Xiaomi has consistently delivered excellent fitness trackers at a great value throughout the years, and 2022's Xiaomi Mi Band 7 is no different. There is one significant change in the Mi Band lineup, though—Xiaomi is now calling it the Xiaomi Smart Band 7.

So, let's check out the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 and see what it has to offer.

What You Get in the Box

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 arrives in a small, minimalistic box. Inside it, you'll find the Smart Band 7 with its accompanying magnetic charger in a section above it. You'll find the black silicone band with a black anodized aluminum alloy buckle in the bigger area below the fitness tracker.

It's as simple as fitness trackers go—a black tracker with a black band. However, Xiaomi offers several custom bands. You can get Ivory, Orange, Olive, Blue, and Pink solid-color TPU bands, as well as more special Neon Orange, Neon Green, Kahaki Blue, and Khaki Green bands. You'll also find countless designs from third-party sellers, such as Milanese, Stainless Steel, Leather, and Nylon straps. You should remember, though, that these straps are all sold separately—and may cost almost as much as the Smart Band itself!

When you turn on the fitness tracker for the first time by charging it, you'll see a QR code on its face. The interface begins in Chinese, but it will automatically revert to your phone's language as soon as you connect it to your phone.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7: Design and Specifications

Xiaomi's entry-level fitness tracker didn't change much in the looks department through the years. It retains the basic black pill shape matched with a black silicone band. However, it's what's inside that counts. The new Xiaomi Smart Band 7 adds new features to the already-packed Mi Band 6, while only getting a minimal price bump.

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is slightly shorter but noticeably wider than the previous generation. However, its thickness remains the same. Xiaomi changed the size to accommodate the larger 1.62-inch AMOLED touch display, making it easier to see and interact with the Smart Band.

This larger screen makes using and navigating the fitness tracker a breeze. Its tap-and-swipe functions are also intuitive—so if you're already a smartphone user, you won't have to learn how to use it. Aside from that, you'll more clearly see the plethora of watch faces you can download for the Xiaomi Smart Band 7.

There are five built-in designs right on the watch you can choose from. But if you're dissatisfied with those options, you can go to the Zepp Life app and choose from over 100 design options. These designs are also updated occasionally, so you should check the app if you want to change your theme.

The Smart Band 7 also retains the convenient magnetic charging method, with a typical 14-day battery life and less than two-hour charging time. The fitness tracker's battery could last for up to 14 days, especially if you only keep its basic features, but if you use it for continuous health tracking, it will go down to just around four days.

Another new feature Xiaomi added to the Smart Band 7 is the always-on display. If you activate this option, the screen will remain on, although with a more minimalistic view. This is convenient for those who frequently check the time or want to see the time at a glance. However, this will also consume significantly more battery power, reducing the tracker's battery life to a single day.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7: Notification, Communication, and Other Features

Aside from being a fitness tracker, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is also a capable smart device. It connects to your Android or iOS phone via Bluetooth 5.2 BLE, keeping you updated on your phone notifications and even the option to reply quickly to messages.

Watch Features

Of course, given that you wear the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 on your wrist, it just makes sense for Xiaomi to include watch features on it. However, this fitness tracker goes beyond telling the time. These are its other time-related features:

• World Clock: You can add several cities via the Zepp Life app to see their current time. However, if you want to add the World Clock shortcut to check international time in a swipe, you'll only see the first two cities you saved in the app.
• Countdown Timer: The countdown timer app lets you quickly set 1-minute, 3-minute, 5-minute, 10-minute, 15-minute, 30-minute, 1-hour, and 2-hour countdowns. You can also set a custom countdown timer if you tap on the + icon—up to almost 24 hours long. However, if you use the timer, you can't use the watch's other features, and the screen will stay on as long the timer is counting down. If you set a particularly long countdown timer, you run the risk of running out of battery, especially if the Smart Band 7 isn't fully charged.
• Stopwatch: The stopwatch app is also simple to use. There's a Play icon to start the stopwatch. Once the stopwatch is running, you can tap Pause to pause it or the + icon to count split times. You can also exit the stopwatch app, and it won't stop the stopwatch. However, the screen will black out based on your screen timeout preferences, even if you're using the stopwatch. This makes it inconvenient to use since you must continuously tap or swipe the screen to prevent this from happening.

  

• Alarm: The Smart Band 7's alarm function is easy to use. You can create different alarm profiles, have them repeat on specific days, and even use the Smart Wake feature, which will make the watch wake you from light sleep at the optimal time, around ten minutes before the alarm. It doesn't make a sound, though. Instead, it will wake you up by its vibration on your wrist.
• Pomodoro Timer: This is a nifty feature, especially for those who work from home and need to manage their concentration. The Pomodoro Timer lets you set a focus time between five and 60 minutes in five-minute intervals. The fitness tracker will then turn on Do Not Disturb so you can focus on your tasks. Once your set time is over, it will inform you it's time to take a five-minute break. After four Pomodoro cycles, the Smart Band 7 will tell you to take a 15 to 20-minute break. You'll also see your cumulative concentration and break times if you swipe up on the Pomodoro app, allowing you to track your productivity.

Calendar and App Notifications

When you connect the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 to your smartphone, it can sync with your phone's calendar—up to 30 days ahead—to keep you updated on your schedule without pulling out your phone. It will also tell you if you have incoming calls, SMS, and even app notifications.

However, if you want to get app notifications, like from WhatsApp or Slack, you have to add them to the Zepp Life app. You can also create Fast Reply options to respond to messages using the Smart Band 7.

