Amazfit Band 7 health & well being tracker evaluation: Again to fundamentals

The rise of smartwatches has made well being and health monitoring appear inherently dearer. Even pretty easy watches containing solely essentially the most fundamental sensors are typically dear. There was many price range choices when “Fitbit” was synonymous with health tracker, however many appear to have disappeared as convergence units have elevated. Enter Amazfit. The corporate is comparatively new (established in 2015) however already has a sturdy lineup of budget-friendly exercise equipment. And with the Amazfit Band 7, the model has a bracelet-style tracker that takes a step again from pricier smartwatches so you may monitor your steps (and different efficiency metrics) as you progress towards your health targets. Let’s take an in depth take a look at the conveniences and compromises that accompany a $50 health watch.

The Amazfit Band 7’s design

Whereas all of Amazfit’s watches are extra reasonably priced than most choices, the Band 7 falls in Amazfit’s Important Collection lineup, which, as you may guess, is its lowest tier. The Band 7 follows within the footsteps of the Band 5 (there was no Band 6) however presents a bigger, extra rectangular show, higher battery life, and a few common software program upgrades. There’s no built-in GPS, and there are minor usability points, however the compromises are minimal and, for many, insignificant. The watch is surprisingly succesful for such a low worth, with a very good quantity of well being knowledge and monitoring alternatives. What it isn’t, nevertheless, is flashy.

Minimal is the most effective phrase to make use of when describing the design of the Amazfit Band 7. It’s a easy rectangular form with no buttons or design prospers by any means. The band is one seamless piece that secures the watch face, with no particular design or colour inserts. The inventory fashions can be found in beige, pink, or black (the colour I obtained to evaluation). Must you need one thing else, you too can purchase $10 substitute straps in inexperienced, blue, pink, or orange. 

The watch strap connects with a snap button-type design. That makes it simpler to placed on, however I additionally had points with the sting catching on issues ensuing within the band unsnapping and the watch coming unfastened on my wrist. The band can be pretty giant. I’ve small wrists, sure, however I used the second to final gap. Amazfit lists the minimal wrist dimension as 6.5 inches. So when you’ve got smaller wrists than that, you’ll probably wish to avoid the Band 7 until you don’t thoughts sporting it greater in your arm. 

Though the band could also be a bit lengthy, the watch itself is de facto slim. It solely measures 1.7 x 1 x 0.5 inches, so it seems to be nice, even on my miniature wrists. And it’s low-profile sufficient that the watch face doesn’t get caught on lengthy sleeves. 

The dearth of buttons is both actually nice or actually annoying, relying in your preferences. It was a little bit of each for me. I just like the smooth look of a button-free design. However there have been positively instances when having a button would have been good. For instance, if the watch turns off—both as a result of I flip it off or it goes to sleep after not being worn for just a few days—you need to join the watch to a charger to show it again on as a result of there’s no energy button. I discovered this very annoying, particularly if I needed to come out for a run or stroll. 

Show

Regardless of the price range worth, the watch encompasses a moderately good show. It’s a 1.47-inch HD ​​AMOLED show with a decision of 198×368, 282ppi, and really minimal bezels. I actually just like the slim rectangular design, because it offers sufficient display screen actual property to see issues simply however doesn’t take up my complete wrist to take action. It simply seems to be very nice to me. 

It’s a colourful show and is straightforward to see in most conditions. It’s important to regulate brightness manually, although, which is difficult if the brightness is turned down and you’re out within the solar. You’ll be able to regulate that setting within the app, however that’s a little bit of a ache in case you are on a run, for instance. The display screen is topped with tempered glass and an anti-fingerprint coating. Tempered glass isn’t as sturdy as different choices, resembling Gorilla Glass. But I haven’t managed to scratch the Band 7 show regardless of scratching my dearer, Gorilla Glass-topped Garmin Forerunner 955. 

As you could anticipate, since there are not any buttons, the show is a touchscreen, so you may swipe and faucet by means of menus and settings. It’s a lot responsive; the truth is, I had points with it being too responsive. Once I crossed my arms, there was sufficient stress to activate the touchscreen and enter the menu to alter the watch face. It acquired fairly irritating. 

