Sports car. Sports jacket. Sportsman or sportswoman. Everything is better when it’s sportier and souped up, but did you ever think you’d see a souped-up toothbrush? Neither did we, but now the Oral B Black Edition exists, we’d never go back.
What Is It?
The power toothbrush to the gods.
What’s Good?
The Oral B Black toothbrush will make short work of plaque and other nasties on your teeth.
It oscillates a staggering 48,000 times per minute, up around 6000 oscillations on Oral B’s previous flagship model. That means in a three-minute brush you’ll have this thing oscillating over your teeth an incredible 144,000 times. Phwoar. It isn’t just dumb brushing with the Black, however.
You get six customisable functions on the toothbrush: Daily Clean, Deep Clean, Whitening, Massage, Sensitive and Tongue Cleaning. That’s one feature mode more than last time, with tongue cleansing the new entrant.
There’s also a sensor built into the handle which flashes red and slows the RPM of the toothbrush if it catches you pushing too hard. Don’t want to damage those pearly whites after all.
That teeth training continues outside of the brush as well, with the revamped SmartGuide timer telling you all the vital stats you ever wanted to know about how you brush your teeth. It gives you a timer and a star rating to track how you’re brushing your chompers, and it really ensures you get the right sort of mouth care when in front of the bathroom mirror.
The Black is no slouch when it comes to battery either, giving around six to seven days worth of use (morning and night) before needing to be recharged.
As far as design is concerned, the Black looks more like a spy gadget than a toothbrush. It has a black handle with silver accents, inset in a galvanised body with blue LEDs inset under the buttons.
You’ve also got a luxury carry case to cart your toothbrush around in, making it great for travel.
What’s Bad?
The only real complaints we have about the Black surround the battery. Sure, it has a long life of around a week, but after about two days (four uses) not being charged, you start to notice that it runs slower, and loses some of that great teeth-cleaning efficiency.
Also, if you leave it to run completely flat, it takes forever to charge back up again. It accidentally switched itself on and subsequently ran flat in my CES wash bag (admittedly I wasn’t using the charging case), and it took around three days to charge back up again.
If you’re getting this, we recommend you just dump it back onto its charging stand after every brush to ensure you’re not getting short changed on your clean.
Speaking of change, this costs a huge chunk of it at $220. You are getting a lot of toothbrush for the money, however, and isn’t that cheaper than a visit to the dentist anyway?
Should You Buy It?
If you’re serious about oral health and sexy teeth then absolutely you should. If you just want another throwaway toothbrush, however, this isn’t for you.