XIAOMI Smart Band 7 Review – Affordable Smart Band With Almost Similiar Feature Of A Smartwatch

The Xiaomi Smart Band 6 was released back on 31 March 2021, a year later on 25 June 2022, they released its successor, the Xiaomi Band 7! We received the Band 7 not too long ago and so far it was quite a pleasant experience after tweaking with it for a few days. So without further ado let us dive right into the smart band itself.

CONTENT

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 comes in a black box with the following item :

• 1 x unit of Xiaomi Smart Band 7
• 1 x unit of USB magnetic charging cable
• 1 x unit of the silicon band strap
• 1 x copy of user manual

LAYOUT

You can notice the larger screen display right from the get-go, with a 1.62-inch and 490×192 AMOLED display with 326ppi, it makes the indication of functions and notifications much clearer, sharper, and pleasant to the eyes thanks to the glossy smooth surface as well. Colour-wise, the band comes in a total of 6 colours, which are black, blue, green, pink, white, and orange. The unit we got here is black.

The silicone strap has a smooth surface, both inwards and outwards, which I find rather comfortable to wear whether casual or workout-wise. Along with the device and strap, it only weighs 13.5g (0.476 oz) so it felt as if there was no weight at all, I even slept with the smart band sometimes on. Though that being said, I’m not a big fan of the click-on button style, as sometimes I find it a tat bit troublesome to fasten the strap. But that’s just my personal opinion.

Other than the default screen, Xioami also introduced a few wallpapers (more than 100 to download via the Mi Fitness app) to set as the interface screen. This is the wallpaper I set :

There’s no visible button located anywhere on the smart band, so the only way to activate the band is to flip your wrist to face directly at your face or you can double-tap the screen, while there’s battery of course. Most of the control could be done through both the smart band and smartphone via the Mi Fitness app.

Additionally, the Smart Band 7 has a water-resistant rate of up to 5 ATM, a few raindrops won’t affect the smart band, but that doesn’t mean you could straight away jump into a pool for water sports as any strong current would damage the band.

FUNCTIONS

Moving on to the functions and features, the Smart Band 7 has the following features available :

1. Continuous SpO2 monitoring
   Through this feature, the smart band will monitor blood oxygen levels and will warn the users if the level drops below 90%
2. Sleep monitoring
   The smart band will also monitor the user’s breathing status even when the user is asleep.
3. 120 workout mode
   One of the highlights of the Mi Smart Band 7, the device provides a whopping 120 working modes ranging from cycling, jogging, dance, and yoga, just to name a few. Making it 4 times the workout amount compared to its predecessor Band 6. All of the modes can be selected via the band while users could use the companion app to track the distance of outdoor activities.

However, there’s no standalone GPS tracker built into the smart band, but there are connected GPS where you could directly track your runs and location via your own phone. So you will still need to keep your phone in close proximity for this feature to run.

generally speaking, the smart band consists of a 6-axis sensor, and that being 3-axis gyroscopes, and 3‑axis accelerometers, as well as a PPG heart rate to measure the aforementioned SpO2 level.

Fun fact, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 released in China has an NFC feature that allows you to gain access to bus access cards, e-wallets such as Alipay as well banking services such as UnionPay. It’s a nice feature but too bad it’s exclusive to China. Would love it if they have a similar feature included in the international release though, imagine gaining access to services such as TnG and Paypal.

CONNECTIVITY

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is compatible with both Android 6 and IOS 10 and above. The very first step to set up the band is just simply to download the Mi Fitness app (or Zepp Life up to your preference) from the Google Playstore or Apple App Store. Once installed just switch on the Bluetooth connection and the rest just work in a park. Though it does take a while for the band to sync with the phone.

Once all the syncing and connection are done, you’re good to go. Any general functions such as music playback, notification (calls and messages), flashlight, stopwatch, timer, and many more. If you have a Mi account, it’ll make the setup easier, but if you don’t, fret not as you could sign up one on the fly through Mi Fitness.

BATTERY

The band has a battery of 180mAh. It May sound average but for a smart band, it’s enough to last for days (14 as Xiaomi claims with a full charge). But if you’re a heavy user, it could last up to 9 days. As a final note, the Smart Band 7 will only take less than 2 hours to charge the unit from 0% to 100%, similar to its predecessor Smart Band 6. This is considered an advantage because the Smart Band 7 has a larger battery capacity compared to the Smart Band 6 but it still takes the same amount of time as of Smart Band 6 to fully charge the Smart Band 7.

SPECIFICATIONS

VERDICT

My final thoughts on Xiaomi Smart Band 7 are rather favorable, of course, I don’t usually use smart bands or smartwatches that often. So for a novice like me, I would say it’s a beginner-friendly device that’s for sure. For anyone who is planning to hop on the smart band trend, the Smart Band 7 is a decent entry, to begin with. Of course other than that, I find the 120 workout mode is a little overkilled and bombastic, but again that’s my own personal opinion. If you’re interested, the current price for Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is RM199 and you may order it on Shopee or Lazada.

If you’re still pondering, you could visit HERE for further information.

TL;DR

Pros :
– Data is always on display
– 120 workout modes at disposal
– Constant SpO2 monitoring

Cons :
– Lack of ambient light sensor