I wore the Circular Ring 2 for two weeks, but the great hardware and no subscription aren’t enough.

Circular Ring 2: 1 Minute Review

The Circular Ring 2 is an ambitious smart ring. On paper, it has almost everything you need. Besides standard health, recovery, and sleep tracking, it offers features you won’t find in many competitors, including electrocardiogram (ECG) readings and atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection. Circular also promises blood pressure and blood sugar trend monitoring in future updates.

At first glance, it looks like a real challenger against Oura, RingConn and Samsung. The ring itself is beautiful, light on the finger, and comes with a charging case, which is a welcome upgrade over the previous Circular model. Battery life is also solid, lasting around six days in my testing.

But unfortunately, the daily experience does not live up to this impressive technical sheet.

The biggest problem is the software. Smart rings don’t have a screen, which means the app is extremely important. This is where Circular Ring 2 struggles the most.

Syncing regularly took several minutes, sometimes failed completely, and often required multiple attempts. Several times I opened the app to check my data, waited for it to sync, gave up, and closed it again.

The app itself feels cluttered and unintuitive. Health data is scattered across multiple screens, navigation can be confusing, and language often seems strangely robotic.

For example, one morning I was told my sleep was “incorrect” and the next day my wellness summary informed me: “Your sleep was OK. Your energy seems low. Your body and mind are out of balance.” Rather than helping me understand my health, experiences like this often leave me even more confused.

Some of the ring’s more interesting features also failed to impress. ECG and AFib monitoring never fully worked during my testing, while the promised blood pressure and glucose tracking features have yet to arrive.

What makes this all particularly frustrating is that when I revisited my Circular Ring Slim review from 2024, I found many of the same complaints. The hardware has improved significantly, but the software experience still seems to lag behind the competition.

The Circular Ring 2 is not a bad smart ring. It has a good design, respectable battery life, and an ambitious feature set. But in a market increasingly dominated by the best smart rings from polished competitors like Oura, RingConn, and Samsung, ambition alone isn’t enough. Right now, Circular still feels like a company with big ideas that’s having trouble implementing them.

Circular Ring 2: Specifications

Circular Ring 2: Price and availability

• Pricing starts at £280 / $349 / AU$497
• Deployed after a Kickstarter release at the end of 2025 / beginning of 2026
• No subscription required, but premium features expected soon

Rather than arriving as a traditional retail release, the Circular Ring 2 began life as a Kickstarter project in 2025 before gradually rolling out to customers through the end of 2025 and into 2026.

Pricing starts at £280 / $349 / AU$497 for the black version, rising to £360 / $449 / AU$639 for the silver model I tested. The gold and rose gold finishes are on the high end at £440 / $549 / AU$782.

At first glance, the Circular Ring 2 appears to be competitively priced. One of its biggest selling points is that it doesn’t require a mandatory subscription to access basic features, unlike the Oura Ring 4, which starts at £349 / $349 / AU$534 and also requires an additional monthly membership fee of £5.99 / $5.99.

However, the picture becomes a little more complicated when you look closer. Circular is already promoting upcoming premium features, including blood pressure and blood sugar trend monitoring, which are not available but are expected soon. The company says these features will require a subscription or can be unlocked using circular coins, which are earned through regular use, but details remain limited and pricing has not yet been confirmed.

Looking at the broader smart ring market, the Circular Ring 2 sits in a crowded middle ground. That’s cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Ring, which starts at £399 / $399 / AU$699, but more expensive than the RingConn Gen 2 at £299 / $299 / AU$460. There are also budget-focused options, like the Amazfit Helio Ring, which costs a lot less at £149.90 / $149.99 / AU$269.

The problem isn’t necessarily the asking price here but rather that the performance doesn’t justify it. Although the Circular Ring 2 edges out some of the bigger names in the category, like Oura, Samsung, and RingConn, they all currently offer a more refined experience. This makes the Circular Ring 2 difficult to consider a good value for money, even before future high-end features are brought into the equation.

• Value rating: 2.5/5

Circular ring 2: design

• Lightweight and slim design
• Silver color does not scratch
• Nice new charging case included

I liked the design of the Circular Ring 2. The fit was very comfortable throughout testing, even when I was sleeping, and at only 2g it felt light on my finger. The silver finish also looks quite premium.

Circular offers a wide range of sizes here, from 6 to 14, which beats most of its competitors. I tested a size 8 on my left index finger, which matched the recommendation of Circular’s new AI digital sizing tool.

Although the company still offers a traditional sizing kit, it’s nice to see a less expensive digital alternative that proved accurate in my case. Especially since you’ll have to pay an extra £5/$5 for Circular’s traditional sizing kit.

The Circular Ring 2 has softer, more rounded edges than competitors like the RingConn Gen 2 or the previous Circular Ring Slim. Whether this is positive or negative will depend on personal preference, but it does make the ring feel slightly bulkier than some competitors, despite being one of the thinnest choices available at 2.5mm thick. A small circular logo on the outer edge makes it easy to find so that the sensors are where they need to be.

I tested the silver model which I recommend rather than the black version. Black smart rings tend to show scratches more easily, and that was one of the big problems with the previous Circular Ring Slim. After two weeks of wear, my ring had suffered a few slight scratches but was overall in good condition.

