- — — — — — — — — ☀ DARK THEME | LIGHT THEME ☼ — — — — — — — — -

Linktop's FCC Filing here.

Review of the Linktop Cardio Ring here from September 2024.

I was reluctant to post this, but, more and more people were asking and reporting about it, so I built onto the research started back when the "Circular Slim Silver Edition 2024" was posted — which could have been their Ring 2 — but seemed to be distinctly different than the ring shown at the Giant Health expo…which turns out to be a rebranded Linktop Cardio Ring. At that event and beyond, they appear to have also "borrowed" the marketing IP of a competitor. Then the Circular Ring 2 was formally announced at CES.

I'm not saying the device itself (the Linktop Cardio Ring) is a bad device. I have not tested it yet, but am looking forward to.

But Circular definitely did not develop this ring, nor did they advise Linktop on it's creation. They etch their logo onto a device that has been in production for months now.

There is also a long-standing concern about outstanding orders that have gone unfulfilled, refund requests that have been ignored, warranty claims that have not been honored, and now, concern that Circular may abandon support all together of it's previous rings as it would potentially mean maintaining two separate apps. (UPDATE: Circular claims that while discontinuing production of it's previous models, it will still "support" them. Since some never received the original ring from initial crowdfunding, that is highly questionable. They have also stated that they have modified their current app to add support for the Linktop produced ring.)

As with the Circular Slim not being the lightest or slimmest smart ring as they continue to advertise, this is not the first smart ring to have AFib. Ultrahuman even gained FDA approval for AFib six months ago, which this device has not.

FOOTNOTE: You may or may not recall the drama circulating about Circular's first ring with the Circular Saga, for which I provided recommendations to address issues, which were partially addressed with Circular Slim. Circular has always had potential…but they've chosen to outsource instead of innovate.

The pics of the "family" themselves are the proof that they share identical hardware.

That was the point of this as they did not create the hardware, so even though they are promising some that there will be haptics, Linktop would have to be convinced to make such a major hardware shift to add that to their device.

Linktop is one of two that provide licensees with access to APIs and also offer to write customized apps if requested. It remains to be seen if Circular will use Linktop native software or not.

(originally published on https://reddit.com/r/Smartrings) Sunday, January 12, 2025 at 2:36:09 PM EST