Trying to find the best Oral-B electric toothbrush? Look no further – we tested the brand’s top brushes for every budget
If you don’t want to spend hours decoding marketing to find out which is the best Oral-B electric toothbrush for you, we’ve got you covered. We’ve tested their sprawling range of rotary toothbrushes to find out what each brush is capable of, ensuring our list of recommendations is as accurate as possible.
Oral B has several different ranges serving different customers and price points, from basic entry-level rotary brushes to all-singing, all-dancing smart iO series models. The prices of these brushes vary massively, ranging from around £30 for a budget brush to upwards of £400 for the top-end models. To make things more difficult, these prices can fluctuate wildly, so you’ll sometimes find new mid-range brushes selling for less than budget brushes if you catch them in a sale.
All that means that we generally advise against buying the first Oral-B brush you see. Instead, we recommend you consult this guide, where we’ll run you through all the best Oral B electric toothbrushes we’ve tested. Or, you can browse options from other brands in our best electric toothbrush roundup. For more information, read our in-depth guide to the Oral-B ranges.
Best Oral-B electric toothbrush: At a glance |
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|---|---|---|
| Best cheap toothbrush | Oral-B Vitality Pro (~£50) | Check price at Amazon |
| Best toothbrush for no-fuss brushing | Oral-B iO Series 3 (~£75) | Check price at Amazon |
| Best mid-range iO Series toothbrush | Oral-B iO Series 6 (~£130) | Check price at Amazon |
| Best premium Oral-B toothbrush | Oral-B iO Series 9 (~£245) | Check price at Amazon |
How we test Oral-B electric toothbrushes
We test electric toothbrushes by using them twice a day over at least one week, making sure we get a feel for how they handle and perform when cleaning. During the test period, we’ll try any specific brush modes and attachments, and install any apps required to get the most out of any built-in smart features. For at least one of those brushes, we’ll use plaque-disclosing tablets to check that all areas of the teeth are getting a proper clean.
To assess battery life, we leave the toothbrush running while standing up and time how long it takes for the battery to run down. We then divide this figure by the four minutes per day brushing recommended by dentists to get an accurate idea of how many days and weeks a single charge should last.
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The best Oral-B electric toothbrushes to buy in 2024
1. Oral-B Vitality Pro: Best cheap Oral-B electric toothbrush
Price when reviewed: £50 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… basic rotary cleaning
- Not so great for… no pressure sensor
The Vitality Pro is as basic as electric toothbrushes get, but it’s still a better option for most people than your average manual or battery toothbrush. Aside from its three brushing modes, you don’t get much in the way of features, with no pressure sensor; it just has a pulse every 30 seconds to help you track when your two minutes is up. What’s more, it’s one of the few Oral-B brushes to have no vibrating 3D action to break down plaque and work in between your teeth – a simple, back-and-forth oscillation cleans the surface of teeth.
All the same, although the action feels a little rough and rattly in comparison to the brand’s more expensive models, we think it still gives your gnashers a thorough clean. If you have sensitive teeth, we’d recommend tailoring your experience by switching out the CrossAction brush head for a sensitive head. And while we feared the worst from the NiMH battery, it actually lasted a reasonable 43 minutes in our tests. We’d like to see a pressure sensor and a charging indicator, but if you only have around £28 to spend on an Oral-B toothbrush, this is as good as it gets.
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 1; Battery type: NiMH; Accessories included: One brush head, charger; Battery life (tested): 43 mins; Warranty: 2 years; Cost of replacement heads: £18 for 8
2. Oral-B Pro 3 3000: Best budget Oral-B toothbrush
Price when reviewed: £100 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… excellent clean, useful features
- Not so great for… now low pressure indicator
We think Oral-B’s affordable Pro 3 3000 feels like a real step up from the Vitality Plus and our previous entry-level favourite, the Pro 2500N. The sleek new design drops the rubber grip of the older model, but we still found it easy to handle, easier to rinse clean and the rear pressure sensor – now a 360-degree ring – can be seen easily while you’re brushing. Throw in the normal two-minute timer, and this brush covers all the fundamentals.
What’s more, it delivers an excellent clean, with three modes – Sensitive, Daily Clean and Whitening – that take you all the way from a softer brush that’s easy on the gums to a more intense polish that should help get rid of staining. Battery life, meanwhile, is exceptional; you’ll easily get through two weeks of brushing and probably three without a recharge. In our eyes, it’s the king of sensibly priced brushes and one of the easiest recommendations in the Oral-B range.
