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Behind the Ear
Fitting Styles: RIC
Warranty: 5 Years
Charger: Comes with Phonak Slim charger
The Phonak Slim L90 hearing aids offer a perfect blend of comfort, design, and performance. With a sleek ergonomic shape that fits naturally behind the ear, even for those who wear glasses, these Receiver in Canal (RIC) devices are designed for ease of use in everyday life. The Slim L90 is equipped with advanced hearing technology like SmartSpeech, SpeechSensor, and StereoZoom 2.0, which enhance speech understanding and reduce listening effort, even in challenging environments.
It features Bluetooth connectivity, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery that lasts all day, and a variety of accessories like the Roger On microphone. Available in four stylish colours, the Phonak Slim L90 combines innovative design with reliable performance, making it an excellent choice for those seeking a modern hearing solution.
Launching in May 2023, Phonak Slim hearing aids, also known as Slim L90-R, introduce a new modern sleek look that includes the advanced Lumity technology platform, like the rest of the Lumity range. This means advanced background noise management, hands-free calls to both iPhone and Android, Bluetooth connection, and motion sensor technology giving you that 360-degree focus on sound - even on the move.
The Slim L90 hearing aids are the premium technology level, so you will benefit from the full feature set of this range. For example, Dynamic Noise Cancellation and improved listening in the car as well as features that allow your hearing aids to automatically switch focus from sound to speech.
Phonak Slim L90 delivers an unmatched blend of comfort, design, and performance, making it ideal for today's lifestyle. Its unique ergonomic shape is crafted to fit comfortably behind your ear, even with glasses. With cutting-edge hearing technology, it allows you to engage in conversations with confidence and navigate various listening environments with ease.
The Phonak Slim L90 is a Receiver in Canal (RIC) hearing aid type with an ergonomic casing that is designed to fit naturally and sit comfortably behind your ear. Great for those who wear glasses, oxygen, or masks.
This design follows the fashion hearing aid market trend first seen with Signia's 2018 Styletto hearing aid. Phonak Slim L90 hearing aids are a great example of a device that is designed to be seen, breaking the boundaries of how hearing aids should look. In fact, Phonak Slim won the 2023 Hearing Technology Innovator Award for Hearing Aids Design, as recognised by Health & Technology Matters.
The Phonak Slim L90 includes 20 fine-tuning channels, 9 automatic programs, and Speech Enhancer. But, what are the main features of the Phonak Slim L90 hearing aids and how will they make a difference to your hearing?
This comprises a selection of features that Phonak's AutoSense OS 5.0 automatically adapts depending on your environment and hearing needs. Each feature is created to support better speech understanding or reduce listening effort in various listening environments - even the most challenging ones.
With Phonak Slim L90 hearing aids, you can also enhance your speech understanding with Roger On - a microphone that provides stereo sound and understands and recognises where sounds are coming from.
How can this help you? This makes your conversations clear, especially in environments where the background noise changes often, such as bars and busy restaurants.
This is an algorithm that pinpoints the direction of the main speech signal giving you an increase of 15% in speech understanding and an 11% reduction in listening effort.
This feature adapts the strength of focus as the level of the surrounding background noise increases. This ultimately gives you a 2.5 dB better signal-to-noise ratio. For an in-depth feature set of the Lumity platform, read our Phonak Slim hearing aid review here
The Phonak Slim L90 hearing aids come in four different colour options, including the same audiology technology as the Phonak Lumity, and use lithium-ion rechargeable batteries. These batteries are said to last all day with only three hours of charge in Phonak's Slim portable charging case (included in the price). Please remember this will all depend on your streaming usage.
The Phonak Slim Charger is a compact, sleek accessory designed to complement the Phonak Slim. It charges the hearing aids in just three hours, providing a full day of hearing.
Like the Lumity hearing aid platform, Phonak Slim L90 hearing aids offer advanced Bluetooth which can be paired with up to eight devices within your home and two can be active at the same time. Making the switch between your favourite Bluetooth devices easier and more convenient.
