Skip to content
HearingTracker
Log in

Seeking Insights on Widex's New Smartric Hearing Aid

This topic is closed.

26 replies4.2k viewsLast reply

Jump
Link to this topic

Does anyone have more information about the new hearing aid device from Widex? I’m interested in learning more about the Smartric model. Here’s the link for reference: Widex Smartric112. Any insights or reviews would be greatly appreciated!

16 people in this conversation7 min readJump to latest

I am on the cusp of getting Moment Sheer 440’s. I looked at the link and it seems to be emphasizing a redesign of the form of the aid plus a big boost in the battery department along with a charger that can hold additional charges for travel, etc. That would be nice… But I wonder how long it will take to populate the Widex ecosystem and what the premium might be for this?

I also wonder if there is any possibility that the new battery charger is backward compatible (like with a Moment Sheer).

Thanks for sharing this.

I note that it does not appear on the UK website (search says 0 results found)
Only an version listed
The rechargeable battery is claimed to last 37 hours
The new portable charger will charge twice as fast as the old ones.
30 mins charge gives 8 hours use, and 5 recharges from the portable unit (although it didnt say whether it was for a Single or a Pair of aids
No mention of a replaceable battery version, or other types like
Looks like early days yet

In reply to @glucas

It’s here A New Shape for Sound: Widex Launches SmartRIC Hearing Aid with New Design for Better Hearing in Noise18

But it’s nothing serious, just seems a redesign, inside it’s the same, it’s also using the Moment App, if it’s like the Signia stiletto and slim from Phonak it’ll be restricted to mild to moderate, it’s weird sure.
I couldn’t find any technical specs tho

Yeah unfortunately from my end of the world I was getting nothing, I used global settings and good to go, thanks.

In reply to @tenkan

@tenkan said:

if it’s like the Signia stiletto and slim from Phonak it’ll be restricted to mild to moderate

The slim and the stylletto aren’t restricted this way? I suppose there’s a bottleneck on how big a custom tip you can fit into the case.

I’m more interested in this than in the new oticon release. I like Widex’s effort to use hardware designs rather than software designs to improve directionality, wind and handling noise.

@Neville said:

The slim and the stylletto aren’t restricted this way?

There not designed for severe/ profound tho.

@Neville said:

I like Widex’s effort to use hardware designs rather than software designs

Your talking about the new microphones or some other hardware, or just the weird shape of the housing.

The weird shape of the housing.

And yes, aren’t generally designed for severe/profound hearing loss.

Edited

As a Moments Sheer wearer I can appreciate the main design change, the new shape makes for better front/back discrimination so the algorithms can better prioritize speech in those modes - a considerable step towards performance like Phonak’s StereoZoom. Likely a bigger pay off would be the ability to cutting wind noise.

The SmartRIC battery life; what Widex is quoting is already what I’m getting from my Moments. shrugs.

The SmartRIC portable charger is new option. A necessary solution for those that find disposable batteries a must for lifestyle/travel.

If I can trial a pair next visit to my HCR I will post an update.

Update: I got a firmware update for my sheer yesterday and the wind-cut noise reduct has improved, massively more effective.

In reply to @Liviu

Just a facelift? I’m in 440 Moments and I’m seeing 2.4 WIFI on these. WIFI.

What? That’s wild. Talk about audio fidelity improvements.

11 sound classes. That’s a ton more sound classes than my Moments 440s.

I’m also curious what the Speech Enhance will entail.

There are some software enhancements!

Oh, wow, I need coffee. :smiley:

edit: still excited for more automatic environmental sensing and speech enhancement.

I just ordered a Smartric yesterday, should be here Friday. This will be my first foray into rechargeable, the portable charging case was the must-have item for me to switch. I’m still leery about what the lifetime of the battery is, though. My current Widex (Beyond 440) is almost a decade old, I just don’t see rechargeables giving that sort of lifespan. In fact, I’m currently wearing my 18 yr old Widex backup aid because the mics in my Beyond went fuzzy a few days ago. There is no way a Li-ion battery is going to tolerate storage for that time period to serve as a back-up aid.

Day one with the SmartRIC - the sound is very good, the iPhone connectivity is flawless, it feels like almost nothing behind my ear. It’s smaller than it appears online, it’s quite slim.

I tried the sound adjustment via the app last night, was watching TV and wanted more TV noise and less “wife cooking dinner” noise. It actually resulted in a profile that worked pretty well.

The portable charger is cool. Not so cool is the obnoxious green charging LEDs that lit up the room at night. Gonna have to put this thing in a drawer instead of my nightstand. I received the aid new with 40% charge. After all the audiologist work, playing with streaming and other “new toy” messing around, I went to bed with 30% charge left. This was 6 hours of heavy use.

One thing that surprised me - most of my life with digital aids I needed quite a bit of custom tweaks for them to work well for me. So far this aid is just right for me with nothing more than my plugged in. I’m fussy, have worn an aid for 52 years starting with analog amps, so the fact this worked out of the box is amazing.

Edited
@JeffBowser said:

the obnoxious green charging LEDs that lit up the room at night.

I’ve put tape over LEDs like this is the past. If I’ve needed the LED for status checking, a slight nick or slit through the tape will often let just a little light out but not light up your room. Some vinyl tape is thin enough the LED light glows through the tape a little.

Hope this helps.

WH

In reply to @JeffBowser

Great to read your update & I agree with your viewpoint on accuracy from set up. When the dispenser follows the Widex set up it’s so accurate now and I haven’t needed any frequency adjustments with Moments, just personalisation.

Related discussions