Samsung Galaxy Ring teardown reveals surprising cost-cutting measure

Samsung Galaxy Ring teardown reveals surprising cost-cutting measure

Summary

  • The inner workings of the Galaxy Ring have been revealed by the iFixit team: the key to accessing the inside of the ring is melting the resin and plastic.
  • For the sake of simplicity, the connection between the battery and the coil is made via a pressure connector, but the non-repairable design raises questions.
  • The inner workings of the Samsung Galaxy Ring reveal no further surprises.



Samsung entered a new product category this year with the launch of the Galaxy Ring. The company’s first ring offers all the bells and whistles to take on the competition, including a week-long battery life and effective health tracking. Despite packing so much tech, the Galaxy Ring looks like a real ring on the outside. But the inside is where all the interesting details are. However, you’re unlikely to break your $400 smart ring to get a peek at the inner workings. Thankfully, the iFixit team has done that work for you.

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Accessing the Galaxy Ring’s inner workings is no easy task. It’s a one-way street that will destroy the wearable device and leave it in an unusable state. The experts at iFixit had to melt the resin and plastic coating on the inside of the ring and then chip it off with a toothpick to get to the inner workings. This also means that if your Galaxy Ring stops working a year after you bought it, you can forget about repairs. Throw it in the trash and buy a new device if necessary.

And the most interesting thing about the inner workings of the Galaxy Ring? Samsung connects the battery and induction coil to the circuit board using a pressure connector. Although this approach makes changing the battery easier, it makes little sense for the Galaxy Ring, as it is not repairable.

Samsung could have soldered the coil to the motherboard to save space, so why didn’t the company do that? As iFixit speculates, it could be because the battery and wireless charging coil are manufactured in one place, while the circuit board is manufactured in another. The Korean giant likely assembles the ring on a separate production line, where using a compression connector is more cost-effective than soldering the parts together.


Surprisingly, Oura – a much smaller company than Samsung – soldered the wireless charging coil onto the Ring Gen 3’s circuit board.


The Galaxy Ring offers no further surprises

That being said, the Galaxy Ring’s internal components are no surprises. The company is using components that are already widely available and used in other devices. These include a power management chip from Analog Devices, a wireless charging controller, NFC connectivity from NXP, and more.

The iFixit team also worked with the Lumafield team to create a CT scan of the Galaxy Ring that looks incredibly cool. You can check it out in 3D here.

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