Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Review - King of budget wearables?

In a sea of budget wearables in the market, did this newcomer from Xiaomi stand out?

Meet Xiaomi Smart Band 7

Last May, the tech giant released the Smart Band 7 and its Redmi Buds 4 Series. After a month, it officially brings this latest fitness tracker here.

To briefly recall, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 sports a 1.62-inch AMOLED display 25 percent larger than its predecessor, the Mi Band 6. It still has a 5ATM water-resistance rating, meaning you can wear it on your wrist during swimming, water sports, or activities.

It is also powered by a 180mAh battery designed to endure up to two weeks of straight use.

Moreover, it packs up to 120 sports modes and several tracking features sleep, heart rate, blood oxygen, and stress index. Female users may even use it to conveniently record and predict their menstrual period.

Thankfully, the company sent us a unit for review and try. Let's dig into details on how the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 performs.

Unboxing/Accessories

What's inside the box

The new wearable comes in a black and rectangular packaging with Xiaomi branding and the render of the new Smart Band 7. Inside, you can find the fitness band, a magnetic charging cable, and a remote manual. 

Build Quality/Design

Back view with its sensors

Looking up close, the body of the Smart Band 7 is made of a lightweight yet high-quality polycarbonate shell. This one lacks physical buttons, like many of the cheap wearables on the market.

The one loaned to us came in a typical black color, but it is also available in five other colors: Ivory.

The underside also got a polycarbonate build with a matte texture. It houses most of the sensors, including the metallic pins for connecting the device to its magnetic charging dock.

Like its predecessor, the Smart Band 7 is rated with a 5ATM waterproof level. It means you can wear it swimming and even while taking a shower.

Weighing 13.5 grams only, I hardly felt wearing it on my wrist even when I'm doing a household chores, exercising, or sleeping. Thanks to its pill-shaped body and elongated screen, it does not protrude out that it interferes with my wrist movement.

Simple yet practical straps

Xiaomi said the attached straps are an antibacterial TPU material with an aluminum alloy buckle. So what does the company mean by this? 

According to the data we've gathered, the band straps contain an Ag+ Antibacterial agent that is claimed to prevent viruses and bacteria from sticking to it and growing. We cannot confirm if it's effective for that purpose, but I like that the straps have a smooth matte texture.

My arms and wrists have a tendency to sweat a lot during workouts or even regularly. We live in a tropical and humid country, so I guess many of you can relate.

 Comfortable straps

No one wants the sticky feeling from a rubber strap, so I often remove my fitness band or watch to dry my wrist and then place it back. But with these bands from Xiaomi, my wrist did not feel that much sweat. 

Snug yet sturdy-fitting straps

I guess the way it is shaped when worn makes the real difference. The band fastens in a way that it feels secure but a little loose, allowing my skin to breathe a little.

Display Quality

Bright-colored AMOLED screen

The company claims that it included that the screen of the Smart Band 7 comes with tempered glass with an anti-fingerprint coating. The tempered glass is good news for those who are into active style and even those clumsy ones. Practicality speaking, it's an added protection against bumps and scratches. 

On the contrary, the anti-fingerprint coating seems ineffective since the screen's glossy material makes the smudges noticeable.

Even though Xiaomi retained the signature pill-shaped display, it's now approximately 25 percent larger. The more prominent display means a better experience since you can view more information at a glance. Also, the larger the screen estate is, the easier the gesture navigation is.

Can display a lot of details without cramming them!

The AMOLED screen measures 1.62-inch with thin bezels, 490 x 192 resolution at 326 ppi, and up to 500 nits of brightness. Thankfully, the brightness of the tracker's display is sufficient for it to be readable even under the sun. However,  you must crank it up to the highest setting, which may affect the battery life.

In actual usage, the AMOLED display improves the viewing quality and color fidelity. I did enjoy exploring different watch faces because the colors are rich and intense in a pleasing way. The fluid animations from transitioning to one app also earn a plus point.

This is also the first budget tracker from Xiaomi to get an "Always On" feature. It assures you do not have to wake up your fitness band whenever you need to check the time or your fitness stats. 

However, I personally prefer ticking on the raise-to-wake mode to activating this because the always-on feature sucks so much power.

Gesture navigation takes a little bit of time to get used to. This may be an issue for some since a home button offers a nifty shortcut to the home screen. But in my experience, the display is quite responsive, and it's still pretty usable even with wet hands. 

