Oral-B iO vs Sonicare DiamondClean Smart

Detailed comparison: what’s the difference between the Sonicare DiamondClean Smart and Oral-B iO?

Let me be clear from the outset.  Both of these brushes achieve the same results: clean teeth.

Both brushes offer more than what anyone needs.  You can get a perfectly satisfactory brush for a lot less money.  We list some cheaper alternatives in our post on the best electric toothbrushes.

But, if you want to own one of the best then these are the brushes to consider.

The Oral-B iO is the best top of the range brush from Oral-B, and the DiamondClean Smart was the equivalent best Sonicare brush prior to the 9900 Prestige being released.

Despite achieving the same end goal, there are quite a few differences between these 2.

The first and perhaps most significant way in which these brushes differ is their cleaning action.

The DiamondClean Smart (DCS) offers a sonic cleaning action compared to the oscillating-rotating action of the Oral-B iO.

The sonic technology uses 2 methods to clean the teeth. The first is a mechanical side-to-side cleaning motion of the brush and the second is a non-contact approach that uses the sonic technology that disrupts plaque beyond the tip of the bristles.

Oral-B’s cleaning is completed via an oscillating-rotating movement, and new for the iO is micro-vibrations, another form of movement.

Oral-B brushes have a small, round brush head that moves back and forth (side to side movements) in a circular motion to help remove plaque and dental debris. The movement of the bristles and the head itself essentially scrub the teeth clean. You don’t need to repeatedly move the bush up and down, back and forth.

Micro vibrations offer an extra dimension to the clean. Essentially a ‘non-contact’ form of brushing and relies on pulsations/vibrations like Sonicare brushes do.

Whilst the cleaning action found on the Oral-B iO is more highly regarded clinically, both do a fantastic job. 

Whilst technically it is a fundamental difference between the 2, don’t get too worried about which approach is best.

So, then to the looks of these 2 electric toothbrushes.

There is of course a certain amount of similarity in the overall design, but there are a number of notable differences to consider.

Oral-B have made massive strides with the iO, improving the materials, aesthetics and overall design language to better compete with Sonicare.

More closely matched than ever, the DCS is, in my opinion at least, still the slightly more premium looking brush.  It appears more refined and classy.  This is most notable to the touch, it feels less plasticy!

Both handles are similarly shaped, although neither are perfect cylinders, they have that rounded design to the handles.

Both toothbrush handles feel solid in hand and I have little in the way of concern for the durability and reliability of these models.

The DiamondClean Smart’s measurements are as follows:

• Height (without head) – 19cm / 7.48 inches
• Height (with head) – 25.5cm / 10.4 inches
• Width – 2.7cm / 1.0 inches
• Thickness – 3cm / 1.1 inches
• Weight (without head) – 137g / 4.8oz
• Weight (with head) – 142g /5.0oz

The iO measurements are:

• Height (without head) – 18.5cm / 7.2 inches
• Height (with head) – 23.7cm / 9.3 inches
• Width – 2.8cm / 1.1 inches
• Thickness – 3cm / 1.1 inches
• Weight (without head) – 131g / 4.6oz
• Weight (with head) – 139g / 4.9oz

As you can see from the size and weight, there are not significant differences here.

The images better depict the design differences than I can explain in text, so do take a close look at these.

Both have a separate power and mode button to power the brush on and change the cleaning modes.

The buttons on the iO are of the same concave design, but do have a rubber/silicone coating to them to make them a little more grippy compared to the DCS.

Although they are almost invisible until they are backlit, the DiamondClean has the cleaning mode labels on the front of the handle below the lower mode button.

With the iO, all of the modes and other information is displayed on the OLED screen that is positioned between the 2 buttons.  It is quite a different setup.

That screen is something that set’s these 2 brushes apart.  It does not significantly alter your brushing experience, but it does offer some potentially beneficial elements to it.  The most notable being the emoji style faces you get after you brush.  Happy, sad or starry eyed faces give you a form of feedback not given by other products.

Then again, these are led more by brushing time than anything.  If you have brushed for 30 seconds, you probably know that is not good enough compared to the recommended 2 minutes. 

