After losing my Widex after about 5 years, I did some research on what is available and settled on the Philips Hearlink 9050 from Costco (Spain).
My understanding is that they are similar to the Oticon Intent. I am satisfied with most aspects of the hearing aids, however, the Bluetooth connection is very poor as many of the reviews have said. Streaming and phone call quality is not good. I am an iPhone user (13 pro), and am anticipating that Apple will have to include LE Audio in the future, at which point I would upgrade to a new phone.
My question is for those who have upgraded to an LE Audio capable phone - Did you experience a significant quality increase in connectivity and sound quality when streaming or taking a call?
Any feedback much appreciated.
BTW some good aspects of the HAs are:
Speech in noise
General clarity of sound
Listening to ambient music
TV streaming accessory is very good.
I wear the INTENT1 aids and use my Samsung S23 phone. I love the aids as they have literally given me my life back. Connectivity wise I have almost perfect Connectivity with my Samsung S23 phone. I have hands free calls. The double tap works like it was explained to me. I stream ebooks and sometimes music. I am not a huge music fan. I use the connect clip with my Amazon Fire tablet abd my Samsung tablet. I also use the EduMic at times. My main use of the EduMic is with the 3.5mm audio cable for listening to audiobooks.
I gave up on iPhone almost 2 years ago now as connectivity issues were terrible. Yes with earlier Samsung updates I had some issues that caused the loss of hands free but not other connectivity issues. I can live without hands free and honestly never used it when I had the iPhone. My last iPhone was the iPhone 13 mini.
Not true. Either a misunderstanding or being misinformed. But we have beaten this horse to death already so there’s no need to dive into this again, except to point out the misinformation so others reading this statement don’t automatically assume that it’s correct info and perpetuate it.
Is the problem in your phone, your HAs, your environment, or just the technology?
Can you borrow another phone to see if you get a better or worse or same connection? Do you have another pair of aids to see if they connect to your phone differently? Can you spend some time at Costco with a different pair of 9050s to see if they connect better?
Maybe Apple will do a software upgrade to achieve LE Bluetooth and Auracast. The iPhone 13 is not that old yet. Apple may not be the first to jump on new technology, but will wait until they make it he best technology.
Thank you for your reply, that is a good suggestion. I am trying to get a general idea of the improvement that is achieved when going from previous bluetooth tech to LE Audio based on actual experience.