It does make your wireless ear bud cases seems huge in comparison.
A suite of sensors
Moreover, on the inside rim of the ring, you can make up the various different sensors the ring uses to collect data. The most prominent being the bright green Heart Rate (HR) sensor LEDs which flashes when running an activity or when involving the heart rate. The Blood oxygen LED sensors flashes red when taking the reading which takes about 30 seconds to measure completely. I will touch more in-depth on the sensors later in this review.
Also, the ring boasts 5-ATM water resistance, suitable for swimming and other water activities. Also, the ring has a smooth matte texture with a slight inner curve, making it comfortable for long-term wear. It’s lightweight and not bulky, so it doesn’t get in the way during daily tasks or sleep.
Non-magnetic charging
Charging the ring is straightforward. You just place it inside the case and it the charging contacts connects magnetically. A small red LED on the case indicates charging status, where it turns green when charged. It is a clever use of the sensor LEDs as charging indicators. There are no status LEDs on the simple case itself and the charging speed is fast enough, topping up the ring in about 1.5 hours.
The ring however, does not charge wirelessly and instead uses a proprietary metal-to-metal contact pin aligned by small magnets to position the charging pin to the ring side.
Hence, you need to keep these interfaces clean of dirt, water or sweat to charge properly. This is contrary to more expensive Smart rings out there such as the Oura and Samsung rings which can charge wirelessly using each of their proprietary charging pad or dock. I can guess that it is a cost decision to use non-magnetic charging. This interface is synonymous with that on Garmin watches where a physical directly connected cable is used instead of wireless charging.
Also, the external case uses a USB Type-C cable for power and can store up to 13 full ring charges. This allows the you to recharge the ring multiple times on the go without needing a wall socket. Colmi also sells a separate USB charging cable which you can plug into the ring directly without using the charge case.
Useful free Colmi Phone App
Moreover, the Colmi R10 pairs with the Colmi QRing app, available on both iOS and Android. The app is your primary means to view the tracked daily steps, heart rate, SpO2 (blood oxygen), sleep patterns, and stress levels. You can also view trends over days and weeks, though the interface is fairly basic. You can download the QRing App from the official Apple App store or Android Play. Unlike some other Chinese hardware makers, there are also no dodgy QR code URLs to download an APK from an obscured google drive page. So you be assured the official Colmi App available on official stores are safe and less prone to being malicious apps.
Even the best hardware can be let down by bad applications, I am pleased to report that the Colin App is functional as an all-in one app to access all the Ring functions. I found the app intuitive and easy to navigate and use without any instructions, with the app layout offering widgets each dedicated to each of the ring’s separate sensors functions.
You can also customize, rearrange the sensor widgets to your liking and set daily activity goals. The app itself is useful enough to exist as its own in its own ecosystem, but lacks deep insights but covers the essentials well. You can tell the App is relatively new, but with some polish with future updates, the App can truly shine.
Reading health data from your Ring
Also, you can view recorded data as well as do ad-hoc sensor measurements. Notifications and syncing are reliable. The app does provide a decent overview of health metrics for casual users who want simple health data without a subscription. From your activity, health data and goal-setting, the App gives some algorithm insights on your stress, activity level scores.
Additionally, within the app, you also have the option to have the ring regularly take sensor measurements, depending on the frequency, but this would also impact battery life too. The QRing app also syncs and pulls data from the ring over Bluetooth, which automatically turns-on and goes into auto pairing mode when placed within the charging case. Also, the ring supports various sports modes though it lacks built-in GPS, requiring inference from the ring’s pedometer and the phone App for accurate distance tracking. The app does not provide geolocation path mapping of your activities too.
Moreover, as the ring does not have any means to display battery life, the app is the only means to read the battery life of the ring and notifies you when the battery life is running out.
It is also worth noting that the Colmi Qring App does not offer any cross syncing to other 3rd party health Apps at this point of time. This includes Apple Health, Samsung Health, Garmin Connect, Strava or even Singapore Health promotion board Healthy 365 app. So you are also quite out of luck looking to pair your activity or sleep data in one place or to earn activity gamification points.
Ring features and sizing
The R10 has a packed suite of sensors for such a tiny device. Here is a run through of the various functions and summary.
- Step Counting and Activity sports Mode: Does daily passive count of steps using the in-built accelerometer as well as steps clocked when running. Giving an activity score.
- Heart Rate (HR) Monitoring: Measures heart rate every 20 minutes, or at manually specified intervals.
- SpO2 Monitoring: Blood oxygen readings are generally accurate, aligning closely with higher-end devices.
- Stress Monitoring: The stress tracking feature provides stress levels on a scale of 0-100%, but its accuracy may vary and not comparable to other ecosystems.
- Sleep Tracking: Sleep tracking is reliable and captures all stages of sleep cycle and total sleep duration.
