After we reviewed the Xiaomi Mi Good Band 6 (Assessment) final 12 months, we had been satisfied that it was the gold customary for good bands in 2021. Nevertheless, for causes greatest identified to Xiaomi, the technological big didn’t launch the its successor, the Mi Good Band 7, in India this 12 months. Amazfit goals to reap the benefits of that void by launching its first health band for India.
Referred to as the Amazfit Band 7, the health band is stuffed with options reminiscent of help for voice instructions and in addition has help for an app retailer. Can the Amazfit Band 7 take down the favored Mi Good Band 6 at its personal recreation? I’ve been utilizing the health band for a number of weeks and here’s what I believe.
The worth, design and specs of Amazfit Band 7
The Band 7 is Amazfit's first health band for the Indian market. It’s the successor to the Band 5 and is competitively priced at Rs. 3,499. In contrast to the Mi Good Band 6, which is simply accessible in a single shade, Amazfit's Band 7 is on the market in three colours: black, pink and white. In any case, these colours are simply the colour of the straps that maintain the black rectangular unit in place. In contrast to different Amazfit smartwatches, you’ll be able to't purchase the straps individually, so you could select properly when shopping for the band.
Like most health bands, the design of the Amazfit Band 7 consists of a TPU strap and an oblong core unit. The watch has an oblong formed show with rounded corners and huge bezels all through. It's as tall as a 47mm Apple Watch Collection 8, however about half its width. There are not any bodily or capacitive buttons on the Band 7, so navigation occurs solely via swiping gestures.
The detachable core of the watch has a ranking of 5ATM for water resistance, so it ought to be good for water splashes and light-weight immersion. The core unit is fabricated from polycarbonate and has the BioTracker 3.0 PPG biometric sensor, which is used to trace coronary heart fee, blood oxygen ranges and stress. On the again, there are two flat pins for charging the system utilizing the bundled magnetic charger.
The Amazfit Band 7 is as tall as an Apple Watch Collection 8, however a lot narrower
The core unit of the Amazfit Band 7, together with the strap, weighs 28g which is kind of mild. The strap is tender and comfy and I didn't face any points or irritations whereas sporting it. What aggravated me was the pin buckle system of the strap, which is kind of troublesome to lock and there have been many circumstances through the evaluation interval the place the strap got here open. Urgent down the pin within the small cavity is a troublesome process in itself and requires lots of endurance and strain. For some capabilities, the health band must be worn actually tight and this could make it uncomfortable to put on over time. That is particularly vital for SpO2 monitoring, which in any other case wouldn’t work.
The core unit of the Amazfit Band 7 has a plastic case that’s held in place by a TPU strap.
Whereas the band doesn't have a speaker, it does have a microphone and a vibration motor that vibrates for every kind of notifications and alarms. The mic is used to just accept voice instructions for Amazon's Alexa digital assistant. The system comprises all the required sensors to measure coronary heart fee and blood oxygen ranges and comes with a 232mAh battery, which is large enough for a small health band.
Amazfit Band 7 software program, efficiency and battery life
The Amazfit Band 7 runs Zepp OS which appears to be custom-made to work on a smaller show. Apparently, on the Band 7, it appears to be like and feels similar to what is on the market on the Xiaomi Mi Good Band 6, particularly when coming into the Settings menu. The smaller show means there's much less room to see a number of choices directly, and consequently, there's lots of scrolling to be performed. Some apps like Calendar look very unusual and are extraordinarily complicated to make use of, so I usually discovered myself misplaced within the interface when doing so.
The primary menu, which exhibits all of the built-in functions, for instance, can solely present two apps at a time, which makes it very obscure how a lot is within the checklist. To make issues worse, there isn’t a indicator like a scroll bar on the aspect to point out how far the checklist is or the place you have got scrolled right down to both.
A swipe to the suitable of the house display screen takes you to the notifications space, which does an excellent job of displaying every kind of notifications. Nevertheless, it isn’t potential to reply any of those. A swipe to the left from the principle watch face reveals a widget-like interface that streams watch knowledge from numerous built-in apps like Exercise, Coronary heart Price, PAI, Sleep and many others. and it’ll take you to the house display screen. As for the watch faces, there are various to select from and they’re extremely customizable.
Inserting the pin into the band cavity requires lots of endurance
As for the native functions on the Amazfit Band 7, there is sufficient to maintain one busy, be it health monitoring, or normal well being, well-being, and every kind of actions. winter coaching, in addition to desk and card video games reminiscent of Chess, Checkers, Go or Bridge. Every of those Apps additionally transmits lots of knowledge. It includes lots of scrolling, however there’s lots of info accessible on the watch itself, which is spectacular.
