When we reviewed the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6 (Review) final 12 months, we have been satisfied that it was the gold customary for good bands in 2021. However, for causes greatest recognized to Xiaomi, the tech large has not launched its successor, the Mi Smart Band 7, in India this 12 months. Amazfit goals to make the most of that void by launching its first health band for India.
Called the Amazfit Band 7, the health band is packed to the brim with options comparable to help for voice instructions and it even has help for an app retailer. Can the Amazfit Band 7 take down the wildly common Mi Smart Band 6 at its personal recreation? I’ve used the health band for a number of weeks and here is what I give it some thought.
Amazfit Band 7 worth, design and specs
The Band 7 is Amazfit’s first health band for the Indian market. It’s the successor to the Band 5 and is priced competitively at Rs. 3,499. Unlike the Mi Smart Band 6, which is just obtainable in a single color, Amazfit’s Band 7 is offered in three colors: black, pink and white. However, these colors are merely the color of the straps that maintain the black rectangular unit in place. Unlike the opposite smartwatches from Amazfit, you may’t purchase the straps individually so you may want to decide on properly on the time of buying the band.
Like most health bands, the Amazfit Band 7’s design consists of a TPU strap and an oblong core unit. The watch has a rectangular-shaped show with rounded corners and thick bezels all spherical. It’s as tall as a 47mm Apple Watch Series 8, however about half its width. There’s no bodily or capacitive buttons on the Band 7, so navigation occurs solely through swipe gestures.
The detachable core of the watch has a 5ATM score for water resistance, so it ought to be good for splashes of water and lightweight submersion. The core unit is fabricated from polycarbonate and has the BioTracker 3.0 PPG biometric sensor, which is used for monitoring coronary heart price, blood oxygen ranges and stress. At the again, there’s two flat pins for charging the system utilizing the bundled magnetic charger.
The Amazfit Band 7 is as tall as an Apple Watch Series 8, however lots narrower
The core unit of the Amazfit Band 7, together with the strap, weighs 28g which is sort of mild. The strap is delicate and cozy and I didn’t face any points or irritation whereas sporting it. What did annoy me was the strap’s pin buckle system, which is sort of tough to lock and there have been loads of cases throughout the overview interval the place the strap opened up. Pressing down the pin into the tiny cavity is a tough activity by itself and requires lots of endurance and stress. For some capabilities, the health band must be strapped actually tight and this may make it uncomfortable to put on over time. This is required particularly for SpO2 monitoring, which in any other case merely will not work.
The core unit of the Amazfit Band 7 has a plastic case which is held in place by a TPU strap.
While the band doesn’t have a speaker, it does have a microphone and vibration motor which vibrates for all kinds of notifications and alarms. The mic is used for accepting voice instructions for Amazon’s Alexa digital assistant. The system packs all the required sensors to measure coronary heart price and blood oxygen ranges and comes with a 232mAh battery, which is sort of giant for such a small health band.
Amazfit Band 7 software program, efficiency, and battery life
The Amazfit Band 7 runs Zepp OS which seems to be customised to work on a smaller show. Oddly, on the Band 7, it appears to be like and feels similar to what’s obtainable on Xiaomi’s Mi Smart Band 6, particularly whenever you enter the Settings menu. The smaller show implies that there’s much less place to show many choices without delay, and due to this, there’s lots of scrolling to be completed. Some apps like Calendar look very odd and are extraordinarily complicated to make use of, so I usually discovered myself misplaced within the interface when doing so.
The major menu, which shows all the built-in apps for instance, can solely show two apps at a time, which makes it fairly tough to determine how far up or down you’re within the listing. To make issues worse, there isn’t a scroll-bar-like indicator on the facet to indicate how lengthy the listing is or the purpose the place you could have scrolled right down to both.
A swipe to the precise of the homescreen takes you to the notifications space, which does an excellent job of displaying all varieties of notifications of their entirety. However, it isn’t doable to answer to any of those. A swipe to the left from the principle watch face reveals a widget-like interface which relays glanceable knowledge from numerous built-in apps comparable to Activity, Heart price, PAI, Sleep and so on. Swiping left or proper from the watch face goes right into a loop and can convey you again to the homescreen. As for watch faces, there are loads to select from and they’re extremely customisable.
Inserting the pin into the cavity of the band requires lots endurance
As for the native apps on the Amazfit Band 7, there’s sufficient to maintain one busy whether or not it is health monitoring or normal well being, wellness, and all kinds of actions.The watch can monitor operating, strolling, biking, dancing, boxing, water sports activities, winter exercises, and even board and card video games like Chess, Checkers, Go or Bridge. Each of those apps additionally relay lots of knowledge. It entails lots of scrolling however there’s loads of data obtainable on the watch itself, which is spectacular.
