New Phonak Lumity hearing aids with disposable batteries released!

Just confirmed that you can’t use ActiveVent. Go to 6:20 in Dr. Cliff’s video that I posted above.

Jordan

@JordanK said:

accelerometer steps feature won’t work with disposables. Not really a big deal IMHO.

Is the accelerometer not important?

Well not really, for what purpose can it improve your hearing, the thing is we need better chip sets (quad core) processing speeds, it seems it’ll be AI that could be the game changer at the moment.

@JordanK said:

Basically the Tap Control and the accelerometer steps feature won’t work with disposables

The tap control doesn’t work on the rechargeable version most of the time, either…

Seriously, this is great news! I’ve been very happy with my rechargeable Lumity aids, but I understand how those with more severe losses just can’t make the battery limitations work for their lives. Now they’ve got one more good option than they had before!

I don’t think they use the accelerometer for that. I can only think of two hearing-related uses for it, though I’m by no means an expert:

By default, ‘speech in noise’ and ‘speech in loud noise’ use directional microphones to block out noise from behind and to the sides. You can set it up so that it deemphasizes or turns off the directionality when it senses that you’re walking, then reactivates it when you stop moving. Or maybe that’s the default, I don’t remember. I assume that uses the accelerometer.

The L90s have ‘speech in car’ as part of autosense, which in my experience is reliably triggered automatically when I’m in a moving car, but I don’t know if the accelerometer is used for that or not. The L70s don’t include that program in autosense, but it can be manually activated, so no need for an accelerometer there. I’m not sure if lower levels have it at all.

Too bad there is no tap control feature. I like it, I’m used to it, you can answer to call, stop or start the media streaming without phone. It can also measures steps and active minutes, of course this is unnecessary
Many people complain that the tap control does not work well, but you can adjust the sensitive of the tap control.
I’ll stick with the rechargeable version, even though the battery life isn’ great, it lasts 17 hours on average with 2-3h of active Bluetooth media streaming. Thats the trade-off for classic Bluetooth.

Phonak’s website indicates:

“Motion Sensor Hearing detects when the wearer is moving to optimize hearing in noise on the go.”

I believer the accelerometer is used for a number of listening use cases including speech while walking, speech in the car and maybe very directional modes like speech in loud noise. These are all useful to me and common use cases. It appears that the new version with disposable batteries will be a good option for some people but the rechargeable version still looks like the most premium and feature rich hearing aid in the Phonak lineup. Plus you get the advantage of ActiveVent too, tap control, etc.

Jordan

2 years of use with my paradise and I’ve never had any issues with tap function.

One use for tap control that is often overlooked, and lost on a disposable battery option, is to stop/start streaming. By this I don’t mean Bluetooth (which tap does stop/start) but also the stop/start of streaming from a Roger device.

While watching TV with the Roger TV Connector, I can double tap to stop the stream if I need to hear/converse with others in the room without the TV audio interfering with a conversation. Double tap to connect back to the stream. Without the tap function I have to rely on a slower effort of using an app or getting up and stopping the TV Connector. Not at all a deal breaker, I’d rather have the longer than 15-16 hour battery life, but a mild annoyance nonetheless.

FYI - I use optical audio cabling split from my TV out to both a soundbar and the TV Connector so everyone can hear. The whole “everyone can hear the TV when you’re streaming” is so misguided without understanding how most TVs output audio in people’s homes.

Accelerometers’ assumed incompatibility with disposables isn’t a voltage issue, since there are accelerometers that can run on zinc-air battery voltage. Cumulative battery drain (mAh) as the issue doesn’t add up, since zinc-air is the mAh champion.

That leaves current draw as an issue. But accelerometers draw seriously little current, as shown here:

So I don’t buy the claim that disposable battery aids can’t use an accelerometer.

@Allen said:

disposable battery water/dust resisitance (IP68 rating)?

If Phonak does it like Oticon, water/dust resistance is the same as rechargeable, except for the battery compartment. If the battery compartment gets wet, you let it dry and put in a new battery.

@Jozsef said:

Too bad there is no tap control feature. I like it, I’m used to it, you can answer to call, stop or start the media streaming without phone. It can also measures steps and active minutes, of course this is unnecessary
Many people complain that the tap control does not work well, but you can adjust the sensitive of the tap control.
I’ll stick with the rechargeable version, even though the battery life isn’ great, it lasts 17 hours on average with 2-3h of active Bluetooth media streaming. Thats the trade-off for classic Bluetooth.

That’s what they are telling you, well buy another one how many of the phonak wearer do it, it’s best solution for phonak … ehm you! … if you dont want a second pair of aids then buy a second or third recharger! … also buy a roger micro it will increase the batterylife a bit … for only 1000+ … you hopefully see what the intention of phonak is … phonak seems to be the iphone of hearing aids. I loved them very much when I was younger but now i’m just disgusted about them.

For people like me they did now a battery modell, and of course they want to sell the accu version, that’s why the put in the 312er battery, it could be the colour of the aids on the homepage but it seems that they are thinner than the accu-version, so they could have had easley used the 13 one.
But 13 one is a dealbreaker and can damage their business, and as long as persons with weak hearingloss will buy all this stuff they don’t need to think much about those people who really need them, for those they have old hardware (or the now new Naida for the next 4-6 years)

It’s better for me. The rechargeable batteries in my Paradise P90Rs don’t last long enough each day. That’s been since day 1. Yesterday I charged my hearing aids from 6 to 8 pm. I couldn’t hear I had put them in at 7:00 am. I regularly wear mine for 17 hours but often recharge

These have replacement batteries. Big improvement