Oral-B iO5 Electric Toothbrush Review: a smart brush that cleans well but isn’t cheap

I’ve been using the Oral-B iO5 for a few weeks now, after years of switching between manual brushes and basic electric ones. I didn’t buy it for the fancy app at first; I mainly wanted something that would clean better and help me stop wrecking my gums by brushing too hard. The iO5 sits kind of in the middle of the iO range, so it’s not the flashiest one, but it’s still far from cheap, especially if you don’t catch it on sale.

My first impression: it feels like a proper upgrade from a standard Oral-B electric brush. The vibration style is different, more like a buzzing polish than the rougher, choppy feel of the older models. After the first couple of brushes, my teeth did feel smoother than with my old brush, closer to that “just had a scale and polish” feel, without being too harsh on the gums. So on the basic job – cleaning teeth – it does the work very well.

Where it gets more interesting is the “smart” side: pressure sensor, Bluetooth, app, brushing zones, different modes. Some of that is genuinely useful, especially if you know you rush your brushing or press too hard. Other bits feel a bit like tech for the sake of it. The app can be helpful, but it’s not perfect, and when it glitches or misreads where you’re brushing, you start to see the limits pretty quickly.

Overall, my feeling so far is this: if you’re coming from a manual toothbrush or a very basic electric one, the iO5 feels like a big step up in how clean your mouth feels and how controlled your brushing becomes. But you pay for that jump, and you also lock yourself into Oral-B’s pricey iO heads. So it’s a good product, but not some magic solution. It’s a solid brush with some smart features that are useful, but not essential for everyone.

Let’s talk bluntly: the iO5 is not cheap, especially at full price. When you catch it on offer, it feels a lot more reasonable, and that’s when most people seem genuinely happy with what they get. For the money, you do get a very capable cleaner, a pressure sensor that actually helps you change bad habits, and an app that, while not perfect, can push you to brush more thoroughly and more regularly. If your oral health hasn’t been great or your dentist keeps telling you to improve your brushing, that combo can be worth paying for.

Where the value starts to slip is in the running costs and some of the half-baked smart stuff. The iO heads are expensive, and if they wear out faster than older Oral-B heads, you’re replacing them three or four times a year at a pretty noticeable cost. Add that over a couple of years and you’ve basically bought another brush worth of heads. Also, some of the tech – like the AI zone tracking and Bluetooth – is cool when it works but glitchy enough that you don’t fully rely on it. When the app misreads your brushing or randomly fails to connect, it feels less like a serious tool and more like a bonus feature.

Compared to a basic Oral-B electric brush, the iO5 does clean better and feels nicer on the teeth and gums. But if you’re not going to use the app regularly, and you don’t care about detailed tracking, you might get 70–80% of the benefit from a cheaper model with a simple timer and pressure sensor. On the other hand, if the idea of tracking your brushing, getting feedback, and having the app nudge you into better habits genuinely appeals to you, then the extra cost starts to make sense.

So, in terms of value, I’d say it’s good when bought on discount and if you actually use the smart features and stick with it. At full price, with expensive heads and some imperfect software, it’s harder to justify for someone who just wants a straightforward electric toothbrush. It’s a solid mid-range smart brush, not a bargain, and you do need to go in knowing you’re signing up for ongoing head costs on top of the initial hit.

In terms of design, the Oral-B iO5 is pretty clean and modern. The handle is slim enough to hold comfortably, even when your hands are wet, and the finish doesn’t feel cheap. It’s mostly plastic, but the build feels solid – no creaks when you squeeze it, and the buttons have a decent click. It’s not heavy, but it has enough weight that it doesn’t feel like a toy. The white colour looks fresh, but it will show every bit of toothpaste and bathroom grime if you don’t wipe it down regularly.

The round head is the usual Oral-B style, so if you’ve used their electric brushes before, you’ll feel right at home. The main difference is how the iO tech makes it move – it’s more of a smooth micro‑vibration plus rotation, rather than the rougher chugging of older models. The light ring around the neck is actually quite smart: it gives you pressure feedback and a bit of status info. The downside is that in a bright or steamy bathroom, those colour changes can be hard to see, especially if you’re not standing right in front of a mirror.

The interface is very basic: one power button and one mode button, with icons on the tiny display. Here’s where the design is a bit annoying: the modes are just symbols, and unless you memorise them or keep the box, you won’t know which one is which after a while. The app explains them, but it would have been so much more practical to have small labels or a clearer indicator. I honestly just leave it on the default mode most of the time because I can’t be bothered to scroll through mysterious icons at 7am.

On the bathroom counter, the brush stands upright on the charger and feels stable enough, but the travel case is another story. It’s a hard plastic shell that feels like it would crack if you dropped it hard on tiles. It does the job of keeping the brush clean in a bag, but it doesn’t give a “premium” feel. Overall, the design is functional and pleasant, but there are a few small usability misses that you notice when you use it every day, especially around the visibility of the LEDs and the unclear icons for modes.

Battery life on the iO5 is decent, but not mind-blowing. With two brushes a day on the default mode, I’m getting around a week to a week and a half before it needs a recharge. That lines up with what some other users are seeing. If you’re used to older, simpler electric brushes that last two or three weeks, this feels a bit short. The trade-off is that this one has Bluetooth, pressure lights, and more going on inside, so it drains faster. Whether that’s worth it depends on how much you actually use the smart stuff.