There’s additionally an app retailer which may be accessed from the companion app. While the app choice is restricted to simply fourteen apps (on the time of publishing the overview), you may set up and uninstall these and there are some helpful ones comparable to Watch Storage Space, BMI and Calculator.
The Zepp Health companion app isn’t the best one to grasp. It is identical one used for Amazfit’s costlier smartwatches comparable to the GTR 4 (Review). I arrange the Band 7 with a Pixel 7 Pro and granted the restricted permissions that this health band requires which made the setup fairly fast. You will nonetheless have to arrange the extra options comparable to Amazon’s Alexa voice help, Calendar, Weather and extra, individually, as you utilize the health band.
The Amazfit Band 7’s show is sort of small and will get tougher to make use of with swipe gestures
The 1.47-inch AMOLED show might really feel a bit too small, particularly when Xiaomi presents a taller panel on its Mi Smart Band 6 on the similar worth. While brightness was not an issue, I did have some points with contact sensitivity and gestures. I discovered the interface to run easily when swiping via the built-in apps and the app menu, nevertheless it stuttered lots when swiping via the notifications space. The contact sensitivity of the show is not the most effective both and the smaller measurement made swipe gestures fairly complicated, particularly once I was in the course of a exercise and wanted to entry a sure characteristic. There have been occasions once I resorted to opening the smartphone app to start out a exercise, as an alternative of twiddling with the show.
Alexa Voice integration labored fairly nicely. Activating it wants a bit of labor because it requires a number of swipes to achieve the widget, put up which, you may faucet the show for Alexa to start out listening. However, the responses will solely be displayed on-screen and never learn out loud as there isn’t any built-in speaker. While a voice assistant could also be a novel characteristic to have on a health band, it’s important to do not forget that it depends fully on the smartphone, which you will have to have within the neighborhood to ensure that it to perform.
Amazfit’s Zepp Health app isn’t the best to navigate and has a studying curve
The Amazfit Band 7 does an excellent job when monitoring well being and health actions. Sleep monitoring is sort of correct and the outcomes are very detailed because it lets not simply in regards to the levels throughout sleep, but additionally respiration patterns whereas sleeping. The band, identical to the opposite Amazfit smartwatches, may also monitor naps, which is sweet to have.
Heart price monitoring was fairly correct when in comparison with an Apple Watch Series 8. The watch doesn’t have GPS built-in, so it depends on a smartphone for place knowledge on runs or walks open air. This additionally means you will have to hold your smartphone with you in case you want this knowledge. The route monitoring accuracy even when linked to a smartphone was not as correct as I anticipated it to be. However, step counting was surprisingly on level.
The Amazfit Band 7 additionally helps SpO2 readings however they have been persistently inaccurate when in comparison with a standalone pulse oximeter. Sit-stand detection, identical to with the costlier Amazfit GTR 4, didn’t work nicely.
The always-on show characteristic works nicely, however makes use of lots of energy
As for battery life, it was as much as expectations. The Amazfit Band 7 lasted about 4 and a half days on a single cost with the show’s brightness set to 50 p.c (because it doesn’t have an ambient mild sensor) and the always-on performance enabled. During this time, I used the look ahead to gentle exercises and primarily for monitoring notifications with all auto-health monitoring options like coronary heart price monitoring, sleep monitoring, stress monitoring and blood oxygen monitoring, enabled.
Amazfit claims that its alway-on show characteristic cuts down battery life by 50 p.c, so one ought to count on as much as two weeks or extra with it disabled, which appears adequate. When linked to an ordinary 10W energy adaptor, the Amazfit Band 7 fees from 0-100% in about 1 hour, 41 minutes, which is sort of common when in comparison with the Xiaomi Mi Smart Band 6.
Verdict
At Rs. 3,499, the Amazfit Band 7 presents loads extra options than Xiaomi’s barely dated Mi Smart Band 6. You get loads extra sport train modes, an always-on show, larger battery, voice assistant, and a mini app retailer. However, what the Band 7 makes up for when it comes to options, it loses when it comes to performance because of the smaller show and barely damaged software program expertise, which isn’t as optimised or polished for gesture-based navigation.
Xiaomi’s Mi Smart Band 7, which is the successor to the Mi Smart Band 6, has but to launch in India. This band packs a much bigger show with AoD functionality and extra sport modes together with a barely larger battery in comparison with the Mi Smart Band 6. If you want to spend a bit extra, Realme’s Watch 3 Pro can get you a smartwatch-like expertise which additionally consists of Bluetooth calling at Rs. 4,999. It options a much bigger show, speaker and even standalone GPS.
If you are not in a rush, it is smart to attend a bit until Xiaomi’s Band 7 or possibly a more moderen model arrives in India. But if you could get a health band instantly, then the present Mi Smart Band 6 isn’t a foul deal, until you actually plan on utilizing the extra options supplied by Amazfit’s Band 7.