Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Review: The Best Value Fitness Tracker You Can Buy

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If you're looking for a fitness tracker that keeps you up to date with your phone's notifications, check out the Xiaomi Mi Band 7, now called the Xiaomi Smart Band 7. This affordable little device has many features that fall short of other fitness trackers that cost more. Twice the price.

basic indicators

• With the personal activity intelligence function, you can comprehensively track your personal fitness.
• Excellent sleep tracking features help you determine your sleep quality
• Abnormal heart health and low blood oxygen detection help you monitor your heart health.

mission

• Brand: Xiaomi
• Heart rate monitor: Yes
• Color screen: Yes
• Notification support: yes
• Battery life: 14 days
• Integrations: Zepp Life and Mi Fitness
• Screen: 1.62 inch AMOLED screen
• Sensors: blood oxygen, heart rate
• Water resistance: 5 ATM
• Dimensions (body): 46.5 x 20.7 x 12.25 mm
• Colour: black
• Mobile payments: WeChat Pay, Alipay
• Training Tracking: Yes
• Exercise methods : more than 100 exercises

Advantages

• Affordable and easy to use
• Compatible with Android and iOS devices
• Big screen and easy to use interface

uncomfortable

• It is not possible to select an individual bracelet at checkout - bracelets sold separately.

Xiaomi has consistently delivered excellent fitness trackers at a great price over the years, and the Xiaomi Mi Band 7 is no different for 2022. However, there is one significant change to the Mi Band range: Xiaomi has now launched the Xiaomi Smart Band 7.

So let's take a look at the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 and see what it has to offer.

What's in the box?

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 comes in a small and streamlined box. Inside, you can find the Smart Band 7 with magnetic charger in the section above. In a larger area under the Fitness Track, you'll find a black silicone strap with a black anodized aluminum buckle.

It's as simple as fitness trackers: a black tracker with a black strap. However, Xiaomi offers several dedicated series. You can get solid color TPU stripes in ivory, orange, olive, blue, pink, and more premium stripes in neon orange, neon green, khaki blue, and khaki green. You will also find many third-party models such as Milanese, stainless steel, leather, and nylon bracelets. However, remember that all of these bands are sold separately and can cost almost as much as the smart bracelet itself!

When you first turn on the fitness tracker while it's charging, you'll see a QR code on the front of the tracker. The user interface starts in Chinese but automatically reverts to your phone's language once you connect it to your phone.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7: design and specifications

Visually, Xiaomi's entry-level fitness tracker hasn't changed over the years. It maintains its basic black pill shape when paired with a black silicone strap. What matters is what's in it. The new Xiaomi Smart Band 7 adds new features to the already packed Mi Band 6 at a slight price increase.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is slightly shorter, but much wider than the previous generation. However, its thickness remains the same. Xiaomi has resized it to fit the larger 1.62-inch AMOLED touchscreen, which makes the smart bracelet easier to see and interact with.

The large screen makes it easy to operate and navigate the fitness tracker. The tap and scroll functions are also intuitive. So if you are already a smartphone user, you don't need to know how to use it. Apart from that, you will see more clearly the many watches that you can download for Xiaomi Smart Band 7.

You can choose from five models built into the watch directly. But if these options don't suit you, you can go to the Zepp Life app and choose from over 100 themes. These themes are also updated from time to time, so be sure to check the app if you decide to change your theme.

The Smart Band 7 also retains the convenient magnetic charging method, with a typical battery life of 14 days and a charge time of less than 2 hours. The fitness tracker's battery can last up to 14 days, especially if you're only keeping the essentials, but if you're using it for constant health monitoring, it'll only last for four days.

Another new feature that Xiaomi has added to the Smart Band 7 is always visible. Enabling this option keeps the screen on, but with a simpler look. It is suitable for those who frequently check the time or want to see the time at a glance. However, this also consumes more battery power, reducing the tracker's battery life by one day.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7: notifications, communication and other features

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is not only a fitness tracker but also a smart device. It connects to your Android or iOS phone via Bluetooth 5.2 BLE to keep you informed of your phone's notifications and even quickly reply to messages.

