Guide
How to find the electric toothbrush that suits you
by Stefanie Lechthaler
The Oral-B iO Series 10 didn’t see this drooling left-hander coming
4/5/2026
Translation: Katherine Martin
Pictures: Michael Restin
The iO Series 10 occupies a lofty position in the Oral-B empire. This luxury toothbrush and its smart charging station are supposed to teach you better brushing technique. But don’t be too dazzled by the promise of pearly whites – this product has a blind spot.
Getting a mouthful of gold wasn’t on my 2026 bingo card. But here I am, several weeks into brushing my teeth with the Oral-B iO Series 10 in Lunar Gold. It’s a top-shelf test product, brimming with more features and accessories than most people need. By reviewing it, I’m hoping to discover who might find it worthwhile. Because let’s face it, the price of «gold» is both high and variable – Oral B’s top model will set you back somewhere between 250 and 300 francs or euros.
An investment that’ll get you an oscillating, rotating brush that also vibrates. It’s vigorous, with a powerful sound and smooth, magnetic drive instead of a rattly mechanical system. It apparently combines the best of toothbrush tech in a single device, all while helping you improve your brushing skills by way of real-time feedback and app statistics. One thing’s for certain, though: in this price range, there’s no room for error.
Box contents, design and first impressions
The toothbrush comes with a charging station and power cord, a travel charging case and a mini case for two brush heads.
The bottom of the brush has a subtly shiny, silver finish and a seamless design – pop the brush on the iO Sense charging station, and it’ll start charging wirelessly straight away. Further up, the handle’s «Lunar Gold» colour shifts between champagne and silver depending on the light. Seeing as I’m uncultured, I’d call it «beige». There you go, Oral-B. You can have that one for free. The toothbrush’s embedded display is more attention-grabbing anyway.
The power and menu buttons above and below the screen are slightly concave and covered with rubber, giving them a good feel. There’s a silver LED ring around the very top of the handle, mirroring the bottom of the device. All of this is topped off by the brush head. This comes included with the iO Series 10 and should last about 90 days before I have to replace it.
I’m deliberately using the word «should»; the iO Series 10 is smart enough to give you a reminder when the brush head needs replacing. However, in my experience, manufacturers tend to recommend you buy new products sooner rather than later. And besides, I can tell when it’s time for a change by the fading colour of the bristles. In the end, I’m the one who calls the shots anyway.
Even with all these bells and whistles, the product’s still a toothbrush at the end of the day. Before checking out the cleaning modes, app and charging station, I decide to just turn it on and start brushing. Here are my first impressions:
- The Oral-B iO 10 makes a vigorous buzzing sound, but it isn’t unpleasantly noisy. It’s nothing like the rattling made by older oscillating models I’m familiar with.
- At first, it feels like I’m sticking a showerhead in my mouth. The attachment’s bigger and wider than what I’m used to.
- It’s handy to have the brushing pressure monitor. The LED ring lights up in green when your pressure’s good, turning red if you press down too hard.
- I drool like a hungry horse when I’m brushing my teeth.
- The magnetic charging station looks good, but you need to find a decent spot for it. If you don’t, there’s a high chance the toothbrush will be knocked off its stand in a shared, family bathroom.
- Right from the get-go, the clock and cleaning timer on the charging station are useful for managing your brushing time effectively. I still need to familiarise myself with the cleaning feedback signals provided by the six built-in LEDs.
The fact that the charging station doesn’t have a USB-C port is inconvenient in my view. It’ll only work with the power adapter included in the box. Same goes for the travel charging case, which, while sturdy, is a bit bulky. The brush head rattles around inside it.
Tipping the scales at just under 140 grammes, the case is actually slightly heavier than the charging station. If you were travelling, you’d be just as well packing that too. On the bright side, the case stops the toothbrush from switching on accidentally.
iO Sense and the sense behind it all
The iO Sense charging station/feedback screen isn’t intended to be hidden in a bathroom cabinet or squeezed between the tap and the soap dish. You need to position it somewhere in your line of sight. Otherwise, while you’re still half-asleep and fumbling for the dental floss, you could easily knock the toothbrush onto the floor. After all, it’s only held in place by a magnet.
When the station’s connected to Wi-Fi, it displays the current time. The moment you start brushing your teeth, it switches to a timer. Then the six LEDs, each representing a different part of your mouth, light up in a deep blue. If a light turns white, it means the teeth in the area it represents are clean. I’m guessing that if a light pulsates, I’d better move onto the next area.