Sensors

Amazfit fitted the Band 7 with its ​​BioTracker 3.0 PPG biometric sensor. Put merely, PPG sensors use low infrared gentle to measure how a lot gentle is absorbed by blood vessels. This offers a continuing measurement of coronary heart charge and blood oxygen ranges (SpO2). It could actually additionally use that knowledge to calculate and monitor VO2 Max, stress ranges, and sleep. You’ll have to activate settings to robotically monitor SpO2, because it defaults to solely guide measurement.

The watch additionally makes use of a geomagnetic sensor and a three-axis acceleration sensor. It connects to your smartphone by way of Bluetooth 5.2 BLE, and that’s the extent of its sensors and connectivity. 

One of many aforementioned compromises because of the price range worth is the dearth of GPS connectivity within the watch itself. As a substitute, it depends on tethered GPS, which means you’ll want your telephone for all GPS knowledge. That results in some accuracy points in comparison with watches with built-in GPS, particularly multi-band GPS just like the Garmin Intuition 2S Photo voltaic. In order for you your route tracked or want distance knowledge, it’s essential to have your telephone alongside. And even together with your telephone, distance and route data received’t be as correct as watches with GPS. 

Establishing the Amazfit Band 7

Establishing the Amazfit Band 7 is usually easy, albeit a bit tedious. Many of the setup course of is finished in your telephone within the Zepp app (Amazfit is powered by Zepp Well being’s well being administration platform). The preliminary pairing course of with my Samsung Galaxy S22 was very straightforward, with a easy scan of a QR code on the watch utilizing the app. 

From there, nevertheless, issues get a bit of bit sophisticated and quite a bit annoying. It’s important to grant plenty of permissions, greater than some other watch platform I’ve used earlier than. It appeared to go on ceaselessly. I additionally had a extremely laborious time discovering a few of the menus for permissions that the Zepp app specified. It talked about menus that merely don’t exist on my telephone, though it says it’s particular to the telephone producer. Then, if you wish to get notifications in your watch, you need to undergo every particular person app that you really want notifications from. Which, once more, was a bit tedious. 

The Amazfit Band 7’s options

As a price range system, you’d anticipate the Band 7 to be extraordinarily restricted in performance and talents. And whereas it actually doesn’t have as sturdy a characteristic set as a $500 watch, the watch is surprisingly feature-rich for $50. It received’t be a substitute for severe athletes that want extremely correct data and sturdy instruments, but it surely’s greater than succesful for most individuals. 

Battery life

The battery life on the Band 7 is kind of stunning, given the low worth of the watch. The watch presents a 232 mAh rated capability, and Amazfit guarantees as much as 18 days of battery life with typical utilization. It says heavy utilization will lead to as much as 12 days of battery life. After all, all this depends upon your watch settings as properly, because the always-on show and sure settings like stress measuring will eat away at battery life. 

In my testing, I acquired a median of 16 days of battery life. I sometimes do one devoted exercise (both a run or power coaching session) a day with anyplace between half-hour to an hour of length. And I usually monitor just a few quick walks per day on prime of that due to my canine. I didn’t have the always-on show working as a result of I needed to save lots of the battery extra, which tremendously affected how a lot battery life I might get.

When the battery did run out, I used to be capable of cost the watch shortly. Amazfit claims that the theoretical charging length is 2 hours, and I discovered that to be correct. If I wanted a fast top-off earlier than a exercise, quarter-hour of charging would give me sufficient juice to file an hour-long session. The charger makes use of a magnetic design. According to the watch’s design, it’s a tiny charger, making it simpler to deliver alongside on journeys than different watches I’ve used. 

Exercise monitoring

The Amazfit Band 7 can monitor 120 various kinds of actions. That features the fundamentals like outside and indoor working, mountaineering, and biking. But it surely can also monitor badminton, stomach and sq. dancing, leaping rope, jiu-jitsu, and even kite-flying or swinging. Basically, if there’s an exercise you wish to do, likelihood is there’s a singular profile for it on the Amazfit Band 7. 

Monitoring is straightforward, although, by default, the exercise widget (the place all of the actions are) is kind of low within the checklist, so that you’ll must scroll a bit. I believed that was an odd default placement since that’s one of many fundamental causes to get a watch like this. However you may customise that placement within the Zepp app. Then, you merely faucet on Exercise and select the kind of exercise you need. 

Earlier than you begin monitoring, you too can regulate settings by tapping the ellipses above the “Go” button. For instance, for outside working, you may set a exercise objective (miles, time, or energy). You’ll be able to set exercise alerts for various metrics like excessive coronary heart charge or minimal tempo. And you may even set the watch up for interval coaching, which is a pleasant characteristic. 

Information assortment and insights

The Band 7 is pretty restricted in sensors, but it surely presents crucial ones for fundamental insights: a  PPG biometric sensor, a geomagnetic sensor, and a three-axis acceleration sensor. It makes use of these three sensors to gather and calculate coronary heart charge, SpO2, VO2 Max, and stress ranges. 

The watch also can monitor your sleep, breaking it down to provide you insights into how lengthy you slept, REM sleep, and the way usually you have been awake throughout the evening. Whereas it doesn’t apply this data to your coaching, and it isn’t extremely correct, it could possibly at the very least offer you a tough thought of your sleep.

Your coaching data and knowledge present just a few key insights: PAI and Coaching Standing. PAI, or Private Exercise Intelligence, makes use of a easy 100-point scale to mirror how lively you’re, with the objective of holding it at or above 100 to cut back your threat of illness. It’s based mostly on an algorithm that assesses your age, gender, resting coronary heart charge, most coronary heart charge, and collected coronary heart charge over seven days. As a result of an algorithm powers it, it’s dynamic and based mostly on you as a person as an alternative of utilizing generalizations.

Whereas Coaching Standing and PAI are sufficient for many customers, The Band 7 and Zepp app received’t present the in-depth knowledge and insights severe athletes need or want. For instance, Garmin (what I’m most conversant in) offers coaching stats such because the coaching impact of every particular person exercise, energy curves, race predictions, coaching readiness, and coronary heart charge variability (HRV) data. Most of that isn’t related to these merely attempting to remain lively and wholesome, however if you’d like targeted coaching for efficiency causes, the Amazfit Band 7 and companion app probably received’t minimize it. 

Smartwatch options

On prime of all of the health monitoring, the Band 7 offers some smartwatch performance. It doesn’t present mobile connectivity, and there’s no microphone, which limits its capabilities, although that’s to be anticipated at this worth level. However you will get notifications on the watch out of your smartphone from nearly any app you employ. You’ll be able to’t work together with these notifications in any means, however you may at the very least see them to know if it’s one thing essential sufficient to select up your telephone.

Past notifications, the watch additionally offers entry to climate data. And in case you are taking part in music in your telephone, you may management it from the watch. I actually appreciated that characteristic whereas within the fitness center understanding. If a music began in my UE Suits earbuds that I didn’t need, I might simply hit subsequent proper on my wrist as an alternative of needing to select up my telephone and sweatily navigate to Spotify. 

Zepp app

The Zepp app is clear and clutter-free, with three major tabs containing settings and knowledge that you could be want. The Homepage of the app options knowledge playing cards to provide you snapshots of what you most wish to preserve monitor of. For instance, it could possibly present steps, sleep, exercise historical past, train standing, and extra. You’ll be able to customise this, each by way of which playing cards are proven and their order, which is sweet. 

The Well being tab can be customizable, although with far fewer choices. It primarily reveals you a breakdown of your exercises and your goal targets (which you’ll be able to edit). Since all of this may be discovered on the Homepage, it’s a bit complicated {that a} separate tab is required.

The third tab is your Profile, which supplies you entry to settings, targets, related accounts, and extra. It’s additionally the place you entry your units to alter device-specific settings.

The app runs very easily on my Samsung Galaxy, and it’s fast to sync the watch once I make modifications by way of the app as properly. It doesn’t present as in-depth insights because the Garmin app and doesn’t supply the social element Garmin does, however Zepp works properly and offers fundamental and vital data. 