A fairly major aesthetic difference is the light ring around the neck of the handle of the iO, compared to the DCS.

This translucent panel that runs a full 360 degrees around the handle.  Via the smartphone app or the handle itself, this can be programmed in different colors.

This light ring also doubles up as a pressure sensor on the iO.  When too much pressure is applied, the light will turn red to alert you.

However, a neat piece of technology is that the ring will also be lit green when the correct brushing pressure is applied.

You actually want to aim to have the ring be lit green when brushing.  

The DCS does have a pressure sensor, but this is around the bottom edge of the handle.  It lights up purple when the sensor is activated rather than red.  On both brushes this alert goes away when the pressure is reduced.

However, with the DCS, the handle also vibrates to alert you.  This is something that the iO does not do and is very useful as it is quite easy to miss the light ring on the handle.

The handle colors do vary between the 2 models.

Sonicare offers the DCS in 6 colors, white, black, pink, grey/silver, rose gold and lunar blue.  The exact color available will depend on the variant.

The iO on the other hand is available in onyx black, and white alabaster across all models, but the violet ametrine is available with the 8 Series only and the Rose Quartz on the top of the line 9 Series only.

Both Oral-B and Sonicare provide a black colored brush head to match their black handles.  

Moving on to the cleaning modes then.

The iO offers 7 cleaning modes as opposed to the 5 on the DiamondClean Smart.

The modes on each brush are as follows:

iO:

• Daily Clean
• Whitening
• Gum Care
• Sensitive
• Intense
• Super Sensitive (not available on Series 7)
• Tongue Clean (not available on Series 7 or 8)

DiamondClean Smart:

• Clean
• White+
• Deep Clean+
• Gum Health
• Tongue Care (not available on 9300 Series)

A bit like the cleaning action of the 2 brushes, don’t concentrate too much on the different modes.

I have come across limited evidence to really suggest that these extra cleaning modes actually deliver better results, compared to a single standard clean mode.

The DCS offers the ability to change the intensity of the brushing that it offers.  You can select between low, medium and high.  You can change this intensity at any point in any mode.

Essentially the power of the brushing mode is altered to be more gentle or more intense depending on your preference.

The brush does automatically select the best intensity, but you can override it.

By changing the intensity, you essentially achieve the Sensitive and Super Sensitive options offered on the iO.

Taking into account the 3 intensity settings and the 5 cleaning modes this does then give you 15 different cleaning configurations compared to the 7 modes available with the iO.

The intensity selected is shown on the handle via 3 vertical light bars that are located between the power and cleaning mode button on the DCS.

Another small touch, for new toothbrush users, is that the DCS has a feature called ‘EasyStart’.  What this does is gradually increase the power of the brush motor over the first 14 brushing sessions.  It is designed to help ease new toothbrush users into the power of the cleaning the brush offers.

Both Oral-B and Sonicare have timers and pacers built into these brush handles.  The idea is that these encourage you to brush the teeth evenly for the recommended amount of time.

However, a subtle difference is that Oral-B has configured the iO, like all of its other brushes to 30 second intervals whereas the DCS is configured to 20 seconds.

A point to note is that this pacer is disabled with the iO when used at the same time as the app.

In any typical 2 minute cleaning cycle you have 4 x 30 second periods or 6 x 20 seconds.  

So, the areas you brush under 30 second pacing looks like:

• Upper right
• Upper left
• Lower right
• Lower left

When brushing at 20 second pacing:

• Upper right back teeth
• Upper front teeth
• Upper left back teeth
• Lower left back teeth
• Lower front teeth
• Lower right back teeth

At the end of the 20 or 30 second sections, the brush motors pause briefly changing the sound of the brush and the brushing sensation, this is your cue to move to the next section.  

At the end of the cleaning cycle the same thing happens, but the DCS has an automatic power off feature, which makes it very clear the cleaning cycle is complete.  The iO Series 9 continues to function, relying on you to turn the brush off.  Well technically, it will auto power off after 5 minutes, but you don’t need to brush for this length of time.

Key to cleaning the teeth is the brush heads and this is where these 2 models differentiate quite significantly.