Despite studying the app and the instructions, I’m still not quite sure what the indicators mean. The feedback («powered by artificial intelligence») is supposed to be intuitive. But it doesn’t align with my intuition. I rarely feel like the display accurately pinpoints the area I’m currently brushing. I’m often surprised by its output. Keen to delve in a little deeper, I check out the app.
I opt to change the function for the time being. In cleaning mode, the charging station’s LEDs are solely there to support the timer and indicate when you should move the brush to a new area of your mouth. The lights on the station also turn red if you’re brushing too hard. However, you get exactly the same signal right there on the brush.
In the long run, I don’t think I – or anyone else – will feel the need to rely on the light feedback. Sooner or later, the station will wind up as nothing more than a clock with a brushing timer that you occasionally glance at for a split second. Oh, and it’ll charge the toothbrush. It reportedly takes about three hours to fully charge the empty battery.
The cleaning chronicles: slobbery but squeaky-clean
When you take the toothbrush out of the charging station, it greets you with a message matching the time of day. «Good morning» and a rising sun on the display, for instance. You can then check the battery level and choose from seven modes. I go for the most obvious option, selecting Daily Clean, then pressing the start button.
Using the rotating, oscillating and vibrating brush head is a new experience for me – I’ve only ever used sonic or rotary toothbrushes before. The way my mouth feels after brushing is a novelty too. I can honestly say that my teeth have never felt so smooth, and, as a result, so clean.
I’ve no complaints about the core function of any toothbrush. I also quite like this one’s low buzzing sound. It judders briefly to tell you to move the brush to the next part of your mouth. If the juddering continues, you can finish your brushing session.
However, getting to the finish line is a bit of a struggle for me. Not because of the unusually shaped, slightly thick brush head. I soon get used to that; after a while, it feels just as natural as the iO 10 itself, which fits comfortably in my hand. Thanks to the pressure monitoring feature, I quickly pick up the art of brushing and don’t have any issues with my gums.
Even weeks into my review, my biggest bugbear with the brush is that I slobber like a horse when I’m cleaning my teeth. No matter how tightly I press my lips together, toothpaste froth soon starts trickling down my hand. I decide to experiment with a less liquid formula, switching from my usual toothpaste to the Oral-B one that came in my test package. This does lead to some improvement, but since the brush vibrates, the liquid always finds a way to leak out.
Maybe it’s escaping through the small gap in the brush head. I can’t say for sure. All I know is that turning my mouth into a minty cappuccino frother is distracting my attention from the real-time feedback. After all, that involves actually looking at the charging station or a smartphone. It’s hard to do either of those things with my head bowed over the sink as if in prayer.
7 more modes than you need
In addition to Daily Clean mode, during which the brush head reaches the maximum 10,500 oscillations per minute, there are six other modes: Sensitive, Whitening, Gum Care, Intense, Tongue Clean and Smart Adapt, which adjusts to your brushing habits. They adjust whatever can be adjusted. The iO 10’s magnetic motor simply varies the speed and rhythm or changes the oscillation angle of the brush head.
Sometimes, the iO 10 oscillates more gently. Other times, it delivers a pulsating, polishing sensation. The website Electric Teeth has explored all of the cleaning modes in detail, concluding that there are far more than necessary. If you ask me, it’d be enough just to have the Standard and Sensitive modes. They’re much gentler, make the battery last longer and even curb my drooling problem.
The good thing is, you can’t disable the unnecessary modes in the app, removing them from the brush’s display. True gadget enthusiasts will be disappointed to learn that there’s no option to create a custom cleaning mode – unlike, for example, on the Laifen Wave, tested by my colleague Stephanie.
Learn the art of teeth-cleaning via the app
The Oral-B app (iOS/Android is more focused on coaching and motivation than customisation. You can use it to change the colour of the LED ring that lights up at the start – which is handy if there are multiple brushes being used in the same bathroom. As much as I’d like to dim the light (it’s a little too bright for my liking during the soft light of evening), you can’t.
On the bright side, there’s no risk of getting lost in a bunch of submenus. Mind you, you might well lose yourself in stats, personal goals and well-meaning advice instead. Oh, and don’t forget the medals, such as «lunchtime brusher». At the core of all this is real-time feedback: «Welcome, Michael! Get ready to brush your teeth with our 3D tooth-tracking technology.»
