Ever heard of Insix? Neither had we before attending a local launch event for the Honor Magic V2 and Magic6 Pro a few weeks ago. Infix is the company behind a rather interesting media gift we received when leaving that event in the form of a Smart Health Ring.

That’s the name… just the Smart Health Ring, and while we normally aren’t too fussed about media gifts outside of useful power banks or wireless earphones, this wearable from Insix did pique our interest for one simple reason – in a few months smart rings will be the only thing that anyone will be talking about.

This as Samsung is getting ready to launch its Galaxy Ring. The South Korean firm has only teased the device, only displaying it at MWC 24 in Barcelona earlier this year, but no international media outlet has gotten any tangible time with the device.

Regardless of how it performs, the introduction of the Galaxy Ring to the market will likely lead to a renewed interest in smart rings, meaning the current market leader Oura could be in for some competition.

So what about this Insix iteration? Well for one, you cannot actually buy it in South Africa just yet, and there is seemingly no indication that Honor will at the time of writing. The company is, however, looking into smart rings, noting at MWC that this type of wearable segment is something it is actively developing a product for.

We’ll have to wait to see what an Honor-made smart ring is all about, but in the interim, we thought we’d take a closer look at the Insix Smart Health Ring and share our opinion of the device.

To that end, here’s three things we love about it, and three things we don’t.

Love

1. The first is battery life. Typically a smartwatch only gets you about two to three days of use before a charge is needed. This also varies wildly depending on the manufacturer, with Apple only getting a day out of its Watch, and Huawei up to 14 days with its smartwatches. The idea of smart ring is then quite appealing from a battery life perspective, as its small form factor does not require a lot of power to keep going. In fact, the Insix smart ring mustered six days before needing a recharge, which also takes around two hours to complete.
2. Next is the fact that the form factor of the smart ring is ideal for sleep tracking. Many smartwatches and fitness bands offer some sort of sleep tracking function, which can indeed prove helpful given the health benefits of a good night’s rest, but sleeping with a device that large all night can prove uncomfortable for some. You would wear a wedding ring to bed, but a chronograph, bracelet, or bangle seems far less practical. The same logic applies here to smart rings.
3. Lastly the Insix Smart Health Ring is surprisingly accurate. Measuring steps throughout the day, general activity during exercise, stress levels, blood oxygen saturation, and the aforementioned sleep, and this wearable has pretty much all the bases covered. Sure, a smartwatch gives you dedicated workout modes, meditation techniques, along with GPS tracing and a generally better on-device interface, but given that the Insix option kept on par with a smartwatch in terms of accuracy of the basics, it can prove quite useful indeed.

Hate

1. Now for the things we hate (perhaps that’s a strong word, but if we purchased this device it may lead us to returning it). Here sizing is a problem. Our pork sausage pincers are plumper than most, but the Smart Health Ring only fits over our pinky finger. This may be cool as a replacement for a signet ring, but when we gave it to a woman to try, it did not fit any of her fingers, even the thumb. There’s also no mention of whether the ring we received was a small, medium, or large, which means any manufacturer bringing a smart ring to SA will need to consider sizing and options for fittings in-store.
2. The next thing that irked us was the build quality of the small charging case that the Insix comes in. It looks neat enough, but has an unsatisfying plastic-y feel to it. It is also difficult to open at times, and the ring itself can be heard rattling inside the box, which again does not scream premium. As we have no price to go on, however, it is difficult to determine if the device is offering bang for your buck, and such elements can therefore be forgiven.
3. The last aspect we need to mention here is how prone the ring is to picking up scuffs and marks. This particular unit comes in a nice matte black finish, but less than two hours into wearing it and we noticed that there were scratch marks of the underside of the ring where is was meeting any surface we placed out hand on. This may simply be a symptom of the material used for its construction, or the matte black finish, but it again feels like a mark against in the premium column.

There are already a number of smart rings on the market, and whenever Samsung decides to release the Galaxy Ring, a bunch more will hit retailers. If they are like the Insix Smart Health Ring, they pose an interesting alternative to smartwatches or fitness bands, provided they are well made.

Either way, we will see a new wave of wearables being launched in the coming years and months, so it will be interesting to see which brand or manufacturer will end up dominating and innovating in the space.