I’m wondering if I should hold out for a possible release of a disposable battery version of the new Oticon Intent.
I’m currently wearing Oticon OPNs that I bought shortly after they were introduced in 2017. It’s more than time for an upgrade – I held out last year because of the Intent rumors.
I’m a longtime HA user (previously Phonak). Severe-profound cookie-bite loss. Absolutely need replaceable/disposable batts because of lifestyle (often off the grid, heavy phone/streaming use) and the need to quickly swap out a dead batt without waiting even half an hour for a recharge. In Apple ecosystem for phone, iPad.
Wondering if I should just go for the Reals, as I’m worried I’m on borrowed time with my OPNs. Would appreciate any thoughts!
My guess is, eventually, they will provide their intent HA with disposable batteries, my thinking is, they’ve got 4D Sensor technology which is new, and they more likely want to bring it to the mass.
For when, I am not sure, maybe the same time-frame as the Mores/Real.
Everything that i have read and the few people i have talked to that have the INTEND all say that they are a game changer for peope that have issues with speech in noise. They may not be that big of an important for mild to moderate hearing loss or for people that don’t have problems with speech in noise.
I’m giving my new Intent models their speech in noise workout in about two weeks and will be posting a review. I can’t help the individual asking about a battery version of Intent but I can say I found the rechargeable Real units quite good as hearing aids.
I’m a lot more hopeful about Intent coming out in conventional battery version now that Phonak has released a conventional battery Audéo Lumity.
As for incorporating an accelerometer with conventional batteries, I’ve posted why I believe it’s not ruled out by reasons of voltage, current, power consumption, or parts availability. But if Oticon doesn’t do it anyway (because they use some assembly in common with other manufacturers, say, as someone alluded to in another thread), then it would seem that Intent wouldn’t be an apt name for the resulting product. It would be missing two of the “dimensions”, head movement and body movement, in the “4D” construct that Oticon uses to promote the Intent.
There is a part of me that loves the conventions of rechargeable hearing aids, and a part of me that wants the conventions of disposable batteries. I have even mentioned it to my audiologist. When my wife and I are out on our road trips it would be nice having disposable batteries for quick changes of the batteries while traveling. But haiving the smart charger makes things more convenient than the desktop charger. One of the reasons i am giving the INTEND a thumbs down is no smart charger.
My 2 cents is to go for the Intent and not settle for the Real. Even if you might not find the Intent performance to be much different than the Real (but you might also find it significantly better as well), the Intent also has the BT LE Audio that the Real doesn’t have. There are some Android phones already with this feature and the iPhone will eventually support it, too. It looks like you’re the type who doesn’t upgrade your hearing as often as other people, so you’d want to future proof your next aid as much as you can.
As to whether to wait for the disposal battery version or not, if your OPNs are still working fine, and you do have a backup pair available, I would wait. But keep in mind that there are some improvements in the charging aspect of the Intent that should factor into your consideration. You get a full 20 hours of use for a 2 hour full charge, 16 hours of use for just 1 hour of charge. So topping up midday should be not necessary, but even if so, it’s faster than before. The batter longevity is also extended from 3 years for the Real to 5 years for the Intent.
Not having a SmartCharger with built in batteries is not a big deal because there are plenty of portable power bricks that can give you a lot more juice than only the 3 full cycles like you can get out of the SmartCharger. The hindrance before was that the desk charger’s power cord is tethered to the charger and can’t be removed. This new charger’s cord is removable, making the desktop charger a lot more easy to pack for travel. Just throw the power brick, the removable charging cord, and the charger in your bag and you’re good to be on the go.
I appreciate everyone’s answers. I asked my audi today if he’d heard any news. He said rumors say August…but that’s rumor. So the question is whether I try to play things out with my aging OPNs.
Volusiano: your specifics about the battery address some of my concerns, tho’ I’d still prefer replaceables. I’m going to ponder this. One concern I have is that we are sailors and can be on a boat for a couple weeks. I can’t quite visualize the charger (I’ll try to look it up) but do you have any idea if that could be plugged into a 12V cigarette-lighter-style plug? Or into a USB plug? (We converted some of our old 12V to USB receptacles for our cell phones.)
If I was you, I will stick with disposable batteries, even if you have a PV panel above the boat, no guaranty it’s going to be all sunny in the open blue.
There are plenty of these adapters on Amazon. The end of the charging cable going to the power source seems to be USB-A going to the power. The other end of the charging cable going to the charger seems to be USB C. You can probably forgo the supplied cable and use your own USB C to USB C cable as well if you want, since the USB C connection is fairly universal by now.
Haha, at least the sudden sound stabilizer and the wind handling feature (already in the Real) would come in handy, along with the IP 68 rating. Maybe wear a band over the hearing aids so they don’t get knocked out by splashing water.
I find it hard to visualize someone changing out conventional batteries in those conditions.
That said…how often are most people who wear hearing aids in those conditions?
if you answer, ‘well never…’ rechargeable aids may work for you after all. Our worst nightmare scenarios rarely or never arrive. We can’t live our lives based on our worst nightmare scenarios.
Ha! One description of sailing is long hours of boredom interrupted by moments of sheer terror.
It’s those long hours that concern me…if I’m in the cabin, I might spend hours streaming audiobooks. And because I have severe-profound loss, I assume I’m drawing more battery power anyway.
Volusiano – thanks so much for the images. The separate USB cable might work. Guessing it might take longer to charge but with the longer operating time you mentioned, that might not be an issue.
Is there any info about what happens at end of life for the battery? Let’s say you get to the 5 year point. What happens then? Do they suddenly die? Do you get a warning…like shorter use times?
Not sure why you think that the separate USB cable might take longer to charge? What matters is that the source you use to charge must meet the minimum current requirement of the charger, which is 500 mA, as specified in the manual. A 5V output delivering 0.5A current is only a 2.5 W draw, very minimal. Even the smallest 5V power sources usually deliver at least 1A of current anyway.
For this small amount of current, most USB cables will suffice and will not cause the charging time to be slower than specified.
As to what happens at the end of life for the battery, yes, usually you will start noticing that your hearing aids won’t last 20 hours with a full charge anymore toward the end of its life. Maybe you’ll get 16 hours out of a full charge by then (only a guess here, could be more, could be less than this). So you’ll have plenty of time to send them in for new battery replacement toward the end of its shelf life.
Normally hearing aids carry a 3 year warranty. Usually, many HCPs are willing to do a warranty claim for you close to the end of your warranty period to get you a new pair of aids, even if your old ones are not broken yet. This practice may depend on the HCP, but mine did that for me on my OPN 1. So if yours will do it for you, you should ask to have new Oticon Intent aids replacement before the 3 years is up, thereby having your built-in batterie refreshed automatically as a result for another 5 years, totally 8 years before you have to worry about battery replacement again (or upgrade to a new generation of aids by then).
The screenshot below is from the Intent charger manual about the power requirement:
