Phonak Infinio Sphere versus Oticon Intent hearing aid comparison

These are two of the best hearing aids in 2025. Often, my patients ask for my input to help decide which hearing aid they should buy. Besides the technology, there are other factors such as the profile of the hearing loss, lifestyle and so on in play, so this is not an easy question to answer. In this article, I will provide an unbiased comparison between the Phonak Infinio Sphere and the Oticon Intent hearing aids. Please feel free to leave your questions at the end of this page or contact me if you have any questions.

Related articles:

• Is Oticon Intent the best hearing aid of 2024?

• Phonak Infinio Sphere: all you need to know about it.

Common ground

Phonak Sphere and Oticon Intent hearing aids are both:

• Good for mild to profound hearing loss, starting from fitting with silicon domes up to minimoulds and full earmoulds.

• Both use artificial intelligence (AI) and deep neural networks (DNN) for improving the understanding of speech in noisy spaces.

• Water and dust resistance up to IP68 with double coating for extra protection.

• Both come in a rechargeable model only.

For a better comparison between Phonak Infinio Sphere and Oticon Intent hearing aids, I will compare them in 6 different categories:

1. Speech intelligibility in a noisy environment

2. Natural sound and music

3. Form factors, severe to profound, ALD

4. Connectivity, Bluetooth, LE audio, Auracast

5. Battery life

6. Vanity, size, colours

	Phonak Infinio Sphere	Oticon Intent	Discussions
Speech intelligibility	Deepsonic chip in Phonak Sphere also uses DNN, trained with 22 million sound samples, performs 7.7 billion operations to separate speech from noise. It offers 10 dB SNR improvement. Phonak Sphere is intentionally designed with two processors for hearing better in a loud, noisy background. The DEEPSONIC chip is switched off until the noise floor is up to a certain dB, then the ERA chip (the main one which is always on) gives it the signal to do the noise control processing through DNN and AI.	Oticon Intent uses DNN 2.0 trained with 12 million sound samples, uses 4D sensor, resulting in 11 dB SNR improvement and up to 12 dB of noise reduction. The Intent offers 35% better speech understanding compared to Oticon Real.	Based on independent lab tests and tons of customer feedback who had a chance to try both Phonak Infinio Sphere and Oticon Intent hearing aids, the Phonak Sphere does a better job of noise management and improves speech intelligibility in a noisy environment. Please note that the profile of your hearing loss, the fitting, and the setting of the hearing aids can have a direct impact on any hearing aid's ability in noise management and SNR improvement.
Natural sound and music	Phonak Infinio hearing aids use the 3.0 generation of Phonak receiver units. The sound of the hearing aid is reprocessed with a hint of the sound of nature. It is a step up in dynamic range and sound timbre from generation 2.0 Phonak receivers.	Oticon Intent also received an upgrade on Oticon receiver units with better integrity, shape and angle. Oticon's amplifier and receiver are among the best on the market when it comes to high-frequency hearing loss.	Oticon speaker units are one of the best when it comes to high frequency until the generation 6.0 of Phonak speaker units, which put Phonak infinio at par with Oticon Intent when it comes to sound quality, dynamic range and natural nuance of sound.
Form factors, tech levels, ALD	Phonak Infinio Sphere comes in i90 and i70 technology levels. You can purchase battery-powered Phonak Infinio IIC and CIC, and Phonak is committed to releasing ITE and ITE rechargeable models in 2025. However, all Phonak Virto Infinio custom-made will have the standard Phonak Infinio technology level, but not the Sphere level technology for noise management and speech intelligibility.	Oticon Own SI with AI-DNN processing chip now. All Oticon Own custom-made models are battery-powered. Oticon's assistive listening device range of products is quite limited to the Oticon remote microphone. On the other hand, Phonak Roger devices can improve the listening experience much better. This gives a leap ahead to Phonak Sphere for people with severe to profound hearing loss.	Both Phonak Infinio Sphere and Oticon Intent are only available in rechargeable models. The Oticon Intent has a CROS and biCROS model, but the Phonak Infinio Sphere does not have a CROS or biCROS model. Based on my experience. I would call them par in this category.
Connectivity, mobile app	Phonak Infinio Sphere uses universal Bluetooth connectivity. It is ready for LE Audio Bluetooth and Auracast, which, according to Phonak, can be activated with a firmware update. The Universal Bluetooth is an advantage for those with Android devices, those users who need multi-device connectivity, and those in need of demanding phone calls and Zoom meetings. Phonak Sphere can be paired to 8 devices and can be connected to two at the same time.	Oticon Intent uses ASHA, LE Audio Bluetooth, and is Auracast-ready. I found the Oticon app adequate in terms of functionality, but it falls way behind the level of functionality and adjustments that the myPhonak app offers to the users.	I use my aids for phone calls, as well as listening to music and podcasts, and commuting to the clinics. I really enjoy the seamless switching of the Phonak Sphere between my iPhone and my laptop. The myPhonak app is also much more flexible compared to the Oticon Companion app. It provides a wide range of adjustments to the user. So my vote on connectivity and the app goes to Phonak Infinio Sphere.
Battery life	16 to 20 hours of battery life on a fully charged Phonak Sphere. If used in Spheric mode, the battery drainage will be faster.	24 hours of run time for the Oticon Intent when fully charged. The aid is always in AI-DNN mode.	There is not much to discuss here; my vote on battery life goes to Oticon Intent.
Vanity	The Phonak Infinio Sphere is a tad bigger than the other RIC hearing aids on the market in 2025. This may be an issue for users with small ears.	The Oticon Intent is not the smallest size of all the RIC hearing aids. Oticon used a battery size 13 in Oticon Intent compared to the older Oticon Real and Opn models, which use a 312 size battery.	Phonak Infinio Sphere is a tad bigger than Oticon Intent. If your ears are small or the vanity of the hearing aids is a dealbreaker, then you might select Oticon Intent R.

