With the latest smart band launched near the end of June by Xiaomi for Malaysia being the Xiaomi Smart Band 7, we’ve received a unit for taking it to a spin, and let’s run through what we found out about it, what’s cool, and what’s not so.
Let’s take it off from the packaging. Compared to last year’s Smart Band 6, the big poster boy is now actually the smart band itself instead of a number which is okay for me personally but I do think it worked a bit better in trying to portray the improvements we’re going to discuss a bit later.
Opening the box up and sliding out the tray and you’ll see the little gadget seat neatly between the charging cable and user manual. Simple and thin cutouts mean fewer resources used to create “waste”. Pretty cool so far.
Let’s address the improvement we mentioned just now which is the screen. At last, Xiaomi is finally giving the Smart Band 7 a larger screen which jumps from 1.56-inch to 1.62-inch but it is still the same AMOLED panel so you get those good colors and clarity if you’re upgrading from an older one.
The PPI is at 326 so from an overall experience, instead of putting more stuff to make reading tougher, Xiaomi is just scaling everything up to make them clear and concise. Because if it wasn’t broken, you don’t need to fix it.
Oh, larger images and text means it is way more usable for the elders or anyone with ongoing eye problems too.
The design language is pretty much a carbon copy of the 6 applied to the 7 when looking at it externally. Scrolling through the UI and it is still the familiar layouts except certain key information are now given larger sizes and better positioning to help reading through the actual information much faster and directly.
Personally, I do think that text-based information is more capable than graphics-based when used on a small canvas such as a smart band. It is not to say images are bad but instead, they are the supporting role for this matter and I think Xiaomi is heading in a good direction this time.
The direct snap and lock mechanism is comfortable and easy to adjust since the brand has been using it for some time. A first experience for me nonetheless.
“Because flat and long magnetic chargers are too mainstream, let’s make it round to make it more compact and cheaper to produce!” – Probably one of Xiaomi’s engineers.
As usual, the Mi Fitness (Or Xiaomi Wear) is the software companion that goes with Smart Band 7. The first page will land you on the fitness tracking page for a quick read while the second tab lets you engage a proper workout routing before starting.
To be fair, I find the outdoor running function directly giving an overview of the map and if you’re one like me that frequents any forms of “Maps” application, this should just feel close to home and easy to navigate.
Over at the device management screen, you’ll get to play with a selection of watch faces and pick the ones you like the most that display selected parameters as well as detailed configuration towards notifications, alerts, apps, and more.
The plethora of watch faces is all here to serve your needs with the Pixel and Misty Forest being my favorites. Once downloaded, you can immediately swap over to any other via the Local tab.
You also get to mess around with some other things that are non-health-related such as widgets, night mode, PIN access, and updates.
While the Smart Band 7 is cool for an average person to use, but for someone like me that spams emojis and stuff, don’t expect it to display them because it just can’t.
And it does so at the expense of some of the screen estates as an unsupported format of text directly becomes a big block of blank (They suppose to appear in the space between the contact name and the ‘now’ indicator. Therefore, any prior message gets pushed out of the zone and requires some swipes to get back instead of just as readable from the start.
Better off just take out your phone and counter-spam your friends with your own set of Joy Face.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 does a simple yet better job through its larger screen size (Albeit minimal) and the inclusion of 3 extra parameters for fitness makes the overall upgrade acceptable. Because after all, this particular portfolio is about the high value projected by its affordability and feature set.
So would I recommend this at RM199? The answer is Yes if you don’t already own the 5th or 6th gen model because the incremental updates can say to be quite lacking to justify its minor price hike.
But, if you don’t own a smart band now and are looking for one, yes, definitely go ahead and grab one of these in a variety of colors that will surely catch your eyes.
Where to buy? (Affiliate links)
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