Unitron: An introduction

Time to Read: 10 minutes

This is a transcript of Value Hearing's video with audiologist Emma Russell, talking about the Unitron brand of hearing aid, along with its history and its features. You can watch the video below. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, like, subscribe, comment and share, so you can help us help more people on their hearing journey.

Hi there, welcome back to Value Hearing’s YouTube channel. I'm Emma, a clinical audiologist and in today's video I'm going to talk about Unitron, Unitron hearing aids, and the latest and greatest from them.

First of all, who are Unitron?

Unitron is a hearing aid manufacturer that was originally, and still is in some ways, Canadian. It was then purchased by Sonova who own Phonak, who are one of the big, big hearing aid manufacturers.

There is a bit of a perception in the market that Unitron are like Phonak's “B-brand” sister company. And I do think there was a time in the past where Unitron were the “B-brand”, meaning that they generally got Phonak features a bit later, and their hearing aids were usually priced a bit lower.

A lot of the premium features that Phonak had Unitron, in some some cases, never got access to it. But things have certainly changed in the last few years. 

Unitron is most definitely not what we would consider a “B-brand” anymore and in fact, they are definitely an “A-brand” with the features and the level of technology they're able to offer. They're just quite different from their sister company, Phonak in a number of ways. 

Unitron have quite a different ethos from Phonak. They're very customer-focused,  very person-centered when it comes to their approach.

So, what essentially you can see from Unitron that's quite different straight away, is they've got something called Flex and they've had this for a long time. 

What this means is that a person can purchase a pair of Unitron hearing aids off, say, a midlevel or a lower level, and if at some point in the next three years they decide, ‘actually my lifestyle has changed’ or ‘my needs have changed and I wish that I'd paid for a slightly more expensive hearing aid and got more features or more supporting background noise’, well Unitron are the only hearing aid company in the world that will allow you to then go back to your audiologist and have your hearing aids upgraded just by the use of a code.

You will just pay the difference between the levels and then they'll actually reward you with an extra year of warranty on that hearing aid as well, because essentially the difference between a premium, a mid and a low-end hearing aid is the features that are switched on or off in there.

The hardware, the chipset, everything, is exactly the same but no one else offers this.

I think this level of flexibility is fantastic, especially at the moment in 2020 when we're heading into a recession, it is lovely to be able to think that you could purchase some hearing aids now, and if in the next three years you did need to upgrade them that you could with Unitron.

So, the other thing with Unitron that is good to know, is that their current chip, the Discover Next chip that was released recently, is actually based on their sister company's chip. Phonak ran the Marvel platform on so it was the SWORD chip.

It was so successful for Phonak, and the sound quality and performance from it was fantastic.

Phonak have now moved on to their next generation of chip but Unitron have access to this (SWORD) chip. Just the sheer fact that Phonak's Marvel hearing aid was so good that Unitron are running their new platform on it, really justifies why we would choose that as an option for a client if they want something that we know is tried, true and tested.

What's also quite different about Unitron (compared to) Phonak is all those features that are on offer generally with Phonak -  and with a lot of the other big companies -  which they keep at the more premium levels, Unitron do that as well to an extent, but their lower end technology generally has way more features than anyone else.

Those features may be something that can support you in hearing better in background noise, for example, or in echoey situations, or in wind noise. They have more support at those lower ends with their features.

Some may argue that the overall sound quality of a Phonak hearing aid may be better than Unitron, just because of the way Phonak approaches their processing strategy compared to Unitron, but it's been a very personal thing.

I've noticed within my clients, if they've trialled Unitron and compared it to another, or trial Phonak and compared it to Unitron, definitely the reports are that it is a sharper, perhaps harsher, sound quality but it's such a personal thing.

I have had some clients tell me they preferred that sharper harsher sound quality that they got from their Unitron hearing aids so that wouldn't necessarily be something as an audiologist, that would put me off recommending Unitron at all.

