Oral-B iO Review

Design, usability, clean & general use

To fit in with the redesign of the iO, the typical Oral-B packaging has also been updated.  It fits the same theme and looks smart.  

The image of the handle on the front of the box is the colour of the brush inside.  And the key features and functions are highlighted.

It is refreshing to see the use of less plastic (although some is included). An arguably slightly more environmentally conscious effort from Oral-B.

What you get in the box is listed earlier in the review. I have here the black onyx colour option, which is the only choice for the Series 9 in Singapore.

The first thing to strike me is that it is not quite as deep a black as you might expect, there is almost a grey/blue tone to the colour.

If you have ever seen or handled an Oral-B electric toothbrush, you will soon see the difference in the design.

The handle still has the typical cylindrical design, but the whole handle looks much more refined.  

On the front of the handle, in the upper half is an oval panel, within which is the power button, colour OLED display and mode button.  The circular buttons have a very slight concave design and sit above and below the display.  

The power button has a power icon on it, whilst the mode button has a solid dot.  Both have a rubber coating/texture to them.

Below the oval sits a silver/grey Bluetooth logo.

Then in the bottom third of the handle is the Oral-B and iO logo in a silver grey colour.

The side and back of the handle are all smooth to the touch with no notable features.

There is a lack of rubber gripping points that were useful on previous models.  Some of the practicalities have been sacrificed for design, but this is to be expected.

Although there are no notches on the handle to stop this rolling if laid flat on a countertop, the design and weighting is such that the handle simply does not roll like most other brushes.

Around the bottom edge of the handle is a silver coloured ring that adds a nice design element to the handle.  

There is another, slimmer silver coloured ring at the top of the handle, just below where the brush head attaches.  It adds a nice stylish touch.

Below this upper silver ring, sits a thin clear panel that runs a full 360 degrees around the top of the handle.  This panel is the pressure sensor/light ring.  More on this shortly.

On the base of the toothbrush is a continuation of the silver panel that runs around the edge.  The base has a slight concave design to it but no recess for the charging stand like most other Oral-B brushes.

The toothbrush will stand upright on a countertop.

Extending from the top of the handle is a shaft that the brush head connects to.

The brush heads push onto and pull off of the shaft.  There is no need to twist them to lock them into place.  They only fit one way.

It is normal to have a small gap between the handle and brush head.

The 9 Series comes with 1 of the iO Ultimate Clean brush heads included.  This is black in colour to match the handle.

An important thing to note here is that the brush heads to be used on the iO are different to all the brush heads Oral-B are known for.

Whilst the iO brush heads are still small and round, the actual plastic shaft that fits to the handle is different.

What this means is that you have to buy brush heads specifically designed for the iO Series. 

Existing heads such as CrossAction, FlossAction, Sensi UltraThin and more do not fit.

At the time of writing, there are 2 types of iO specific heads, these are known as the Ultimate Clean and Gentle Care.

When you look at the design of the heads you can see why Oral-B have created these new ones. It is a bit frustrating though for existing Oral-B users that the heads are not interchangeable.

Gone too are the coloured rings that fit to the heads.  Instead, each head has different symbols printed on them as a way of differentiating between them. This is necessary if you have multiple users of one brush handle.

Like the older brush heads, these do have the indicator bristles to help you monitor when you need to replace the brush head. 

With thorough brushing, twice a day for two minutes, the blue colour will fade away from the bristles within approximately 3 months, indicating the need to exchange your brush head. If the bristles splay before the colour recedes, you may exert too much pressure on teeth and gums.

For those who want something a bit more technologically advanced, there is an in app reminder too.

You can learn more about the Oral-B brush heads in our brush head guide.

Like the brush heads, the internal workings of the iO are different to previous Oral-B toothbrushes. Fundamentally they achieve the same results.

Whilst I won’t get too technical, the main thing to note here is that the brushing experience is just as good with the iO as it is any other Oral-B toothbrush, in fact, dare I say better?!  

The brushing experience feels a little different.  The cleaning action feels softer, but still effective.

The iO and the Ultimate Clean brush head left my teeth and gums feeling super clean and I was certainly more than satisfied with the results.

