Smart rings promise always-on health tracking in something you barely notice, but that idea took a hit last year. A very public incident involving the Samsung Galaxy Ring saw a user sent to hospital after the ring swelled on his finger while he was about to board a flight. It was an unusual case, but it was hard to ignore, and it inevitably made people wonder how safe these tiny wearables really are. As such, we polled our readers to find out how much this scare might have changed their minds on smart rings.
Samsung recently wrapped up its investigation into what actually went wrong, and we included the poll in the article covering that news. As a reminder, Samsung concluded that the battery alone didn’t cause the swelling, but rather a crack in the ring’s internal molding. According to the company, both its own analysis and a separate review by an independent agency reached the same conclusion, and there’s no broader battery safety issue to worry about.