I like to think of myself as an early adopter.

When mobile phones got smart, I upgraded.

I've been wearing smartwatches since before most big brands were even making them.

But when it comes to smart rings, I've completely missed the boat.

So much so, I don't even really know how long they've been around. I guess I was vaguely aware people were wearing them overseas but until very recently, I certainly didn't know anybody who used one regularly.

Turns out, I'm a complete Luddite. The first mass-produced smart ring appeared back in 2013, although this was more of an NFC payment device without any of the health-tracking features you'd expect of such a ring today; kind of like PayWave wrapped around your finger.

Turns out things have evolved somewhat over the last decade or so.

The Samsung Galaxy Ring is the latest of these devices to hit New Zealand shores, although it's been on sale in other markets since July last year.

I imagine it's a bit of a risk, bringing a product like this to such a small, remote market. Not only is the Galaxy Ring available in three colours; Titanium Black, Titanium Silver and Titanium Gold, it also comes in 11 different sizes - so essentially, for every ring someone buys, there are 32 others left waiting in the stock room.

Obviously you'll need to order the right size, so when you order, Samsung will send out a sizing kit first. They recommend you wear your preferred sizing ring for a full 24 hours to make sure it's right. This is great advice as I know my fingers definitely swell up at different times of the day and night and because the Galaxy Ring has three raised sensors on the inside surface, it'll feel slightly different to any other ring you're used to.

I don't know much about jewellery but in my humble opinion I think the Galaxy Ring is attractive enough - the scratch-resistant titanium finish is matte rather than shiny, while the band itself is slightly concave - again to help avoid cosmetic damage. In the time I was wearing my review sample, it definitely lived up to Samsung's wear-and-tear-proof claims. I wore it pretty much nonstop; gardening, cooking, exercising and sleeping. Even the bright yellow turmeric I added as I rolled my lamb kofta meatballs didn't manage to stain my Titanium Silver ring. Just a small note; all three colour options are black on the inside, so the silver and gold versions are are two-tone affair.

The other recommendation from Samsung is to wear the Galaxy Ring on your forefinger. This is mainly because you can use a double-tap gesture to stop alarms on your phone or as a remote to shoot pictures with your phone's camera. There's a raised "indicator" line on the outside of the ring. This helps you position it correctly, with the sensors pressed underneath your finger and you perform the double-tap against this indicator line.

Personally, I feel like a complete knob wearing a ring on my forefinger so I went for my middle one instead. I found I was still able to double-tap my alarms away and this is actually quite handy for me because I have a backup alarm on my phone that doesn't go off until I'm driving to work. Thanks to the Galaxy Ring, I could silence it without taking my hands off the wheel.

I was surprised how much light spills out from the Galaxy Ring's three sensors in a dark room in the middle of the night. I don't know why I was surprised - these are the same sort of heart monitoring and skin temperature sensors you'll find on a smartwatch and most smartwatches will light up a bedroom too. At least the Galaxy Ring is likely to be dimmed by a closed fist or when your hand is against another surface.

The tracking itself is limited but truly excellent.

I've been using Samsung Galaxy Watches for years so I expected great heart monitoring and effective sleep-tracking. What I hadn't anticipated is how well the Galaxy Ring records walking and running too. That's right; you no longer need a watch to track exercise - in fact, you don't even need to take your phone with you. Somehow the Galaxy Ring automatically detects your workouts and syncs them with the Samsung Health app when it gets back within bluetooth range.

It's a shame it can't detect other workouts at this stage. Perhaps future firmware updates will enable this, if not the next generation of ring.

Thanks to its skin temperature sensor, the Galaxy Ring is also capable of tracking your menstrual cycle which is bound to help make life a little more predictable.

You can keep an eye on the Galaxy Ring's battery level via the Samsung Wear app, or you can just pop it in the charging case where an LED indicator shows you how much charge is left. The case itself charges via USB-C and also, even more conveniently, on wireless charging pads too. Although Samsung suggests you might get up to 14 days wear between charges, I found I was getting low battery notifications via my phone after 6 or 7 days. No great drama though as the ring usually charged back to 100% in just an hour or so.

This is one big reason why I can see many people opting for the Galaxy Ring over a smartwatch. Most smartwatches only last a day or two on a single charge. That means if you want to use it for sleep tracking, you have to find some other time during the day to juice it up. That problem simply doesn't exist with the Galaxy Ring. And it's definitely a lot more comfortable to wear to bed than a bulky device like the Galaxy Watch Ultra.

Not that it has to be an either/or scenario. Supposedly, if you use the Galaxy Ring and a Samsung smartwatch simultaneously, they'll talk with each other to provide more consistent and accurate readings than either device will on its own.

This is hard to assess but I've certainly appreciated Samsung Health's new Energy Score, an AI-generated stat that basically accumulates all the health data any of your devices can provide. This comes in the form of a constructively-worded notification - full of praise and reinforcement if the score is good, or including some helpful suggestions on better sleep and exercise habits if the total is a little sub-par.

The Galaxy Ring is an attractive, easy-to-setup tracking device that's durable, comfortable to wear and has good battery life. Unless you're a complete Samsung ecosystem junkie, I doubt very much most people would see the value in owning both a Galaxy Ring and a Galaxy Watch and that's fine - because if it's just general health monitoring, sleep-tracking and running or walking you want to keep an eye on, maybe a ring is more your style than a watch anyway.

At least now New Zealanders have the option.

Click here for more information on the Samsung Galaxy Ring.