When it comes to health tracking, wearables like smartwatches and fitness bands are usually the way to go.
But believe it or not, a device as small as a ring can now also do the same. Enter the itel Smart Ring—the brand’s first product in this category. Best of all, this tiny fitness tracker comes at a very affordable price.
What exactly is the itel Smart Ring capable of? You’re about to find out in this hands-on review.
What’s in the Box?
The unboxing experience is fairly straightforward.
Our unit came in this sleek black box and as you open the lid, you’ll be greeted by the charging case with the itel Ring inside, and the manual. That’s it.
No USB-C cable in here, but that’s fine since we can just use a charging cable from a smartphone.
Design and Comfort
At first glance, the itel Smart Ring looks exactly like a normal ring. Our unit comes in a silver colorway, and the outer material is made of stainless steel.
From afar, no one would ever think that this is a fitness tracker.
Only you get to realize that it’s a smart device when you take a closer look. The inner portion is filled with some microchip circuitry, there’s even an “itel Ring” branding and the #9 text that indicates its ring size of 18.9 mm diameter and 59.5 mm perimeter.
The small circle that you see here is a magnetic port to connect with the charging case it came with.
If you have smaller or bigger fingers than mine, you have options starting at size #7 up to #12 as indicated in the image below.
The ring fits just right on my index finger, and I must say, it’s comfortable to wear. It’s light, stylish and not as obtrusive in my opinion.
I also like the fact that the ring has 10ATM water resistance, as it should. This means you can go swimming or diving with it, and it’ll still work just fine. However, do be careful as the the ring can get scratched easily.
Health Features and Experience
Now, let’s talk about the core function of the itel Ring—health tracking. The ring comes with a dedicated app of the same name, where you can access the health tracking features. The ring can be linked to the app over a Bluetooth connection by the way.
For a fitness tracker of this size, it’s surprising how many health monitoring features it offers.
Automatic health monitoring
For starters, it has a passive health tracking feature that automatically scans the user’s heart rate and blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) every hour or two. We also have the option to manually scan said health vitals in-app.
On top of that, the ring also tracks daily user activity such as the number of steps and mileage, as well as how many calories you’ve burned.
The ring automatically tracks the user’s sleeping cycles too, which I really found useful during my use of the itel Smart Ring. Under the ‘Sleep management’ tab, it shows my sleep stages as to how many times I went from light sleep to deep sleep and rapid eye movement (REM) state.
I have a bit of doubt about its accuracy, but it got the total number of hours I slept correct most of the time.
What’s even more useful to me is the range of ambient music available in-app. There’s a lot to choose from and my favorites so far are “Wave” and “Firewood”.
Playing these through my wireless earbuds with noise cancellation helped me relax and get to sleep faster.
Active exercises
Aside from passive health tracking, the itel Ring can actively record exercise data as well. There are three options available: running, walking, and cycling.
So far, I have only tried walking, and the ring can record data such as average pace, step frequency, calories burned, and the duration of the exercise.
Physical recovery reports
After the itel Smart Ring had gathered enough health data across all areas, the app will generate a “physical recovery report” on a daily basis. This report shows an overview of the user’s health data for the day and will make some suggestions on how to improve your health.
It will also make commendations, saying “You are in good shape today,” assuming the user get enough sleep and exercise.
Some hiccups…
However, it’s not all good and dandy. During my use, I’ve encountered a couple of issues, such as frequent app crashes and trouble charging the ring via the case.
When I’m actively walking and the exercise tracking is enabled, I have to keep my phone’s screen on and stay within the app. For some reason, when I try to switch to another app and return to the itel Ring app, it relaunches, and my progress sadly disappears.
This happens even after I’ve disabled certain battery restrictions in the settings to ensure the app runs properly. For transparency, I am using a phone equipped with a flagship chipset (Snapdragon 8 Gen 2), so it can’t be the phone’s fault for these app crashes.
I should also mention a visual bug that I found in the app. When you try to enable an exercise, there is a map icon you can tap that’s supposed to show route mapping. At first, I was really excited to try this out, assuming the ring had GPS, but the app never loaded the map.
Turns out, it was an actual visual bug since the itel Smart Ring (at least in this first iteration) doesn’t come with a GPS. The existence of such feature in-app must mean that future itel Ring versions will come with GPS.
Otherwise, it could be more than just a visual bug. The app literally asked to gain location access from my phone. So, the app can just use my phone’s location info to integrate it in-app. If that is the case, then that is something itel should give a fix soon.
The next issue I encountered was trouble charging the ring with its case. For some reason, the charging case doesn’t recognize the ring, no matter how many times I flip it.
Fortunately, I found an accidental fix for charging the ring (which you can watch below). What I did was lift the ring slightly while it was attached to the charging thimble, and voila! The itel Ring started charging properly.
Perhaps this could just be a manufacturing defect or an isolated case, so don’t take this too seriously. Besides, I haven’t found anyone online who has experienced the same issue.
Battery Life
On the bright side, I don’t have to charge the itel Smart Ring as often. Based on my actual experience (I kid you not), the ring lasted over six days on a single charge. That runtime included my late-night walks and the time I wore it to sleep.
And if we include the charging case, it provides an additional 54 days of battery life—that’s at least according to what itel advertised. I haven’t tested whether that’s true, but as for the ring itself, the battery life is solid, nonetheless.
Price and Verdict
The itel Smart Ring proves that great things really do come in small packages.
For just PHP 1,299, it delivers a solid mix of health tracking features that usually come with larger, more expensive smartwatches.
The ring’s design is sleek and stylish, while its water resistance and comfortable fit make it wearable all day (and night).
Though it does face some software and charging hiccups, these don’t overshadow the strong points, like the impressive battery life and its ability to monitor important health vitals from your heart rate to your sleep cycles.
I am hopeful that the brand will make further improvements moving forward. This is their first smart ring after all. The wearable is great as it is, and it works as intended. However, its dedicated app, in particular, needs attention not just in terms of functionalities and optimizations, but also its overall design.
Below are a few things I think itel needs to work on for the itel Ring app:
- Proper GPS tracking using the smartphone itself which should work hand in hand with the smart ring.
- An updated look. This is just me nitpicking, but the design feels slightly outdated. As someone who values attention to detail, this is something I’m really looking forward to.
- Further optimizations. As I mentioned earlier, the app experiences frequent crashes, especially when trying to track exercises. Not to mention, when trying to play ambient music, the app takes a while before the music plays.
- There must be an easier way to link health data to an online account. I just realized I can’t find an option to link my itel Ring health data to an email address. The option to register using a Facebook login or an email address only appears when the app is newly installed, and I’m afraid I’ll lose all my health data if I sign out of the original app.
Wrapping this up, it’s not without its flaws, but for the price, this tiny fitness tracker punches well above its weight. If you’re in the market for an affordable, discreet, and functional health tracker, the itel Smart Ring checks all the boxes as your next health companion.
What we liked:
- Stylish and comfortable. Looks like a normal ring
- Functional health tracking features
- Ambient music/ sound
- Affordable price
What we didn’t like:
- In-app issues
- App’s overall UI design
