Luna Ring Gen 2 Review: Chunky, But Subscription-Free

By Alice Clarke - News

Updated: 24 August, 2026

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Readtime: 11 min

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The gold standard for passive fitness tracking is a good smart watch, because it has more contact points, is relatively out of the way, and has more internal room to load it up with sensors.

But for those who want to wear a nice timepiece, or those who don’t want to be bothered by notifications all the time, the rise of the fitness ring makes a welcome change. The second generation Luna Ring might not be the best in the market, but it offers solid insights, doesn’t require a subscription, and is priced low enough to make it a good way to dip your toe (or finger) in the waters of fitness rings.

I’ve spent the last four months wearing a 2nd Generation Luna Ring, and here’s how it stacks up against the competition.

Luna Ring Gen 2 At A Glance

• Four months of almost daily wear. Worn on three international trips, on long bike rides, heavy weights sessions, various gym classes, during late night teething toddler wake ups, and a lot of nights of sleep.
• The metrics were accurate enough for my needs. No wrist or finger worn smart gadget is going to have the same level of accuracy as a medical device, but it was close enough to the ballpark that the information could be useful.
• Best for: people who want workout and other health metrics without being bothered by notifications. Even better for those who have chunky hands who won’t notice a chunky ring as much.
• Not for: People who want to get notifications to their smart device, people trying to actively monitor a health condition, drummers (oof, the blisters from this ring), people whose fingers swell a lot, or those with small hands. Also not great for lifting heavy due to how chunky it is.

Luna Ring Gen 2 and Adjusting From Constantly Available Metrics

Before becoming a parent, I was at the gym four times a week working on strength and building muscle, and the rest of the time was spent on my bike riding decent distances (usually 60-80km at a time, so not huge, but not nothing). Before that, I entered a few half marathons a year. I did this always accompanied by a smart watch of some kind, and my reflexive habit is to check my heart rate, or my speed, or see how long is left on a hold, or in a class. My watch and the constant access to metrics shaped the way I experienced my workouts.

Things are a bit different for me now that I have a 2-year-old making free time more scarce, so I have to make the most of every workout that I manage to fit in. I can’t spend three hours on Saturday mornings riding out past Moorabbin, so I have to focus on speed and attack rather than endurance. I don’t have two hours a day to lift heavy, so I have to be more strategic about how I spend my time at the gym, and there are very divergent opinions on whether watching the metrics helps with that.

What’s interesting about wearing a ring instead of a watch with a screen is that you either have to stay in the moment and focus fully on the workout, or you have to take yourself out of the moment to get your phone out and check the screen. For me, this had mixed results, and ingrained habits to break. There are a lot of benefits to this approach depending on the kind of person you are, but it was a difficult habit to crack.

Only being able to look at the metrics after a workout meant that I had to rely on how the workout felt, and be more in tune with my body, rather than fall back on what the numbers said about how my performance was being interpreted by an algorithm. It meant that I worked way harder than I might have otherwise in some workouts, and underperformed in others because sometimes I need the numbers to motivate me. It depends so much on mindset, and that’s not something a device can give you, and probably is something that should be developed separately.

Perhaps the ring approach is healthier.

The Luna Ring Gen 2 App

Because the ring doesn’t have a screen, all your interactions with it are through the app, and to get the most out of it, you have to interact with it a lot. It wants you to record every time you have a glass of water, all your supplements, ice baths, how you set up your sleep environment, meditation, caffeine, sexual activity, alcohol, nicotine, medications, and workouts. That is a lot of data points to track, which is fantastic for those who like to log everything, though concerning from a data privacy perspective. Logging them (once set up the way you like) was relatively easy, at least, even if it made the app a little busy.

As far as fitness apps go, it’s not the worst; the presentation is quite clean, and it’s decently customisable so you can have your main metrics on the home screen. But if you want to use the deeper features, it can be quite fiddly.

There’s also an AI assistant in there (because of course there is), but I didn’t find it particularly helpful. It worded answers to questions nicely, however it just felt more like an obligatory gimmick, rather than something additive to a health and fitness journey.