The other really wonderful thing about Unitron as well, is that because they are using the same chip as their sister company, they do have the Bluetooth Classic connection so that means that you can have any phone with Bluetooth within reason, either an Android or an Apple, and be able to stream phone calls and music right to your ears.

So that is something that is fantastic, still quite unique in the industry to be able to offer streaming with any mobile phone. They've got the hands-free connection as well.

So again, if you go for the made-for iPhone technology, wWith the other manufacturers, we still can't access hands-free (on Android) without having to purchase an extra device. 

With Unitron, it is completely hands-free without an extra device, so again something really unique for them.

They also have their rechargeable model, their lithium-ion models as well, and some of them at a really low price point too.

What is different about Unitron, that a lot of people may not realise, that being the slightly smaller brand than Phonak, they actually do get some features first.

There are others where there are “A-brands” and ”B-brands”, but with the Phonak and Unitron relationship, Unitron are actually getting some features before Phonak do, so it's not always exclusive that Phonak that gets access to new features first. Actually, Unitron have gotten a few.  

A good example recently is Unitron actually had soft speech enhancement before Phonak. That's actually been a fantastic feature for Phonak when they released it recently, but Unitron had it before them.

So, don't assume that just because they're the smaller brand that they're not getting access to some of the fantastic technology that's being developed from the research and development team in Switzerland for both of them.

Unitron has teleaudiology support at the moment, so they do have a small amount of asynchronous ability for us to fine-tune your hearing aids -  asynchronous meaning that we can send you a fine tune and you can incorporate that into your hearing aids via the app if you've requested it.

Whereas with Phonak we can in real time see you face-to-face, on screen, and make adjustments.

I've no doubt that Unitron will add that at some point in the future.

That asynchronous support, that ability for us to send a little fine-tuning file to you and you can use it in your own time; at your own convenience, is actually really good and I do wish Phonak had it, so really good to see that that's an option with Unitron.

Another thing that Unitron really prides themselves on, maybe part of being Canadian in their heritage, is that they're super friendly, really good customer service and, like I said very, very client focused.

Certainly, the level of their training they supply to us as clinicians is really high level and their materials are beautiful. You look at their app and their hearing diary and it is so easy to use.

Prior to having apps, Unitron used to have these beautiful brochures and little diaries for clients to keep, and they are just lovely counselling tools and as an audiologist that's so, so important. If you've never had hearing aids before, and it's a first step that you're taking, that can be quite intimidating for some. 

Even after you’ve worn Unitron’s hearing aids for a little while for a trial, we can actually show you on screen where they've been helping you, and how they've been helping you, or what areas you may need more support with.

So, their counselling tools are such a big part of their offering to us (audiologists) and that's something again that certain clients will keep in the back of our minds that Unitron is a really, really good option.

The other thing that's more relevant really here in Australia, than overseas but I'm sure, is  the price point is still really low.

If you're a pensioner here in Australia, you can access the Hearing Services Program, and we've had this list of fully subsidized hearing aids for many years, that gets updated continuously and it is quite basic technology.

But we are very lucky here in Australia. Some of those hearing aids over the years have been pretty impressive in what they could offer, in comparison to what others were having to pay for, but I do think that we've reached a new level.

Now Unitron, just two weeks ago, released a fully subsidised option on that list which is their Discover Next M3 behind the ear hearing aid, which I actually have on my ear at the moment just to show you.

It is fully subsidised. It is basically a Phonak M30 hearing aid inside. It's got all the Bluetooth connectivity and the support in the background noise that you can get from an M30 from Phonak, which is a hearing aid that is very highly respected and cost a lot, so this being on the fully subsidised option is amazing for us to be able to offer our clients.

The only real reason that we would recommend that you would spend more, potentially would be if you do need more support than what it can offer in background noise or if you want something rechargeable for example, or if you want something smaller, you would need to pay extra, but again with Unitron not necessarily that much extra to access some of those features.

But for a fully subsidised hearing aid, this is just so exciting for us in Australia.

So there you go! That is Unitron in a very slight nutshell.

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