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HEARING TEST IS SENSITIVE TO NOISE AROUND YOU Next, find a quiet location and snugly place the AirPods in each ear. This proved frustrating when I attempted to take the test in an otherwise

empty Manhattan office. Though I moved as far away from windows as possible, I repeatedly got the message that “too much noise” was in my environment, which I suspect was caused by the

barely audible building air conditioning. Even after I finally found a quiet enough spot, I had to fiddle with the AirPods’ fit. It didn’t seem to matter that they felt comfortable in both

ears and sounded fine when I played music. I swapped ear tips — four sizes come in the box — but still didn’t seem to satisfy the fit requirements. After trial and error, I finally met the

conditions to start the test. The phone automatically turns on its Do Not Disturb function to curtail distractions. During the test, tones play at different volumes and frequencies, each

pulsed three times. Starting with the left ear, you’re asked to tap the screen whenever you hear the tones. Apple says it’s OK if you miss a tone since you’ll have a chance to hear it again.

The test paused a few times because background noise was detected, but I was always able to resume. After the left ear was done, I repeated this exercise with the right. CAN YOU TRUST THE

RESULTS OF THE HEARING TEST? This first test result indicated that I had “little to no hearing loss.” Apple provides a personalized hearing profile or audiogram, which the company says is

validated against “the clinical gold standard or pure tone audiometry” and based on hearing loss classifications from WHO. If you already have a hearing test from an audiologist, you can

scan it into the Health app on the phone, which is where the audiogram Apple generates is also stored. I wasn’t convinced the results were spot on because of my experience in noisy

restaurants or crowded rooms where I sometimes have trouble making out certain voices, typically female. Plus, those pauses during my test gave me pause. Apple generates a personalized

audiogram based off hearing test results with AirPods Pro 2s and the iPhone. AARP Indeed, I took the test two more times in the office and the results came back as “Unable to Classify.” It

seems the background noise raised questions around accuracy. I took the test again at home where I had a much easier time finding a quiet room and getting started. I was more confident in

results that indicated at 26 decibels (dB) I had mild hearing loss in my right ear and at 23 dB, little to no loss, in my left. Apple uses the abbreviation dBHL, which stands for decibel

hearing loss or the number of decibels below which you have trouble hearing.