Other Features

Aside from these usual features, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 also has several rarely-used abilities that are useful in the right conditions. These features include:

• Flashlight: Although it isn't as bright as a real flashlight, the flashlight mode emits just enough white light from the fitness tracker's screen to let you see where you're going in complete darkness.
• Find My Phone: If you can't find your phone, tap on this feature, and the Smart Band 7 will make it play a loud, blaring alarm.
• Camera Remote: This is useful if you want to take a group photo and your phone is on a tripod. However, you must turn on this feature in the Zepp Life app.
• Finance: You can use the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 to pay via a QR code by connecting it to either Alipay or WeChat Pay. Unfortunately, it doesn't connect to other globally popular services like PayPal or Cash App, so this is only useful within China.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7: Health Features

Of course, most users aren't just buying the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 for its notifications. This fitness tracker has several sensors that track your health and well-being.

Heart Rate Tracking

Aside from manually tracking your heart rate, the Smart Band 7 lets you have All-day heart monitoring. You can even set it to alert you if your heart rate is too high or too low. Furthermore, you can turn on Heart Health Monitoring, so if the fitness tracker detects abnormal heartbeats, it will inform you.

Blood Oxygen Levels

You can monitor your blood oxygen saturation on the Smart Band 7 and even turn on continuous blood oxygen saturation monitoring. It can also give you a low blood oxygen reminder if it detects your blood oxygen levels dropping—useful if you have health issues or are climbing to higher altitudes.

Stress Monitoring

Like the two previous sensors, you can monitor your stress levels with this fitness tracker. It computes your stress levels by checking for changes in your heart rate variability data.

Sleep Tracking

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is an excellent sleep tracker, allowing you to see how much deep sleep, light sleep, and REM time you have on a given night. Furthermore, it can check your sleep breathing quality, allowing you to see if you have any potential problems, like sleep apnea.

It also analyzes your sleep pattern, allowing you to adjust your schedule for a better lifestyle. Furthermore, it even tracks naps to see the quality of your short daytime rests.

However, the app's only downside is that it only counts sleep at night. For a nocturnal person like me, where I'm most productive when the sun goes down, the Zepp Life app counts my daytime sleeping pattern as daily eight-hour naps.

Female Health

The Female Health app in the Smart Band 7 lets you easily track the start and end of your menstrual cycle. You can then use the app to help track your period, estimate when you're most fertile, and predict your next menstrual period.

Xiaomi Smart Band 7: Fitness Tracking

Of course, aside from the health sensors, the main reason why people purchase fitness trackers is to monitor their training data. Whether you're a professional athlete, a sports and fitness enthusiast, or simply one who cares about your health, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 will give you the data you need.

Personal Activity Intelligence

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 tracks your daily physical movements using the Personal Activity Intelligence view. In this view, the fitness tracker estimates the number of calories you burned, the number of steps you took, and the number of minutes you were standing or active in an hour.

This helps you see whether you're active or not and help you adjust your lifestyle accordingly.

PAI

PAI stands for Personal Physiological Activity Index. This feature is a more advanced version of Personal Activity Intelligence, where it evaluates your heart rate data, activity intensity, and other health data gathered by the Smart Band 7's sensors.

Although they have the same function—tracking your movements—PAI gives you a score for each detected workout, whether low-intensity, moderate-intensity, or high-intensity. PAI sets a target goal of 100 for its user in one week. Hitting this number in a week helps you reach your desired fitness level.

Workout

Of course, as a fitness tracker, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 will track your workouts. You can set different activities, like outdoor running, treadmill, outdoor cycling, indoor cycling, walking, indoor walking, swimming, rowing, elliptical, jump rope, yoga, dance, freestyle, indoor fitness, soccer, badminton, and more.

You can see the stats of your past workouts right on the tracker in Workout History, and you can even track your workout data—such as training load, VO2 Max, and recovery duration—in Workout Status.

All the information you get here can let you plan your workouts better, allowing you to be more efficient in training and have a more holistic fitness journey.

The Zepp Life App

You must install the Zepp Life app on your phone to use the Xiaomi Smart Band 7. This app saves all the information gathered by the fitness tracker, allowing you to view your past performance. Aside from that, you can also see your walking, running, and cycling activities, showing where you made your workouts and your stats for each workout session.

You can also add friends who use other Xiaomi Smart Band or Mi Band products on the Zepp Life app, letting you see each other's fitness progress.

But most importantly, you need the Zepp Life app to set up your fitness tracker for the first time. You can also use it to adjust the settings of the fitness tracker, allowing you to customize it according to your needs.

You can also use the Mi Fit app with the Xiaomi Smart Band 7, but the Zepp Life app offers a better overall experience.

Should You Upgrade From the Xiaomi Mi Band 6?

While the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 offers a slightly better experience due to its bigger screen and continuous recording features, it doesn't provide a substantial upgrade over the Xiaomi Mi Band 6.

If you're getting a fitness tracker for the first time or upgrading from an older one, then the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 offers the perfect balance between features and affordability. But if you already have the Mi Band 6 and want something with more features, consider getting the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 Pro or the Xiaomi Watch S1 instead.

A Great and Affordable Alternative to Fitbit

The Xiaomi Mi Band 7, or, as it's known now, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7, offers an excellent fitness tracker at a fraction of the price of the competing models from Fitbit. And with the number of first-party and third-party custom bands available on the market, you'll surely find a matching band and watch face style that'll fit your personality.