“New” Ultrahuman Ring AIR
Out of the blue, a “new” Ultrahuman AIR ring was released to the public this week. I put new in quotes because it is more of a facelift of…
Out of the blue, a “new” Ultrahuman AIR ring was released to the public this week. I put new in quotes because it is more of a facelift of the original R1. Or, to use a similar rhetoric, it would be a slimming down of the R1. Not that the R1 is fat, in fact it is pretty same as Oura in terms of size and weight, but shrinking portable electronics is a trend we have been seeing for a few years now.
For a basic introduction to the Ultrahuman R1, I recommend this:
We will look at the unveiling of Ultrahuman Air through this lens:
- Factual changes from the original R1,
- Marketing comes first,
- Trade-in.
Changes
The Ultrahuman team have managed to make the ring smaller and lighter. So these are only changes to the dimensions and weight of the ring body, the other parameters — i.e. sensors and functionalities — remain the same.
Interestingly, the AIR replaces the R1. For the time being, it is only available in black. The original R1 is still available on Amazon.
Ring dimensions
I don’t want to get bogged down in technical details, but Ultrahuman has actually managed to grind the ring down to a thickness of 2.45mm for size 6 (down from the original 2.8mm). The thickness increases with size, so the range is 2.45–2.8mm for all size options.
Weight
The AIR is said to be 35% lighter than the R1. In grams, it’s 2.4g AIR vs. 3.6g R1 in size 6. I don’t think this is really relevant information, but Ulrahuman claims that their new ring is 11x lighter than a smartwatch.
Comparison with the Oura3
If we were to put numbers on paper, it’s going to be very tight with the thickness of the ring. You also have to bear in mind that the ring thickness of the Oura is 2.55 mm for all sizes.
The marketing
Ultrahuman has clearly decided to make the most of the launch of the new Air model. That’s why we have terms and proclamations such as “the lightest”, “light as air”, “the most comfortable wearable in the world”, etc. Nor should we forget the important slogan of the opposition to the Oura ring: “no subscription”.
I was convinced and amused that this is mainly a marketing ploy by the following footnote sentence, i.e. that it only defines itself against Oura Gen3 and Circular because of its weight claim. RingConn is 3g on paper in its smallest version. Either Ultrahuman wasn’t sure or didn’t want to take the risk😊.
Trade-in
A very interesting move by Ultrahuman is the option to trade in your old smart ring for a discount on AIR. Even more interesting is that you can trade in not only the Ultrahuman R1 (which makes no economic sense), but also the second and third generation Oura ring. And you can also try to make deal for other smart rings.
The price
The current price of the AIR is the same as the R1, $299 (watch out for duty and VAT). However, Ultrahuman considers this price to be an Early Bird price and subsequently (after 1000 units of the AIR have been sold) the price is expected to reach $350.
Conclusion
Ultrahuman’s very surprising move of releasing a new version of the ring just a few months after the de facto launch of the original version is a very bold tactic based on the marketing sauce of “the lightest and thinnest smart ring” on the market. It hides a realistic future price increase of $50, it must be added, while still maintaining the non-subscription mode.
I imagine that competition, such as the imminent arrival of the Swiss Iris ring (more on that another time), may have contributed to the timing of the new version. Switching from R1 to AIR doesn’t make financial sense because of the tenths of mm and grams. An interesting attempt seems to be to entice Oura ring holders with the incentive to buy out the old ring.
The original Ultrahuman R1 is still available, but only on Amazon. Personally, I think it would make more sense for AIR to simply expand the portfolio with more premium versions. Especially if the Ultrahuman can’t be sold in all colours like the R1.
OURA 3 –40–50 EUR DISCOUNT — https://fitnesator.link/oura
CIRCULAR RING 8% DISCOUNT — https://fitnesator.link/circular
RINGCONN — https://fitnesator.link/ringconn
ULTRAHUMAN — https://fitnesator.link/ultrahuman