Using what is known as a frictionless magnetic drive system the result is a toothbrush that is considerably quieter in use than any other Oral-B toothbrush I have used previously. It is more akin to the sound a sonic toothbrush would make.

In fact, the iO is about 10 decibels quieter, than previous models, at around 70 decibels.  This is almost identical to a sonic toothbrush from Sonicare.  The pitch of the sound is a little different, in favour of Sonicare in my opinion.

The magnetic drive system directs the cleaning energy to the bristle tips along with what is known as micro vibrations.  This offers a really smooth and soft cleaning experience.  It feels less jittery with a very consistent cleaning action.  

This system is powered by the built-in rechargeable lithium-ion battery, more on that in the battery life section of the review.

Like many other toothbrushes, the iO has some essential features built into it. The most important of which I believe is the 2 minute timer and 30 second pacer.

The principle behind this professional timer is to ensure you clean the teeth in your mouth evenly.

It’s all very well brushing for 2 minutes, but no good if you only brush your front teeth for all that time.

The idea is you break the mouth up into 4 quadrants, upper right, upper left, lower right and lower left.   You spend 30 seconds cleaning each.

You move the brush head from tooth to tooth, cleaning the front, back and biting surfaces. 

As the 30 second pacer kicks in you move from 1 quadrant to the next, until you have brushed all 4 during the 2 minute cycle.  You will hear a short stuttering sound and a slightly different brushing sensation as the packer activates.  A long stuttering sound indicated the end of the recommended 2 minute brushing time.

The iO timer memorises the elapsed brushing time, even when the handle is briefly switched off during brushing. Anything longer than 30 seconds paused and the timer resets.

Do be aware, during the use of the Oral-B app, the timer may be deactivated for some features and you may also customise the timer settings via the Oral-B app.

Sensors in the iO actually track up to 16 zones within the mouth.  These zones are the front, top and back surface of the teeth on both the upper and lower jaw.

This is all part of the 3D tracking and AI recognition system that is supposed to help us clean our teeth better each time we use it.

The real-time data it obtains can be transferred back to a smartphone application so you can see just how well you are brushing.  I will go into more detail on this shortly.

At the end of a clean, you get an emoji style graphic.  A smiley, sad face or even a starry eyed smile depending on the time and the pressure applied etc.

However, I had thought that more of this data would be displayed on the OLED screen of the brush handle, rather than just an emoji face.

I presumed it may indicate which areas of the mouth needed more brushing or giving more educational messages right on the display. But it does not.  You need to be using the app for this.

Imagine getting a message right on that screen that says, try using less pressure next time, or pay attention to the back teeth or brush for another 20 seconds for better results?!

The OLED display is innovative.  There are few brushes that offer such.  It is a better implementation of a display I have tested on the Oclean X.

It is a colour screen on the Series 9 but black and white on the Series 7.

It is not touch sensitive.  You use the power and mode button to control functions.  This feels somewhat counter intuitive given how many touchscreens we now interact with.  But, it is appropriate here.

It should activate as you pick up the brush, but sometimes you may need to press the power button to wake it up. 

Through the screen you can switch between the cleaning modes and change key settings such as the language, colour of the LED ring and turn Bluetooth on or off.

The display will show the battery life in 10% increments after the cleaning mode has finished.  There is no way to see the battery life within the settings of the handle which I think is an oversight.

The display does not allow you to change the order of the cleaning modes, or how long they last for.  You can’t see how long the brush head has been attached for or even the current date and time.

Maybe I am asking too much, but I just expected the screen to be a bit more functional.

When the brush is active, there is a timer shown on screen that ties in with the built-in pacer and a nice graphic of a circle that gradually turns blue as you complete the clean.

There are no icons for cleaning modes or battery on the brush handle, instead you only see them on the screen.

Thankfully Oral-B are now accompanying their cleaning mode icons with a text name, so when you do switch between modes it is very clear which mode you are using.

On models like the Genius X you have to rely on an icon of a feather to know that is Sensitive mode.  Sonicare have always made things simpler, by simply printing the mode name on the handle.