Battery Life

The magnetic charging cradle

This wearable's battery capacity is 180 mAh, which means that the company has upgraded from the Mi Band 6's specifications, which had only 125 mAh. Charging the Smart Band 7 takes an average of 1 hour and a half.

Superb battery life!

Xiaomi promises that you can use it for 14 days before reaching out for the charger. Honestly, I only had the chance to use it for 5 days, so it's hard to prove this claim. But I also noticed that I've only used around 30 percent of the total charge for the said period. 

Note that my usage was light to moderate, meaning I used it twice for workouts, setting up an alarm, notifications display, and health tracking. The brightness is set to 50 percent, and AOD is turned off.

Performance

Heart rate tracking

Setting up the tracker is pretty straightforward and intuitive. We just plugged it into the charger to turn it on. Note that you must install the Zepp Life app (previously MiFit app) so you can scan and link the Smart Band 7 to your Android or Apple device.

The user interface of the Zepp Life app

Since it uses Bluetooth 5.2, reconnecting it to your phone after turning it on and off is speedy. 

Regarding activity tracking, Xiaomi has gone all out as the Smart Band 7 supports over 110 sports modes with detailed analysis that includes training load, recovery, and maximum oxygen uptake.

One may think that having 110 options is a bit exaggerated, but it's nice for Xiaomi to provide possibilities for tracking physical activities. Tracking common exercises is a given for fitness trackers, but this covers leisure activities from hula hooping, kite flying, and playing board games to kendo, karate, and boxing!

Unfortunately, it lacks a built-in GPS chip for location tracking, so we had to rely on the GPS chip of the connected phone.

Measuring stress at the current moment

This one can monitor personal activity, heart rate, sleep, stress, and others for health. It also offers extra features like a breathing or calming guide and SpO2 (Blood Oxygen) measurement. 

The SpO2 sensor is helpful to those who like climbing high altitudes and suffering conditions like hypoxia.

The tracker also boasts of comprehensive sleep monitoring analysis. In fact, it lets me check my sleep breathing quality, which is handy for those suffering from sleep apnea.

A tool for tracking monthly periods

Meanwhile, the menstrual health tracker helps the female users track their cycle, predict their next period or fertile days, and PMS symptoms.

On the other hand, it has a disclaimer that the feature is not a hundred percent accurate, so it cannot work as a substitute for any means of contraception. 

I personally love that a budget fitness band already has this one since I rarely encounter this feature, even in pricier ones. This may help when you have to book a swimming trip or wear an all-white outfit.

Other features

Several watch faces you may choose from

The budget wearable is also equipped with more than 100 customized faces; some are allegedly designed to minimize battery usage.

In terms of functionality, it covers all the basics such as camera control, calendar, weather, events, alarm, timer, stopwatch, finds phone, message notifications, etc.

Pros - Comfortable fit, IP68 rating, great display, strong battery life, got a lot of options for tracking workouts, extra yet handy features, Android and iOS compatibility, superb value for money

Cons - Not that premium build, same old design, no GPS 

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Specs

Display: 1.62-inch AMOLED screen w/ 490 x 192 resolution at 326 ppi

Battery: 180 mAh (up to 14 days)

Compatibility: Works for Android 6.0 and iOS 9.0 and above

Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.2 (BLE)

Sensors: Accelerometer, gyroscope, optical heart rate, SpO2

Others: 5 ATM water resistance, tempered glass with anti-fingerprint coating, 5 auto-detection modes, Colors: Black, Ivory, Olive, Blue, Pink, Orange

Dimensions: 46.5 x 20.7 x 12.25 mm

Weight: 13.5 g (w/o strap)

Price: PHP 2,399 (intro price of PHP 1,999)

Verdict

The older Mi Band 6 is a great wearable in its own right, but the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 undeniably brings several exciting changes to the user experience. 

As we've mentioned, the two may be identical in appearance. However, the latest fitness band from the brand got a bigger and better-looking screen, so it has more space to display either a message notification, health analytics, workout summary, etc.

Aside from that, this is one of the most feature-packed fitness bands I've encountered. For less than PHP 2.5K, it already has an array of extra health-related features, workout modes, and a beefy battery. Yes, this is already a good bargain!

Do you guys agree? Let us know in the comment section.