At its launch event in China earlier today, Xiaomi launched the Mi Band 7 alongside the Redmi Note 11T series. The Mi Band 7 brings some amazing new features as well as quality-of-life additions to Xiaomi’s popular fitness tracker. In this article, we have compared the latest Mi Band 7 against the company’s previous-gen fitness band, Mi Band 6. If you are a Mi Band 6 user wondering whether you should upgrade to the Band 7, read on to find out. Let’s compare the Mi Band 6 vs Mi Band 7 below.
Display and Display
In terms of the form factor, Xiaomi is sticking to its tried-and-tested Mi Band design with rounded edges on the Mi Band 7. However, you get a larger 1.62-inch AMOLED display this time around, a 0.06-inch increase compared to the 1.56-inch display on its predecessor.
- Display and DisplayOver 100 Sports ModesSports Data AnalysisImproved Battery LifeMi Band 7 vs Mi Band 6: Specs Comparison
The display offers a 192 x 490-pixel resolution with 326 ppi and up to 500 nits of peak brightness. You also get an always-on display on select watch faces. To recall, the Mi Band 6 features a 1.56-inch AMOLED display with 152 x 486-pixel resolution, 326 ppi, and up to 450 nits of peak brightness. For those interested in the numbers, the dimensions of the Mi Band 7 and Band 6 are 46.5 x 20.7 x 12.25mm and 47.4 × 18.6 × 12.7mm, respectively.
Every year, Xiaomi adds new sports modes to its Mi Bands. While the Mi Band 6 offers 30 sports modes, the company has now baked 120 sports modes in the Band 7. This should cover the use cases of most fitness band owners and will come in handy if you’re someone who has a diversified fitness routine. Some of the popular sports modes on Mi Band 7 include stretching, mixed aerobics, tennis, HIIT, aerobics, and kickboxing.
Xiaomi has also enhanced the blood oxygen monitoring feature on the Mi Band 7. You now get continuous blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) monitoring throughout the day with automatic blood oxygen detection every five minutes. You also get vibration alerts when your blood oxygen content goes low.
While it’s nice to have a variety of sports modes, having data is of no use if you don’t take actionable steps to improve your fitness using the provided insights. To help you in the process, Xiaomi is introducing four sports data analysis modes. Through these modes, the fitness band will give you feedback regarding your progress in athletic ability, meaning if you’re exceeding the general limit in an activity, how long you should rest, and goal-oriented training suggestions.
Also, another major improvement this year is improved battery life. Unlike the 125mAh battery seen on the Mi Band 6, Xiaomi has packed a larger 180mAh battery on the Mi Band 7. The company promises 15 days of usage with the Band 7. To recall, that’s merely a day more than promised on the Mi Band 6. It’s possible that adding new features like continuous blood oxygen monitoring could’ve compensated for the battery size upgrades.
To round everything up, here’s a quick comparison between the specifications of the Mi Band 6 and Mi Band 7:
Mi Band 7 vs Mi Band 6: Just an Incremental Upgrade!
To answer the big question, should you upgrade to the Mi Band 7 from the Mi Band 6? It depends on your use cases. Much like the minor upgrades we saw last year in our Mi Band 6 vs Mi Band 5 comparison, Xiaomi has brought incremental improvements this time around as well. Despite rumors, it’s disappointing to see that Xiaomi has skipped built-in GPS support on the Mi Band 7.