If you’re not team electric toothbrush already, can the Oral-B iO9 convince you?
The Oral-B i09 sets a new standard for electric toothbrushes, but with a hefty price tag and recurring costs for replacement heads, is it truly the best choice? It depends
Just over a year ago, I was in Los Angeles, USA, for a summer holiday, and on a whim, I bought the Oral-B iO8 electric toothbrush, which I got to use upon returning to India. Many dentists, including the one I go to regularly, recommend electric toothbrushes over manual ones. A couple of months later, I wrote an article titled, ‘When it comes to brushing your teeth, are you team manual or electric?’ While conducting research for the article and speaking with dentists as well as consumers, I became firmly convinced that I am on the right team, which is Team Electric.
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been testing the Oral-B iO9 electric toothbrush, a significant upgrade from the iO8, which reaffirms my decision to be on Team Electric.
I have one major issue with the iO9, and I need to address it before I get into all the positives. The problem with the i09, i08, and several other electric toothbrushes is the cost of owning them. Yes, there are some Indian brands with cheaper alternatives, as I pointed out in my previous article, but the feature set that Oral-B provides with the i09 is unmatched. Sadly, though, it is priced out of reach of many consumers. The cost of the i09 is a whopping ₹16,499. Yes, it’s discounted to ₹8,250 on Amazon (generally, you’ll find a 25 to 50 percent discount), but even then, that’s a steep asking cost. You will also need to keep purchasing replacement heads every three months, which can add up, setting you back by ₹1,299 for a pack of two.
If you can stomach that, then the i09 will be the best daily companion you didn’t know you needed.
The nuts and bolts
The i09 comes with a magnetic charging base, a travel case (note that Indian consumers will not receive the travel charging case), and a separate case to store two spare brush heads.
One of the unique features of the i09 is the ability to track the exact position of the toothbrush in your mouth. This is done using the in-built sensors in the handle. There is a smart ring right below the brush head that lights up in various colours to indicate the pressure being applied: white for low pressure, green for the right amount of pressure, and red for overpressure.
The i09 has 16 tracking zones (versus six on the i08). You can track the inner, outer and biting zones of each of the four sides of your teeth and the inner and outer of the upper front and lower front. With 16 tracking zones, you can obtain more granular data, allowing for focused improvements. It’s clever, intuitive, and if you’re serious, can really help you brush better.
The i09 is Bluetooth-enabled, which means you don’t have to have the app open every time you brush your teeth. The data will be shared from the toothbrush to the app the next time it is open. The sad part is that when you don’t want to take your smartphone with you to the bathroom, you’ll miss out on the guided session and won’t know which zones you've missed.
Now, I’ve used a few electric toothbrushes (this is the first one I’m reviewing), and none of them, with real-time tracking, is perfect. While the i09 is right up there with the best, there is one small issue. Sometimes, while brushing with my left hand (yes, I’m a leftie), the i09 thinks I’m brushing a different zone to the one I actually am. It happens rarely, but it is noticeable. On the upside, I never noticed any lag between my brushing and the app.
The i09 has seven different programmes: Daily Clean, Sensitive, Super Sensitive, Whitening, Gum Care, Intense, and Tongue Clean. I mostly used ‘Daily Clean’ while ‘Intense’ was a little too intense at times. I supplemented ‘Daily Clean’ with a ‘Tongue Clean’ for 30 seconds. To select, simply navigate through the modes on the interactive colour display. On the display, you can also see the battery percentage and the brushing time.
The toothbrush is IPX7 rated. That means it's waterproof and you can wash it thoroughly without worrying about any long-term damage.
How’s the app?
Connecting to the app is easy—simply download the app and sync your toothbrush via Bluetooth to your phone.
The mainstay of the accompanying Oral-B app is the real-time feedback about how well you’ve brushed each area of your mouth and how much total coverage you’ve achieved. While I loved the real-time feedback, I had one small issue. The brush does buzz every thirty seconds, indicating that you should shift to the other side of the mouth, which is beneficial. Trying to achieve total coverage and get to a 100% coverage score means that you’ll often be brushing for more than the two-minute recommended time by dentists.
The app tracks your brushing history, overall percentage score (a combination of coverage achieved and overall pressure), and monitors the age of the brush head, sending an alert when it's time for replacement (after the recommended three-month period).
There is one section, ‘Goals,’ that I just don’t open. Gamifying brushing isn’t something I’d want, but I guess there is an audience out there. In this section, there are several goals, such as “Fresh Breath" or “Plaque Fighter," with a defined time frame (in days or weeks), which you can set and then work towards achieving. But it’s the awards I find that are quite silly. There’s the ‘Captain Gum Guard’, which is having the right amount of pressure for 10 sessions in a row or ‘Kissable’, which you can win by cleaning your tongue once a day for 3 days in a row.
Yes, the app works with both Android and iOS (and you can sync data to Apple Health).
One downside I noticed, on the last day of my testing, was to do with the app and data. I switch a lot of phones (for reviewing), and I used the i09 paired with a new smartphone right before finishing up this review. While the sessions transferred over, they all showed up as ‘unguided’ sessions. Therefore, my score was reset, and also, I had to ‘win’ the medals again. It thought I was a new user. I don’t know why the data just can’t be transferred over. Seems like it’s just an easy software update for Oral-B!
How’s the battery life?
After brushing, the i09 displays an emoji communicating how well you’ve brushed. A few seconds later, the remaining battery power is shown with the exact percentage.
From a full charge, I managed to get between 11-13 days' worth of brushing out of the battery. Oral-B says it’ll last 14 days on a single charge, so the numbers are pretty reasonable. Of course, when I brushed often for longer than the two minutes, the battery life dropped to just 9-10 days. I hardly had to fiddle with the OLED display, so that didn’t significantly contribute to the battery drainage.
There’s a magnetic charger (I would have preferred a USB-C charging port, but this is absolutely not a dealbreaker) that is seamless and very easy for you. In fact, Oral-B has included a failsafe to keep it from overcharging and damaging the battery. Therefore, you can keep it on all day, if you’d like. To juice up the i09 from 0-100, you need just under three hours, which, in my opinion, is pretty good.
Verdict
All things considered, the i09 is a step up from previous models and a winner in my books. Yes, it’s expensive at its MRP, but at a discount of 50% it is worth every penny.
The feedback provided via the app is top-notch and helps you take control of your dental care. Yes, some may have a similar experience with more affordable brushes, but after using the i09 extensively, it’s worth it for the extra features. From the screen, which is both fun and valuable, to the pressure sensors and extra cleaning modes, the i09 has everything you’d need.
Best of all, the i09 reduces the harshness of brushing, and the fact that it is relatively quiet (as compared with my i08 toothbrush).
Overall, the i09 can help you become a better brusher, keep your tongue clean, and overall make your dentist a happier person. Just wait for a discount and snap it up. You won’t be disappointed.
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