Huawei Band 7 review - an inexpensive tracker that can do it all (almost)

The case of the Huawei Band 7 is made of fiberglass-reinforced plastic, which yields a minimal weight of only 17 grams (0.6 oz) without the band, which is one gram more than the manufacturer's specifications. With the silicone armband, the tracker weighs in at 29 grams (1 oz). The case sports a 1.47" OLED display, which is lightly curved on its long axis. Huawei has placed a button on the right side of the case, while the black underside houses several sensors for the heart rate and SpO2 monitors. Two metal charging pins can also be found on the underside of the device. The 16 mm (0.6") wide silicone armband has little levers on the springs and can be changed without any additional tools. The band is kept closed with a classic clasp, rather than a pin, as in the Xiaomi Smart Band. Huawei didn't build in a microphone or a speaker, and there's no LTE version with its own SIM card available.

The Huawei Band 7 is operated primarily through its 1.47" capacitive screen. From the home screen, a swipe from bottom to top opens up the notifications menu, where all incoming messages are displayed and sorted according to app. A swipe from top-to-bottom leads to the quick settings menu, with options for an alarm clock, do-not-disturb mode, smartphone search, as well as an option to activate the display for a few minutes. Sideways swipes lead through tiles with health information, such as pulse rate and blood oxygen saturation, as well as to tiles with the weather, currently playing media on the smartphone, and an overview tile with the usual circles for steps, active time and exercise time. The order and content of the tiles can also be customized by the user.

The Band 7 also has a button on the right that opens the app menu, where the individual applications are displayed as a list. Pressing this button while within an app always takes you back to the home screen, while a swipe from the left to the right edge takes one step back in each menu. The display can be activated both by lifting the watch up and by touching the panel. The Band 7 takes one second to light up its display when you lift it up to your wrist.

There are two widgets for the Health app, both of which provide an overview of steps taken, distance run, and burned calories. Clicking on the widget opens up the Health app.

Given that the Huawei Band 7 lacks a microphone and speaker, telephone calls can't be made with this tracker. The wearable reliably displays notifications, while which apps can push notifications to the band is set through the Huawei Health app. Because the tracker doesn't have its own data connection, a paired smartphone has to always be within Bluetooth range. Although the band cannot display incoming images and emojis, the tracker has fixed short answers, and emojis can also be sent as replies from the watch. The order and content of the short replies can be adjusted via the smartphone app.

The tracker doesn't have a voice assistant. Given that the essential microphone and speaker are both missing, this function can't be added later via a software update, either.

To better analyze the Huawei Band 7's heart rate readings, we compared them to a reference device, the Polar H10 chest strap. The tracker's resting heart rate deviates by 4.6%, while the active heart rate deviates by 3.37% according to three measurements. This makes the band significantly less accurate than Huawei's top model, the Watch GT 3 Pro, although it is significantly more accurate than the much more expensive Honor Watch GS 3.

We also compared the blood oxygen saturation values with a reference device, a Braun Pulse Oximeter 1. Three measurements gave an average deviation of 6.1%, with the watch's readings always lower than those of the reference device. This measurement is new to our testing procedure, so no comparisons to other devices could be made.

The Huawei Band 7's sleep tracking is convincing: the watch recognizes light, deep and REM-sleep phases, while wake times were reliably recorded during our test. The watch itself just displays how long the sleeping time was when you wake up; for the details, it's necessary to consult the Health app itself. There the various sleep phases are displayed graphically, while times and percentages are also provided. The entire sleep period as well as the individual phases are analyzed and the software then provides tips on how to improve sleep quality. Unfortunately, the watch doesn't utilize the sleep phase estimation for a smart alarm. The band can wake you up with its vibrating function, but only at set times and not according to the sleep phases.

Huawei doesn't provide any information on the built-in SoC or the memory. The device runs generally smoothly and stably, although there are slight delays when switching between individual tiles on the screen. Activating the display also usually takes a moment. The tracker is always responsive, although the performance isn't as smooth as by other, more expensive Huawei smartwatches.

The MSRP for the Huawei Band 7 is 60€ ($60). At the time of writing, however, the device was also available at the manufacturer's website for 50€ ($50), with all four colors currently available. Other retailers, however, such as Amazon, also have the fitness tracker available.