Samsung has recently expanded its wearables lineup by introducing the Galaxy Ring, marking its first foray into the smart ring market. It packs a lot of technology into a compact body, but the Galaxy Ring is "unrepairable" if it fails or runs out of battery.

The iFixit team recently disassembled the Galaxy Ring and confirmed that if the device is damaged, it cannot be repaired. iFixit also noted that, like the Oura Ring line, users cannot access the Galaxy Ring's battery without destroying it. "Compared to other modern electronic devices, this is a fairly simple device. Like the Galaxy Buds3, the Galaxy Ring is a disposable technology accessory because it is not designed to be used for more than 2 years."

According to iFixit, the reason the Galaxy Ring is a disposable device lies in the lithium battery inside it. Lithium batteries have a shelf life, after about 400 charge cycles the battery will lose its ability to store energy. Therefore, it is no coincidence that Oura Ring, a product similar to the Galaxy Ring, excludes the battery from the one-year warranty.

To draw the above conclusion, iFixit said that they cooperated with Lumafield (specializing in tomography devices) to understand the structure of the Galaxy Ring before dissecting the device. The tomography image shows that inside the Galaxy Ring, there is a lithium polymer battery, sensors, and induction coils to charge the battery inside the ring. They are "dead-mounted" on the inside of the ring with epoxy glue, so users cannot replace or repair them.

The Galaxy Ring is equipped with a Nordic Semiconductor nRF5340 SoC with a dual-core Arm Cortex-M33 chip, 512KB RAM, 1MB internal memory, Bluetooth 5.4, and NFC support. The product weighs 2.3-3.0 grams, designed for 24/7 continuous health monitoring. The ring has a battery indicator light, along with a 19.5 mAh battery that lasts for a week.

The Galaxy Ring comes in three colors, black, silver, and gold, with nine size options. The price of the Galaxy Ring in the US is $399, equivalent to VND 10 million.

Samsung is not the only company that has launched unrepairable technology products recently. Not long ago, Google also confirmed that the Pixel Watch 3 is an unrepairable smartwatch. Instead, users will receive a new watch if they encounter any problems with their device.