This article is an review article on Xiaomi Smart Band 7 also known as Mi Band 7. Xiaomi is quite popular in the world of fitness trackers.
Mi Bands are very affordable and has all the basic fitness tracking needs covered making it popular. However, the industry has become highly competitive in recent years. The rival brands are Noise, boAT and Dizo with elegant smartwatches in the budget segment.
The smartwatches from this brand do not come with major upgrades though.
Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Specifications
- Resolution: 192 x 490 pixels resolution, 326 PPI
- Control: Touch, swipe
- Connection: Bluetooth LE 5.2
- Body: 46.5 x 20.7 x 12.25 mm, 13.5-13.8gm (without strap)
- Strap: Removable TPU straps
- Display: 1.62″ AMOLED panel, 500 nits
- Compatible with: Android 6.0, iOS 10.0 and above
- IP Rating: 5 ATM water-resistance
- Functions: Heart Rate Monitor, Notifications, Sleep Tracking, Step Counter, Sports Mode (120), continuous Blood Oxygen, Women’s Health, Alarm, Camera Shutter, DND
- Sensors: 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyro, PPG heart rate, SpO2
- Companion App: Mi Fitness (Android | iOS)
- Battery: 180mAh, Up to 14 days of endurance
- Charger: Proprietary Magnetic charger
Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Review:
Design
Xiaomi Band 7 has similar like its predecessor. It comes with the same pill-shaped tracking module with the same buckle-style TPU strap. Furthermore, there is np button here either. Nevertheless, it is a comfortable wear with soft strap. But, the pin-hole design isn’t so secure.
Display
The display front has met quite some changes in the watch. This one has62-inch AMOLED display which is the largest in the Mi Band lineup history and the screen too spans horizontally a lot better.
The quality of the display is excellent with 500 nits of peak brightness. But we have no option for auto-brightness adjustment which means we must manually adjust the brightness when moving outdoors or indoors.
The new feature is the Always-on display feature. Xiaomi’s capsule-like approach to its fitness trackers and due to this form factor, overall texts and characters look too squished. Rectangular design would have given enough space for UI elements to fit in the display.
There is an inconvenience that the band does not support Unicode Nepali or Indian font.
Nevertheless, it can be paired with smartphone via the Mi Fitness app which is quite refined and feature-rich. The dashboard has all the health metrics in a fairly easy-to-read layout. We can customize the home screen to display all the relevant health data, while the app lets us swap between watch faces, and with notifications, alarms, and other settings.
Health, Fitness Tracking
In the absence of app too, we can check the day’s health data directly on the band itself such as step count, heart rate, etc. It has brought in the continuous blood oxygen monitoring in the Mi Band lineup. It takes a reading once every 30 minutes.
However, the users have complained that auto workout detection isn’t cent percent reliable. There were errors found like the watch was not able to pause the workout whenever one stopped during the walk.
However, the other health parameters are fairly accurately such as sleep tracking. It comes handy as well to measure light, deep, and REM sleep stages. It too supports all-day stress monitoring and female health management to track menstrual cycles.
Battery
The minimal and optimized UI is quite easy on the battery. It has high endurance. Xiaomi’s proprietary two-pin cradle that attaches magnetically to the back is used for charging. It can fully charge in just two hours.
Conclusion:
The watch has brighter AMOLED screen and continuous SpO2 monitoring which is a top notch feature on the premium watch. It is always on display with decent battery life. It has 5 ATM water-resistance which are all its pros. However, the staid design makes it little saggy. Also, the inconsistent auto-workout detection and absence of GPS is quite a huge dissatisfactory.