Read our full Oral-B Pro 3 3000 review
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 3; Battery type: Li-ion; Accessories included: One brush head, charger; Battery life (tested): 87 mins; Warranty: Two years; Cost of replacement heads: £18 for 8
3. Oral B iO Series 3: Best Oral-B toothbrush for no-fuss brushing
Price when reviewed: £75 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… comfortable, quiet cleaning with a dual pressure sensor
- Not so great for… no app
If you’re not bothered with the whole idea of apps and smart toothbrushes, then we think the iO Series 3 is amazing value and, arguably, the best brush in Oral-B’s whole range. It boasts the same magnetic drive technology as the other brushes in Oral-B’s flagship iO-Series range, but lacks the advanced sensors and Bluetooth connectivity to monitor your brushing. In practice, that means a quieter brush with a more comfortable vibration, and one that still leaves your incisors feeling polished and your molars super-clean, as well as doing a fantastic job of clearing plaque from between your teeth.
What’s more, you still get effective pressure-sensing, with an indicator ring on the handle that glows different colours to let you know if you’re brushing too hard, or not hard enough. The 30-second pulse timer also makes it easy to track how long to spend in each quadrant of your mouth. Meanwhile, the battery life is a little better than many of the other iO-Series brushes, with our test brush clocking 2hrs 19mins of action before running flat. In real terms, that means you can easily get through a month of brushing without a recharge. It’s not a whole lot cheaper than the iO Series 4, which comes with all the smart brush mod-cons, but why pay extra if you won’t use the smart features?
Read our full Oral-B iO Series 3 review
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 3; Battery type: Li-ion; Accessories included: One brush head, charger, travel case; Battery life (tested): 2hrs 19mins; Warranty: Two years; Cost of replacement heads: £24 for 4
4. Oral-B Genius 8000: Best value Oral-B smart toothbrush
Price when reviewed: £181 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… range of brush modes, app tracks treatment
- Not so great for… similarly-priced iO6 has more features
The Genius 8000 launched as a cut-down, value version of the original Genius 9000 brush, but it still feels like a high-end toothbrush. In our tests, it gave an excellent clean, with a choice of six brush modes and three brush heads – CrossAction, 3D White and Sensitive – to cover a wide range of dental needs. Its Li-ion battery still takes a full night to charge but will last for over an hour of brushing from there on in, which should cover you for a couple of weeks.
The Genius 8000 connects via Bluetooth to your phone, giving real-time brushing feedback, an activity diary and gentle chastisement when you miss a brush or finish early. It can even use the phone’s camera to make sure you’re brushing each area sufficiently. It’s quite entertaining and educational, but we worry that the novelty may wear off with time.
The box includes a suction-based phone holder along with a sleek travel case. The only reason not to buy the Genius 8000 is that the Genius X and iO Series 6 are only slightly more expensive and even better still. If you catch it cheap in a sale, however, it’s a great option.
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 5; Battery type: Li-ion; Accessories included: Three brush heads, charger, travel case, smartphone holder; Battery life (tested): 1hr 2 mins; Warranty: Two years; Cost of replacement heads: £18 for 8
5. Oral-B iO Series 4: Best iO series toothbrush for value
Price when reviewed: £240 | Check price at Amazon
- Great for… magnetic drive cleaning and good range of sensors
- Not so great for… app doesn’t track the brush around the mouth
We love Oral-B’s iO-series brushes for their new-fangled magnetic drive technology; it’s quieter than the brand’s old system while delivering a fantastic, in-depth clean for your teeth. What we’re not so keen on is the high cost of entry.
That changes with the iO Series 4. With prices from £90 to £130, it’s still nobody’s idea of a budget brush; but it’s a lot more affordable than previous models. It still delivers all of the core iO tech, just without the OLED display and accessories that push up the price.
Offering four modes, including two sensitive modes, we thought the brush gave a superb clean both on and in-between teeth. The pressure sensors and coloured indicator ring helped us to apply just the right amount of pressure and keep track of a typical two-minute session. What’s more, you can use the iO Series 4 with the Oral-B app and track your dental routine from day to day and week to week.
Battery life isn’t up there with some Sonicare models – you’re looking at a recharge roughly every three weeks – but if you want the latest and greatest toothbrush tech for less, there’s no better buy.
Key specs – Cleaning modes: 4; Battery type: Li-ion; Accessories included: 1 x brush head, charger; Battery life (tested): 1hr 38mins; Warranty: 2 years; Cost of replacement heads: £24 for 4
