Honor says it’s working on a Samsung Galaxy Ring rival – and a new foldable flip phone

A smart ring and a Z Flip 5 rival are in Honor’s pipeline

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We aren’t exactly short of evidence that 2024 is going to bethe year of the smart ring, with theSamsung Galaxy Ringbuilding up to its launch later this year, and now Honor has confirmed that it’s also making its ownOura Ringrival.

AtMWC 2024, Honor CEO George Zhao toldCNBCthat the Chinese company is working on a smart ring. When asked about the new wearable category, Zhao said: “Internally,we have this kind of solution, now we are working on that part, so in the future you can have the Honor ring”.

Unfortunately, that’s all we know for now, as Honor didn’t hint at a possible release date for its smart ring. But with theSamsungGalaxy Ring scheduled to launch in the second half 2024 (withmore concrete info expected in July), it’s clear that Honor will need to launch sooner rather than later if it’s to carve its own niche.

Honor already makes affordable wearables like theHonor Band 4and Watch 4, which connect to its Health app. And it clearly sees smart rings as a good companion for AI-powered apps, with Zhao telling CNBC: “This hardware capability will work together with AI-enabled apps (and) can help you make the professional training course tailored for you because they studied your habits and health data to give you professional suggestions. I think AI will transform this kind of applications.”

And while Honor has previously seen its international presence limited by its previous associations with Huawei, it’s since had a resurgence in China and elsewhere since Huawei sold off the subsidiary in November 2020. That’s seen Honor make foldable devices like theHonor Magic V2, which we called a “benchmark-setting beauty” – and it seems Honor is just getting started.

CEO George Zhao also told CNBC that “this year we are preparing for the flip phone launch – now that we are internally in the final stage,” he said. The Magic V2 is a book-style foldable in a similar vein to theSamsung Galaxy Z Fold 5andGoogle Pixel Fold. But this new model will be more of aSamsung Galaxy Z Flip 5rival, with the screen folding on a horizontal axis.

Expect to hear more about Honor’s foldable flip phone soon, and most likely before we hear any news about its Galaxy Ring rival.

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Smart rings explode, but where’s Apple?

With Samsung and now Honor entering the battle for the title ofbest smart ring, it’s clearly going to be an exciting year for the minimalist wearables. But one tech giant that has stayed characteristically quiet on the subject isApple.

Apple has given us no public hints that it’s interested in eating the Oura Ring’s lunch, although, as spotted byApple Insider, it’s clearly looking into them. A freshly-granted patent reveals its research into a “finger-mounted device with sensors and haptics”.

While that might sound like a similar device to the ones Honor and Samsung are working on, the idea appears to actually be more of anApple Vision Procontroller. The patent describes “a wearable device such as a finger-mounted device [that] may be used to gather input from a user’s fingers as the user interacts with surfaces in the user’s environment”.

As always, we can’t take any concrete conclusions from patents, but the idea certainly makes given some of the Vision Pro’s gesture-based limitations. Could an Apple ring also act as a more minimalistApple Watch? It makes sense in theory, but so far we have zero evidence that an Apple-made smart ring is en route.

Until then, Apple will (like us) be watching Honor and Samsung’s first-gen rings with interest. Ourhands-on with a Samsung Galaxy Ring prototypesuggests this tech is already pretty mature, with the ring being comfortable, light and promising powerful sleep-tracking powers. We’re also already big fans of theUltraHuman Ring AirandOura Ring 3.

Those will clearly have some big competition from Samsung and Honor soon – with other tech giants also likely show their ring-decorated hands soon.

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Mark is TechRadar’s Senior news editor. Having worked in tech journalism for a ludicrous 17 years, Mark is now attempting to break the world record for the number of camera bags hoarded by one person. He was previously Cameras Editor at both TechRadar and Trusted Reviews, Acting editor on Stuff.tv, as well as Features editor and Reviews editor on Stuff magazine. As a freelancer, he’s contributed to titles including The Sunday Times, FourFourTwo and Arena. And in a former life, he also won The Daily Telegraph’s Young Sportswriter of the Year. But that was before he discovered the strange joys of getting up at 4am for a photo shoot in London’s Square Mile.

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