Aktiia Hilo Blood Pressure Monitor Review: Cuffless BP Tracking

Like the Omron Evolv ($75), the humor unit cuff has the electronics embedded successful the cuff itself. That tin marque it a small awkward to use, particularly if you don’t person a peculiarly large arm. Aktiia besides instructs you to usage the cuff connected the other limb from which you’re wearing the band. You besides can’t usage third-party BPMs to calibrate the cuff, to guarantee Aktiia’s touted accuracy. (The Hilo was FDA-cleared successful 2025, has been tested and reviewed successful aggregate clinical-grade studies implicit respective years, and meets the ISO 81060-2 modular for validating the accuracy of humor unit monitors.)

A regular BPM cuff measures your humor pressure, oregon however hard the humor presses against your vas walls, by inflating the cuff to temporarily halt humor flow. Your doctor, oregon nowadays a integer oscillometric detector, past listens for erstwhile the humor stops and starts flowing successful your veins; the highest measurement is your systolic BP, and the lowest your diastolic.

Instead of applying unit to your humor vessels, the Hilo set uses the aforesaid photoplethysmography (PPG) optical sensors that are already successful astir fittingness trackers to analyse the pulse signifier of the arteries nether your skin. It past uses its proprietary algorithm to measurement your humor unit aggregate times a time erstwhile you're astatine rest.

Nighttime Measurements

Continuous humor unit monitoring, particularly portion walking, sleeping, oregon lying down, is the golden modular for assessing your cardiovascular health. If your humor unit doesn’t spell down portion you’re sleeping, that’s a beardown indicator that you mightiness person cardiovascular disease. Unfortunately, it’s truly hard to unbend if thing is repeatedly squeezing your limb portion you’re trying to sleep.

If you don’t already cognize you person hypertension, it’s conscionable not a happening that galore of america mightiness deliberation to check. I person fantabulous humor unit whenever I spell into a doctor’s office, truthful wherefore would I inquire if I tin instrumentality my humor unit lying down oregon overnight?

The Aktiia Hilo is highly adjuvant due to the fact that I tin spot my humor unit dropping portion I sleep. It besides takes the mean of your BP measurements passim the day, alternatively than spot-checking astatine intervals. Some people, similar my husband, person debased humor unit nary substance what they do. Mine tin spike if I work the incorrect email, if I’m somewhat dehydrated, oregon if my ankles are crossed erstwhile I’m measuring it.

I cross-tested this with the Withings BPM Vision and recovered that the results tallied; still, it’s bully to beryllium capable to measurement without taking 30 minutes retired of your time to beryllium and prepare.

Now that the Apple Watch has improved its artillery beingness and you tin deterioration it for 24 hours a day, it tin besides show your humor unit astatine night. (The caller Whoop set besides purports to connection hypertension notifications, but it is notable that the Whoop has not attempted to wide the diagnostic with the FDA.) But the Apple Watch tin lone look for patterns implicit a play of 30 days. It doesn’t connection accordant systolic and diastolic readings that your doc tin check.