Smart rings are great, but they're typically not the finest pieces of jewelry in terms of the quality of metals and flashy designs. That, however, could be changing with the new Ultrahuman Rare line, which coats its current generation of Ring Air models in metals like platinum or 18-karat gold.
Are there other differences between the rare line and the standard Ring Air? Apart from weight, no. The rings offer the same sensors and underlying technology, and while they're among some of the better smart rings out there, they're still gadgets that will eventually need to be replaced, unlike an actual 18-karat gold ring. I got to check out the new rings in person at CES 2025.
Bling, bling
At the Ultrahuman booth at CES 2025, I spoke to a representative who mentioned that they had customers asking for more premium rings that could be used in place of something like a wedding band or an engagement ring. It's a bit unclear if those customers were asking so that they could use the ring as an alternative to a wedding band completely or just as something they could use as a wedding band occasionally while keeping their actual wedding band at home.
Regardless, the rings certainly look flashy in real life. However, I'm not exactly sure if they look that much flashier than the faux gold or gold-plated smart rings offered by some companies. Its color selection includes a rose gold-like Desert Rose, a platinum Desert Snow, and a gold Dune. In the Dune and Desert Rose variants, you’ll get 18-karat gold, while the Desert Snow version offers PT950 platinum.
Of course, the use of precious metals dramatically changes the price. While the Ultrahuman Ring Air typically costs $350, the 18-karat gold version costs £1,800 – equivalent to around $2,250, which isn't cheap. Thankfully, they come with a lifetime membership to UltraHuman X, an extended warranty subscription, and access to UltraHuman's PowerPlugs feature, available on the UltraHuman platform. However, those features won't necessarily offset the cost that much. Thankfully, these models also have more premium packaging and a fancier charging dock.
The tech
As mentioned, the underlying tech of the Ultrahuman Ring Air Rare is the same as that of the standard Ultrahuman Ring Air. That's certainly not a bad thing — the Ultrahuman Ring Air is a high-end smart ring that measures heart rate, skin temperature, variability, sleep, cycle tracking, and more. It also works with a relatively well-designed app and can help you track your stress, which would be useful for me at CES.
The sleep-tracking technology seems relatively helpful overall. It can leverage your heart rate variability and sleep efficiency to recommend ways to improve your sleep throughout the day. It also offers all of these features without a subscription to access the actual tech — the aforementioned Ultrahuman X subscription is for the warranty.
But it's still a gadget that will probably need replacing. Unlike a typical piece of jewelry, like a good old-fashioned ring, a smart ring generally has a life cycle of a few years before the technology gets so much better that you'll want to upgrade or the battery in your current one gets so bad that you'll need to buy a new one. In other words, most should probably avoid spending the cash on an actual gold one and stick to fake gold paint if they want the look.
