Noise Luna Ring review

It’s made from titanium (hence the higher price) which reassures us that this thing can take a beating and looks premium. There’s a PVD coating which gives it a very smooth finish. Noise didn’t tell us what grade of titanium is on the Luna Ring so best not to bash it against a hammer. In any case, we used the Luna Ring for a month and went from swimming with the Andamanese fish to motorcycling on the edges of the Chenab River in the lap of Spiti Valley. The ring still shines like it's brand new even now. 

The inner has a soft touch material that is hypoallergenic and never irritates the skin. So in general, you can wear this thing all day long and not feel itchy or irritated. If you want the numbers, you can wear it for 5 days straight without needing a charge. In our use, the numbers were closer to 5 days as well but the challenge is to remember to charge it in five days.

You see, the Luna Ring doesn’t have haptic feedback to nudge you to run better, sleep better, wake up early or even tell you to charge the thing. It’s quite literally the most non-intrusive way to track your health and sometimes, I love it. On the flip side, when I forgot to charge the Ring, I was missing the nudge that you find on a smartwatch. These things can easily be fixed by smartphone notifications which the Noise Luna Ring doesn’t send. In a way, it’s comforting to know that you don’t have another notification littering your notification tray but battery life and some acceptable nudges to drink water and maintain routines would’ve been nice.

Once you learn the 5-day pattern of Luna Ring’s battery life, you are pretty much wearing the best sleep and heart rate tracker. Our Garmin Epix Pro and the Luna Ring had similar heart rate tracking figures which is mighty impressive for this little ring because the Epix Pro costs ₹1,11,990. I also wore the Luna Ring on my ring finger which was the ideal place for heart tracking. However, our Stardust Silver colour variant makes it look like a wedding ring and for someone whose Tinder profile screams ‘single and taken for granted’ this Stardust Silver throws a wrench in an otherwise smooth swiping history.

It need not chase your dates away. The Luna Ring comes in Sunlit Gold, Rose Gold, Lunar Black and Midnight Black in addition to the Stardust Silver. The choice of finger is also not limited here. When you purchase the Luna Ring, the first thing you’ll be sent is a sizing kit which consists of seven dummy rings from size number six to size number twelve. Once you wear the dummy ring which fits your desired finger, you can scan the QR code inside the box and mention the size you want Noise to ship to you. Soon after, you’ll have a total of seven dummy rings and one real deal. The dummy rings also have all the little bumps where the sensors sit inside the actual ring so you know exactly how it will feel. From the box to the little notes inside, it’s a very premium experience too. Quite hassle-free and has no margin for error. Not bad for the price, eh?

The sensors inside the Luna Ring are pretty much like the aforementioned aunt telling you about your sleep, activity and readiness. There’s Infrared Photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors, skin temperature sensors and a 3-axis accelerometer sensor. All sitting inside the 3mm thickness of the Luna Ring which is quite impressive.

The bumps house the light-based sensors which try to make maximum contact with your skin and minimise external light interference for an accurate measurement. Opposite the inner bumps, there’s a pointing edge on the outer shell which indicates how to align the ring on your finger. It is a thoughtful design but one that doesn’t say much about how to place it on the charger. The contactless charger requires you to place the ring using a particular white line inside the inner bump but it’s a trial-and-error method which is frustrating at times.

The sensors band together and give you metrics on your sleep, activity and readiness. Sleep is by far the most informative on the Luna app. It tells you the duration of sleep, restfulness, efficiency, REM, Deep, and latency and even informs you to pay attention to your schedule. The Sleep stage analysis breaks down these metrics on a graph with a timeline along with a summary of the time spent sleeping in deep, light and REM states. It also logs your heart rate throughout the night and gives you a well-plotted graph on a timeline. It’s the best part about the Luna Ring and for someone who wants to fix their sleep schedule, it doesn’t get better than this.

The Activity section on the map rates your activity throughout the day and if you’ve clocked in some exercises, it will plot that too. Distance, steps, calories and low, medium and heavy intensity movements combine together to rate your activity throughout the day.

After calculating the Sleep and Activity scores, the Ring gives you a Readiness score. The readiness score offers no real value to the user in my opinion. You already know if you’ve had a bad sleep cycle or maybe you didn’t move around much that day. If you linger too much on these scores it can also break your confidence but if you use them to beat the next day’s score it can boost your competitive urge. It’s not as subtle as Apple Watch’s activity rings which you must close but rather a number which you need to achieve. Like all smart trackers and watches this also doesn’t consider menstrual cramps, work fatigue and stress so you’re less likely to naturally engage with a score value.

That said, these numbers may not be all that bad. The sleep and calories were quite close with our Garmin watch and Noise says that it’s using algorithms and technologies developed in partnership with Philips so the algorithm has already been trained on large data sets. Noise also partnered with the International Institute of Information Technology Hyderabad (IIIT-H) to validate the Noise Luna Ring for accuracy. Especially heart rate tracking which was benchmarked against the Polar H10 HR sensor.

The Luna Ring will effortlessly sit on your finger to track your daily activities. You can take this 150 feet underwater or to some of the highest motorable passes in the world. It’s effortless to use and the heart rate data accuracy is impressive which is something you will not find on smartwatches and other wearables at this price point. Even the data is presented in a brilliant format and design. The Luna App is one of the best companion apps we’ve used and it really simplifies and even explains each data and score.

Living with it is easy but only if you remember to charge the ring. It’s also expensive but everything is tastefully done and if you’re looking to track your daily calories and sleep without wanting another beeping, vibrating computer on your wrist, the Noise Luna Ring is a mighty impressive tracker.