The iO 9 Series has 7 cleaning modes in total. They are:

• Daily Clean – Standard mode for daily cleaning
• Sensitive – Gentle, yet thorough cleaning for sensitive areas
• Gum Care – Gentle massage of the gums
• Whiten – Polishing for occasional or everyday use
• Intense – For an extraordinary clean feeling (operated with a higher speed)
• Super Sensitive – Super gentle cleaning for extra sensitive areas
• Tongue Clean – Tongue cleaning for occasional or everyday use

Let me be clear, you don’t need all of these modes and I suspect very few users would ever regularly use any more than about 3 of these consistently.

As the names essentially imply, each differs slightly in the amount of power from the motor that they use to achieve different results.

Most people will be quite content with the daily clean mode.  

Intense works well for those wanting that really deep clean whilst you guessed it, super sensitive is one of the more gentle modes for delicate teeth and gum tissues.

On many other Oral-B models each cleaning mode had a predetermined time you should use it for.  For example, Deep Clean (now intense) would last for 3 minutes.  The pacer would then have been adjusted to suit.

With the iO this is not the case. You decide how long you want to brush for.  The pacer is by default set to 2 minutes, but the brush continues to function past this time.  It does not automatically turn itself off.

The exception to this rule, if the Tongue Clean mode that runs for 30 seconds and the brush does automatically power off.

I am not sure why there is automatic power off for this and not other modes.

You can change the brushing time within the app.

The iO has a pressure sensor built-in, like many other models they offer.  But the configuration here is a little different.

With other Oral-B models the pressure sensor is constantly monitoring when too much pressure is applied.  With the iO, it is assessing for too much as well as not enough.  This is a ‘smart pressure sensor’.

By default the light from this sensor is white. You can actually customize the colour, to something you prefer via the app. This is lit white or your chosen colour when not enough pressure (low pressure) is being applied. 

A green light will be emitted from the LED ring when the right amount of pressure is applied and a red light when too much pressure is used.  

You want to see the green light as you brush.

Too much pressure can in time cause damage to the teeth and gums, so you want to pay attention to this.  The iO will automatically reduce the number of brush head movements in Daily Clean, Sensitive and Intense modes to avoid help reduce the risk of damage to the teeth.

Rather frustratingly, when you do activate the sensor, by brushing too hard, there is no warning other than a red light.

Other Oral-B models change the sound, so you had an audible warning. Sonicare brushes vibrate the handle differently.

With the iO, unless you are looking for the red light, you could easily miss that you are brushing too hard. Why has this been changed?! This is not a good thing. I want more alerts, not less!

A problem shared by many brushes is that it is easiest to see that light if you brush your teeth in front of a mirror.  If you don’t, you can see it out the corner of your eye, but it’s not always that easy.

I think the need to brush in front of a mirror is made more obvious here because you want the green light to be showing.  So, to be able to see the green light the majority of the time you need to brush in front of the mirror.  If you don’t you can’t be so sure you are brushing right.

If this pressure sensor is lit blue it indicates Bluetooth pairing and if it is orange, it indicates an error and you should follow the messages on the display.

Right, to one of the ways the iO really aims to differentiate, Bluetooth connectivity and it’s smart features.

It, like many other Oral-B brushes, has the ability to communicate with a free app available for iOS and Android.

The handle transfers key information to the app for review in real-time or at a later date.

Upon initial setup you will be guided through the pairing process on the screen of your phone.  It takes less than a minute to complete and you can change Bluetooth settings at any time via the display on your handle.

For the best performance, you need to keep the phone within a 16 foot (5 meter) range of the brush.

Oral-B have made smart toothbrushes for a long time, and the fundamental functions of this iO remain the same.  However, the Artificial Intelligence (AI) and tracking ability first introduced on the Genius X has been improved.

Previous users of the app will see how the app has been updated to ensure you get the most out of the iO.

The recommended approach is to use the app at the same time as you brush, so you get the real-time data shown on your phone screen.

With the Series 9, you will see a graphic of a mouth.  As you brush the teeth in your own mouth those same teeth on the phone screen turn from a blue to a bright white colour as you successfully brush for the right amount of time.

The iO Series 9 is tracking your brushing of 16 different zones in the mouth.

