Smart ring: Gabit

I’m a gadget and app freak and try out a lot of them. So when smart rings started making rounds - I really wanted to try one.

For context, I’ve been wearing Samsung galaxy smartwatch since last 4.5 years and now I was finding it bulky to wear all the time, and I also couldn’t wear it with all the outfits. So a smart ring really had its appeal. A ring being lightweight, easy to carry, wear and having better looks - I expect to wear it all the time.

 

Picking a smart ring

As smart ring is a new category I had a few requirements

1. It should not be super expensive - so I can switch the ring in 2-3 years (or avoid ring overall if I don’t like it)

2. It should not have a subscription - giving a subscription feels like the company can change access and charges for me anytime - I don’t want that

3. It should not be v1 of any company - a version 1 will always have quite a few issues, always better to use a v2 or later

4. The company should have decent reviews - lot of companies have many reported issues like delays in shipping, no after service

 

With all of that I landed on Gabit smart ring - it was priced at ₹13K, which although not cheap - is one of the cheaper smart rings. It has no subscription and Gabit had launched its ring in Jan 2024. While the company did have some issues around shipping times - I contacted them and got some clarification on the same.

 

The review - Gabit smart ring

I’ve used the ring for 2 months now, and I would rate the ring 8/10. Going deeper into all aspects

Accuracy in tracking

1. Steps - ✅ I found step tracking to be as accurate as my smartwatch. The steps almost exactly match in both devices. No problems here, the weekly average also look good. It is recommended to wear the ring on index finger of your non dominant hand so that you incur less non-step movements during the day

2. Sleep - ✅ There’s sleep stage tracking and the app provides you with a sleep score. I find the sleep stage to be mostly accurate. There are definitely errors when I know I was slightly up but the ring shows me sleeping. Overall, compared to sleep stages on my smart watch I do see that Gabit shows me high % of deep sleep, but not significant enough to be worried about.

3. Calories - ? Calorie count seems to be off. When I do a workout which is meant to be 100kcal, it sometimes shows me ~40kcal, which is way off, unless I am doing really pathetic in the workout! I have started to ignore this aspect, along with the activity score the app gives (no idea where that comes from).

4. Heart rate and SPO2 - ✅ Both of these seem on point. I’m getting the same average heart rate and resting heart rate as I know from my smart watch before. SPO2 is also in 95-100% range, which I am guessing is right!

5. Temperature - ✅ My skin temperature is always coming low - it is around 93°F, but sometimes is going down to 89°F, which I am not sure of. I also think when you wash hands, it might disrupt the temperature reading. Overall the average temperature is stable over days - yet to get a fever to check variations ?

 

App and integrations

1. App - The app is good for seeing all the different aspects you would like, at a high level a sleep score & activity score. Going deeper shows everything from sleep stages, step count, calorie count, heart rate, HRV, VO2, SPO2.
   1. ? But the app also has more - it is a combined app for a bunch of skincare, fitness products which Gabit sells. I personally would like to only see my ring data and not all this, but that’s not an option.
   2. ? There’s a connection made with the ring every time I open the app, which sometimes can take frustratingly long (like more than a minute) and need several retries. And you can’t do anything like start a workout on the app till this connection is made.

2. Integration with Google fit / Apple health - ? They just launched an integration with Apple health in mid July, 2024. There’s no integration with Google fit / Health right now. I spoke to them and they said they’re working towards it, but won’t happen for another few months.

3. Widget - ? There’s no widget unfortunately. Given that rings don’t have a screen, it would be good to have a widget to quickly look at major stats on home screen, but I’ve to always open the app for this. Another reason for not having a widget could be that everytime I open Gabit app - it establishes connection with the ring and pulls in the data; if they have a widget they will have to figure this out too

 

Automations and workflows

1. Automated workout identification - ? This has to be one of the main things I miss while moving away from my smartwatch. I have to always remember to start a workout (which itself is frustrating due to long time in connecting to ring). Most of the times I start a workout and forget to end it ❗. That results in weird workout stats and a very high activity score for the day.

2. Screen and notifications - ? I know, I know, I shouldn’t be having this parameter in judging a ring, BUT, it was such an important win for a watch. Being able to quickly look at time. I do miss that, esp at night when I wake up and have to search for my phone to check time (I have a wall clock, but can’t see the time at night). I also miss getting notifications for calls and my calendar events (a lot of which I’ve started missing because I don’t keep my phone in my pocket all the time!). It was very easy to keep the phone on silent and get notified of a call on the watch. Now can’t do that as much.

 

Wearability and build quality

1. Ring sturdiness - ? The ring is sturdy and looks beautiful. However, it is better to keep it away from any sort of rubbing with another hard surface. I once dragged a trolley with my left hand and that left quite some scratch marks on the ring ?. Otherwise, you can simply clean the ring with water and mild soap.

2. Comfort - ✅ Most of the times I don’t even know if I’ve a ring on. It is so light weight and comfortable that it is no trouble. The trick here is to find the best size for yourself, always wear a ring from the sizing kit for more than a day and then order the size. If the ring is not comfortable to wear you won’t really be enjoying it.
   I find the ring much much better than a watch in this aspect. It is easy to remove and clean if my hands get dirty / wet. It doesn’t create rashes on my skin, unlike my watch band started to.

3. Charger - ✅ The charger looks a little misleading. At first I thought it was a chargeable box, like the ones that come with earbuds. But later realised it is just a charging station and you can only charge the ring when it is connected to power. The charger is extremely light, to the point that it feels flimsy. But it does its job, and looks good.
    
4. Battery life - ✅ Promised 7 days of battery life is true. I charged it first time after opening and then only have had to charge it every week. The charging status is also unintuitive - the box has a blue light to show there’s power & the ring blinks green light when it is charging and gets a solid green when charged.

 

Overall verdict

Even with a few missing features - I love my move from a smart watch to a smart ring. It is just so much easy to carry and more comfortable. The stats are mostly on point and I don't get the continuous feeling of a notification coming in all the time. I would highly recommend anyone having second thoughts to try out a cheaper ring like Gabit and see if this is something they would like to have long term. If yes, you can move to a more expensive, but hopefully more feature rich ring!