Product release: Widex Allure AI RIC RD
- Koorosh Nejad
- 5 hours ago
- 8 min read
Widex hearing aids are recognised for delivering some of the most natural, calming sounds in the world of hearing care. You can read more about how Widex hearing aids do this in this article, but I would like to share the news that things are getting even more exciting with the recent release of Widex Allure AI RIC RD.
The new Widex Allure AI RIC RD hearing aids continue that legacy and build upon Widex Allure (see my full review on Widex Allure here), but also mark a milestone in how Widex joins the pack to incorporate AI and DNN processing into Widex hearing aids.
In this review, I reflect on Widex Allure AI RIC RD hearing aids and the advantages and improvements compared to Widex Allure RIC hearing aids. I strongly suggest reading this article in conjunction with the dedicated article about Widex Allure to get the whole picture about Widex Allure AI RIC RD.
Please read through these articles about Widex hearing aids:
What is the difference between Widex Allure and Widex Allure AI RIC RD hearing aids?
The Widex Allure AI RIC RD is the same as Widex Allure RIC, plus a coprocessor that allows the user to activate AI sound processing to improve the speech-in-noise experience. Widex calls this feature Clarity Boost. The Clarity Boost in Widex Allure Ai can be activated by a short press on the little button on the hearing aid or through the Widex Allure app.
Unlike Oticon Intent, the Clarity Boost in Widex Allure AI is not always on but needs to be activated when/if needed. Widex's strategy is to maintain the Widex natural-sound identity and use the AI only where it provides targeted benefit.
WSA President and CEO Jan Mäkelä described the Clarity Boost in Widex Allure AI as “a big relaunch” of Widex offerings. “With Widex, our big focus is natural sound and near-zero time delay—it’s what Widex is famous for and the foundation that has made us a favourite among musicians and audiophiles,” Mäkelä said. “But Allure AI now adds the ability to have the extra boost of clarity in a noisy environment, which is something you can choose as and when you want, and then go back to the low-delay, natural hearing the rest of the time.”
Does Widex Allure AI RIC RD still use the zero-delay philosophy sound processing?
Yes. The Widex Allure AI is always in zero-delay sound processing, pretty much as a Widex Allure hearing aid. When in a challenging hearing environment, the user can activate the Clarity Boost by pressing the button on the hearing aid or through the Widex Allure app.
How good is AI processing in Widex Allure AI RIC RD?
The company also reports that Allure AI performs as well as, or better than, leading AI-based competitors in speech intelligibility, with up to 26% better intelligibility for people with moderate-to-severe hearing loss and 14% for those with mild-to-moderate loss. It should be noted that Widex Allure had already performed well in independent testing—even without a dedicated AI co-processor. In HearAdvisor lab testing, the Widex Allure RIC earned an A SoundGrade and a SoundScore of 4.6 out of 5, placing it among the top performers in the prescription hearing aid category, with particular strengths in speech clarity in quiet and noise. HearingTracker’s real-world testing similarly ranked Allure in the top 20% of prescription hearing aids tested.
Is AI and DNN processing in Widex Allure AI RIC RD always on? If not, how to activate the AI processing in Widex AI for better speech in a noisy environment?
The AI processing in Widex Allure AI RIC RD is called Clarity Boost. Clarity Boost is not always on and needs to be activated by the user when it is required, e.g. in challenging listening environments.
How does Widex Allure AI RIC RD compare to Phonak Infinio Sphere i90?
There are several advantages in Widex Allure AI RIC RD compared to Phonak Infinio Sphere. These advantages are:
Widex Allure AI has near-zero processing latency, hence a more natural sound.
The Widex Allure AI is smaller than the Phonak Infinio Sphere. Widex Allure,
Widex Allure AI has 32 hours of battery life versus 20 hours in Phonak Infinio Sphere
Widex Allure is Auracast ready
How does Widex Allure AI RIC RD compare to Oticon Intent hearing aids?
Widex Allure AI has near-zero processing latency, hence a more natural sound.
Widex Allure AI has 32 hours of battery life versus 20 hours in Oticon Intent
Is Widex Allure AI RIC RD Auracast ready?
Yes, Widex Allure is Auracast ready. Widex has promised that the internal hardware for Auracast is in place in the newly released Widex Allure AI hearing aids, and the activation will be done through a software update in future.
Is Widex Allure AI RIC RD future-proof?
Yes. The Widex Allure AI RIC RD uses LE Audio Bluetooth; hence, it is ready for Auracast. The firmware in the hearing aid needs to be updated to be able to detect and communicate via Auracast, but the hardware is already in place. I am also impressed that Widex managed to install the telecoil hardware to make Widex Allure AI RIC RD telecoil compatible too.
What groups of patients do you recommend Widex Allure AI RIC RD to?
The Widex hearing aids use a different sound processing philosophy, which I have discussed in this article. In short, all other hearing aids use frequency-band filters for applying different gains to different frequencies. Widex uses time-band filters (more in here). In signal processing, frequency-band filters generally introduce longer processing latency than time-domain filters. The benefit is faster sound processing, hence cleaner and more natural sound when it hits your eardrum. This is less of an issue for some hearing loss profiles versus others. I highly recommend Widex hearing aids specifically to the following groups of patients:
Musicians and those patients with educated hearing, e.g. sound engineers, vocalists, etc.
Patients with reverse-sloping hearing loss, or ones with sharp change in hearing loss at low to mid frequencies.
