The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is the latest addition to the thriving lineup of the world’s self-proclaimed number one wearable brand. It demonstrates that you don’t have to spend a fortune to get access to your daily health and fitness metrics from your wrist, nor do you have to forego fancy features. The affordable wearables market is expanding, which is good news given the current climate, so while the price and fit are light, this watch isn’t light on features.
The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is our tried-and-true budget-buy recommendation in our best fitness tracker (opens in new tab) round-up. The sheer number of features available on the model surprised us, but we didn’t find the watch very user-friendly at times, and the screen can be unresponsive. However, it looks great on your wrist and has a similar appearance to a Fitbit.
Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Design and Fit
If you’ve ever seen or used a Xiaomi Mi Band, the Smart Band 7 should look and feel familiar. The device remains a pill-shaped glass and plastic puck firmly lodged in the included silicone wristband. It’s as clear as it gets in its black variant. While you might not want to wear it to a fancy dinner, it will suffice in almost all other situations. It’s a lightweight fitness tracker with a thicker feel, especially when compared to smartwatches like the Samsung Galaxy Watch 5, which feels thinner due to its larger overall size.
The included wristband isn’t particularly exciting, but it serves its purpose admirably. The band is easily adjustable from 160 to 224mm, so it should fit everyone. The band is available in a variety of colours, though you may not be able to find a multicoloured version in the United States or many other markets. However, given that Xiaomi Bands have a thriving third-party wristband market, you should be able to find one or more that suit your style and needs.
Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Display
Aside from blood oxygen measurement, the Mi Band 7 offers the same features as its predecessor, namely all-day heart rate and stress monitoring, sleep monitoring, and general fitness monitoring. The latter is displayed in a distinctly Apple Watch-like fashion, monitoring steps, active hours, and calories burned, although the trademark rings have been replaced with a rainbow in Xiaomi’s wearable.
However, the sleep monitoring is not as reliable as other fitness trackers. While it provides all the standard data – wake time, REM, light and deep sleep, total time in bed, and sleep time – we found that it is not quite as smart when it comes to automatically stopping sleep monitoring.
In testing, a quick trip to the bathroom in the middle of the night prematurely ended the nightly sleep recording, resulting in a few hours of lost data. This isn’t the be-all and end-all, but it can be frustrating for those who, like me, like to keep track of sleep data.
Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Tracking
With the Mi Band 7, Xiaomi has made significant efforts to improve its fitness and health tracking offerings. To begin, the new band now includes continuous blood oxygen monitoring and low SpO2 alerts, in addition to the Mi Band 6’s all-day heart rate, sleep, and stress monitoring. These are not revolutionary features, but they are certainly useful at this price point. The Mi Band 7 now has 120 sports tracking modes, up from 30 in the previous generation.
However, some of these extra sport modes are dubious. We were not able to test all of the more than 100 activities in a single review period, but we did thoroughly research the list, and some of the “sports” surprised us. For instance, we are curious how the wearable could distinguish between chess and checkers. Nonetheless, diversity is not a bad thing, and having too many options is ideal for budget-conscious multisport enthusiasts.
Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Performance
The Band 7 Pro’s interface is navigated entirely through taps and swipes, though I initially found myself looking for a physical button because most smartwatches with this form factor that I’ve tested in the past have at least one button for controls. The lockscreen has a quick settings toggle to the left, notifications above it, and up to eleven widgets to the right. Swiping up reveals the entire app list, which can be organised in icon mode (two rows of app icons next to each other) or list mode.
Swiping through notifications can be slow at times, especially if you have a large number of messages. Before you need to clear the queue, Band 7 Pro stores up to ten notifications. For the most part, notification management on the band was inconsistent. When my phone was unlocked and close to the band, I was alerted immediately, but when it was locked, it took a few minutes to receive the notification on the band.
On several occasions, I’d have to open the Mi Fitness app on our phone and manually re-sync the band. You can’t respond to notifications directly from the band, and you don’t get emoji previews, which are both features available on other similarly priced bands and watches.
Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Battery Life
The built-in battery has a capacity of 180 mAh. According to the manufacturer, it should provide up to 14 days of standby time – but only under laboratory conditions. We used a permanent Bluetooth connection, continuous pulse and blood oxygen measurement, and sleep and breathing activity monitoring on our test device. As a result, we had a significantly shorter runtime.
However, the Smart Band 7’s endurance is dependent on the always-on function. The battery indicator is reduced by about 35 to 40 percent per day with a permanent display of display content, depending on how frequently the vibration motor is used by incoming messages. We get through the day with about 12 to 15% in the test if we don’t use this feature. Users who want to track multiple training sessions with the fitness tracker should get about 5 days out of the Xiaomi Band.
Xiaomi Smart Band 7 review: Price
When the price is considered, the Smart Band 7 isn’t a bad buy. At less than $50, it’s difficult to find another wearable with as many features as the Xiaomi Smart Band 7. Of course, you can’t expect the best experience or tracking results from a device in this price range, but it will suffice for a general overview of your health. If you don’t want that, the Smart Band 7 also functions as an excellent wrist buzzer, alerting you whenever you receive a new notification on your phone.
However, for Xiaomi, the air is becoming increasingly thin. At less than $70, the Fitbit Inspire 2 is not much more expensive than the Smart Band 7. While it only has a monochrome screen and is known for poor notification syncing performance, Fitbit’s health tracking features are more accurate. However, I always miss Fitbit’s automatic workout tracking on Xiaomi Bands, as Fitbit allowed me to log my regular bike rides as workouts without having to remember to do so each time.
Conclusion
Xiaomi hasn’t made many changes to the Mi Band 7, but it didn’t need to. Instead, it added a larger AMOLED screen, always-on mode, continuous blood oxygen monitoring, and a larger battery. The rest of the features, including 5ATM water resistance, an extensive list of workout modes, detailed health and stress monitoring features, and plenty of customizability, are carried over from previous years. The Mi Band 7 lacks a digital assistant integration and the notifications aren’t actionable, but it remains the best budget fitness band.