Colours available: Sandalwood / black, copper / black, graphite / black, and silver / black.
Main compatible accessories: Roger On, Roger Select, and TV Connector. Roger microphones blend confidence, versatility, and elegance. Pairing Phonak Slim with Roger On offers a distinctive solution for active engagement in conversations. Enhancing speech understanding in group settings, Roger On empowers you to be yourself, no matter where you are.
When using the myPhonak app you can access health data tracking features, with Phonak Slim L90 hearing aids which support your overall well-being and hearing health. This includes steps, activity levels, goals set by yourself, and wearing time in your most common listening environments.
The myPhonak app empowers hearing aid wearers to personalise their hearing experience. It allows them to not only take control of their hearing with remote control functionality.
The Phonak Slim hearing aids combine modern design, appealing to those who are looking for an aesthetically pleasing hearing solution, with innovative proven technology and connectivity that loyal Phonak customers love.
Therefore, Slim offers a personable and enhanced sound experience as well as boosting the wearer's confidence and caters to a wide range of candidates' specifications, lifestyles, and hearing needs.
Overall, we like how this hearing aid has the potential to change perceptions and attitudes toward both hearing aids and hearing loss. However, even though Slim is a great hearing solution to consider, we would always recommend putting your unique hearing needs and which device would be the best fit at the forefront of your hearing aid search.
Talk to an audiologist about the pros, cons, and features versus benefits of the Phonak Slim hearing aids and how they can help you and your hearing loss.
Call us free on 0800 567 7621 to speak with one of our audiologists about the Phonak Slim hearing aid range and what it could do for you and your hearing.
We also offer free home visits. Take advantage of our FREE home visits for all audiology appointments! Our audiologists will come to you, making it easier than ever to prioritise your hearing health. Schedule an appointment with an expert you can trust and experience the convenience of personalised care right at your doorstep.
What’s included in the price of the Slim L90 hearing aid? The package offers a complete service, including a full hearing assessment, hearing aid fitting and programming, lifetime aftercare, a comprehensive manufacturer's warranty, and a 60-day money-back guarantee.
Please note, that there will be an additional surcharge of £125 if we are pairing a single hearing aid with an existing aid bought from another company where we are taking over the aftercare responsibilities and looking after both hearing aids.
Paul Harrison is an audiology expert at Hearing Aid UK, with over 20 years of audiology experience and a member of the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists Council (BSHAA) between 2015 - 2020.
Here, at Hearing Aid UK, we offer a wide range of hearing aids available on the market - keeping up to date with the best and latest hearing aid technology.
We can support your hearing healthcare in clinic or in the comfort of your own home and with nationwide coverage, we will have an audiologist near you.
Whatever your hearing loss level, budget, or style our audiologists can help you find the perfect hearing solution for you.
Do not spend hundreds of pounds without getting a second opinion from us.
If you are looking at this page then it is likely that an audiologist has suggested that you purchase this particular hearing aid, so is this the best model for you?
In general, any audiologist will always be recommending to you the model that best suits your needs. Here is a useful checklist to make sure that is the case.
If in doubt, feel free to give us a call. That's what we're here for. In the meantime, read all about our review of the best hearing aids here
If you have significant hearing loss in both ears, you should be wearing two hearing aids. Here are the audiological reasons why:
Localisation: The brain decodes information from both ears and compares and contrasts them. By analysing the minuscule time delays as well as the difference in the loudness of each sound reaching the ears, the person is able to accurately locate a sound source. Simply put, if you have better hearing on one side than the other, you can't accurately tell what direction sounds are coming from.
Less amplification is required: A phenomenon known as “binaural summation” means that the hearing aids can be set at a lower and more natural volume setting than if you wore only one hearing aid.
