Circular’s New Smart Ring Brings Mobile Payments to Your Finger
The Circular Ring 3 Pro and Slim add NFC payments and haptic feedback, and still don’t require subscriptions for its core health features and AI coach.
Circular, a Paris-based company, has unveiled its latest smart ring, the Circular Ring 3 Pro and Circular Ring 3 Slim, at the IFA consumer tech show in Berlin. These new rings aim to bring smartwatch-like capabilities to the ring category, with features like contactless payments, health tracking, and haptic vibration alerts. The Ring 3 Slim is significantly smaller than its predecessor and the Pro, making it more discreet and comparable to the ultra-slim Oura Ring 5.
However, the Pro model is slightly shorter but thicker than its predecessor, and both rings weigh the same as the Gen 2 ring. The Pro ring offers advanced features like ECG and blood pressure tracking, while the Slim ring includes blood pressure trend estimation and advanced sleep metrics. Both rings share the same NFC payments and haptic vibration features, allowing them to buzz your finger for app notifications, medication reminders, and health alerts.
The Ring 3 series is part of a growing trend in screen-free wearable technology, with competitors like Oura, Ultrahuman, Google, and Garmin focusing on long-term health tracking without the limitations of a small smartwatch screen. However, this screen-free approach has limited the functionality of these devices compared to smartwatches.
Circular's smart rings are priced differently from competitors, offering a subscription-free model with full access to health tracking metrics and an AI health companion, Kira. While the company has not announced pricing or a release date for the Ring 3 series, it promises more details in the coming months.
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