It seems that smart rings might soon be creating waves that will displace fitness trackers and even some smartwatches. After all, they’re small and discreet, let you still wear your favorite timepiece, and should last you almost a week of battery life. You still get all the tracking benefits of a larger wearable, though some might cast doubts on the accuracy of heart rate and blood oxygen monitoring.

On the flip side, a smart ring’s simpler and smaller design means that it loses out on a few smart features, notably the ability to see information or be alerted to notifications. Some might actually consider this a benefit but others definitely won’t. As if to say it’s possible to have the best of both worlds, this “ultra-thin” smart ring boasts to be the first to bear its own tiny display, which sounds fascinating until you really think about it.

Designer: Rogbid

Unlike, say, the eccentric Casio ring watch that looks like a miniaturized wristwatch, the Rogbird SR08 Ultra’s display sits entirely within the confines of the ring’s body. That means it has an extremely tiny space for information, so text and numbers scroll in a pager-style tickler format, but you’ll still have to squint and patiently wait for the full information to pass by before you can get all the details.

That defeats the reason why even the most basic smart tracker has a display, letting wearers see important information at a quick glance. The small pixel density also makes it uncomfortable to read, straining your eyes more than necessary. The irony is that you will most likely always have your phone with you anyway, so it might be faster and easier to check the app on a larger screen.

Having a display also affects battery life, especially if there’s no clear mechanism for automatically turning it off and on with gestures. It makes one of a smart ring’s biggest benefits, which is longer battery life, pointless. In fact, with a distracting display that breaks the illusion of wearing an elegant piece of jewelry, you pretty much throw away everything that makes a smart ring appealing.

Fortunately, the Rogbid SR08 Ultra seems more like an outlier than a trailblazer, flaunting technical prowess rather than pushing the young market to maturity. It does look like it misses out on some important features, though the discounted $90 price tag looks almost too good to be true, and maybe it actually is.

The post Smart ring with a built-in display is convenient but misses the point first appeared on Yanko Design.

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