Our choice: Oral-B Pro 100
The Pro 100 is the newer of these two budget models. It is also the more comfortable to hold in hand and looks better too.
2nd choice: Oral-B Vitality / Amazon, Shaver Shop / ~$35.5
Key differences
| Find out more |
| Electric Teeth Rating |
| Retail price |
| Approximate 3 year cost |
| Cleaning Action |
| Number of cleaning modes |
| Brushing intensities |
| Timer |
| Pacer |
| Pressure Sensor |
| Battery life |
| Battery type |
| Number of heads included |
| Travel case included |
| Bluetooth connectivity |
| Position tracking |
| Noise |
| Warranty |
- The design of the handles are slightly different. The Pro 100 has a rubber grip that wraps 360 degrees around the handle, larger than the grip on the Vitality.
- The Vitality comes in just 1 colour option compared to the 3 choices with the Pro 100.
- The Pro 100 comes with an 8 day battery life compared to the 5 day of the Vitality.
- The Pro 100 comes with a travel case included in the box.
- The Vitality comes with 2 brush heads included whereas the Pro 100 comes with just 1.
- There are 4 variants of the Pro 100 compared to the 6 of the Vitality.
- The Vitality is cheaper.
Please note. Every effort is made to ensure the differences listed are correct. These are subject to change without notice. Products and box contents can change and different variants can exist.
Detailed comparison: what’s the difference between the Oral-B Pro 100 and Vitality?
Good or bad, I am not sure, the number of differences between these 2 models is fairly limited.
You can essentially think of the Pro 100 as a slightly rebadged Vitality.
The most obvious difference is the design and look of the brush handle itself.
The newer Pro 100 looks a lot more appealing thanks to the large coloured rubber grip that wraps around almost the whole handle.
In fact, the rubber/silicone material actually wraps a full 360 degrees around the toothbrush handle. The only exception being the lower third of the handle, where there is the more typical gloss plastic finish. This is where the Oral-B and Braun logos are printed on the front and regulatory information on the rear.
The Vitality actually has a large expanse of rubber material around the handle, but there isn’t as much as the Pro 100 and the placement is different. On the VItality, this covers primarily the back of the handle. The hands-on images best demonstrate the differences.
Both offer a secure grip in hand, but the pitted texture and the size of the grip on the 100 is better overall.
Whilst the grip dominates there are slight differences in the physical design of the power button although it is placed in basically the same place on each handle.
As part of the design, the Pro 100 is available with different coloured grips on the handle be that the light grey, blue or pink whereas the original Vitality is available in just 1 colour a blue/turquoise.
The actual colour of the grip is linked to the brush head provided in the box with the Pro 100.
What I mean by this is that you cannot buy any of the handle colours with any brush head. As standard, 4 brush head styles are available.
With the CrossAction head, you get a Midnight Black coloured brush handle.
WIth the 3D White brush head, you get a pink coloured brush handle.
With the Gum Care and FlossAction brush head, you get the light grey/white brush handle.
You have the choice of a CrossAction, 3D White, Gum Care or FlossAction head.
All of the brush heads are interchangeable, so you can purchase a preferred style separately and use it with the handle of your choice.
For example, if you wanted the pink coloured handle, you would have to buy it with the 3D White brush head, but you could buy your preferred Gum Care head and fit this to the pink handle.
With the 100, you get just a single brush head included.
Compare this to the Vitality, which comes with 2 brush heads in the box.
The Vitality is available in 6 different packages, so you can buy it with any of the Oral-B heads included already. This includes Sensitive, Gum Care, FloissAction, CrossAction, 3D White and Precision Clean.
The Pro 100 does come with a basic, but perfectly functional white coloured plastic travel case included which will hold the handle and up to 2 heads. You do not get a travel case included with the Vitality series.
You also get a slightly longer battery life from the 100 than the 500.
The claimed life for the Vitality is 5 days, compared to the 8 days of the 100.
That said, in my hands-on testing with both models I achieved more than this. The Vitality actually lasted 11 days compared to the 10.5 of the Pro 100. So what in theory should be an inferior battery actually outperformed. I can’t day this will always apply, but there you have it.
Neither brush has any LED on the handle to offer feedback on the battery status/remaining power.
Both brushes come with a charging stand included and both brushes will stand upright on a countertop.
Both handles have a tapered design, being thicker at the top than the bottom.
And they both have a 2 minute timer built-in.
I explain in a little more detail below, but it is the Vitality that is cheaper.
Does one clean better than the other?
No.
Both brushes use the same cleaning action and I believe have the same motor built into the handle.
The motor offers up to 7,600 movements per minute with what Oral-B call a 2D cleaning action.
Essentially the brush head moves back and forth quickly in a circular motion.
Although the brush heads supplied on each handle are different and could potentially affect the brushing results, every person is different so really determining this is essentially very difficult.
Both brushes will provide a superior clean over a manual toothbrush when used correctly.
Is one priced better than the other?
Yes, technically the Vitality is the cheaper model.
The Vitality has a recommended retail price of $50, whilst the Pro 100’s retail price is $70.
Both sell on average with a discount.
When the Pro 100 first launched the average selling price was around $55 compared to $25 of the Vitality, making the Vitality the brush to opt for.
However, over time, the prices have changed.
The average price of the Pro 100 has dropped to somewhere around the $35-$40 range, with the Vitality increasing to around $30.
It is highly likely thee price of the Vitality will further increase as it seems Oral-B is phasing out this model.
So although the Pro 100 generally commands a slight price premium, it is a justifiable premium in my opinion as the Vitality gets more expensive.
As such the Pro 100 becomes our top pick between these 2 brushes.
Because both brushes are Oral-B, the ongoing costs are the same with brush heads costing around $7 on average.
Priced over 3 years, based on 1 user, the Pro 100 works out at $115 compared to the $95 of the Vitality.
$20 is still a fair difference in favour of the Vitality. But as the prices change the differences are only going to get smaller.
Conclusion
The Oral-B Pro 100 looks the more appealing of the two brushes.
The inclusion of a travel case in the box also makes the package more attractive, but this is at the expense of an extra brush head that comes with the Vitality.
This and the few extra days battery life makes the Pro the model to opt for.
Please note: The Vitality was previously recommended as our top pick. It is still a good value buy for many. We have changed our recommendation though as the Vitality is phased out and its price increases.