The Amazfit Band 7’s usability and accuracy 

Total, the Amazfit Band 7 is simple to make use of. It has its quirks—resembling an absence of buttons for enter—that make getting used to it a bit of tough at first. However many of the controls are intuitive and simple to determine. The delicate touchscreen is usually a bit annoying however is small within the grand scheme of issues. 

One side that I actually love in regards to the Amazfit Band 7 is that it offers assist textual content on the watch itself for sure knowledge units and options. For instance, underneath Exercise Standing, if you happen to faucet the “i” on the backside of the display screen, a moderately thorough clarification of EPOC pops up. Because the budget-friendly watch is basically geared towards those that aren’t train specialists, these phrases could also be utterly new. Explaining what they imply and why they’re essential proper on the watch is extraordinarily useful and priceless. 

I discovered the watch’s coronary heart charge monitor to be very correct, even in comparison with a devoted coronary heart charge monitor, which is often extra exact. Likewise, the calculated VO2 Max was within the vary it needs to be for me, although I plan on getting a lab check executed for a very correct comparability. 

I not often discover sleep monitoring very correct, and that was the case with the Amazfit Band 7. There have been nights it appeared spot on, however more often than not, it appeared at the very least barely off, and nights it was utterly incorrect as properly. It additionally tends to suppose I’m taking a nap if I take the watch off for quite a lot of minutes.

How the Amazfit Band 7 stacks up towards the competitors

There’s no scarcity of health watches obtainable, with even Amazfit’s personal line of units fairly prolonged. I’ve additionally been utilizing Amazfit’s T-Rex 2. At $200, the T-Rex 2 continues to be fairly a discount in comparison with the likes of a Garmin, although it’s 4 instances dearer than the Band 7. And in most methods, the worth distinction is noticeable. The T-Rex 2 is decidedly extra aggressive wanting and considerably bigger. It’s rather more rugged, having handed 15 Navy-Requirements Exams (MIL-STD-810G) to resist harsh situations. And it comes with extra well being knowledge and built-in dual-band positioning. You get much more watch within the T-Rex 2, albeit in a really completely different model that isn’t for everybody.

Garmin’s health watches are typically one of many gold normal choices for athletes, and the costs actually match that. The corporate has executed a unbelievable job of managing well being and health knowledge to offer helpful and correct data for coaching functions. Amazfit does a pleasant job of offering helpful insights, but it surely isn’t as thorough as Garmin, particularly within the minimal Band 7 watch. Garmin’s watches supply extra sturdy characteristic units and knowledge monitoring than the Band 7, but nonetheless supply battery life that’s practically as a lot because the easier Band 7.

So, who should purchase the Amazfit Band 7?

I need to admit that I used to be pleasantly stunned by the Amazfit Band 7. After completely utilizing pretty costly health watches for the previous 10 years, I assumed that such a budget-level watch can be missing and fewer spectacular. However that was not the case. 

The Band 7 has some massive wins, it doesn’t matter what worth level you’re looking at. It sports activities a smooth design, prolonged battery life, correct coronary heart charge measurement, music controls, loads of fitness-focused options, and a big selection of exercise sorts. After all, with the low worth comes some disadvantages: No built-in GPS, a finicky touchscreen, and an affordable band enclosure design. It additionally doesn’t present as in-depth coaching insights or knowledge in comparison with dearer watches. Consequently, it isn’t nice for severe, targeted athletes in search of particular efficiency enhancements. But it surely presents rather more than the $50 worth would lead you to imagine. 

So who’s the Band 7 supreme for? It’s a unbelievable alternative for these in search of a easy system that may assist encourage them to be extra lively. Not everybody wants entry to race predictions and hyper-accurate tempo and stride data. However the Amazfit Band 7 might help you study extra about train phrases and assist you in holding tabs in your exercise ranges to work towards a more healthy, extra lively way of life. And it could possibly do that whereas functioning as a common smartwatch, making it much more well-rounded.