This Samsung Galaxy Ring pricing rumor may curb your excitement for the upcoming wearable
With so much recent noise around its upcoming foldable phones, AirPods-rivaling earbuds, and Apple Watch-rivaling timepieces, we wouldn't blame you if you forgot all about that first-of-a-kind product Samsung (vaguely) announced back in February ahead of a proper launch "later this year."
Of course, the Galaxy Ring made a couple of headlines of its own over the last few months, popping up again in the rumor mill today with some... pretty disconcerting pricing speculation. We're afraid Samsung's initially exciting new wearable device may end up costing more than some of the best smartwatches out there, which could definitely impact that excitement in a big way.
According to Yogesh Brar on X, the potentially trend-setting Samsung Galaxy Ring is "as of now" priced at 35,000 rupees in India, which could convert to anywhere between $300 and $350 stateside when all tariffs and geographical differences are considered. What's worse is that the same tipster allegedly told Android Authority that the expenses of the Galaxy Ring's earliest adopters will be further increased with a monthly subscription fee of "under $10" in the US.
As unusual as it might sound for smartwatch owners, paying extra for certain health tracking capabilities is a thing Oura Smart Ring users have already accepted. That's most likely the toughest direct competitor Samsung will need to face when entering this fledgling wearable market segment, with its standard pricing set at $299 and up and subscriptions running an additional $5.99 a month.
If both of Brar's predictions come true, there's a good chance the Galaxy Ring will prove more expensive than this established and fairly popular industry player, which could make Samsung's life quite difficult here. It remains unclear how this device might set itself apart from a Galaxy Watch 6, for instance, which offers a screen (duh!) and a lot of cool health and fitness monitoring features at a list price of $300 and up... that's frequently marked down to as little as $230.
The Galaxy Ring may or may not be released at the same time as three new Samsung smartwatches, one of which will reportedly come with a rugged design to fight the Apple Watch Ultra 2 and another one of which could cost a lot less than $300 or $350.
Before you start playing the Galaxy Ring its death march, you might want to keep in mind that Yogesh Brar is no Evan Blass or Steve Hemmerstoffer, so even though he's been right about a few things in the past, he may still be wrong in this particular case and Samsung could still price its first-ever smart ring a bit more aggressively. Fingers crossed, everybody!
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