Amazfit Band 7 review

The price range exercise tracker market has heated up fairly a bit over the previous few years, with entries just like the Xiaomi Band 7 and Huawei Band 7 proving that you need to be excellent to get a look-in, and apparently don’t have any unique concepts in the case of naming gadgets.

The brand new Amazfit Band 7 is making an attempt to push its method to the entrance of the pack, so I’ve been placing it by its paces to see if it’s value your money.

Design and construct

• Comfy and light-weight
• 5 ATM water resistance
• Substitute strap colors accessible

Amazfit follows the present design aesthetics that we’ve seen on most different bands of this kind just lately. There’s the primary rectangular unit that’s held in an all-in-one 16mm silicon strap that may be changed by merely coming out the tracker and squeezing it into a brand new strap. Amazfit sells different colors on its web site for round $10/£10, so if you wish to give the Band 7 a face-lift later, then it gained’t set you again an excessive amount of. 

The tracker itself has a 1.47-inch AMOLED show taking on nearly the whole thing of the entrance, with the rear residence to the BioTracker 3.0 PPG biometric sensor and magnetic charging factors. 

You gained’t discover any buttons, because the Band 7 is managed solely by the touchscreen, and a scarcity of a speaker means you gained’t be interacting an excessive amount of by voice instructions. However this lack of ingress factors means Amazfit is ready to fee the water resistance at 5 ATM and permits you to use it in a swimming pool to trace your efforts. 

You’ll be able to nonetheless management wi-fi headsets by way of the Bluetooth 5.2 connection, however there’s no on-board GPS so that you’ll have to have your telephone with you in order that the Amazfit Band 7 can piggyback throughout outside exercises. There isn’t any NFC for funds both, however that’s to be anticipated at this worth level. 

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It would sound like I’m being choosy, so it ought to be famous that for round $50/£50 you’re getting a formidable quantity of options, introduced in a pleasant trying design. It’s a light-weight machine too, weighing in at a feather-like 28g (together with the strap), and appears unobtrusive on the wrist because of the 42.3 x 24.36 x 12.2mm dimensions. 

One moan is regarding the strap, as it may be just a little fiddly to lock it into the related gap so that you simply get essentially the most satisfying mix of tightness and luxury. This could in all probability change into simpler over time although because the strap loosens up. 

Show

• 1.47-inch AMOLED show
• Handbook brightness management
• At all times-on function accessible

At first look, you’d be forgiven for considering that is the Huawei Band 7, because the 1.47-inch rectangular panel seems just about an identical. That’s no unhealthy factor although, because it’s a pleasant dimension for smaller wrists.

It’s a brilliant, vibrant panel that’s usually simple to learn, albeit with a significant caveat. Amazfit hasn’t included an ambient mild sensor within the Band 7, so that you’ll should manually set the brightness, which is usually a ache. The show is effectively illuminated when inside, however in case you neglect to alter the brightness earlier than going out, then will probably be tough to do it simply when the solar is shining as you’ll be able to’t see something on the display.

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There’s an always-on function accessible to point out the time and date when the show is off, however that is additionally a bit hit or miss as it may be very brilliant in case you neglect to regulate the degrees, plus it has a dramatic impact on battery life.

Contact responses are respectable, however not superb. It might be that the small contact targets make it arduous to get an preliminary correct hit, which then makes the Band 7 really feel unresponsive. Once more, this could shake out over time as you get used to the place the display wants the contact.

It’s effective, however in case you’re shifting (say jogging) and wish to shortly change the amount of your music or verify the standing of your exercise, it may be arduous to get an correct response. Possibly it’s simply my sausage fingers.

For swiping by menus, choosing choices whenever you’re moderately sedentary or usually interacting with the machine, the touchscreen is a strong performer. Amazfit says that the panel is protected by tempered glass relatively than Gorilla Glass, so whereas it ought to cope along with your every day actions, I wouldn’t suggest banging it on any arduous surfaces. Though, that’s simply usually good recommendation with watches of any sort.

Software program and options

• Loads of watchfaces
• Amazon Alexa built-in
• Not in a position to reply to messages

As talked about, the Amazfit Band 7 is a touchscreen based mostly interface with no {hardware} buttons on the machine. The menus are all swipe-based, with down strokes on the house display opening up the settings menu. Swiping up permits you to scroll by the apps on the band, left is for notifications and proper takes you thru to information out of your favorite apps.

The shortage of a house button does make this rather less clean than it ought to be, as you need to swipe again by menus relatively than shortly returning to the primary display. It’s not a deal-breaker, however I’d wish to see Amazfit give you an answer for this within the subsequent technology because it’s positively clunky from a design and consumer viewpoint. 

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One repair that’s desperately wanted is the flexibility to make fast responses to messages. In the intervening time, you’ll be able to solely learn messages on the Band 7, after which have to dig your telephone out to provide any sort of reply. Some preset solutions you might faucet would make a giant distinction. 

The Band 7 comes with a pleasant vary of mini apps that may hyperlink along with your calendar and warn you of upcoming appointments. There’s a climate app, generic music app that works with Spotify, Audible and different providers, plus numerous timers and alarms, in addition to To Do reminders and the Pomodoro timer that’s nice for getting your head down on a job for set intervals of time. 