The graphic makes it clear if you have not brushed the certain teeth/areas of the mouth for long enough.

Such a visual clue makes it really easy to adapt your technique and correct the mistake immediately.

The 7 tracks just 6 zones as opposed to 16. It essentially tries to do the same job but relies more heavily on you actually brushing all surfaces in that area rather than highlighting each surface to be cleaned.

Based on the data the app receives and collates it then offers personalised coaching to help each of us improve.

You get a score for how well you did after each session. 

It might be overkill for some.  You don’t have to use the smart features at all if you really don’t want to.  Ideally, use it daily to get full value from the brush, but even infrequent use can help you review performance and perfect your technique.  We all have good and bad days, myself included.

According to Oral-B, up to 80% of people spend an insufficient amount of time brushing in at least one zone of their mouth. Another 60% of people either don’t brush their back molars at all or don’t spend enough time when they do.

The smart features of the iO are, in theory at least, designed to help us brush our teeth better and for longer. If we can get in the habit of making use of the app, it is possible we could slow or stop the chances of some common issues, such as cavities occurring.

It naturally profits Oral-B to create such systems. If we buy into them, we spend out on replacement brush heads and new toothbrushes in the future.

The app mimics some of the suggestions and advice your dentist would likely give you at your checkup. Whilst it cannot replace a trained professional, it can give us those gentle nudges between appointments to possible risks and issues in our routines.

Within the app you have many other customisations you can make too.  From changing the colour of the light ring to setting specific oral healthcare journeys there is little it does not have.

In fact, some might find the app a bit too comprehensive and overbearing with data.

On the whole, the intention of the app and the way it works is pretty good.

But there are a number of issues and inconveniences. Which I feel may put users off, unless they have a real commitment and perseverance.

The real-time feedback can lag and be a little inaccurate. 

I found at times it implied I had not brushed an area sufficiently when I felt I had.  

At other times, the app seemed to think I had brushed all surfaces in a section of the mouth, but I had only cleaned the outside surfaces.

It also seems to struggle a little with defining the boundaries between zones it is tracking.  It often showed as if I was brushing my front teeth but I would have suggested I was cleaning teeth towards the back of my mouth.

Part of the problem here is the way the zones are configured.

For years Oral-B has had 2 minute timers and 30 second pacers built into their brush handles.  The iO included.  

This all works on the principle of 4 key sections of the mouth to brush (upper right, upper left, lower right & lower left).

When using the app, although a timer is shown on screen, the pacing is disbaled, so you get no alert to move from one quadrant to another.

But, here is where things get complicated.  The 3D tracking of the mouth shown on-screen works on the basis of there being 6 key sections of the mouth (upper back right, upper back left, upper front, bottom back right, bottom back left, bottom front).

So where you may have trained yourself to 30 second intervals and cleaned a quadrant, on the app it looks like you have tried to brush 2 sections, but haven’t successfully completed either.

The intention is right with the app for sure.  I really like what it is trying to do, but there seems to be a lack of consistency.  Why is the pacing disabled?  Why 6 sections on the graphic rather than 4?

A 6 section setup is fine, Sonicare does this.  But, their pacing is at 20 seconds, not 30.

With Sonicare, their app identifies for you to brush certain areas and follow a sequence.  It appears to track and log these specific areas with more accuracy.

I think Oral-B could improve things by guiding us as we brush.  Instead, it reacts to where we place the brush rather than encouraging a more consistent and seamless routine.

The app did too feel like it was encouraging me to brush certain areas longer than were necessary.  I would have said I had successfully cleaned a section of the mouth, but in order to achieve the white teeth, I was having to spend 10-20 seconds longer.  

Given so few brush their teeth for the recommended time, this is potentially a positive.  But, it just seems a bit odd and could be off putting.

I would suggest my brushing technique is above average, and I certainly managed to achieve 100% coverage many times. However, on quite a few occasions I was having to brush for 2 minutes and 30 seconds plus to achieve a full set of white teeth on the app.

I think the app and position detection improved over time, but it is hard to say for sure or whether I just adjusted a bit.  After a week, I certainly felt the percentage covered had increased by the 2 minute mark compared to when I first started.  However, I would have thought I would have achieved a higher score from the outset.  Was it me? Was it the app and the reliability of the detection?!  I am inclined to say the latter.

