Hearing Aids vs. AirPods Pro
Apple has spent a ton of money getting AirPods Pro approved by the FDA and other regulators to work as over-the-counter hearing aids, including providing a hearing test app on the iPhone that tweaks the audio profile on the headphones. This feature is available in a whole lot of countries, not yet including Canada, but, um, … I don’t work there any more so I guess I can say “it’s not too hard to work around that.” So I’ve had my AirPods Pro 2 set up as hearing aids for a few months now and have been trying them sporadically for hearing assistance (and more frequently just for listening to music or podcasts or whatever.)
[…]
The hearing aids cost 25 times as much as AirPods Pro. Are they 25 times better? No. Maybe for some people. Not for me. AirPods might still be good enough in some situations. I have only mild hearing loss, so I’m probably on the edge of hearing aid utility here.
[…]
If you’ve got your AirPods in, it’s totally obvious to everyone, and they all assume you’re listening to music and not paying attention to them. Kind of a stigma there. Conversely, these hearing aids are pretty inconspicuous, especially because they match the colour of the wire to the colour of your hair.
[…]
I already miss the tight integration between AirPods and my phone. Apple is doing some proprietary Bluetooth things that these hearing aids can’t match. The hearing aids do let you answer phone calls or adjust volume by tapping a button, but they’re sure not as tightly integrated as AirPods+iPhone are.
Previously:
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Okay, first I read the link - and it took me two times to get the opening (a joke). I like it! But be aware, the posting is more centered on a specific healing aid versus AirPods as a hearing aid. Good comparison, and my hearing aids, seem comparable to these Oticon Intent ones, but much less in cost. Think 3x what AirPod Pro 2 do.
I'll have to try my AirPods because the tininess of these hearing aids I have, well, suck. But they are much less noticeable than AirPods. And if the audio is anything close to what my AirPod Pro 1 has... yeah, thanks for the link!
