Professional's Score
Professionals
- Huge show
- Principally premium design
- Easy to make use of
Cons
- Squiffy sleep monitoring
- No sturdiness commitments
- Can’t work together with notifications
Our Verdict
The Huawei Band 7 is a brilliant band that will get loads proper. With an enormous show, a pleasant design, easy software program and dependable train monitoring, it nails the necessities for a comparatively low value.
Huawei has regrouped. It was as soon as on its technique to turn out to be smartphone ruler of the west however following political issues it has now set its sights elsewhere, and goals to turn out to be a best-selling good gadget model.
The Huawei Band 7 is the corporate’s newest try to say a seat on the prime, focussing on vogue and health at a lovely value level. However in a sea of competitors, and with a barely tarnished identify, stealing a march is not any simple process. Does the Band 7 have what it takes, regardless of how low the worth, to face above the remaining and assist revive a flagging model?
Design and construct
- Slim enticing design
- First rate strap color choices
- Very mild
Within the decade because the launch of the primary ever smartwatches, we now have seen a number of distinct product ‘varieties’ come up. Of those, by far essentially the most ubiquitous is the good band’, aka the exercise tracker. Usually costing beneath $50/£50, they provide sturdiness and rudimentary options primarily geared towards health and little else. Producers of virtually all stripes have tried their hand on this bracket, with many making an attempt totally different methods within the course of.
With the Band 7, Huawei has produced one thing that's low cost however not bargain-bucket, premium with out being expensive – and design is a key a part of that.
It’s out there in pink, purple, black and inexperienced, with my evaluate unit within the latter shade. It’s good to have a bit of extra alternative in comparison with a lot of the cheaper competitors, which typically solely provide generic black bands.
The gadget itself is constructed from a pleasant sturdy feeling matt plastic, with a single button on the appropriate facet and varied sensors beneath. At 16g (with out the strap) it's mild on the wrist, and at 9.9mm thick it ought to match simply beneath most shirt sleeves, whereas the strap is a comparatively breathable plastic/rubber composite.
Close to sturdiness, although no nice claims are made for affect resistance or scratch resistance, the Band 7 is rated for five ATM of water resistance. This could theoretically imply it can face up to a swim, even when it'd have to be babied a bit of typically use to keep away from harm.
This apart, the case itself feels strong and nicely constructed, and definitely worth the value of entry for essentially the most half. Sensible bands are by no means going to be thought of essentially the most premium of product classes, however that is one that may move as a watch typically utilization in addition to on a run.
Sean Cameron
Show
- 1.47in display
- OLED
- All the time-on possibility
Display high quality is the important thing to success of any health tracker. Any show used wants to stay legible in any lighting situation, be sufficiently big to indicate vital info and sharp sufficient to learn with out squinting.
By these extremely scientific metrics, the show used within the Band 7 is of fine high quality. That's to say that it will get dim sufficient for use at night time, however fairly vibrant sufficient to fight a very sturdy summer time solar. It's sufficiently huge (1.47in) as to have the ability to present a number of data with out feeling crowded, and although it received’t win awards for sharpness it's extremely legible for essentially the most half. As an OLED display it provides inky blacks and good distinction, although it doesn’t fairly problem one of the best on this level.
An added plus on the value level is the presence of an at all times on show, which does drain the battery significantly however is a substantial high quality of life enchancment. It permits the Band 7 to behave extra as a watch substitute than may in any other case be doable, and is greater than the likes of the Apple Watch SE can provide at roughly 5 instances the worth.
Software program and options
- Huawei’s personal software program
- Notification alerts
- Works with Android and iOS
As a sensible band reasonably than a smartwatch, the expectations from a software program perspective are reasonably decrease for the Band 7 than they may be for the likes of an Apple Watch. Whereas the latter ought to have the ability to perform nearly as a mini-smartphone, a smartband’s main goal is to trace well being info and present the time.
It's a nice shock to see then that not solely does the Band 7 provide fairly a couple of software program options for the worth, however that they're principally nicely thought by means of and fleshed out.
The Band 7 runs a customized working system from Huawei. It isn’t like choices from Apple and different corporations that enable apps to be put in, however as an alternative has a set of choices that may solely be expanded by way of a software program replace direct from the corporate itself.
Fortunately, for essentially the most half this isn’t a problem, because the supplied software program is comparatively absolutely fleshed out. Along with the anticipated suite of health and well being monitoring choices there's a torch possibility, the flexibility to ping your cellphone whether it is misplaced, alarms and extra. Although the likes of the Apple Watch provide choices for music management and extra, it is a gadget focussed solely on the necessities, with a couple of extras thrown in for good measure.
