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Widex SmartRic vs Allure- my take

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Edited

Life long hearing aid user here.

I’ve always used Widex brand.

I’ve worn SmartRic for 2 years, then decided to try the new Allure 330. I thought I’d share my experiences in a nutshell here.
Note: I use an iPhone. Android users may see different app results than me.

EDIT, I’ve sat with these for a little longer and made some discoveries. My post has changed as of 11/5/25

SmartRic Pros:
Mic is stronger with directional focus. You can choose which direction you want to hear in (perfect for noisy settings)
Bluetooth is beautifully done. You can dial in music to your liking and save it as a preset on your phone. Hands-free phone calls sound amazing without needing adjustments on the app.
It’s small, sleek and easily hidden.
Widex SmartRic App is easy to use and you can save presets.

Cons:
You cannot turn it off, there’s no button on the Hearing aids. You need to place it in charger to turn off.
It does feedback here and there on random.
There’s no option unless you manually select on your phone (which is a pain if someone calls on your land line)

Allure 330 Pros:
Sound is crisper and sharper
It has buttons on the Hearing Aids for presets such as telecoil, as well as to power off/on.
Smart on the Widex Allure app is easy to perfect your hearing experience in different environments. You are also able to save these as presents.
Allure app is super easy to use.
Find Your hearing aids in the app is more precise than SmartRic App.

Cons:
It’s a bit thicker, something to consider with glasses-wearers
Bluetooth is not ideal for those that rely on Bluetooth. It sounds bad IMO (See below for more information).
Bluetooth and it’s ability to be adjusted via app has taken several steps backwards. Not as advanced and sleek as SmartRic.
Audiologist does not have much freedom to make sound adjustments as they could with SmartRic.

My takeaway:
Both have great sound quality. There is no dramatic difference between the two.
While the Allure may sound a bit nicer in general, I am Bluetooth dependent. It sounds muffled, congested and overall depressing with a strong sound in the left ear. Audiologist tried and cannot fix this.
Music /movies/ Tiktok videos streaming through Bluetooth are not clear and crisp on the Allure.

If you don’t care about Bluetooth, I suggest the Allure for you.
If Bluetooth is a must, SmartRic is the way to go.

BLUETOOTH Issues on Allure and iPhone:
After sitting with the Allure for a while trying to figure out why Bluetooth sounds terrible, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the iPhone’s compatibility. They just do not mesh well together. It may be great on an Android, but not an iPhone. I don’t have an Android to test this out.

I noticed iPhone has two presets for the hearing aids when it comes to bluetooth streaming. Speech and Music.
Incoming phone calls and sounds from videos (Tiktok) automatically routes to Music preset, which sounds terrible. When I manually switch it to Speech, it sounds good!

My problem with this, I do not want to have to manually switch every time. Which means I’d take the call, have to go into settings- accessibility- hearing aids- wait for the preset to load and click. It’s a huge hassle when I’m trying to speak to the person on the other end of the call.
Plus, I was unable to switch presets while watching videos, I was stuck on the lower quality preset.

Thus, this was a deal breaker for me. I returned the Allures and got the SmartRic again.

If you do not rely on Bluetooth, the Allure is a good contender. But if you’re like me and want Bluetooth for your listening pleasure and have an iPhone, I’d consider SmartRic.

Again these are based on my experience and my feelings towards the two.

6 people in this conversation9 min readJump to latest
@Draco said:

Bluetooth is not ideal for those that rely on Bluetooth. It sounds bad IMO.
Bluetooth and it’s ability to be adjusted via app has taken several steps backwards. Not as advanced and sleek as SmartRic.

Did you tried reinstall the app before Allure pairing? Like in the advice below:

@Raudrive said:

Try un,-pairing your aids, remove the app, boot your phone, reinstall the app and re-pair your aids

Let us know if this helps

I would add that should also be rebooted.

Thanks for great review, though.

Edited

I have the SmartRIC, and I absolutely love how it sounds! I’ve used Oticon and Signia in the past, and I currently have Phonak Infinios as well, but my SmartRIC sounds much more natural compared to the others.

I am not aware of the SmartRIC having natively, are you using the Smart Assist accessory for telecoil?

The Allure is said to have better Bluetooth performance than the SmartRIC and comes with Bluetooth enabled. What phone are you using?

Have you tested in them noisy environments? I ask because Widex emphasized the SmartRIC shape design, highlighting its improved directionality, but later switched back to the old shape with the Allures. Curious to see if you have noticed the difference.

Thanks for the good review!

In reply to @Gerhard_R

The latest Oticon upgrade is only fully available on the Genie release this week. It’s a firmware upgrade that retrofits to the Intent and comes in the Zeals (also released this week).

I’m not sure how anyone could have tried it yet.

Please let us know when you get the Zeals (and your experience). They won’t be in the US until next year. They look phenomenal

Edited
@Bimodal_user said:

Did you tried reinstall the app before Allure pairing? Like in the advice below:

I can’t figure out how to quote multiple people.. but here ya go.