Both Oral-B and Sonicare offer a range of heads which are interchangeable with their brush handle.

The DCS 9700 comes with 8 heads, 3 x C3 Premium PlaqueDefense, 2 x G3 Premium Gum, Care, 2 x W3 Premium White & 1 x TongueCare+ tongue brush.  Some variants come with a total of 3 heads, whilst others come with 4.

The iO Series 9 comes with 4 x Ultimate Clean heads, whereas the 8 and 7 Series come with 3 and 2 respectively.

The Oral-B head is small and round compared to the larger ovalish shaped heads of Sonicare.  It is the smaller Oral-B heads that can be more comfortable to use for some.  

Either brush handle requires replacement heads during ownership and on average should be replaced every 3 months.

Whilst the Oral-B and Sonicare heads can be tracked within their relevant smartphone app, the DCS has a special bit of technology built-in.

Each brush head has an RFID chip inside, that is tracked by the handle.  It is part of a technology Sonicare calls BrushSync.

It works in 2 ways.

The first is that the chip built into the brush head communicates with the handle to track how long it has been used for. Once used for 3 months, a light on the brush handle is lit orange/amber to alert you. This is incredibly clever and very useful for giving that visual reminder to change the brush head.

The second part is that depending on what brush head is fitted, the best-suited brushing mode is automatically selected. So, for example, fit the G2 Optimal Gum Care head and the Gum Health cleaning mode will be selected.

Whilst the Oral-B brush heads have fading indicator bristles and an in-app reminder, the iO, despite its clever technology and screen does not alert you via a light when the head needs replacing, nor does it change the brushing mode based on the head you attach.

With either brush, you can use any of the brush heads on any of the cleaning modes available on the toothbrushes.

The brush heads themselves fit only to the respective brands, but both are easy to replace, pulling off and the replacement pushing back on.

Built into both brushes are rechargeable lithium-ion batteries each claiming a battery life of 2 weeks. Both outperform their claimed battery life.

In my testing, the DCS outlasted the iO by approximately an 1 week*.

They do report the battery information a little differently, the iO doing a better job thanks to the display.

At the end of each cleaning cycle, it shows the remaining power on the screen as an icon with a percentage (%) stated.  It is set to 10% increments.

The DCS on the other hand just has an icon at the bottom of the handle which only gives real feedback when at approx 10% or below.

Oddly, despite the iO being a smart toothbrush, the app does not report any battery status, yet the DCS does.   What is displayed is not a helpful percentage (%), instead, the words high, good and low, but it is better than nothing.

Both models will, of course, need charging at some point and both come with 2 options to charge the toothbrush. Both have a charging stand that the brush sits on to be charged and both come with a travel case that allows the brush to be recharged whilst inside the case.

The iO comes with what initially looks like a  more traditional charging stand. A circular stand, it has a slight protuberance on the top that aligns with the slight recess in the base of the handle.

This stand is in fact magnetic and holds the brush upright.  It actually charges the iO rapidly, in just 3 hours.

The DCS on the other hand comes with a stand made up of 2 parts. There is a charging base plate onto which fits a glass holder. The handle then sits within this leaning slightly, not standing perfectly upright. It functions in basically the same way.  It looks and feels the more premium.  But, in reality, the iO solution is better.  It can take up to 24 hours to charge the DCS.

Both charging stands have a 2 pin power connector that connects to a 2 pin bathroom socket and both support 100-240v.

With these brushes you get a travel case that allows the brush to be charged inside.

The DCS configuration looks smarter and is more practical.

It holds the handle and up to 2 brush heads. 

Hardwired into the base is the charging cable that can be accessed and unwound to offer a USB connector that can be plugged into a mains socket, power adapter or computer’s USB connection (not available with the 9300).

The iO’s power2go case on the other hand, has a separate proprietary charger that supports 100-240v and connects to a 2 pin socket.

The case feels cheaper too, being all plastic construction.  There is no soft touch leather effect top like there is on the lid of the DiamondClean’s case.

You can too only hold 1 brush handle and head, rather than the more typical 2 heads.

Simply put, the Sonicare option is more refined and practical.

