Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is a new addition to the growing number of wearables made by the company that says it is the best in the world. It shows that you don’t have to spend a lot of money or give up cool features to get your daily health and fitness stats on your wrist.

The market for affordable wearables is growing, which is good news given the current state of things. This watch might be light on price and fit, but it’s not light on features. The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 makes our list of the best fitness trackers because it is a tried-and-true budget option that we recommend. We were surprised by how many features this model had.

However, we didn’t always find the watch easy to use, and sometimes the screen wouldn’t respond. But it looks great on your wrist and isn’t too different from a Fitbit. In this article, we’ll talk about the pros and cons of this model and tell you if we think it’s worth your money.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Design and Fit

If you’ve seen or used a Xiaomi Mi Band before, the Smart Band 7 should look and feel the same. The device is still a pill-shaped ball made of glass and plastic that fits tightly into the wristband that comes with it. It is as clear as it can be in its black version. You might not want to wear it to a fancy dinner, but it will work well for almost everything else.

It’s light and one of the fitness trackers that feels thicker than others, especially when compared to smartwatches like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, which feels thinner because it’s bigger all around. The wristband that comes with it isn’t very exciting, but it does the job just fine.

The band is easy to adjust from 160 to 224mm, so it should work for everyone. The band comes in different colors, but in the US and many other places, you might not be able to find one with more than one color. Since the third-party wristband market for Xiaomi Bands is thriving, you should be able to find one or more that fits your style and needs. You can buy this Smart Band from its official website.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Display

A screen and a wristband made of silicone. The second one is well-made and long enough. The length of the bracelet can be changed from 160 to 224 millimeters. We would have liked a more secure closure, though, because when we tested it, we often hit the push-button with things like a bag, which caused the wristband to open.

It would have been better to use some kind of double lock here. Most of the display unit is taken up by the large OLED panel, which has a screen diagonal of about 4.1 cm. The manufacturer doesn’t say anything about the slightly curved and hardened 2.5D glass surface, which is a shame.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Performance

The capacitive touch screen is used to control the device. Swiping left or right brings up the widgets you can change, swiping down brings up the notifications, and swiping up brings up the settings. This works well and reliably in daily life. But the processor’s performance doesn’t seem to be good enough to make it easy to switch between missed messages or home screens.

You can also turn on the screen by moving your wrist. There are two speeds for this, and we found the “Normal” profile to be much too sensitive. This can be very annoying, especially at night, so in the tests, the function was always turned off at a set time. You can also put the Smart Band 7 on standby by putting your hand on it.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Tracking

In most ways, the Mi Band 7 is the same as before, but it has gotten even better at tracking fitness on a budget. One area of focus is the SpO2 monitor, which can now keep track of blood oxygen levels all the time and send alerts when they drop too low.

The latter could be helpful for people who might have sleep apnea at night, but like most consumer-level wearables, it shouldn’t be used as a medical device. Still, it’s helpful to know that your blood oxygen level might be low, especially from such a cheap fitness tracker.

Aside from tracking blood oxygen, the Mi Band 7 has the same heart rate, stress, and sleep tracking, as well as general fitness tracking, as its predecessor. The latter is shown in a way that is very similar to the Apple Watch. It tracks steps, active hours, and calories burned, but instead of the familiar rings, it has a rainbow.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Battery life

The built-in battery can hold 180 mAh of power. According to the manufacturer, it should be able to stay on standby for up to 14 days, but this is probably only true in a lab. We used our test device with a permanent Bluetooth connection, continuous measurements of pulse and blood oxygen, and monitoring of sleep and breathing activity.

Because of this, we had a much shorter runtime. But the Smart Band 7 can only last as long as its always-on feature lets it. With a screen that always shows what’s on it, the battery indicator goes down by about 35–40% per day, depending on how often the vibration motor is used by messages coming in.

If we don’t use this feature, we can get through the day with about 12 to 15 percent on the test. Users who want to use the fitness tracker to track a lot of workouts should get about 5 days of use out of the Xiaomi Band.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Price and Availability

Since these bands can track your fitness almost as well as an Apple Watch or Galaxy Watch for a fraction of the price, it’s not surprising that they’ve been selling so well. This model’s price has gone up a little, to $60, but it’s still a lot cheaper than, say, a Fitbit Charge 5.

Even though it’s not as flashy or attention-getting as a smartwatch or a fitness tracker with a big screen, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 shows that a useful product can still sell if it’s priced right. Most people who buy this will be happy that it does what it says on the box.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Conclusion

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 fitness tracker is for you if you want to get the most out of it without spending hundreds of dollars. There are still some places where the reliability isn’t great, and the workout and sleep features could both use some work. But the fact that you can track data makes it more likely that you’ll run into problems when you use it every day, and it’s rare to find this level of quality and detail for $50.