View features

Of course, since you wear the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 on your wrist, it makes sense to add a watch function to it. However, this fitness tracker stands the test of time. Here are its other functions related to time:

• World Clock : You can add multiple cities through the Zepp Life app to show their current time. However, if you want to add the world clock shortcut to check international time at the same time, you will only see the first two cities you have saved in the app.
• Countdown : The countdown app allows you to quickly set countdowns to 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour and 2 hours. You can also set your own countdown by clicking the + symbol, up to about 24 hours in advance. However, when using the timer, you cannot use the other functions of the watch and the screen remains on while the timer counts down. If you set a particularly long countdown, you risk draining the battery, especially if your Smart Band 7 isn't fully charged.
• Stopwatch : The stopwatch app is also very easy to use. There is a run icon to start the stopwatch. When the stopwatch is running, you can tap “ Pause ” to pause it or tap the “ + ” symbol to calculate the split time. You can also exit the stopwatch app without stopping the stopwatch. However, the screen will turn off according to the Screen Time settings even if you are using a stopwatch. This makes it cumbersome to use as you have to keep tapping or swiping on the screen to prevent it.
• Alarm : The alarm function of the Smart Band 7 is easy to use. You can create different alarm profiles, repeat it on certain days and even use the smart wake function, which allows the watch to wake you up from a light sleep at the optimal time about ten minutes before the alarm. However, it does not make noise. Instead, it wakes you up with its vibration on your wrist.
• Pomodoro Timer : This is a great feature, especially for those who work from home and need to manage their attention. The Pomodoro timer allows you to set focus time from five to 60 minutes in five-minute intervals. Then, the fitness tracker turns on Do Not Disturb mode so you can focus on your tasks. After the specified time has elapsed, you will be notified that it is time to take a five-minute break. After four cycles, Pomodoro Smart Band 7 will prompt you to take a 15-20 minute break. You'll also see your overall focus and rest times when swiping the Pomodoro app so you can track your productivity.

Calendar and app notifications

When you connect the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 to your smartphone, it can sync up to 30 days in advance with your phone's calendar to keep you up to date on your schedule without taking out your phone. It also notifies you of incoming calls, text messages, and even app notifications.

However, if you want to receive app notifications from WhatsApp or Slack, you need to add them to the Zepp Life app. You can also create quick reply options to reply to messages using the smart band 7.

Other properties

Besides these usual features, Xiaomi Smart Band 7 also has some rarely used features which come in handy in the right circumstances. These features include:

• Flashlight : While not as bright as a real flashlight, flashlight mode emits enough white light from the activity tracker's screen to let you see where you're going in complete darkness.
• Find my phone : If you can't find your phone, tap this function and Smart Band 7 will beep a loud beep.
• Remote Camera : This is useful if you want to take a group photo while your phone is on a tripod. However, this feature must be enabled in the Zepp Life app.
• Finance : You can use the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 to pay with a QR code by connecting it to Alipay or WeChat Pay. Unfortunately, it doesn't connect to other popular global services like PayPal or Cash App, so it's only useful in China.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7: features for health

Of course, most users do not buy Xiaomi Smart Band 7 for its notifications. This fitness tracker has multiple sensors to track your health and well-being.

Heart rate monitoring

In addition to manual heart rate measurement, Smart Band 7 allows you to monitor your heart throughout the day. You can even set it to alert you when your heart rate is too high or too low. Additionally, you can enable heart health monitoring. So if the fitness tracker detects an abnormal heart rate, it will notify you.

oxygen content in the blood

You can monitor your blood oxygen saturation on the Smart Band 7 and even enable continuous monitoring of your blood oxygen saturation. It can also remind you of low blood oxygen levels when it detects low blood oxygen levels, which is useful when you have health problems or are climbing high altitudes.

