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The Samsung Galaxy Ring is almost unrepairable, and replacing faulty units may involve high costs out of warranty.
The Samsung Galaxy Ring is densely packed with a fascinating amount of tech in a small enclosure. Although it’s not the first smart ring category, Samsung’s dominance has already catapulted it into one of the most highly demanded smart rings. However, if you’re planning to buy one, there’s little hope you will ever be able to get it repaired if it stops working.
Mavens at iFixit recently peeped inside the Galaxy Ring to inspect what’s inside and how difficult it would be to repair. Unsurprisingly, the Ring is packed with sensors, connectors, and a tiny lithium-ion battery to keep it alive. However, the design, primarily a hollow cylindrical body chock-full of sensors, makes it incredibly difficult to repair.
As a result, a toasted Galaxy Ring is bound to end up in a trash bin. One can hope Samsung puts a mechanism in place to salvage some of the tech inside so a fraction of the Galaxy Ring units are refurbished. Previous failed attempts by manufacturers to responsibly persuade consumers to recycle their old tech products suggest little likelihood, especially without strong financial incentives. Although sad, it wouldn’t exactly be surprising to see piles of smart rings ending up as e-waste.
In addition to a guilty conscience, getting a faulty Galaxy Ring could also be an expensive affair. Samsung charges whatever it desires to replace your Galaxy Ring, especially if it’s out of the standard 12-month warranty. This also creates uncertainty around warranty coverage of water-damaged units.
Besides wonky sensors, one culprit for a sure shot death of the Galaxy Ring is its battery. Batteries inside puny pieces of tech, such as truly wireless earbuds and smart rings, typically last between 300 and 500 charging cycles (though the exact life may vary with your charging habits and environmental factors such as the ambient temperature).
For the Galaxy Ring, with a claimed week-long battery life, that should translate to roughly five or more years of usage — and would likely be obsolete and replaced before that period, which is a good thing if everything continues to function as intended.
iFixit used a state-of-the-art CT scan machine by Lumafield to get a thinly sliced view of its Galaxy Ring’s innards. They found Samsung uses pop connectors commonly utilized inside phones and laptops to connect different PCBs instead of simply soldering them like competitor Oura does.
Does that indicate Samsung plans to devise ways to replace the battery—at least as part of the refurbishing process? That seems unlikely since pulling the battery apart requires dislodging all components, and it cannot be done without scathing the Ring. These traits expectedly add the Galaxy Ring to the growing list of devices that are practically impossible to repair and potentially burden the ecosystem.
