With superb walking accuracy (both in step counting and distance) and great battery life, the Amazfit Band 7 is an excellent fitness tracker for anyone on a budget. However, some trade-offs come in the form of poor heart rate monitoring and limited functions for interacting with a community.
We assessed the fitness impact of the Amazfit Band 7 by evaluating the accuracy of the GPS, elevation tracking, walking and step tracking, distance precision, cycling tracking, workout tracking, the ability to autodetect walks and runs, and the ability to interact with an online community.
The Amazfit Band 7 doesn't have built-in GPS or an altimeter. Instead, it relies upon a connected smartphone to record the route of an activity on a digital map. It also determines elevation gain and loss from the recorded map, which works, but it isn't as accurate as a device that has a barometric altimeter.
Step accuracy is a strong point of the Band 7: the error rate is less than 0.2%! Distance accuracy is also very good, with an error rate of 4.7%. After our first run, the Band 7 prompted us to calibrate it, further improving accuracy.
Walks are consistently autodetected by the Amazfit, but tracking for any other activity has to be initiated manually through the device.
While the Band 7 recorded basic cycling metrics and the screen is easy to view while riding, it is merely adequate in this respect. The Band 7 does much better as a general workout tracker, although you can't view much data at the moment beyond time elapsed, calories burned, heart rate, and heart rate zone. Our lead tester also wished it was possible to set intervals on the device in the interest of comparing cardio exercises.
We really liked seeing the variety of tracking options available with the Band 7; there are 120 different activities available, including dance, parkour, rock climbing, skateboarding, and fishing. The downside is that, in some cases, there wasn't enough data gathered or displayed to distinguish one activity from the next. For example, in rock climbing the Band 7 only captured total time, calories, and heart rate; we would like to see elevation gain and route count.
There aren't many options for connecting with others in the fitness community through the Zepp app. It is possible to easily connect with friends and family, but there aren't options for joining challenges, and data sharing is quite minimal.
In our analysis of health impact, we determined how well the Amazfit Band 7 measured heart rate, tracked sleep, offered diet tracking, and measured other health indicators.
Heart rate monitoring is a fundamental characteristic of fitness trackers, and in this area the Amazfit is lacking. In our testing, it took the longest to adjust (up to 30 seconds!) to changes in heart rate, and it was often several beats off.
We were also disappointed by the absence of diet tracking in Band 7. It calculates BMI based on user data and indicates calories burned, but there is no way to track food intake.
There is a range of additional health indicators available with the Band 7, such as stand/inactivity reminders, menstrual tracking, stress detection, and a personal physiological activity indicator reading (PAI). The PAI seems like an effective tool for the user since it summarizes health data and is a quick way to touch base on whether you are improving or decreasing fitness. We also like the ability to initiate blood oxygen, heart rate and stress testing with “one tap”. We did have a little bit of an issue with the standing reminder timer, which we couldn't adjust beyond the default setting.
Sleep tracking is another fundamental tool for fitness trackers, so we were disappointed when the Band 7 failed to accurately track our wake-up times. The app provides clear information on sleep data, however, and is useful for someone who needs straightforward feedback on their sleep habits and doesn't want to get too granular with data. We also appreciate that there is a “sleep mode” setting on the Band 7 so that it doesn't light up and disrupt sleep or allow notifications. Overall, we liked the Band 7 for sleep tracking; if it could better capture wake-up times, it would score much higher!
We assessed ease of use based on the setup process, the associated app, the wearability, the display, connectivity for uploading, notifications, and wallet function. We also evaluated subscriptions and water resistance.
The Band 7 was straightforward to set up and get rolling; the app interface is also easy to understand and fairly intuitive. Using the Zepp app, you can set up the home screen to show the most valuable data to you. There aren't any detailed charts and graphs, but you do get clear sleep data, and the PAI provides good general insight into physical well-being.
The Zepp app works well and is easy to navigate, but you also can't go into much detail on data or analysis. We do like that the home screen has four tabs that provide quick access to the items you need most (Home, Workout, Sleep, Profile).
The catch with the simple interface is that it lacks advanced customization options. The associated Zepp ads for its premium service can also be a bit annoying. While some promotional content appears on the home screen, you can customize and hide these elements. There's a slight learning curve with the app's unique terminology (like understanding PAI), but it's not significantly different from the learning processes of other fitness trackers.
We had a few issues with the wearability of the Band 7. The thing was hard to put on! It has great battery life, though, so it is likely that you won't need to remove the tracker very often, but it also catches on backpack straps and jacket cuffs. We like to think that a good fitness tracker should be fairly unnoticeable to the user, so the Band 7 scored below average in this metric.
The menus on the Band 7 are easy to navigate. Extended settings can be accessed by pulling down on the screen, and settings are straightforward to adjust. Swiping left accesses notifications, while swiping right opens a customizable quick access menu. In addition, you can set up Alexa and activate functions using the integrated mic (but there isn't a speaker for Alexa).
The display is responsive to finger taps for starting and stopping workouts, as well as scrolling, but when it came to inputting specific information, like a birthdate, our lead tester was so frustrated that she settled on an inaccurate date rather than persevere (and she is a very patient person!). In fact, she wished there were buttons, which “she would use for selecting things over using this touch screen any day.”
The Band 7 offers a decent degree of connectivity so that you can receive texts, answer calls, and share workouts with apps and services such as Strava. (With an Android phone, you can take advantage of quick text replies.) We found it pairs easily with iOS and Android smartphones. You can't initiate calls or texts from the device, but we found it to be much easier to read texts than some of the smaller trackers in our lineup. There is also a wallet function, media controls, and various alarm and timer functions.
We didn't experience any issues with exposure to water and didn't observe water accidentally toggling any features, which we have seen in other budget fitness trackers.
You can use the Band 7 without a subscription, but there is ad content for Zepp Aura Premium and adjacent apps (which involve subscriptions). We admit that we found these ads to be annoying when we were navigating the Zepp app.
The battery performance of the Band 7 is one of the characteristics that we liked the most. Not only does the battery last a long time (in typical use it will last 18 days, while in heavy use it will last 12 days), it also charges in 1.75 hours. The Band 7 also passed our three-day weekend test without charging and had the power to spare. Of course, the number of activities makes a big difference to battery life, but you can head into a long weekend and be pretty sure that you won't need to recharge.
We also liked the strong magnetic connection of the charging cable; it is unlikely that the cable could be dislodged. When charging initiates, you get a little vibration, and the screen lights up with the battery percentage.
The Band 7 comes in 1 size and five color options. It is possible to change the watch face with downloadable options, and you can upload personal photos for the watch face as well.
Our lead tester couldn't quite get the band to fit her fully, and while wearing it she was aware of slight pressure from the screen on her wrist. She could also feel a pressure point from the sensor hub underneath. That being said, the Band 7 was still reasonably comfortable.
This tracker is our best buy of the entire fitness tracker lineup. It offers a lot of value and has solid fitness tracking capability. That being said, it lacks the accuracy and rich features of some of our more expensive options, so it isn't the right tracker for someone needs a high level of accuracy for training for athletic events and options for diving deep into fitness data.