Head shadow effect: High frequencies, the part of your hearing that gives clarity and meaning to speech sounds, cannot bend around your head. Only low frequencies can. Therefore if someone is talking on your unaided side you are likely to hear that they are speaking, but be unable to tell what they have said.
Noise reduction: The brain has its own built-in noise reduction which is only really effective when it is receiving information from both ears. If only one ear is aided, even with the best hearing aid in the world, it will be difficult for you to hear in background noise as your brain is trying to retain all of the sounds (including background noise) rather than filtering it out.
Sound quality: We are designed to hear in stereo. Only hearing from one side sounds a lot less natural to us.
Fancy some further reading on this topic? You can read about why two hearing aids are better than one in our article, hearing aids for both ears, here
For most people, the main benefit of a rechargeable hearing aid is simple convenience. We are used to plugging in our phones and other devices overnight for them to charge up. Here are some other pros and cons:
For anybody with poor dexterity or issues with their fingers, having a rechargeable aid makes a huge difference as normal hearing aid batteries are quite small and some people find them fiddly to change.
One downside is that if you forget to charge your hearing aid, then it is a problem that can't be instantly fixed. For most a 30-minute charge will get you at least two or three hours of hearing, but if you are the type of person who is likely to forget to plug them in regularly then you're probably better off with standard batteries.
Rechargeable aids are also a little bit bigger and are only available in Behind the Ear models.
Finally, just like with a mobile phone, the amount of charge you get on day one is not going to be the same as you get a few years down the line. Be sure to ask what the policy is with the manufacturer warranty when it comes to replacing the battery.
Looking for more information on rechargeable hearing aids? Read our dedicated page on the topic here
For most people, the answer is yes. But it's never that simple.
The majority of hearing problems affect the high frequencies a lot more than the low ones. Therefore open fitting hearing aids sound a lot more natural and ones that block your ears up can make your own voice sound like you are talking with your head in a bucket. Therefore in-ear aids tend to be less natural.
However the true answer is we can't tell until we have had a look in your ears to assess the size of your ear canal, and until we have tested your hearing to see which frequencies are being affected.
People with wider ear canals tend to have more flexibility, also there are open fitting modular CIC hearing aids now that do not block your ears.
There is also the age old rule to consider, that a hearing aid will not help you if it's sat in the drawer gathering dust. If the only hearing aid you would be happy wearing is one that people can't see, then that's what you should get.
Most people can adapt to any type of hearing aid, as long as they know what to expect. Have an honest conversation with your audiologist as to what your needs are.
Generally speaking, six or more. Unless it's none at all.
The number of channels a hearing aid has is often a simplistic way an audiologist will use to explain why one hearing aid is better than another, but channels are complex and it is really not that straightforward. Here are some reasons why:
Hearing aids amplify sounds of different frequencies by different amounts. Most people have lost more high frequencies than low and therefore need more amplification in the high frequencies. The range of sounds you hear are split into frequency bands or channels and the hearing aids are set to provide the right amount of hearing at each frequency level.
Less than six channels and this cannot be done with much accuracy, so six is the magic number. However, a six channel aid is typically very basic with few other features and is suitable only for hearing a single speaker in a quiet room. The number of channels is not what you should be looking at, it's more the rest of the technology that comes with them.
As a final note, different manufacturers have different approaches. One method is not necessarily better than any other. For example, some manufacturers have as many as 64 channels in their top aids. Most tend to have between 17 and 20. One manufacturer has no channels at all.
Hearing aids are easily lost, misplaced or damaged and typically are one of the most expensive personal possessions an individual can own. We offer hearing aid warranty coverage for £80 per year per aid. Find out more about this service we provide here
When we refer to a product as 'Latest Launch', we mean it is the latest to be released on the market.
When we refer to a product as 'New', we mean that the product is the newest hearing aid model on the market.
When we refer to a product as 'Superseded', we mean that there is a newer range available which replaces and improves on this product.
When we refer to a product as an 'Older Model', we mean that it is has been superseded by at least two more recent hearing aid ranges.