A new year means new fitness trackers – also at Huawei. The manufacturer is launching the seventh edition of its in-house device, Huawei Band, which aims to score with many features at a reasonable price. In the test, we clarify to what extent the Huawei Band 7 can trump its predecessor and for whom it is worth buying.

The test of the Huawei Band 7 appears in our Fitness Tracker theme world. We have already tested alternatives there, our list of the best: The top 10 fitness trackers 2022 provides a good overview.

Anyone who picks up the packaging of the Huawei Band 7 will quickly notice that nothing has changed compared to the predecessor. Huawei delivers the fitness tracker in the usual, plain white cardboard box. In addition to the tracker including bracelet, the operating instructions and a charging cable are included.

The design of the band has also changed only slightly in the seventh generation. As with the predecessor, the manufacturer relies on a 1.47-inch (approx. 37 mm) AMOLED touch display in a plastic housing and a silicone wristband. The case has become a bit narrower and longer than the Huawei Band 6, but only marginally (in the range of 0.5 to 1 mm). The plastic buckle on the bracelet has also remained the same, only the connection between the case and bracelet looks a little different. This means that the bracelet itself looks similarly cheap to that of the Huawei Band 6 (test report) , which can be gotten over given the low price.

The display itself, on the other hand, cuts the good figure that is also accustomed to from the predecessor: A high brightness even in direct incidence of light paired with a good response speed for touch inputs. The always-on display is new. Unfortunately, what is still missing is a brightness sensor for ambient light or an infinitely adjustable display brightness – but these are also features that we can do without at the price of around 60 euros that Huawei charges for the Band 7.

Setting up the Huawei Band 7 works just as we are used to from the model series: we download the Huawei Health app, set up an account with Huawei Health and Huawei Services and connect the fitness tracker to our smartphone with just a few clicks. The whole thing is done in a few minutes and worked without any problems in our test.

In order to be able to use the Huawei Band 7 to its full extent, we need the Huawei Health app. We have already examined how the app works in detail in the Huawei Band 6 test, so only this much at this point: The app is clearly structured and can be operated intuitively. We can display all important information such as steps taken, calories burned, activities, training sessions and sleep data in separate charts. We were no longer able to detect any speech errors, as they were in early versions of the app, in the Huawei Band 7.

A new feature of the app are the so-called healthy living plans. Users can select a specific goal here, such as losing weight or improving their own sleeping habits. The app then recommends specific settings for step count, breathing, sleep, hydration, and activities. If you want, you can activate reminders for these individual points. If you achieve the goals of the plan, you collect points for the Healthy Living cloverleaf in the app – a kind of gamification system. If you’re having trouble establishing a good sleep or activity routine, you should definitely check out this feature. In the test, we were quite impressed by the possibilities that the app offers users here.

ATTENTION : The Huawei Health app in the Google Play Store is now obsolete. Huawei offers the current version as an APK for download (QR code in the user manual or via the Health app website ), probably because the company has been banned from Google Play services. In addition, a comparison with other services such as Google Fit is no longer possible.

The Huawei Band 7 is a fitness tracker and accordingly scores particularly well when it comes to tracking activities. It reliably measures the steps taken (the deviations compared to our control device, a Garmin Fenix ​​6, were in the single-digit range, similar to the predecessor). Jerky movements or shaking of the device did not lead to any incorrect measurements in our test.

If you want, you can set a step goal in the Huawei Health app as usual. If we reach the specified number of steps per day, we will receive a notification on the tracker’s display. The app informs us of further details such as weekly and monthly trends as well as the division of steps into walking, running and walking with an incline.

What we missed in the test, as with the Huawei Band 6, is a configurable movement reminder. From a fitness tracker like the Huawei Band 7, we would have wished for a kind of vibration alarm with a notification if we remain in a sitting position for a long time and forget to move in between.

The fact that the tracker again has the well-known feature for measuring oxygen saturation in the blood seems more like a nice gimmick than a helpful additional function. The meaningfulness of these values ​​is limited, which is why Huawei could have saved this tool in favor of a movement reminder.