Something else to consider is the app and the way it shows pressure when brushing. The app will display a warning on the screen if you are using too much pressure.

However, part of the iO systems design is to encourage you to use the right pressure.

There is no reference to this within the app.  

You may not have the green light lit on the handle, but the app doesn’t suggest to try brushing with a little more pressure to activate it.  Given the pressure sensor is so clever, why not link it to the app.

This ultimately leads to another point, trying to brush correctly, with the correct technique and the right pressure.

For me and even more so for a new electric toothbrush user, using the iO with the app is a juggling act.

In one hand I hold the brush and try to brush my teeth correctly.  In the other I have my phone with the app open to monitor my brushing.  Meanwhile, 1 eye is focused on the mirror in front of me to check the green light activated and the other is looking at the phone. It all feels a bit cumbersome.

You don’t have to use the app every time.  The handle does store some data and will sync the next time it is within range of a smartphone, but you are not getting maximum value if you don’t.

This leads me to the biggest issue with the whole setup.  You and me as humans.  We need to train ourselves and potentially break habits of a lifetime to achieve the real value from the iO and what it offers.  To do this requires a lot of commitment and perseverance.

Sadly, I think many will struggle and will give up, potentially at the detriment of their oral health.

I don’t want to be negative. I genuinely think the idea here is admirable, but you can likely see why I think it is clunky and difficult to use.

Perhaps what is most telling is I have all the best toothbrushes available to me and I rarely use the real-time data facilities offered.  I recommend most just perfect a basic reliable toothbrushing technique.  It is cheaper and can be as effective.

Having the display on the iO does perhaps give extra encouragement a typical electric toothbrush or even smart toothbrush would not.  Getting a sad face might just encourage you to switch the brush back on again.

It is of course personal preference, but when using the app in real-time I felt like I should hold it in front of my face so I could see it properly.  This meant holding it in my hand.  It would be nice if Oral-B included some form of phone stand to hold your smartphone securely when you are brushing.  This way you don’t have to hold your phone for the full 2 minutes.  It is likely more secure and less likely to come in harm’s way.  For S$699 is it too much to ask?

Included with the Series 9 only is the Oral-B power2go travel case.

Hinged on the left side, it is a hard plastic case that holds a single iO handle and a single brush head.  

I don’t know why this case takes just 1 brush head when every other travel case from Oral-B has accepted 2!  It even looks like there would have been space to add a second, but there is no moulding for it to fit into.  I guess this has something to do with the electronics inside and in the vast majority of instances you only need 1.  

As the name sort of implies, the power2go case means you can actually charge the brush inside.  As I explain in the battery life section, it requires a proprietary power cable (supplied) for this to work.

The need for an extra power adapter is clunky and not all that practical.  Oral-B have overlooked (possibly intentionally) the more convenient USB connectivity that would have made this travel case considerably more practical.  It is such a shame.  This is an issue, for me at least, that has existed for the last 2 generations of premium Oral-B brushes.  So many other things have been done so well here, could they have not improved the case?!

The case is functional for sure, but it is not as solid or premium feeling as previous charging cases the company has made.  But, it is lighter.

It is nice to have a brush head storage compartment included.  It holds up to 2 heads upright and there is a cover for it too.  This actually overcomes the travel case issue of extra brush heads to some extent, even if it is another item to carry.  But it does to provide an additional storage option at home for spare/replacement heads.

The iO is water resistant, meaning you can happily give it a rinse under the tap and it will survive exposure to water and toothpaste, but don’t let it spend any time at the bottom of the bath.

It does too come with a 1 year warranty should something go wrong.

So, all things considered, there is a great deal to like about the iO and it is a very nice toothbrush to use on a daily basis.  I much prefer the overall user experience to the like of the Genius 9000.  You shouldn’t decide to switch just because of this, but it is a nice perk if you do.

But, the iO is not without some small niggly frustrations. A couple of which could have been fairly easily rectified prior to manufacture.  Perhaps some others can be resolved in future software updates?