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Buyer beware: Samsung's new Galaxy Ring and similar finger-worn wearables represent the latest category of wearable tech designed to entice consumers. Before opening up your wallet for a sleek new smart ring, however, you should know that you're buying what's essentially disposable technology.
As iFixit highlights in its latest teardown, the Galaxy Ring – like all other smart rings – is hamstrung by the fact that its lithium battery can't be replaced without destroying the device. In essence, Samsung's health tracking ring has a shelf life and once the battery is worn out, your only course of action is to toss out the entire thing.
How long do you have? Well, that depends. iFixit notes that the chemistry in modern consumer-grade lithium-ion batteries are usually good for at least 400 cycles. For most, this means the $400 Galaxy Ring won't last more than about two years with regular use. Anything beyond that should be considered icing on the cake.
iFixit doesn't recommend buying disposable tech like this but if you do, know that you're at least getting some neat – albeit, not earth-shattering – hardware.
The team recently worked with engineers at Lumafield, and subjected a Galaxy Ring to a computed tomography (CT) scanner to get a look at the wearable's inner workings without dismantling it.
Interestingly enough, the scan revealed the use of a press connector joining the battery to the circuit board. It's an odd design decision considering the battery is not replaceable. Why not simply solder it to the board? Perhaps Samsung went this route to make assembly easier and faster.
Determined to dig deeper, iFixit cracked open the Galaxy Ring using heat and a dental pick to melt and chip away at the resin and plastic coating awaiting on the inside. After confirming a press connector is indeed used to link the battery and inductive coil to the circuit board, they had a closer look at the battery.
It was too far damaged to positively ID its capacity but according to Samsung's website, a size 11 ring should have a 19.5 mAh battery (curiously enough, battery capacity scales with ring size).