In November 2020, Olive Union unveiled its latest smart hearable device – Olive Pro. The new “2-in-1 hearing aids and truly wireless HiFi earbuds” were designed to look like conventional Bluetooth earbuds.
The Olive Pro is considered an FDA class II medical device, like other hearing aids, but is available direct to consumer. With a retail price point of $299, they are much less expensive than traditional hearing aids.
After a highly successful Kickstarter campaign, the devices finally became available for sale in September, when we had the opportunity to test them out ourselves.
First Impressions
Compared to the previous Olive Smart Ear, the new Olive Pro devices were found to have a sleeker look and a form factor design, similar to Apple’s popular AirPods.
Aside from the black interior of the Olive Pro charging case, it could be easy to mistake them for AirPods Pro at first glance – as shown below:
Olive Pro compared to AirPods Pro devices
Thanks to a new, more pliable material used on the earpieces than in the company’s earlier Smart Ear device, the Olive Pro was found to be very comfortable to wear for extended periods of time.
A wide range of eartip sizes allow the earbuds to be fit to a variety of ear canal sizes comfortably without issue.
With 7 hours of battery life per charge, and an additional 2 charges in the portable case, we didn’t have any issue with the devices running out of juice too quickly — whether streaming music or using them for situational hearing enhancement.
The overall sound quality was found to be a significant improvement over the Smart Ear, more in line with what one would expect from premium wireless earbuds. Sound and hearing customization could be easily conducted via an intuitive app interface.
Technology and Features
The Olive Pro devices come with a number of features found in premium wireless earbuds, including:
- Bluetooth 5.1
- Auto pairing
- Customizable touch control
- Proximity sensor
- Low latency
- IPX 4 water resistant
- Voice assistant support
- USB Type C fast charging support
- 20 hours battery life (up to 7 on a single charge)
Sound enhancement features include:
- Advanced hearing test and personalized hearing calibration
- Voice enhancing noise reduction
- Preset hearing modes
- Customizable passthrough audio
- Active noise / feedback cancellation
- 10 band EQ for hearing aid and HD music
- Multi-band wide dynamic range compression
- Two multi-directional microphones
- Mild to moderately-severe hearing loss coverage
Sound specifications include:
- Hearing Frequency Range: 125~10,000 Hz
- Music Frequency range: 20Hz~20,000 Hz
- Maximum Sound Pressure Level: 110 dB SPL
- Average Sound Pressure Level: 103 dB SPL
- Maximum Gain: 47 dB
- Average Gain @ 50 dB SPL: 40 dB
- Dynamic Range: 108 dB
- Channels/Bands: 64
My Olive App
The My Olive app is an easy to use app that can help control and customize the sound of the Olive Pro buds via a simple to use interface.
My Olive app is available for iOS and Android
The app provides:
- Real-time Noise Monitoring
- Surrounding noise can be monitored in real-time and allow users to avoid noisy environments to help prevent further hearing loss.
- Hearing Health Management
- Track your hearing habits and patterns to stay on top of your hearing.
- Personalized Hearing Profiles
- Users can customize their listening experience with the My Olive Hearing Test, frequency equalizer, and other customizable settings.
Verdict
In a modern, true wireless earbud form factor, Olive Pro offers wearers premium sound for streaming music, calls and audio, as well as situational hearing enhancement.
At a low $299 price point, the new Olive Pro could serve as a good option for those seeking situational hearing enhancement, but maybe not quite ready for traditional hearing aids.
Readers interested in learning more can check out the company’s website here.
