Step up your fitness game: Xiaomi 7 is the best Smart Band for your budget

Anyone who has undertaken any sort of regular exercise over a lengthy period will tell you about the “high” that comes with the release of endorphins, something that is good for both your mind and body. This, along with the obvious health benefits, means that an increasing number of people are taking better care of themselves. As more people place a greater focus on their health, so the need to track daily activities and training has grown in importance.

A generation ago, such people would have required the services of a personal trainer to achieve their goals, someone who was paid to keep track of their client’s training and health efforts. 

Of course today, with the huge proliferation of smart bands, people are able to wear a fitness tracker that serves as the equivalent of having a personal trainer on your wrist. This is especially crucial in today’s fast-paced, work-from-anywhere environment, as getting to the gym is not always feasible — but with a smart band, it becomes much simpler to find time to exercise, wherever you are. 

Xiaomi Smart Bands have long been recognised as being among those fitness trackers that hit the sweet spot between cost efficiency and capability. With this in mind, the new Xiaomi Smart Band 7 offers even more features than previous models, but at the same reasonable price point: the recommended retail price is R999.

So, what is it about the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 that is so much better? Why should even the least-exercise conscious person get excited about this newly launched gadget?

To begin with, it has a large 1.62" AMOLED display, which makes controlling it and reading the screen much simpler, especially as everything is presented in detail and at high resolution. The size of the screen is also larger than its predecessors: in comparison to the Xiaomi Smart Band 6, this equates to 25% more viewing area, while delivering 100 levels of brightness adjustment. The new display also hits 500 nits maximum brightness, 50 nits more than the previous iteration.

However, undoubtedly the most noticeable display improvement can be found in the form of an always-on mode. This feature has been added to enable users to be able to see the time, or other crucial information, without the need to first tap the screen.

In fact, every user interface has been improved via a redesign, ensuring that vital information and numbers stand out to the user, as the interfaces are clearer and easier to read. It’s also worth noting that the new band has quadrupled the number of sports modes it offers, up to 120, compared with the 30 offered by the Xiaomi Smart Band 6.

More to the point, this band can help anyone — from the fitness obsessed to the couch potato — to keep track of their health. For example, blood oxygen saturation (SpO₂) is a key indicator of a person's overall health as it determines the oxygen levels in the bloodstream. The new band is designed to provide a vibrational alert to warn wearers if their blood oxygen level falls too low, protecting them from a potential health risk and warning that it may be time to seek professional medical advice.

In addition, the band tracks users’ real time heart rate throughout the day, and is able to present the data precisely, in easy-to-read graphs. As with oxygen levels in the bloodstream, the band is designed to vibrate a warning, should their heart rate not fall within what is considered the “safe zone”.

And what about at night? Well, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 also monitors sleep patterns and provides accurate and finely detailed statistics about the various phases of sleep — including deep, light and rapid eye movement (REM) — to help users determine their individual sleep quality.

Additional areas the device is designed to monitor include assisting women to look after their unique health requirements, personal activity indexes, stress level monitoring and even deep breath exercises.

As for those whose love swimming, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 has a water resistance of 50m, and can be used in pools or while snorkelling, improving the former by offering intelligent recognition of the four most common swimming styles.

Best of all, the new device comes with an ultra-long battery life estimated at around two weeks for normal users and nine days for heavy exercisers, yet its charging time is only about two hours. 

So, whether you are someone who is super-enthusiastic about fitness and exercise, or one of those people who prefer to watch it, rather than undertake it, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 offers you the opportunity to join the digital revolution. This is a smart, functional and fun device that will help you monitor your fitness and health with ease.

This article was paid for by Xiaomi.