Last June, while chilling in Oxford, Jen told us about the Ringly. I love shiny things, technology, AND impulse purchases, so I gleefully hopped on the bangwagon and ordered one from Jen’s couch.

Yesterday, my Ringly finally arrived. There were some manufacturing hiccups along the way, which added to the delivery time – and as you may know, waiting is my number one pet peeve. Still, the amount of time it took to get my Ringly was nothing compared to how long it took to get my Pebble, so I can’t really complain – especially if the extra time went into making it even better. As much as I want things now now now, I do appreciate quality. Having something work properly out of the box is the best.

I thought about making an unboxing video, but then I remembered that I really hate video so you get words instead. Here is my initial Ringly review:

Dude, this thing is awesome. For starters, it’s gorgeous – I don’t wear large rings because of my tiny elf hands, but the Ringly doesn’t look out of place at all. I chose the black onyx version, and wear it on my right hand:

my ringly in “stargazer”, please ignore the alligator state of my hands

In order to get the most out of your Ringly, you need to install the companion app. Without it, it’s just a ring. The app is available for Android and iOS phones (sorry, Windows/Blackberry/tablet only users), and is free. It’s a simple app without a lot of clutter, which the iOS designer in me appreciates:

Each line indicates the colour of the notification light, and the dots represent the number of vibrations. There are 5 colours (red, yellow, green, blue, purple) and 4 buzz patterns (1-4 buzzes), plus the option for no light or no vibration. The picture above shows the notifications I have set up, but there are other apps that work with Ringly such as Calendar, Tumblr, Pinterest, Google Hangouts, Vine, and more.

The notification light on the ring is located in the middle on the side, and is bright. My ring also has a diamond where the light is, because I am super fucking fancy (those of us who had to wait an extra long time for our Ringlys were upgraded to the “Diamond Club”, which means yay diamond) – it gives my notifications a little extra sparkle, and is pretty. Plus, random diamond!

blue and purple notification lights. not shown: good vibrations

The Ringly has worked really well for me so far. I’ve been setting up all the notifications with specific patterns and colours, and trying to remember what it all means. One of the things I thought was really cool is the ability to set up a special notification for people in your contacts, so if Ed or any of my secret lovers calls or texts me, I can differentiate from those looking for candy or drugs. You can also isolate notifications to ONLY people you’ve selected from your contacts. If you don’t care about the rest of the world but want to drop everything when Aunt Erma calls, you can make sure you don’t miss her. It’s neat.

I can’t speak to battery life just yet, but I’ll hopefully test it out this weekend. I’ve heard reports that it’s hard on your phone battery, but I’m never not charged/charging so I can’t tell. The app does indicate the battery level, which is helpful (and would be more helpful if it indicated with numbers instead of icon only, but it’s better than nothing).

I’ve been asked multiple times about charging the Ringly. I purposefully left that for last, because it’s pretty sweet:

charging! and also red notification light.

The box is the charger for the ring. It comes with a mini-USB cable that plugs into the back, and the ring sits on the charging prongs. It’ll blink red while charging, and when it’s off it’s full and good to go. The box has a nice smooth finish on it, which is good for stroking. I appreciate that.

So, yeah. I’m pretty impressed with this thing – the pictures don’t really do it justice. It’s a really nice piece of jewellery in addition to being useful, and I am awfully pleased with it. If you’re in the market for wearable tech but don’t want wear a watch or pretend your Fitbit is baller, consider one of these. It doesn’t have a display, but the whole reason for the Ringly is notifications – with it, you’ll know when you NEED to look at your phone versus always having it out just in case.

Plus, pretty. As I mentioned, mine is onyx (black like my soul) but it also comes in pink sapphire, moonstone, emerald, and crazy quartz. All versions are currently sold as pre-orders and I don’t know how far behind they are on shipping (people were complaining online that they’ve waited THREE WHOLE MONTHS oh you poor babies), but I’ve heard rumours that Ringlys ordered through ShopBop ship in 24 hours.

Initial Verdict: A+++, would Ringly again.

*: the Ringly was a present to myself. And it uses push notifications.