Tips on how to choose between Phonak Infinio Sphere and Oticon Intent

1. Lifestyle: If based on work or lifestyle, you find yourself in holding conversations in a very noisy environment, the Phonak Infinio Sphere can do a better job in terms of speech understanding for you. Examples of such lifestyles are: those working in exhibitions, showrooms, entertainment and festivals, dining and restaurants, noisy assembly lines, or people visiting pubs and busy bars regularly. If you visit busy restaurants only a couple of times a week, then Oticon Intent would be a happy balance between the performance, vanity, battery life and other aspects of a hearing aid.

2. CROS and biCROS: Choose Oticon Intent, as Phonak Sphere does not have a CROS model (unless you want to go for standard Phonak Infinio, which has rechargeable CROS and biCROS models.

Which hearing aid is better: Phonak Infinio Sphere or Oticon Intent?

No audiologist has a direct answer to this question. There are several factors in play. The answer to this question very much depends on the lifestyle of the patient. The best is to reflect on the content of this article and book an online telecare session to discuss your options for the best hearing aid on the market with an audiologist.

Phonak Audeo Infinio Sphere - i90 R

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How does the fitting of the hearing aid impact hearing speech with background noise?

I need to emphasise that just like older generation hearing aids, the AI and DNN-driven hearing aids need to be professionally tuned up to be able to provide the clarity and the best performance in noise management and speech intelligibility in a noisy space. Doing a REM (real ear measurement) is necessary to boost the speech patterns in such a hearing aid. If the fitting of your hearing aid is open, then the hearing aid will be amplifying the sound for the frequencies for which you have hearing loss, but it cannot do much to control the noise. It is simple physics; the noise will travel through the open domes. For better noise management, you need to consider a closed and ideally a power fitting (double dome fitting, or earmould). In a closed fitting, the hearing aid can use the processing ability it has to control the noise and help improve the hearing of speech in a noisy environment.

Which one is bigger, Phonak Infinio Sphere, or Oticon Intent?

As per the pictures below, you can see that Phonak Infinio Sphere is a tad bigger than Oticon Intent. In my experience, patients with smaller-sized ears tend to choose Oticon Intent over Phonak Sphere. However, I also noticed that even patients with smaller ears have chosen Phonak Sphere over Oticon Intent based on the superior ability of Phonak Sphere in managing speech in a noisy environment.

What is the price difference between Oticon Intent and Phonak Infinio Sphere?

I need to emphasise that the price of hearing aids can be wildly different from one provider to another. There are the warranty, aftercare and other factors that cause the price range. A pair of Oticon Intent 1 R is on sale by HiddenHearing for about £4,000 to £5,000 a pair. A pair of Phonak Sphere i90 is on sale by Specsavers at £3,000 and at Boots Hearing at £4,000 a pair, with 3 and 4 years warranty respectively. Please see our prices for Oticon Intent 1 R and Phonak Sphere i90 on our Oticon and Phonak collections.

At the end of this article, I would like to draw your attention to Dr Cliff's comparison of Phonak Infinio Sphere versus Oticon Intent hearing aids:

Updates

• August 2025 - Please refer to this article, which discusses the streaming capabilities of Phonak Infinio and why Phonak Infinio is one of the best hearing aids in the market for streaming music and hands-free calls.

• October 2025 - Phonak released an upgrade firmware for the Infinio Ultra and Infinio Sphere Ultra hearing aids for their market-leading AI and DNN algorithms. This upgrade increases the performance of the Infinio family in speech intelligibility in noisy environments, as well as the battery life of the Phonak Infinio and Phonak Infinio Sphere hearing aids substantially. Please read through the HearingNow review on Infinio Ultra and Infinio Sphere Ultra hearing aids in this article.

  
  

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