Introduction
The Huawei Band 7 is for those who want a smartwatch that is compact enough to wear every day, can be charged for a long time and offers all the basic functionality. And the fact that it doesn’t break the bank makes it all the more interesting.
Available in black, green, pink and red, and priced at €59 / £50, this is one of the more affordable options on the market.
What makes the Huawei Band 7 impressive is the long list of features it has managed to fit into that price tag. It’s waterproof to 50m, only 16g (28g with the strap), supports 96 exercise modes, tracks heart rate, blood oxygen and sleep, displays notifications and has a battery life of up to 14 days. But above all, this is a very comfortable wearable that you will forget that it is on your wrist for hours.
The Huawei Band 7 comes in a simple box with a patented magnetic charger.
Hardware
The Huawei Band 7 is very light, but also very sturdy. The low weight is achieved by not using metal on the case, which Huawei claims is made of polymer materials. You’d be forgiven for thinking that the case itself is metal, as it makes a very plausible impression.
Up front, there’s a 1.47-inch 194x368px AMOLED display. The rectangular shape makes the screen appear larger than it is, while the viewing experience is great – vibrant colors and great contrast. The display is also bright enough for even the strongest sunny days. However, there is no automatic maximum brightness option.
There’s a setting to dim the screen at night, which is a great feature for those planning to wear the Band 7 to bed and use the sleep tracking feature.
There’s also the all-important Always-on display and you have a choice of five watch faces – four digital and one analog.
The glass at the top of the screen is slightly curved from top to bottom and the screen ends on a chamfer where it meets the frame, providing a comfortable, border-free touch experience.
The housing is dark gray on our Black model. There is a single button on the right side of the Huawei Band 7 that calls up the training modes. A second tap brings you back home.
If you look at the bottom of the Huawei Band 7, you can see the optical heart rate sensor and the two pins for the patented magnetic charger.
This is also where you can access the pins to remove the strap. It has its own shape, so you can’t use a standard watch strap. You have to push the pin down to remove the strap, which is a bit difficult to do because the strap bends in the pin. It’s not something we expect a lot of people to do often, so it’s not a problem.
Third-party bands are readily available through online retailers, which is great.
Software, fitness and sleep tracking, battery life
The Huawei Band 7 has a real-time operating system that brings features to the home screen and has no installable apps. It’s not really smart in the sense that you can’t easily extend its functionality.
Instead, a watch screen acts as your app. By default you get a screen for the heart rate, the SpO2 measurement, Weather, Music controls and the activity widget. You can choose which screens to display and rearrange them, but oddly enough, this isn’t done via the screen itself (unlike many smartwatches where long-pressing a screen would allow you to remove or move it). You have to go to the settings menu, which is not intuitive and tedious.
Another problem is that you can’t change the side button’s function, nor add a long-press action.
The Huawei Health app is available through the Play Store, but once you set it up, Huawei will ask you to download the latest version from its website. There is also an iOS app.
There are 10 pre-installed watch faces and over 4,000 via the Health app. Most are of good quality.
But lack of features also translates into simplicity. Once you have set up the Huawei Band 7 or are used to the default state, it will show you exactly what you want to see.
Let’s talk about notifications. You can make the Band 7 show notifications from any app, but you can only reply back in some apps. For example, you can’t reply in Viber, but you can reply in Messenger, and then only with preset phrases like OK, NO, YES, etc. or with an emoji.
Fitness tracking is very robust. You have 96 training modes at your disposal, covering everything this reviewer does. You will receive detailed analyzes during the training. There’s a handy chart that tells you how engaged you are, based on your heart rate.
I did a side-by-side comparison with my trusty smartwatch, which I carry with me every day, and found the Huawei Band 7 to be a little more consistent. While my other wearable occasionally jumped up or down when reading at bpm, the Huawei Band 7 was more stable.
I am confident that the Band 7 was accurate in tracking my progress.
I tracked my sleep with the Huawei Band 7 and again compared it to my tried and true smartwatch. Here the Band 7 was not as accurate.
It thinks you’ve fallen asleep the moment you lie down, while my other watch would correctly track how much time has passed before I actually fall asleep. That resulted in my usual device saying I slept a little over 6 hours, while the Band 7 said I slept a little over 7. That night I slept 6 hours.
The other problem is the seemingly overly exaggerated deep sleep data. One night, the Huawei Band 7 says I’ve had almost two hours, while my other watch kept track of 40 minutes. I was constantly getting a reading of more than 2 hours per night with the Huawei Band 7.
Overall, the Huawei Band 7 gave me excellent sleep scores, even on nights when I know I didn’t get a good night’s sleep. If you are serious about improving your sleep, the Huawei Band 7 will not give you the insight you need and think you are sleeping well.
We end on a very high note, let’s talk about battery life. Huawei claims up to 14 days of normal use. We’ve had 8 days of heavy use – about 5 days with notifications on with an always-on display turned on and 4 workouts. The other 3 days the Band 7 was set to go up to wake the screen, notifications off. We have no doubts that the Huawei Band 7 will last almost, if not 14 days if you just use it as a watch.
Packing up
The Huawei Band 7 is one of the best options for a capable smart wearable at an affordable price. It’s well built, has a solid feature set, and robust health and fitness tracking capabilities.
The battery life is fine, appropriate for this type of device. There is a color for everyone and the price is very competitive. The only strong rival to the Huawei Band 7 is the Xiaomi Smart Band 7, which shares the price and is just as capable. So you have to decide which of these wearables you like best.
Overall, you can’t go wrong with the Huawei Band 7 and we would definitely recommend it to a friend!