The Mach 7 is Hoka's light, plateless trainer, and it is the shoe for the days with structure: tempo runs, cruise intervals, a half marathon you want to run hard. High-energy foam and a low 5 mm drop keep it quick, and sticky forefoot rubber still grips when you push off a wet road.
What changed from the Mach 6 is the upper, not the ride: the jacquard breathes better and holds the midfoot more cleanly. It suits you if your easy miles already happen in something taller and you want a second pair for the hard days — though a healthy Mach 6 on your shelf is nothing this replaces.
It is not a shoe for volume. There is less cushion here than in a Clifton, which tells on back-to-back long easy runs, and there is no plate to carry you through the closing miles of a marathon.