Another welcome improvement here is the charging case. Unlike the Circular Ring Slim, which relied on a charging cable and a small cradle, the Ring 2 comes with a compact clamshell charging case that’s easy to carry and use.

Overall, the ring design is one of the Circular Ring 2’s biggest strengths. The company has clearly tweaked the hardware. Unfortunately, as we will see later, the software has not evolved at the same pace.

• Design rating: 4/5

Circular ring 2: Characteristics

• Lots of features
• ECG and atrial fibrillation
• En-route glucose and blood pressure measurements

The Circular Ring 2 has an ambitious set of features. In addition to standard health, sleep and activity tracking, it measures parameters such as heart rate, heart rate variability (HRV), blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), skin temperature and respiratory rate.

There are also women’s health features designed to track hormonal changes and fertility, as well as stress monitoring, guided breathing exercises, medication reminders, and an AI assistant called Kira.

The main features are ECG measurements and AFib detection, both of which are rare in smart rings. Circular also promises blood pressure and blood sugar trend monitoring in future updates, although neither feature was available during testing and both will be placed behind a model. the top of the range upon their arrival. Blood pressure is not easy to measure with optical LED heart rate sensors, without an inflatable cuff for calibration: it will be interesting to see what form the blood pressure function ultimately takes and whether it will be accurate.

On paper, this is an impressive package that rivals, and in some cases exceeds, what you’ll find from the biggest names in this space.

• Features rating: 4/5

Circular ring 2: performance

• Disappointing app
• Slow to sync and update
• Battery life is improved

The Circular Ring 2 made a good first impression. Basic metrics like steps, heart rate, and sleep tracking all seemed reasonable during the first few days of testing. But the more I wore it, the more problems started to appear.

The biggest problem is the application. Smart rings don’t have a screen, which means if you think about it, the app is effective East the product, a bit like a Whoop group. This is where Circular Ring 2 falls behind its rivals.

Synchronization is extremely slow. Extracting data from the ring often took several minutes and sometimes failed completely, forcing me to try again. This may seem like a small gripe, but it adds unnecessary friction. Many times I found myself opening the app, waiting for the data to sync, and then simply closing it again. If I owned this ring long term, I think I would eventually stop checking the app altogether.

The app itself feels cluttered and unintuitive. Health information, scores, charts, and features are scattered across multiple screens, while the home page is filled with circles, maps, and widgets competing for attention. Even though I test handheld devices for a living, I’ve often found finding specific information more difficult than it should be.

The language doesn’t help either. As mentioned above, the app kept telling me that my sleep was “incorrect” or that my body was “out of balance”, which left me perplexed rather than enlightened.

The AI ​​assistant, Kira, wasn’t much better, largely repackaging existing data into a confusing format with tiny fonts and a huge chunk of text with generic recommendations, like “stay hydrated.” Some of the ring’s coolest features were also not provided. ECG and AFib monitoring never fully worked during my testing, repeatedly getting stuck on a loading screen.

The sleep tracking was generally accurate when I followed a conventional sleep schedule, but it struggled with fragmented sleep and sometimes recorded inaccurate sleep times. On several occasions, I woke up a few hours before going back to sleep, only for the ring to record the entire period as one continuous sleep session.

Tracking workouts isn’t what smart rings do best. But here it still seems like an afterthought. Workouts are hidden, have to be started manually, and there’s no automatic workout detection, unlike competitors like the Oura Ring 4 and Samsung Galaxy Ring. I also encountered a handful of smaller bugs, including random disconnections and occasional time zone changes even though I didn’t travel anywhere.

Battery life is one area where the Circular Ring 2 performs well. Circular promises up to five days in Performance mode and I managed six days during testing. This is competitive with most major competitors and a significant improvement over the Circular Ring Slim.

Overall, the Circular Ring 2 feels like a smart ring with great ideas but inconsistent execution. Yes, the hardware is good, the features list is impressive, and the battery life is solid. But the software experience remains frustrating and hard to ignore in an increasingly competitive smart ring market.

• Performance rating: 2.5/5

Circular Ring 2: Dashboard

Circular ring 2: should I buy it?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Also consider

How I tested

I tested the Circular Ring 2 for 2 weeks. I wore it 24/7 and only took it off to recharge and when I was lifting weights I learned the hard way from testing smart rings over the years that they were very easy to scratch. It was all through workouts, work, socializing, relaxing in the evening and sleeping at night.

I’ve been reviewing smart rings since the very first iteration of the Oura ring in 2017 and have since tested almost every generation of every smart ring brand. Which puts me in a great position to compare models, tell you which one is best for you, and provide you with all the important context about the smart ring industry.

• First revision: May 2026

Becca is a TechRadar contributor, independent journalist and author. She’s been writing about consumer technology and popular science for over a decade, covering all kinds of topics, including why robots have eyes and whether we’ll ever know the overview effect. She is particularly interested in VR/AR, wearables, digital health, space technology and talking to experts and academics about the future. She has contributed to TechRadar, T3, Wired, New Scientist, The Guardian, Inverse and many others. His first book, Screen Time, was released in January 2021 by Bonnier Books. She loves science fiction, brutalist architecture, and spending too much time floating in space in virtual reality.

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