Oticon Zeal
Oticon market the Zeal as ‘the first hearing aid to do it all – unseen’.
They don’t disappear entirely when in place, but they are remarkably small. They are discrete and look more like pieces of Whitby Jet jewellery than hearing aids.
Pictured on the left next to one of my Phonak Lumities.
Charger and Charging
The charger is a neat clamshell design. There is a ‘Pride of ownership’ factor in its design and quality.
It has a USB C socket and a rechargeable internal battery with enough power to charge the aids for up to three days.
The lights on the aids that indicate that they are charging are concealed when the charger lid is closed.
It is easy to insert and remove the aids, and they are held in place magnetically.
Companion app
Full control of the aids is possible using the Oticon Companion app on a smartphone. A new button has been added to the app for joining an Auracast broadcast.
Tap Control
Double tapping your ear can be set to control either volume or program changes, but not both. A nice touch is that double tapping the right ear goes up through the sequence and tapping the left goes down.
I set my trial aids to double-tap being program change. Notification of changes is made is by a series of beeps or voice. I had mine set to voice.
Sound Quality
The sound quality was excellent. There was a little more immediacy to voices and sounds than with RIC aids. I put this down to the microphones being closer to my ear canals than with RICs and possibly an element of the pinna effect.
Sounds inside my head, such as talking, breathing and chewing, were a bit more obvious than with RIC aids, but I soon got used to the difference.
I wore them on a visit to the dentist and after a few minutes in the chair I wished that I hadn’t got them in. The scraping and poking seemed to be a lot louder than with RICs. I have an appointment for a filling soon, and I am definitely going to take them out for that.
I thought that the sound of wind was not as well suppressed as with RIC aids.
Phone calls
Hands-free calls are possible. Accepting and ending calls can be done with a double tap of either ear.
Streaming
The sound quality of music streamed from an Android phone using LE Audio is good. Music sounds better with the aids switched to the MyMusic program.
Auracast
I used the aids to listen to two Auracast broadcasts: One from my TV using an Avantree Audikast 4 and the other from my PC using a Creative bt-w6 USB adapter.
The TV sound quality was excellent, and I could follow TV dialogue without needing subtitles.
The sound of music from my PC was very good. Deep bass was lacking, as with all hearing aids, but it was musical and pleasantly listenable. As with streaming, the sound quality is better with the aids switched to the MyMusic program.
Ask your audiologist for a demonstration of this remarkable new technology.
What are they like to wear?
At first, I found them to be a bit fiddly to insert in my ears, but I got better at it with practice. The Bluetooth antennae, which double as sport-locks, are supposed to fit snuggly in my ears, but in my ears they protruded slightly. I hoped that with use the wires might mould themselves to my ears, but they didn’t. No matter how hard I tried to fit the wires in my ears, after a few seconds the wires popped out of place.
It was a relief not to have the clutter behind my ears of a RIC hearing aid body and the arms of my spectacles. Also, none of the rustling noise of friction between the two. I had high hopes for the Zeals.
On the first day that I wore them, when I was eating my evening meal, I heard a chink and the left-hand aid landed on my plate. I thought that I must have inserted it in my ear incorrectly, so I carefully put it back in.
The following morning, I was very careful to make sure that the aids were securely in place. They were fine at first, but after an hour or so I noticed that they were starting to sound a bit dull. I checked and they had come out of place. If I hadn’t pushed them back in, they would eventually have fallen out.
Over the next few days, I tried different sized domes, but the aids wouldn’t stay in place for long periods. I decided that I shouldn’t wear them outside in case one of them fell out and disappeared down a drain. I tried wearing them again several times over the next few weeks, but the problem remained; They would not stay in place in my ears for long periods.
Conclusion
Zeals are excellent hearing aids. They have all the benefits of Oticon Intents, but in a different style. The improvement in sound quality of LE Audio and Auracast broadcast technology compared with the ASHA standard is a welcome development.
I like the idea of in-ear aids. The removal of some of the clutter behind my ears being the main reason. I would like to own a pair of Zeals, but Oticon would need to improve their fit before I could consider investing in a pair.
Haydn Jones 12 01 2026