Sean Cameron
Notifications may also be obtained on the Band 7, and given the scale of the display they're simple sufficient to learn though they can't be interacted with in any significant means. I examined the watch with iOS and with Android, and located no points or bugs when interacting with both.
Interactions with the gadget are solely made by means of the medium of the touchscreen and the facet button. The button wakes the gadget and opens varied menu choices, whereas all the pieces else is dealt with by swipes on the show. There are apparent drawbacks to this method, providing bodily controls permits extra of the show to stay usable while you're it, nonetheless in observe I shortly bought used to this management scheme discovering it to not be a problem.
Altering watch faces and the like is dealt with by means of the Huawei Well being app, which is usually well-featured although I used to be dismayed to see a proliferation of paid watch faces out there. In case you are giving this to a toddler or teenager as a present, this may be one thing to observe (no pun meant).
Efficiency and health
- Barely laggy
- 96 sport monitoring choices
- Good for runners
Typically operation, the software program on the Band 7 works nicely and easily. I didn’t expertise many delays in swiping by means of the interface, although opening sure options (i.e. the alarm perform) typically prompted a slight delay – although that is to be anticipated given the worth level. It was by no means an obstacle to utilization.
With respect to health, the Band 7 can monitor coronary heart price, SpO2 ranges, can monitor sleep, provides assisted-GPS for runs (that means it has to hyperlink to your cellphone to plot your route) and has 96 separate exercise choices, masking no less than all the fundamentals. An essential caveat to the above is that whereas it will probably carry out measurements, these won't ever be as correct as a real medical gadget and as such any readings have to be taken with a grain of salt.
That is significantly true of these knowledge areas which are a bit of harder to construct an correct image of. I discovered that sleep monitoring for example was a bit of skew-whiff, reporting wonderful sleep at instances the place this was patently unfaithful.
Fortunately, out of doors monitoring proved to be fairly correct, carefully following our route on varied lengthy walks by means of areas of patchy countryside connectivity. As a consequence, it is a band that can go well with avid runners nicely specifically.
Although this isn’t a tool that may provide the identical excessive degree of precision in monitoring and monitoring as among the larger finish competitors, it additionally is available in at a fraction of the worth. As such, it can definitely be adequate for folks involved in health, if not elite athletes.
Sean Cameron
Battery life
- Two week declare
- Realistically simply 4 days
- Cost cable in field
Of all of the claims that Huawei makes concerning the Band 7, its quoted battery life is among the many grandest. In line with the agency, it's doable to stand up to 2 weeks of utilization with out an excessive amount of effort.
This may occasionally definitely be doable if the gadget is left in a drawer with nothing to do for that size of time, however the determine was positively not reflective of our experiences. With the always-on-display energetic and notifications incoming, I discovered that I may get by means of a strong 3 days of utilization earlier than it was time to plug in. By deactivating these (and subsequently eradicating performance from the gadget) I may stretch one other 3 to 4 days on common.
Whether or not it would be best to deactivate loads of these options for battery achieve will likely be a matter of non-public alternative, nonetheless we suspect that almost all will have the ability to discover a stability that fits their wants.
Value and availability
The Huawei Band 7 is on the market now straight from Huawei within the UK for costs starting at £49.99. 4 color choices can be found: Wilderness Inexperienced, Graphite Black, Nebula Pink and Flame Purple.
You should purchase it from Huawei, Argos, Amazon, and Currys.
Verdict
There are loads of totally different good band choices in the marketplace at present, from small scale Chinese language producers by means of to huge names like Garmin and Fitbit, everybody desires a slice of the pie. Towards this powerful competitors, the Huawei Band 7 provides greater than sufficient to face out.
With beauty, sturdy building, an enormous show, first rate battery life, strong train monitoring (for essentially the most half) and easy software program it makes an incredible first impression. Missing any form of scratch or drop resistance, barely squiffy sleep monitoring and some different niggles preserve it from true greatness, however for the worth it's greater than ok. In case you are on the lookout for a great worth good band at present, the Huawei Band 7 must be close to the highest of your record.
Specs
- Huawei OS
- Huawei Well being app
- 1.47in OLED show
- 96 health/sports activities tracked
- Assisted GPS
- Coronary heart price monitor
- SpO2 monitoring
- Sleep monitoring