Now a key selling point for both brushes is the fact that they are smart and offer real-time feedback.

Both brushes use Bluetooth to connect the handle and the smartphone.  Both companies offer Android and iOS apps for free.

Both apps are designed to take data collected by sensors in the brush handle and interpret it so that you can take insight and learn from it to be able to clean your teeth better.

Whilst you don’t have to use either app at the same time as you brush, maximum benefit is gained if you do.

Both essentially show a graphic of the teeth on screen and they change from a dull color to a bright white as you successfully clean them.

The Sonicare app guides you around your teeth, showing you which sections to brush in which order in a way that the Oral-B app and the iO does not.

I think the guidance in the Sonicare app is actually better than Oral-B’s.

However, the real-time tracking and position detection of the brush is much better with Oral-B.  Although neither are perfect, the iO configuration better understood where the brush was in the mouth and charted this better during and after the cleaning cycle.

The Oral-B app is much more comprehensive than Soncare’s app.  This is a pro and a con, but ultimately more of a positive.

Sonicare’s app is now limited to 7 days worth of data. 

This data is then charted in a fairly simplistic way to make it very clear and easy to understand.

The use of 3 colors does make it possible at a glance to achieve key learnings.  However, due to the lack of historic data you can’t see improvements over extended periods.  This is where Oral-B really shines.

In both instances, the aim is for us to achieve better oral health care at home.

Does one clean better than the other?

The short answer is no.

The longer and more complicated answer is yes, the iO could potentially clean the teeth better.

The reality is that actually positively saying 1 brush cleans better than the other is very difficult.  

There are many variables and only if tested as part of a thorough and well managed clinical trial could conclusive evidence be gained to confirm, which, if either actually brushed better.

There are very valid arguments that the Oral-B iO is able to clean the teeth better.

The most convincing argument is that an independent study by Cochrane suggests that there is evidence that Oral-B is more effective. 

It was however quite clearly stated whilst evidence favored Oral-B the differences are small and clinically unclear with further studies required.

So, realistically don’t worry about this too much.  Both will clean the teeth really well if used correctly.

But, to potentially complicate matters further both of these brushes are smart, with applications for smartphone that highlight key brushing data that could be of use to you.

Now technically, the apps or the data have no direct bearing on how well the toothbrush itself cleans the teeth, but they do have a bearing on us as the user of the app.

If we engage with the app we could improve our brushing technique, which in turn improves how much plaque we remove etc.

Both apps are similarly featured, with real-time tracking and feedback.

The Sonicare app is a little lighter, not as heavy and intense feeling to use.  It does a better job of actually guiding you on which tooth surfaces to brush and in which order.

However, the Oral-B iO and app are more accurate with the tracking and logging of the position of the toothbrush.  Therefore it more accurately recognizes which teeth have and have not been brushed correctly.

The Oral-B app retains much more data.  Recent updates to the Sonicare app have restricted the amount stored.  Sonicare arguably presents key data a little better but the limited amount is long term more restrictive than the more comprehensive Oral-B app configuration.

Is one better priced than the other?

If we take the recommended retail price alone then the answer is yes.

The DCS is $360 compared to the $300 of the Oral-B iO Series 9.

A $60 premium is still a difference, but not as significant as it could be.

Based on retail prices alone, the Oral-B iO is the better buy.

However, I don’t suggest you buy either brush at their retail price if you can help it.

Typically these prices are discounted by approximately 20-25% on average, resulting in a reasonable saving to be had.

With this in mind, the prices drop to $270 for the DiamondClean and $225 for the iO. There is still a premium of $45 for the DCS.

Moving the needle slightly is the longer term cost of ownership.  As you will need to purchase replacement brush heads, this will affect the cost.

The DCS 9700 over 3 years will work out at approximately $0.29 whilst the iO on the other hand comes in at $0.28 per day.

So as you can see there is little difference between the 2 here over the longer period of time.

It is your decision really.  Pay a price you are happy with and can justify, but do so knowing the difference between these models.

Please note that all prices quoted are approximates and will vary based on location, supplier and time of purchase.  These figures were correct at the time of writing and should not be relied upon as hard fact, but used as a guide during your decision process.