What I felt it was missing was an easily accessible calendar view that would allow me to look at charts of how things changed over time, or which days I was able to work out on more commonly. Something more like what I’d find in Apple Health, I guess.

The biggest selling point is that there is no ongoing cost to use the device. At $499, it’s not cheap by any means, but it is less expensive in the long run than its leading competitors.

A Fitness Device That Stays Out Of The Way

There are lots of fitness gadgets that will train you to be your best, and have coaches talking in your ear to spur you on. They’re designed to be companions and part of the work out. What I love about smart rings, including the Luna Ring Gen 2 is that it’s designed to get out of your way. Aside from the app, it doesn’t want to talk to you, it just wants to let you get on with it and then let you know how you’re doing on your terms.

The long battery life feeds into that. Once every week or so I had to put it in its little charging case while I washed my hair to refresh the battery, and then I was good to go for another week. Compare that to a smart watch that needs to be charged every day or two.

This hands off approach also meant that I wasn’t getting stand reminders every hour, or a notification on my wrist telling me I slept badly, or some passive aggressive “you can still do it!” notification on a rest day when I’m home sick. I could check the app in the morning to get an overview of how ready it thought I was to take on the day, and I could check again before bed to see whether I’d lived up to that potential. Or I could check more or less often if needed. But once I adjusted to it, it was really freeing.

Comfort And Fit

This is where I didn’t have quite as much fun. I’m not really a chunky jewellery person, and my ring size is apparently perfectly between 9 and 10, which is frustrating. On the plastic sizing rings I tried to see which was right, the 9 felt perfect during the day, but when my finger swelled overnight, it got stuck and constrained blood flow. The 10, however, is quite loose in the cold on my non-dominant left hand, and is only a little loose on my right hand in winter. Going to Singapore, when my hand swelled in the hot weather, the 10 fit slightly better.

Part of the difficulty with fit is because this ring is just so chunky. It’s quite thick and it’s pretty tall, which would likely work well on a large, male hand. I have quite large hands for a woman, but it still took a while to adjust to the ring. It took about two weeks to stop finding it weird to wear.

For some heavy lifting sessions, I took it off because it cut in too much and became uncomfortable. It was also just a complete bastard to wear while drumming, worse than other rings because of the thickness.

My other irritation is just how cheap and plasticky it feels. For roughly $500 it still feels cheap, despite supposedly being partially made out of aerospace grade titanuium. It looks unblemished after four months, so clearly it’s not that fragile, it just feels it.

Who Should Buy The Luna Ring Gen 2?

This is the smart ring for people who want to keep a handle on their stats, while still being able to wear a nice watch and remain unbothered by notifications. The biggest selling point of the Luna Ring range is the lack of subscription. You can get most of the same features of the Oura Ring 4, without the monthly fee.

The app gives actionable feedback and there’s more than enough features to satisfy most casual exercise and data enthusiasts.

Who Should Skip The Luna Ring Gen 2?

• People who want real time data, notifications, GPS and everything else you can only get on a smart watch. This is a device for people who only want to check back later.
• People who frequently lift heavy. The friction from the bars is going to destroy the finish over time, and it’s uncomfortable to wear while doing anything that relies on grip strength.
• Those whose fingers swell a lot when it’s hot.
• Folks after a device that will train them. Everything is up to you, the Luna Ring Gen 2 just keeps score.

Luna Ring Gen 2 Tech Specs

Man of Many’s Verdict

I don’t think I’m the target audience for this device, but I can’t deny that its an excellent choice for those who want what it offers. The app is great for building habits, tracking macros and metrics, and the sensors in the ring itself are more than accurate enough to give you the gist of your progress. For those looking for a passive fitness partner, the Luna Ring Gen 2 is a great place to start.

Related reads

• 6 Months with the Oura Ring: How a Smart Ring Helped Me Get Back in Shape at 37
• Ultrahuman Ring AIR vs Ring PRO: Every Difference, and Which to Buy
• Oura Ring 5 Fixes the Stuff You Only Notice After Wearing One Every Day