RE Bluetooth/App:
I did try to delete and reinstall the app and reinstall, still doesn’t sound nice via bluetooth
I should’ve mentioned, iPhone doesn’t have LE audio capabilities yet. Just Android. Hopefully iPhone will get their butts in gear and catch up! But if I am missing something here, please do share. I do want to give Allure a fair chance.

RE Noisy settings:
I noticed the allure tend to auto-adjust the sounds and reduce it to a more comfortable level- but maybe too low for me. I notice the shift in sounds with allure, but never noticed it with the SmartRic. I feel like the SmartRic does a better job focusing on the voice of the person you want to hear over Allure. The app’s directional focus is better on the Ric and it’s helpful for sure.

RE :
I’m not sure if I was clear, but let me state: It does have Telecoil. However, to activate it, you need to activate it from your smart phone. It takes extra time and steps when you need to use a land-line, and by then you could miss that call. There’s no button on the aids to simply press before picking up the land-line phone.

The reinstalling link the user above posted is for disconnection it seems, not sound quality. thanks though! I did try those steps.

Also- forgot to mention in my post. The electronics tend to reboot when I’m on my office landline. I don’t know why it does this, my audiologist as well as IT for my company tried ways to fix this- in the end I had to get a dongle for the phone to work. I hated it, so I had my office phone routed to my cellphone which I hate using my personal phone for work lol.

How was Allure versus SmartRIC for calling via Bluetooth? Allure can use the hearing aid mics for calling. On many aids that does not seem to provide quality audio to the other end of the call especially in noisier environments. How was Allure in this regard? SmartRIC requires one to use the phone mic (at least on iPhone).

Edited

I have non-Sphere Infinios (that I got from my insurance ) and SmartRICs 440 that I bought on eBay . I use the SmartRICs most of the time

RE Bluetooth issues I’ve been having:
I THINK I figured out the bluetooth issue on the Allure- I will have to confirm with an adjustment from the audiologist.

The key was NOT to go to the Widex app to switch presets (it won’t let you.)
Key was to go into the iPhone’s Settings, Sccessibility, Hearing Aids, and hit the preset there for a smoother music experience. The preset only shows up when you are streaming. You can do treble/bass adjustments there as well as volume.

My issue is there’s two presets that the audiologist installed. the “music” preset is terrible. The “Speech” streaming is much better. I want her to remove the music preset to see if that will solve the problem as the aids want to select the music, and not speech every time.
It’s still too loud in my left ear- I need to get that adjusted before I can decide if Allure is worth keeping or not.

Even then— SmartRic as of now still stands as the champion for bluetooth for sound quality and the ability to adjust to your liking. Allure does not give you the ability to adjust the streaming music at all.

I will add.. if you listen to music without bluetooth (radio, and I assume theatre/concert), the music preset on the Allure is great for that. I was impressed with the quality improvement. A+ for that.

RE Hands-Free Phone Calls:
@user490 Allure gave me the same issues as mentioned above. I struggled to hear the other person properly because it blasted into my left ear and it auto-selected the wrong streaming preset (might be fixed when I remove the music preset).
Also, a lot of callers say they hear a weird noise when talking to me. Like a bubbling fish tank noise. I tested it by turning bluetooth off and they no longer heard the noise. I found this really strange.

SmartRic wins out on Phone Calls, IMO. It lowered the outside mic and allowed the bluetooth to stream in which was great for noisy environments. Allure doesn’t lower the mic for this.

RE Trying Other Aids:
I will be trying the next latest and greatest when my insurance allows me to purchase a new pair. Whatever that may be at that time.

BLUETOOTH Issues with Allure and iPhone:

After sitting with the Allure for a while trying to figure out why Bluetooth sounds terrible, I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s the iPhone’s compatibility. They just do not mesh well together. It may be great on an Android, but not an iPhone. I don’t have an Android to test this out.

I noticed iPhone has two presets for the hearing aids when it comes to bluetooth streaming. Speech and Music.

Incoming phone calls and sounds from videos (Tiktok) automatically routes to Music preset, which sounds terrible. When I manually switch it to Speech, it sounds good!

My problem with this, I do not want to have to manually switch every time. Which means I’d take the call, have to go into settings- accessibility- hearing aids- wait for the preset to load and click. It’s a huge hassle when I’m trying to speak to the person on the other end of the call.
Plus, I was unable to switch presets while watching videos, I was stuck on the lower quality preset.

There’s no way for me to control which preset gets auto-selected. And neither me or Audiologist can remove the iPhone’s music preset- that’s the phone.

Thus, this was a deal breaker for me. I returned the Allures and got the SmartRic again.

If you do not rely on Bluetooth, the Allure is a good contender. But if you’re like me and want Bluetooth for your listening pleasure and have an iPhone, I’d consider SmartRic.

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