Stress monitoring

As with the previous two sensors, this fitness tracker lets you track your stress level. Calculates your stress level by looking for changes in your heart rate variability data.

sleep track

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is a great sleep tracker that lets you know how much time you have for deep, light, and REM sleep on a given night. In addition, it can check the quality of your breathing while you sleep, so you can see if you have any potential problems like sleep apnea.

It also analyzes your sleep patterns so that you can adjust your schedule to better fit your lifestyle. Plus, it tracks sleep for a short afternoon's quality of life.

Nearby areas

However, the only downside to the app is that it only counts sleep at night. For a night person like me, where I'm most productive when the sun goes down, the Zepp Life app calculates my nap as eight hours of sleep.

Women's health

The Smart Band 7 Women's Health app makes it easy to track the start and end of your period. You can then use the app to track your menstrual cycle, estimate when you are most fertile, and anticipate your next period.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7: fitness tracker

Aside from health sensors, the main reason people buy fitness trackers is, of course, to monitor exercise data. Whether you are a professional athlete, sports and fitness enthusiast, or just a health conscious person, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 will provide you with the data you need.

Personal activity intelligence

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 tracks your daily physical movements using personal activity intelligence display. In this view, the fitness tracker estimates calories burned, steps taken, minutes you've stood or been active in an hour.

So you can see if you are active or not and adjust your lifestyle accordingly.

In-app purchase

PAI stands for Personal Physiological Activity Index. This feature is an improved version of Personal Activity Intelligence that evaluates heart rate, activity intensity, and other health data collected by the Smart Band 7's sensors.

While they share the same feature for tracking your movements, PAI gives you a score for each exercise it detects, whether it's low, medium or high intensity. The PAI goal is 100 users per week. If you can reach this number in a week, you can reach the required level of physical fitness.

training

Nearby areas

As a fitness tracker, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 naturally tracks your workouts. You can set a variety of activities, for example outdoor running, treadmill, outdoor cycling, indoor cycling, walking, indoor walking, swimming, rowing, elliptical trainer, jump rope, yoga, dance Freestyle, indoor fitness, football, badminton, etc.

You can see your previous training stats directly on the tracker in your training history and you can even track your training data such as training load, maximum oxygen uptake and recovery time in your training status.

All the information you get here can help you better plan your workouts so you can train more efficiently and follow a more comprehensive fitness path.

Zepp Life app

Nearby areas

You need to install the Zepp Life app on your phone to use the Xiaomi Smart Band 7. This app records all the information collected by the fitness tracker so you can see your past performance. In addition, you can also view your walking, running and cycling activities, which shows you where you have completed training sessions, as well as your stats for each training session.

You can also add friends using other Xiaomi Smart Band or Mi Band products in the Zepp Life app so you can see each other's fitness progress.

Most importantly, you need the Zepp Life app to set up your fitness tracker for the first time. You can also use it to adjust your fitness tracker settings to suit your needs.

You can also use the Mi Fit app with the Xiaomi Smart Band 7, but the Zepp Life app provides a better overall experience.

Should you upgrade from Xiaomi Mi Band 6?

While the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 offers a slightly better experience with a larger screen and continuous recording capabilities, it doesn't offer a huge upgrade over the Xiaomi Mi Band 6.

Whether you are buying a fitness tracker for the first time or upgrading from an older device, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 strikes the perfect balance between features and affordability. But if you already have a Mi Band 6 and want something with more features, consider buying the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Pro or Xiaomi Watch S1 instead.

A great affordable Fitbit alternative

The Xiaomi Mi Band 7, or Xiaomi Smart Band 7 as it's now known, offers an excellent fitness tracker at a fraction of the price of competing Fitbit models. And with the huge number of branded and third-party custom belts available on the market, you're sure to find the right belt and connection style to fit your personality.

Xiaomi Band 7 review: are smart bracelets relevant in 2022?