In Sickness and In Health: The Amazfit Band 7 Review Verdict: Most users have three demands of their fitness bands: accurate health monitoring, long-lasting battery, affordable price. At a price of INR 3,999, the Amazfit Band 7 wins on all these counts and more

Do Judge A Book By Its Cover

Bright, clear and colourful, the Amazfit Band 7's 1.45-inch AMOLED display is rather easy on the eyes, quite literally—ergo, thumbs up on the display content's attractiveness and legibility. It is also much larger—112 per cent larger, according to the company—than that of the previous generation, Amazfit Band 5. It isn't busy with on-screen buttons (unlike the previous model) or physical side-buttons either. All this is to say that at 28 g of weight, Band 7 has a sleek, neat look that will undoubtedly appeal to no-nonsense fitness enthusiasts and even indulge their presumably reasonable penchant for fun—the device is available in three model colours (black, beige, pink), along with four additional strap colours (green, blue, pink, orange).

Want A Clean Bill of Health?

Given that the band is essentially a fitness tracker, it is thankfully not over-populated with sundry smart features, which might have overshadowed the key health-specific ones: 24-hour monitored heart rate, blood-oxygen saturation, stress level, PAI, sleep and breath quality, and so on. Band 7 also drops you timely health reminders and breathing exercise prompts, in addition to tracking menstrual cycles. To encourage physical activity, it offers 120 built-in sports modes spanning indoor (aerobics, yoga, Pilates, gymnastics, etc.), outdoor (rock climbing, fishing, hunting, skateboarding, etc.), water (swimming, sailing, kayak, snorkelling, surfing, etc.), combat (boxing, wrestling, Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, Tai Chi, etc.), winter (skating, curling, etc.) and leisure (Frisbee, kite-flying, darts, e-sports, Foosball, etc.) sports; board and card games (Chess, Checkers, etc.); dance (ballroom, belly, ballet, jazz, hip-hop, pole, etc.) as well as other activities (archery, equestrianism, etc.).

A Smart Cookie!

The Amazfit Band 7's offerings also include some smart features, the kind that the company's smart-watches are known for: for instance, phone call and text notifications, around 50 interesting watch faces (with some editable widgets), world clock, timer, phone-finder as well as phone's music app and, interestingly, camera app control. Some might seek more smart as well as smarter features (say, the ability to make calls, send emails or download music) but in my view, the band is better off without them. Smartwatches grant you a moment of convenience to operate without your phone; fitness bands, however, grant you a moment of peace to live without your phone.

Moment of Truth

When all is said and done, most users have limited demands of their fitness bands: accurate health monitoring, long-lasting battery, affordable price. The Amazfit Band 7 wins on all these counts: test 3 health metrics in one tap; 232 mAh battery capacity (lasts between 12 and 28 days, depending on use); grade 5 ATM water resistance; Bluetooth and GPS phone connectivity; available at INR 3,499.