Only a few days away from the Samsung Galaxy Unpacked event, all eyes are on the Samsung Galaxy Ring, which is expected to receive a public release at the July 10 event.

Already announced at a Samsung event in January, the Galaxy Ring is a new product from the South Korean company. And it is expected to take competition to the well-established Oura Ring Generation 3 and also the Amazfit Helio Ring, the Ultrahuman Ring Air and the Movano Evie.

What could make the Samsung smart ring appealing is that it may come without a monthly subscription. Usually, users need to pay every month to use certain features of the smart ring and this is beyond the cost of the device.

The Oura Ring Gen 3 is the smart ring that most people have heard of and it starts at $299. Most of its important features are paywalled with a $5.99 monthly or $69.99 yearly subscription. The Ultrahuman Ring Air comes at $349 and the Evie Ring is at $269 but these don’t come with a subscription at present.

Oura Ring can track and analyse a series of metrics, including heart-rate variability (HRV), blood oxygen rate, body temperature and sleep duration. With the data that it gathers, it can offer insight into hormonal factors that can affect your sleep and (theoretically) alert you when you’re getting sick.

It’s not that the smartwatch can be replaced with a ring but the two need to complement one another. Don’t expect the Galaxy Ring to help with GPS data… that’s for the smartwatch. What advantage does Samsung have? First, the Samsung Galaxy Watch is already used by a large population, meaning Samsung already has users who trust their health capabilities. Second, a smart ring and smartwatch can easily work together.

Samsung has to do better than the Oura Ring. We know that the device is meant to pair with the free Samsung Health app. What we don’t know is if Samsung would launch a premium version of the app.