Just broke down an bought a smart phone....

[Mary2014]

Prior to getting hearing aids a cell phone or smart phone was useless as far as I was concerned, because, I could only make out less than 50% of what was being said. That all changed when a friend showed me how her hearing aids worked with a app on her smart phone and how much the new style hearing aids improved her life.


I love that my hearing aids automatically adjust to any environment via my smart phone app. I love that when I receive a call it goes directly to my hearing aids in stereo via Bluetooth connection. My phone can be in another room and I can hear it ringing via my hearing aid Bluetooth connection. All the other stuff is just icing on the cake.

[sprklcl]

Though budget smartphones are good starter phones with a minimum investment to see if having one will work for your needs, my first hand experience with one bought under $200, a Samsung in 2015 (before had basic or flip phones), it had issues soon after day one, poor speakerphone quality with people not hearing me, poor visibility in sunlight, overheated with a particular app, poor picture quality (no image stabilizer), and only 8 GB limiting apps could store as 3.6 GB of that used by phone's operating system. Three years later it nearly died concurrently with a relative's death and trying to talk on it with the microphone hit or miss and had to have my carrier overnight ship me a new better smartphone I bought. One can read the reviews at carrier websites, and overall the lowest end budget phones have the lowest ratings for a reason. As with many products, if I want to save money, I find it is better to buy the product the next step up in quality and price from cheapest. Once test the waters so to speak with a budget phone, suggest getting at least a mid range priced phone to avoid frustrating quality issues.