For best results Colmi recommends the ring to be worn on either index finger, with next best choices being middle and ring finger too. You need to ensure that the sensors are able to have a minimal gap between the ring and finger, that is where proper fitting of the ring comes into play too. The ring is available in 7 sizes from size 7 to 13, with inner diameters ranging from 17.9mm for size 7 to 22.24mm for size 13. Most users in the 9-10 size range, and Colmi provides an internal ring diameter size chart on their website for sizing.
Sensor accuracy tests
Moreover, the body temperature sensor was able to measure core body temperature via the sensor suite (36.8°C) within 10% off clinical in-ear thermometer reading (36.4°C) in my tests. Also, the heart rate LED sensors flashes green when taking the reading which takes about 30 seconds to measure completely. This is the same for stress reading which uses pulse rate to determine your stress via an in-built algorithm.
Additionally, the HR and Oxygen levels measurements are also spot on. Readings did not stray off over 3% between readings from my Garmin Vivoactive smartwatch and the ring.
Stress readings are tad less transparent and probably something difficult to cross compare across brands. Colmi’s stress readings ranges on a 0-100% scale. A measured resting stress level of 46 on the Ring translates strangely to a stress score of 11 on Garmin’s app (with Garmin’s 0-25 range being a resting state). So it’s not a definite and inconclusive comparison of accuracy here, but rather one of stress score algorithm differences.
Furthermore, I use the ring primarily for sleep tracking. The app sleep tracking was able to break down your sleep cycles, with the right start and end times. The app also offers insights to the duration of deep sleep/REM sleep, light sleep, and overall sleep quality via a 0-100 score. Generally, you aim to maximum as much deep sleep as possible to be well-rested.
Also, I found the sleep function adequate to give a full analysis of your entire sleep duration, your deep sleep and awakening cycles throughout the night to incrementally improve your night’s sleep.
Impressive week-long battery Life
The R10 offers impressive battery life, lasting up to 7-10 days on a single charge despite having a tiny 200mAh in-built battery with Bluetooth sync passively on. So far, I hadn’t had any battery life issues, with the ring last beyond a week of daily use. If you only use the sleep function, the ring can easily last 1.5 weeks before running flat. It goes to show how energy efficient these modern electronics are today, all packed into a 3.9g ring. Also, the charging case provides up to 13 additional charges, extending usage up to 39 days. When charging, the charge case draws under a watt of power and charges at 5 volts 0.16Amps
Great value pricing to the competition
Priced at S$29 after discounts + free shipping on Chinese sites like Aliexpress, it is very hard to fault the Colmi R10 for what it brings to the table. In comparison with Oura Ring and Samsung Galaxy Ring. In comparison, the Oura Ring first launched in 2015 through a successful Kickstarter campaign. It is on it’s 4th Generation now retailing at S$623 with a S$8.10/month subscription. Ouch.
Moreover, the Oura monthly subscription claims to provides more in-depth comprehensive health insights. This includes detailed sleep analysis and women’s health tracking. Only time will tell whether this personalization is enough to remain a unique selling proposition.
Also on the market line-up is the Samsung Galaxy Ring, which sets you back S$538. The Samsung charges no subscription fees on the caveat that the ring functions only on Samsung devices, like their Fold series. It is touted to offer seamless integration with Samsung devices and features like heart rate monitoring and sleep tracking under the Samsung ecosystem.
For what the Colmi ring brings to the competition in terms of features and value, it provides basic yet adequate health tracking features without subscription fees. It might be all what you actually need. While the Colmi lacks the advanced features of its competitors, it offers excellent value for its price. Chances most simple users like myself do not require the “in-depth analytics” offered by the Oura paid subscriptions. And you get to save at least S$8 monthly too.
Still, in today’s market era of sub-$100 quality smart and fitness watches, it is quite a rip-off to pay over $500 for a smart ring which is essentially a stripped-down smart watch. There are no other unique selling proposition Smart Rings have to a standard Smart watch besides the smaller form factor. It be only time where the high price barrier of the Oura and Samsung Ring halo products be eroded by market forces, such as the arrival of the Colmi ring, which I see is a contender to change the Smart ring landscape pricing over the coming years.
Conclusion
All in all, the Colmi R10 smart ring gets my recommendation as a cost-effective option for those seeking basic health tracking features. It also functions as a great and unintrusive standalone sleep tracker. While it doesn’t match the advanced capabilities of higher-priced competitors, it offers adequate solid performance for its price point. It’s suitable for users looking for an affordable entry into wearable health technology.
Colmi R10 Smart ring
Pros
- Very affordable price to the competition
- Excellent battery life
- Accurate and full feature suite of sensors
Cons
- No wireless charging
- App could do with some polish
- Limited cross-sync compatibility with 3rd party apps