So, day after day, I get ready to brush with the app, an upgraded version of the LED ring on the charging station. Although you can see your cleaning progress a bit more clearly in the app, the display rarely matches what I think I’m doing with the brush in my mouth, leaving me at a loss. It takes me considerably longer than my usual two minutes to get every area of my mouth to meet the app’s standards.
I feel like I’m neglecting some areas while over-polishing others. Rather than trying to get the result I’m happiest with, I end up twisting and pivoting the brush in the hope of seeing the app respond in the way I’d expect. The real-time brushing display often jumps to the wrong side of my mouth. I suspect it’s because I’m left-handed and hold the toothbrush differently.
After all that mumbo-jumbo about «AI-powered tracking», the brush only detects tilting and rotating movements – and seems to draw the wrong conclusions from them. Switching to my right hand doesn’t improve things. I guess I’m still holding and moving the toothbrush in an unusual way. Besides this, the app mostly provides stats and regular tips. If you want something that cares about your brushing and encourages you to do it well, you’ll be into it.
The battery’s much more important
Electric toothbrushes and I have an on-again, off-again relationship. And it’s not because of me. My last one, a Happy Brush device, started out with great battery life. However, all too quickly, it began to run out of juice practically immediately. With this in mind, I’m pushing the iO 10’s battery to the limit in this review. When the toothbrush turns off automatically after the maximum of five minutes’ brushing time, I immediately switch it back on. In Standard mode, the toothbrush holds out for between 33 and 38 minutes.
No matter how many stress tests I run on the iO 10, I can’t make it crash or cause it to malfunction. It simply heats up, cools down and recharges. German consumer magazine «Stiftung Warentest» rated the io 10’s durability as «very good» after simulating six years of use (article in German).
Although the iO 10’s runtime more than doubles in Sensitive mode, I still wouldn’t call it a battery powerhouse. Charging the battery from zero to full is a surprisingly quick process – three hours long, according to the product specs. When I check the battery level two hours and 20 minutes into charging, it’s already full again.
Battery life wouldn’t be all that important if there were a fair replacement scheme. I can’t find any official information on this, while organising a new battery through Oral-B Support seems to involve sending in the old one, getting a price estimate and ending up disappointed. Most of the time, it winds up costing so much that it makes more sense to buy a new toothbrush than to have the existing one repaired. Many people simply do it themselves using this iFixit guide (in German).
Alternatives from Oral-B
If you’re not bothered about the visual feedback provided by the iO Sense charging station, the Series 9 is a more affordable alternative. The Series 8 is even cheaper – as long as you don’t mind going without a tongue-cleaning mode or a travel case with a charging function. If you’re okay with a black-and-white display and just five cleaning modes, check out the Series 7. These toothbrushes also have all the features I’d consider important: a motor, pressure monitoring and a brush head.
So ask yourself what you’ll need in the long run. Will your enthusiasm for the Series 10’s wide range of features hold strong? Or will your interest narrow down to the Standard mode and battery indicator over time?
In a nutshell
The iO Sense is a great toothbrush that’s gone overboard on features – and is unsuitable for left-handers
The Oral-B iO 10 is an impressive electric toothbrush featuring a colour display, seven brushing modes and a travel case. Judged on cleaning power alone, it would’ve deserved five stars. However, this top-of-the-line toothbrush’s USP is supposed to be the iO Sense: a sleek charging station that provides real-time feedback on cleaning performance via an LED display.
As a left-hander, I’m often confused by this «smart» feedback. The technology doesn’t reliably recognise which area I’m currently cleaning, even if I swap the brush to my right hand. So I’m deducting two stars for that. My recommendation? Think carefully about which toothbrush features you’ll need on a long-term basis.
Pro
- Pressure monitoring
- Cleaning performance
- Pleasant sound
- High-quality finish
Contra
- iO Sense real-time feedback is unreliable for left-handed users
- Bang-average battery life
- No USB-C, so you need to take the power adapter with you when travelling
- Charging station needs a safe position (risk of falling)
Michael Restin
Senior Editor
Michael.Restin@digitecgalaxus.chSimple writer and dad of two who likes to be on the move, wading through everyday family life. Juggling several balls, I'll occasionally drop one. It could be a ball, or a remark. Or both.
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