There’s additionally an app retailer that may be accessed from the companion app. Whereas the app choice is proscribed to solely fourteen apps (on the time of publishing the evaluation), you’ll be able to set up and uninstall these and there are some helpful ones like Watch Storage Area, BMI and Calculator.
Zepp Well being's companion app isn't the best to grasp. It’s the identical used for the costliest smartwatches of Amazfit, such because the GTR 4 (Assessment). I arrange the Band 7 with a Pixel 7 Professional and granted the restricted permissions that this health band requires which made setup fairly fast. You’ll nonetheless have to configure extra capabilities reminiscent of Amazon's Alexa voice help, Calendar, Climate and extra, individually, whereas utilizing the health band.
The show of the Amazfit Band 7 is kind of small and turns into harder to make use of with scrolling gestures
The 1.47-inch AMOLED show could also be a bit too small, particularly when Xiaomi affords a better panel on its Mi Good Band 6 on the identical worth. Whereas brightness wasn't a problem, I did have some points with contact sensitivity and gestures. I discovered the interface labored nicely when going via the built-in apps and app menu, however it stuttered so much when going via the notifications space. The contact sensitivity of the show shouldn’t be the perfect and the smaller dimension made the scrolling gestures fairly complicated, particularly after I was in the course of a exercise and wanted to entry a sure operate. There have been instances after I resorted to opening the smartphone app to start out a exercise, as an alternative of fiddling with the show.
The Alexa Voice integration labored fairly nicely. The activation wants somewhat work because it requires a number of scrolls to get to the widget, since, you’ll be able to contact the show for Alexa to start out listening. Nevertheless, the solutions will solely be displayed on the display screen and never learn aloud as a result of there isn’t a built-in speaker. Whereas a voice assistant is usually a new function to have in a health band, you must do not forget that it’s fully primarily based on the smartphone, which you have to to have round to have the ability to operate.
Amazfit's Zepp Well being 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. The sleep monitoring is kind of correct and the outcomes are very detailed as a result of it means that you can know not solely the levels throughout sleep, but in addition the respiration patterns whereas sleeping. The band, like different Amazfit smartwatches, also can monitor the nap, which is sweet to have.
Coronary heart fee monitoring was fairly correct when in comparison with an Apple Watch Collection 8. The watch doesn’t have built-in GPS, so it depends on a smartphone for location knowledge on runs or walks exterior. This additionally implies that you could carry 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. Nevertheless, the step rely was surprisingly correct.
The Amazfit Band 7 additionally helps SpO2 readings, however they had been nonetheless inaccurate in comparison with a standalone pulse oximeter. Sit-stand detection, as with the costlier Amazfit GTR 4, didn’t work nicely.
The always-on show operate 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 brightness set to 50 p.c (as a result of it doesn't have an ambient mild sensor) and the always-on function enabled. Throughout this time, I used the look ahead to gentle exercises and primarily to trace notifications with all of the self-health monitoring options reminiscent of coronary heart fee monitoring, sleep monitoring, stress monitoring and blood oxygen monitoring, activated.
Amazfit claims that its always-on show function reduces battery life by 50 p.c, so it is best to anticipate as much as two weeks or extra with it disabled, which appears fairly good. When linked to an ordinary 10W energy adapter, the Amazfit Band 7 expenses from 0-One hundred pc in about 1 hour, 41 minutes, which is kind of common in comparison with Xiaomi Mi Good Band 6.
Verdict
At Rs. 3,499, the Amazfit Band 7 affords many extra options than the marginally dated Xiaomi Mi Good Band 6. You might have many extra sports activities train modes, an always-on show, an even bigger battery, voice assistant and a mini app retailer. Nevertheless, what the Band 7 makes up when it comes to performance, it loses when it comes to performance because of the smaller show and the marginally damaged software program expertise, which isn’t optimized or polished for gesture-based navigation.
Xiaomi's Mi Good Band 7, which is the successor to the Mi Good Band 6, is but to be launched in India. This band incorporates a bigger show with AoD capabilities and extra sports activities modes together with a barely bigger battery in comparison with the Mi Good Band 6. In the event you're seeking to spend somewhat extra, Realme's Watch 3 Professional can get you an expertise like 'and smartwatch that additionally consists of Bluetooth calls at Rs. 4,999. It has a bigger show, speaker and even standalone GPS.
In case you are not in a rush, it is smart to attend a bit till Xiaomi's Band 7 or maybe a more moderen model arrives in India. But when you could get a health band instantly, then the present Mi Good Band 6 shouldn’t be a foul deal, until you actually plan to make use of the extra capabilities provided by Amazfit's Band 7.