Patients who only need a single hearing aid for one ear while the other side has good hearing.
Please use the link below to book a free Zoom telecare consultation if you need to learn more about Widex hearing aids.
Is Widex Allure AI RIC RD better than other hearing aids for a reverse sloping hearing loss?
Yes. If you have a severe variation of thresholds in low-to-mid-range frequencies, then Widex hearing aids, including Widex Allure AI RIC RD, would be a better choice for you. The reason is that applying gain to lower and mid-range frequencies is more difficult for hearing aids with frequency-band filtering. Please see this article for more details.
What technology levels are Widex Allure AI RIC RD available in?
I am glad to see that Widex has decided to offer Widex Allure AI RIC RD only in 440 and 330 tech levels. Clearly, Widex is positioning the Widex Allure AI at a premium-level product.
What are the differences in tech levels of Widex Allure AI RIC RD hearing aids?
The Widex Allure comes in 4 technology levels: 440, 330, 220 and 110. However, Widex Allure AI RIC RD comes only in two tech levels: 440 and 330. You can download Widex Allure tech level definitions in PDF here.
Let me explain the tech levels of Widex Allure in more detail.
Widex Allure 440 (Premium)
Best for: Complex, highly demanding acoustic environments like bustling restaurants, live events, and noisy social gatherings.
Key Features: Features the most advanced Speech Enhancer Pro for maximum speech clarity and noise suppression, plus the widest array of automatic environment classifiers (up to 11 environments).
2. Widex Allure 330 (Advanced)
Best for: Socialising, meetings, and active everyday lifestyles.
Key Features: Offers highly effective speech amplification and noise reduction for moderately noisy situations, though with slightly fewer classification parameters than the 440 tier.
3. Widex Allure 220 (Mid-Range)
Best for: Quiet environments, one-on-one conversations, and moderate background noise.
Key Features: Delivers the core, natural PureSound experience and basic speech enhancement for daily routines
Widex Allure 110 (Essential)
Best for: Quieter lifestyles, casual home use, and single-environment listening.
Key Features: Strips back complex, multi-environment processing and focuses on core amplification and basic listening comfort
Widex Allure AI sound classifiers -All digital hearing aids have sound classifiers (see table 1). They are constantly listening and scanning the soundscape to be able to detect the composition of the sound and classify it in one of several classifiers. This way, they pick the correct settings in the sound processing algorithm that best suit managing the noise and improve the listening experience in that soundscape. As you can see, the higher the technology level, the higher the number of sound classifiers. More importantly, the Party and Speech in Party classifiers are available only in the Widex Allure AI 440 tech level.
Table 1 - Widex Allure AI sound classifiers
Listening and lifestyle - One of the approaches that I use to help my patients pick the right tech level of the hearing aid is to discuss their lifestyle. The lower tech level of most hearing aids is suitable for a quiet living style, e.g. watching TV, gardening and so on. On the other hand, often the processing capabilities to help with hearing speech in a noisy environment are only available in higher tech levels. Table 2 below shows the lifestyle chart for Widex Allure AI RIC RD hearing aids.
Table 2 - Widex Allure AI, listening and lifestyle
Hearing aid features - As you can see in Table 3, the hearing aid features are more advanced at higher levels of 440 and 330, so they can provide a better speech-in-noise experience. More precisely, the Widex Allure AI 440 has 15 adjustment frequency channels, which allows precise REM matching.
Table 3 - Widex Allure AI, hearing aid features
What is the battery life of Widex Allure AI RIC RD?
It is designed to provide up to 32 hours of use, including 6 hours of AI use or streaming. Charging options include a standard charger, Charge & Clean charger, and Qi-enabled charging. A key part of battery efficiency stems from Widex’s use of a linear recurrent neural network (L-RNN), a type of deep neural network (DNN) designed to capture the time-based structure of sound while requiring fewer parameters than some earlier DNN approaches.
What colours is Widex Allure available in?
Widex Allure AI RIC RD comes in 10 distinct colours. Please see below.
Image 1 - Widex Allure AI RIC RD: colour options
What is our price range for Widex Allure AI RIC RD?
Like the price of any other hearing aid in the Uk market, you need to consider several factors including but not limited to the technology level of the hearing aid, warranty period, what is included and excluded in the aftercare warranty to be able to make a fair comparison between the price of Widex Allure Ai RIC RD on HearingNow with other suppliers and local hearing care clinics in the UK.
How do I know if Widex Allure AI RIC RD is the right hearing aid for me?
My advice is to do a trial run. The best way to make sure that a particular model of hearing aids is the best one for your hearing loss and lifestyle is to try it for a couple of weeks to make sure you are comfortable with the sound quality, fitting, and its abilities in noise management and so on in different soundscapes. See this article about the best hearing aids of 2026 in the UK.
Can Widex Allure AI RIC RD be remotely programmed?
At the time of publishing this article, Widex Allure and Widex Allure AI do not have the remote programming feature.
What is the final verdict for Widex Allure AI RIC RD?
If your top priority for choosing a hearing aid is a natural sound, then you should consider Widex Allure AI must be one of your top 3 candidates, especially if you are a musician, vocalist, or sound engineer, or have a very sharp ear in terms of sound quality and timbre. As always, my best advice is to do your research, shortlist a couple of models and then do a trial of your shortlisted hearing aids.
References
Questions?
If you have questions about Widex Allure AI hearing aids, please get in touch for a free Zoom meeting and consultation through the following link.
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