Amazon Alexa is built-into the Amazfit Band 7, so you’ll be able to hyperlink to your Amazon account and use it as you’ll on every other Alexa powered machine. Once more, as there’s no speaker, you’ll have to learn any responses the digital assistant returns. 

Utilizing the accompanying Zepp app it’s also possible to change how the Amazfit Band 7 works, the sort of information it shows, and in addition change the watch face totally by choosing from an honest vary of options. Many are free, however there are additionally paid variations on the shop if you wish to make investments.

There are apps that may be put in too, however you gained’t discover the third-party apps that you simply’d count on. Most are bespoke to Zepp or small, relatively random ones that do very particular duties – cube curler, anybody? 

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Well being and health monitoring

• 120 sports activities monitoring modes
• Coronary heart fee, SpO2 and sleep monitoring
• Some monitoring is usually a little wayward

Amazfit has executed an awesome job of stuffing the Band 7 stuffed with helpful well being associated options. There are 120 sports activities monitoring modes, starting from requirements like working and strolling, proper as much as equestrianism and, bizarrely, enjoying chess. 

Most should be began manually, with solely working, strolling, elliptical, and rowing machine actions being auto-detected in case you allow the function within the settings menu. 

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Monitoring is strong, with steps matching as much as the identical figures I often get on costlier monitoring gadgets just like the Apple Watch.

You’ll be able to allow 24-hour coronary heart fee monitoring, with alerts if it drops too low or will get too excessive, blood oxygen saturation (SpO2), and stress ranges. I discovered the center monitoring constant, however often just a little increased than on different gadgets. That is effective although, because the consistency made it simpler to know roughly the place I used to be at.

That’s true for lots of the monitoring on this machine. At $50/£50 I believe it’s aimed extra at individuals trying to get lively and keep watch over their progress over time, relatively than hard-core runners or gymnasium bunnies that need tremendous correct information. Should you deal with the Amazfit Band 7 as the previous, then it’s a superb answer. 

Having a tool that screens your every day efforts, compiles the information on the Zepp app the place you’ll be able to have a look at developments and patterns, plus throws within the particular person exercise intelligence (PAI) system that helps inspire you by rewarding you with factors for numerous bodily actions, is a superb all-round package deal. There’s even a digital pace-setter that may encourage you to enhance your working instances, so there’s basically a coach built-into the machine. 

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See also  Asus Zenfone 10 review

Sleep monitoring is one other measured metric, though this was a bit hit or miss because the Band 7 would typically assume I used to be asleep after I wasn’t. To be truthful, I’ve discovered this to be the case on rather more costly good bands, so I gained’t be docking any factors for my slothenly way of life. Once more, if you would like a very good, basic concept of your sleep patterns, the Band 7 does the job. 

Battery life and charging

• Lengthy battery life
• Closely decreased by always-on show
• Proprietary charger

Attributable to its small dimension and tiny app choice, Amazfit claims that you may get 18 days of use of the Band 7 from a single cost. I’d say a few weeks is nearer to my expertise, however that is dramatically decreased in case you activate the fixed well being monitoring and the always-on show.

With the latter engaged, and me forgetting to alter the show brightness recurrently, the Band 7 barely lasted 4 days. Now, in comparison with my outdated Apple Watch Collection 6, that is nonetheless nice, however to achieve these vaunted figures equipped by Amazift you’ll want to show off a couple of options.

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When it does come time to energy up the Band 7 you’ll want the proprietary charging cable that comes within the field. It attaches magnetically to the again of the Band and will get the 232mAh battery again as much as 100% in simply shy of two hours.

Worth and availability

The Amazfit Band 7 is obtainable instantly from Amazfit for $49.99/£49.99.

This places it in the identical ballpark because the Huawei Band 7 (£49.99) and Xiaomi Band 7 (£54.99/€59.99) though neither of those can be found instantly within the US, however we now have seen them on Amazon for across the worth of Amazfit Band 7.

For that territory, the Fitbit Encourage 3 is the decide of the bunch, nevertheless it does up the value to $99.95/£84.99, or there’s the Honor Band 6 which at time of writing was available on Amazon (US) for $45.99.

Verdict

Should you’re somebody who needs to enhance their basic health and desires an affordable and dependable tracker to assist, then the Amazfit Band 7 is a extremely strong selection. The vary of modes and options is good for one thing that prices lower than $50/£50, plus the PAI system is an enchanting method to discover out extra in regards to the developments and areas of enchancment to your total well being. 

Sure, the software program may do with some polish and a few sort of residence button would make life simpler, however these are small complaints in contrast with what you get with the machine. A wholesome possibility. 

Specs

• 1.47-inch AMOLED touchscreen show (198×368 decision, 282 ppi)
• BioTracker 3.0 PPG biometric sensor
• Coronary heart fee, SpO2 and sleep monitoring
• 3-axis Acceleration sensor
• Geomagnetic sensor
• 120 sport monitoring modes
• 5 ATM water resistance
• Bluetooth 5.2 BLE
• 232 mAh battery (charger included)
• 16mm TPU strap
• 42.3 x 24.36 x 12.2mm
• 28g (together with strap)