Unfortunately, Huawei’s Band 7 has an omission that Band 6 also suffered from: The fitness tracker does not have its own GPS. Instead, the band connects to the smartphone via Bluetooth and then accesses its GPS. So if you want to enjoy precise tracking of hiking, running or cycling routes, you have to have your cell phone with you. Alternatively, the tracking also works via the integrated motion sensor without GPS, but this is at the expense of accuracy. The deviation is about one to two percent compared to the measurement using GPS.

Where the Huawei Band 6 scored well, namely in the selection of the available training profiles, the successor is also convincing: There are again a total of 96 different sports, including jogging, cycling, swimming and hiking as well as yoga, archery and horseback riding. The automatic training recognition, which is also on board again, notices when we start an activity, so that we can select the appropriate training profile directly.

What hasn’t changed on the Band 7 compared to the Huawei Band 6 is the heart rate sensor. Although it measures the pulse quite reliably during endurance sports, it has problems as soon as the heart rate changes quickly and frequently. The heart rate measurement is therefore less suitable for tabata or weight training – here an alternative measurement method such as a chest strap must be used.

Finally, the conservative display of the calorie requirement in the Huawei Band 7 remains the same as in the predecessor. Users shouldn’t rely on the calculation, which lagged behind the measurements of our control device ( Garmin Fenix ​​6 (test report) ) in our test. We have already noticed this problem with the Huawei Band 6 and could not determine any change in this regard with the Band 7.

Yes, we’re repeating ourselves, but everything stays the same when it comes to sleep tracking: Just like its predecessor, the Huawei Band 7 measures the times it falls asleep and wakes up with great reliability, as well as the individual sleep phases, which we can then look up as a diagram in the app . As usual, we receive an evaluation of our sleep quality based on the data collected, which may not be up to par with a real sleep analysis, but can at least give a few good indications of possible disruptive factors.

Stress measurement is also on board again with the Huawei Band 7: If we activate the corresponding function in the Huawei Health app, the tracker measures our stress level at regular intervals. The result is saved in the app and processed as a diagram. When the stress level is high, we get a warning and we can also do breathing exercises for relaxation – a nice extra, but nothing more.

We experience a déjà vu again with the notifications on the Huawei Band 7: Everything remains the same as on the Huawei Band 6. In the Huawei Health app, users can set the apps from which they want to receive notifications on the tracker’s display. In the app we can set quick replies that we can send when receiving messages via the watch display. In terms of the notification function, the device is not limited to SMS and calls, but also includes software such as Discord, Whatsapp or banking apps.

Huawei is still silent on the battery capacity of the Huawei Band 7, but states the battery life itself as with the predecessor at up to 14 days. This term applies to normal use, while the tracker should last around 10 days with intensive use. The integrated fast charging function promises enough energy for two days after a charging time of 5 minutes.

We tested the Huawei Band 7 once with normal usage conditions (heart rate measurement active, 30 minutes of workout per week) and then activated all possible functions again to fully exploit the tracker (all measurements and notifications active, one sports unit per day ). With normal use, the tracker actually lasted the promised 14 days. In the second case, with our extremely intensive use, we had to plug the Huawei Band 7 into the socket after five days.

Huawei sells the Band 7 at a regular price of 59 euros, but there was a discount of 14 euros at the time of testing, so you can currently buy the tracker for 45 euros. The colors available are Flame Red, Nebula Pink, Wilderness Green and Graphite Black. In terms of price, the Band 7 is on a par with the Xiaomi Smart Band 7 (review follows), while the predecessor currently has a street price of around 33 euros.

First of all: As expected, the Huawei Band 7 is a very good fitness tracker at a fair price. It offers many useful features, a good display and a usable app. However, Huawei missed the opportunity to introduce significant changes compared to the predecessor, such as GPS tracking or a brightness sensor. While that would probably have pushed the price up as well, it would also have given Huawei users a reason to upgrade to the new model.

At the moment we can only recommend the Huawei Band 7 if you don’t have a fitness tracker or if you only have an older one. Everyone else keeps the Huawei Band 6 (test report) or uses a corresponding model that convinces with the lower price and almost the same set of features.

We show other alternatives in the list of the best: The top 10 fitness trackers 2022 or in the article Test winner: Smartwatches, fitness trackers and sports watches with the longest battery life .