fitness tracker with more smart features

With the Huawei band 7, the brand is releasing a new affordable fitness tracker. It now has an always-on function and more smart functions, and you only pay 59.99 euros. This is the review of the Huawei Band 7.

Huawei band 7

Huawei has several successful wearables that work with its Harmony OS operating system in recent years. We prefer the Watch GT 3 over the more expensive Watch 3, as you could read in our review earlier. The Huawei band series should increase tenfold in place of the brand in the low price segment. It is a fitness tracker that focuses on sports and health, but Huawei is giving its Band 7 more and more functions that we are mainly used to from smartwatches. Is the Band 7 a steal for its low price? We discuss that here.

sleek design

With the Band 7, Huawei takes a much smaller leap compared to the Band 6, when it comes to the display and design. When you see it from a distance, it’s hard to say that the device only costs six bucks. That image changes as soon as you put it on your wrist, because both the housing and the strap feel quite cheap. There’s nothing wrong with that. Just be aware that the Band 7 can be prone to scratches.

The fitness tracker also feels remarkably light – it weighs 16 grams – and Huawei has also reduced the weight compared to the previous generation. The Band 7 is also 5 ATM water resistant, meaning you can go swimming with it without any problem. On the side is one button that brings out all apps.

Premium variant?

The design of the Band 7 is okay. It looks fine, but you can’t really call it a fashion accessory. It would be nice if Huawei would also consider releasing a more luxurious variant made of more durable materials – for a slightly higher price. A bit like the Smart Band 7 Pro from Xiaomi. It’s nice that the straps are interchangeable, so you can remove the standard silicone strap and swap it out for a more stylish strap for formal occasions.

Nice screen, could be bigger

The Band 7 has a 1.47-inch AMOLED panel, just like its predecessor. It is therefore smaller compared to its major competitor, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7. A larger screen certainly offers an added value, as it makes the interface even better for many functions. Especially for notifications, because long messages are currently no fun to read on the screen of the Huawei Band 7.

We are also very pleased with the maximum brightness of the screen and the beautiful colors. Still, we disabled the auto-brightness feature because the screen outside was too dark during exercise.

Good for recreational athletes

A fitness tracker focuses on sports and health functions. You start a workout from the watch, because it can’t automatically detect that you’ve started running. Before you start the activity you can set an interval training or choose a specific goal. This can be a maximum distance or an amount of calories you want to burn.

During exercise you can read information about the heart rate zone during the activity, the blood sugar level (SPO2), your speed and the number of calories burned. Afterwards you can find a surprising amount of data about your training on the Band 7 itself, but it is better to open the corresponding Huawei Health app.

Huawei Health

Huawei Health is an absolute asset for the Huawei Band 7, as the app feels very mature. It packs a lot of features without making its presentation feel overwhelming. On the overview you can see everything about your number of steps, your sports data, the heart rate measurement, sleep and stress measurement. When you view sports data in detail, it appears in clear tables and graphs.

A plus is that Huawei Health also guides you. You can set a goal yourself, for example being able to walk 5 kilometers. The app asks you a lot of questions and then creates a personalized schedule that helps you achieve that goal. You have a lot of control over that plan, because you can determine how difficult you want to make it for yourself and even within what time you want to do that 5 kilometers in the end. Then you can also add your schedule to your calendar.

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Although Huawei Health is a very useful app for sports enthusiasts, the possibilities of the Band 7 are a limitation. For example, if you want to register your running or cycling routes, you have to carry your phone with you. I noticed that the routes that appear on the map are not entirely correct, because traffic was mapped on about half of one of my running routes. Furthermore, you should not expect the greatest accuracy from things like the pedometer or heart rate sensor. For the best results, you should look at the better sports watches or smartwatches. The Band 7 is fine for the recreational athlete who does not have too high expectations in that area.

In addition, the Huawei Health app can no longer share data with other apps. Fortunately, you can still sync with Google Fit via a detour, especially this app. That way it is also possible to load your sports data in Strava and other popular apps.

Sleep and stress

In addition to exercising, you should of course rest. The sleep and stress measurement functions work well. In Huawei Health you will see an extensive analysis of your sleep and for each pillar you can read whether your result is normal or not. The Health app provides a lot of useful information about the different types of sleep. The stress measurement could perhaps contain some more information to users, so that it is clear how the measurement works.

More and more smart functions

Huawei has taken steps forward when it comes to smart functions with the Band 7. You can of course read all your notifications on the watch, but you can also reply to messages with a number of standard replies. There are quite a few choices, including: ‘Yes’, ‘No’, ‘Thank you’, ‘See you soon’, ‘Great’ and ‘OK’. Those answers come in handy in some situations, and it doesn’t just work for texting, either: in the popular messaging apps as well. You can also like a message with an emoji of your choice. When you press the emoji button, the Band 7 shows a selection screen.

Huawei’s tracker also has handy buttons for music control. At first, you could only browse music tracks that were physically stored on your phone. Now there are buttons to control all kinds of media playing on your phone. You can play and pause, skip through songs and adjust the volume. During a workout it is very easy to control your music.

Furthermore, the Band 7 has an Always-on screen for the first time and for that your watch face gets a modified appearance that works more economically. That always-on screen looks nice. The Band 7 also has a function with which you can find your phone and there are the typical apps for the timer, stopwatch, alarm clock and the weather forecast.

When it comes to watch faces, you have over 4,000 designs to choose from and they come in a variety of styles. We certainly have no complaints about what’s on offer and it’s also nice that some watch faces that contain sports and health info let you choose which information you want to see. You can even set that directly on the Band 7.

Good battery life

In principle, the Band 7 lasts up to 14 days, according to Huawei, but in practice we notice that it lasts less. If you use it more often for sports, increase the brightness and continuously measure the heart rate, this will affect the battery life.

I also used the always-on screen and in practice I could count on six days of use if I did two sports sessions. Then he has to get on his magnetic charger. Six days is already a lot less than two weeks, but it is still a good result.

Conclusion

Huawei has already built up a lot of experience with its smartwatches and fitness trackers and you can also see that in a product such as the Band 7. Both the software on the watch and that in the Huawei Health app is very well-arranged. Huawei is doing better in that area than most of its competitors.

Furthermore, the new features for notifications and music controls have already become a lot more convenient. The Band 7 is fine for the recreational athlete, but if you want a really accurate recording of your activities and GPS, then you should look at sports watches or smartwatches. Anyone who fits within the target group makes a good purchase with the Band 7.

Buy Huawei band 7

The Huawei Band 7 is available in the colors Graphite Black, Nebula Pink, Wilderness Green and Flame Red for a suggested retail price of 59.99 euros.