Huawei Band 7 Review vs Xiaomi Smart Band 7

I recently reviewed the excellent Xiaomi Smart Band 7, and for the past couple of weeks, I have been checking out how the Huawei Band 7 performs in comparison.

Barely anything has changed since last year’s Huawei Band 6, but there are only so many improvements you can make on an affordable fitness tracker.

Huawei Band 7 Specification / Features vs Huawei Band 6

• 1.47 inch AMOLED at 194 x 368 pixels
• Accelerometer sensor
• Gyroscope sensor
• Optical heart rate sensor
• All-Day SpO2 Monitoring
• 5 ATM water-resistant
• 14 days for typical use

The only meaningful difference I am aware of between the Huawei Band 7 and the Band 6 is that the Band 7 has an always-on display and the dimensions and weight are a bit different.

• Huawei Band 7
  • 44.35 x 26 x 9.99 mm
  • 16g
• Huawei Band 6
  • 43 x 25.4 x 10.99 mm
  • 18g

Xiaomi Smart Band 7 vs Huawei Band 7

The only differences between these two bands are the overall design and the app you have to use with it. Essentially, they both have the same features.

Xiaomi has native Strava support, but this can be a bit temperamental, while Huawei lacks it, and you instead need to use Health Sync. I probably have slightly more success with Health Sync than Xiaomi syncing.

Smart Features

Beyond the health and fitness tracking features, you have:

• Music Control
• Notifications
• Stop Watch / Timer
• Alarm
• Flashlight
• Find phone

All of these work perfectly well. I mainly just use notifications, and I seem to get the notifications through faster than I do with my Garmin Fenix. Music control can be handy when I am out walking and want to skip a song.

Health Tracking

The various health tracking features are excellent, and I’d say there is no noticeable performance difference between this affordable fitness tracker and the more premium Huawei watches.

Like all wearables, sleep tracking is moderately accurate, and it can be difficult to work out how accurate they are compared to each other.

The data you get looks impressive, giving you a sleep score and a breakdown of each phase. I would say it roughly resembles what I perceive my sleep to be. As always, it appears that Huawei will set 8 pm as the earliest time you can go to sleep.  

Fitness Tracking

Just like other affordable fitness trackers, including the Xiaomi and previous generations of the Huawei Band, there is no GPS built in. Instead, it will need to connect to the phone’s GPS, and for this to work, you need to make sure the Huawei Health app always has access to your location. I forgot to set that permission on my first run with it, and it didn’t track the map, nor was the distance accurate.

Also, like in previous reviews, there is no official Strava support. This has been improving, you can connect to Addidas and Komoot, and Huawei has reported that Strava is supported with the Watch Fit 2, but it wasn’t available on my review sample. You instead have to use the Health Sync app.

I used the Band for one outdoor bike ride. Unfortunately, I have paused the activity and forgotten to restart it, so the data doesn’t quite match my Garmin Fenix 6 Pro. However, there is still some useful data to compare.

For heart rate, we can see that the Huawei Band 7 struggled with accuracy throughout. Variations in the readings were often an 8-15bpm difference. This is a common issue with wrist-based optical heart rate monitoring vs using a dedicated strap. I have boney and hairy wrists, which makes accuracy even worse.

GPS accuracy appears to be superb, but this is obviously dependent on your phone. It tracked the Garmin almost perfectly, and in two parts of my map it looks like it outperformed the Garmin. It looks as if the Garmin hasn’t sampled the GPS fast enough to detect me making a brief turn.

Price and Alternative Options

The Huawei Band 7 band is available now from Huawei with an RRP of £49.99. Amazon also have it in stock, and it is currently cheaper at around £39.99

The older Huawei Band 6 is £32 on Amazon. Functionally there is no difference, but the slimmer dimensions of the Band 7 may make it worth the extra £7.

The Huawei Watch Fit 2 is around £104.

I’d say the best alternative and the device I’d buy over the Band, is the original Huawei Watch Fit, which is just £52. This has a bigger display and built-in GPS.

The Xiaomi Smart Band 7 is £54.99. This has the advantage of easier Strava integration, but overall I prefer the Huawei Band 7. I prefer the physical design and the Huawei Health app, plus it’s cheaper.

Overall

The Huawei Band 7 is an excellent entry-level fitness tracker. In my opinion, it is a better option than its direct rival, the Xiaomi Smart Band 7, mainly because it is a bit cheaper and I prefer the design.

It is arguably the best fitness tracking band on the market, but the Huawei Band 6 is basically the same and, therefore, better value for money.

If I were spending my money, I’d seriously consider the Huawei Watch Fit over this. I think most people will prefer the larger display and overall aesthetic. It then also has built-in GPS, which makes it significantly better for any outdoor fitness tracking.