Charging isn’t fast. When the battery gets low and the brush warns you, you’re looking at several hours on the stand to get it back up to full. It’s not like a phone where you get a big boost in 30 minutes. The upside is you can just leave it on the charger overnight and forget about it. The downside is, if you forget to charge and it dies in the morning, you’re either brushing manually or waiting. A few people mention it “takes ages to charge”, and I’d agree – it’s not terrible, but it’s not quick either.

The charger itself is the usual Oral-B 2‑pin shaver plug, so it’s fine if your bathroom has that socket. If not, you need a separate adapter, which is a bit annoying for a product at this price. There’s no USB option, and the travel case doesn’t charge the brush, it’s just a case. So if you go on a longer trip, you’re taking the charger and probably an adapter too. Not the end of the world, but not very modern either.

In day-to-day use, the battery is good enough that you don’t have to think about it constantly, but it’s also not at the level where you can ignore charging for half a month. I’d call it solid but not impressive: it gets the job done if you’re organised, but if you’re forgetful or travel a lot, the combo of slow charging and about a week’s use might start to feel a bit limiting.

Build quality on the handle itself feels pretty solid. The plastic body doesn’t flex or creak, and after a few weeks of twice-daily use, there’s no rattling or weird noises. It’s also handled getting splashed and rinsed without any issues. I’ve knocked it over on the sink a couple of times and it just bounced; no damage so far. So in terms of the main unit, I’m not worried it’ll fall apart quickly as long as you don’t drop it hard on tiles.

The weak spot is more on the accessories and the heads. The travel case feels cheap: it’s a basic hard plastic shell that does protect the brush from dirt in a bag but doesn’t inspire much confidence if you actually drop it. I wouldn’t be surprised if a hard fall cracked it. It’s fine if you just throw it in a suitcase or drawer, but not something I’d call tough. For the price of the whole kit, I expected something a bit more robust or padded.

The brush heads themselves are another point. The iO heads are different from the regular Oral-B ones, and they’re noticeably more expensive. The official line is to replace them every three months, and the app pushes that idea quite hard. In my use, the bristles did start to lose their shape and colour a bit earlier than I remember from older, cheaper heads. Other users say the same thing: they feel like they wear out quite fast, especially now that the app encourages you to brush longer and more thoroughly. Whether that’s by design to sell more heads or just a side effect of the new tech, it does mean ongoing costs add up.

I haven’t seen any corrosion or water getting trapped in weird places yet, but one annoying thing is that water and toothpaste can collect around the base of the head and sometimes spray out if you’re not careful. That’s pretty common with many electric brushes, to be fair, but it’s still a small design quirk that doesn’t help the feeling of cleanliness. Overall, the handle seems durable, but the accessories and the faster-wearing heads make the long-term ownership feel a bit more expensive and slightly less robust than I’d like.

On the core job – cleaning your teeth – the iO5 is genuinely strong. The first week I used it, my teeth felt smoother, especially around the gumline and between teeth where I usually need to floss quite a bit. The combination of the round head and the micro‑vibrations gives more of a polishing feel rather than just scrubbing. Even on the Sensitive mode, I still came away with that very clean, almost “dentist visit” feeling, which I never got from a manual brush and only sometimes from older electrics.

The built‑in 2‑minute timer and quadrant guidance are simple but effective. Every 30 seconds, it gives a little pause so you know it’s time to move to the next part of your mouth. That alone helps you brush more evenly. Where it gets more advanced is with the app and the AI brushing recognition. In theory, it tracks six zones in your mouth and shows you in real time where you’re brushing and what you’ve missed. When it works, it’s actually pretty motivating. I found myself trying to hit 100% coverage like a little game, which did make me slow down and pay attention.

In practice, the tracking isn’t perfect. Sometimes it thinks you’re on the wrong side of your mouth, or it takes forever to recognise that you’ve already done a certain area. When that happens, you either stand there over‑brushing one spot just to satisfy the app, or you give up and accept an imperfect score. If you’re a bit of a completionist, this can get annoying quickly. Also, the Bluetooth connection can be a bit flaky; occasionally the brush doesn’t connect, and you have to reset the pairing or reopen the app. Not a disaster, but not seamless either.

The pressure sensor is one of the genuinely useful features. It lights red if you’re pressing too hard, white if too soft, and green when you’re in the sweet spot. I realised straight away that I’d been brushing way too hard for years. After a few days, I adjusted my habit and now I mostly stay in the green. That’s probably the most practical benefit for gum health. Overall, performance-wise, it’s a very competent cleaner with some smart extras that help but are not always perfectly reliable.

Out of the box, the Oral-B iO5 package is pretty straightforward. You get the handle, two brush heads, a basic 2‑pin charging base, and a hard plastic travel case. No USB, no plug adapter, just the standard bathroom shaver-style plug, so if your bathroom doesn’t have that socket, you’ll need an adapter. For the price, I wouldn’t have minded a slightly better charger or at least a more compact one, but it’s fine and does its job.

The handle itself looks clean and fairly minimal. Mine is white, which looks nice on the sink but obviously shows toothpaste marks and limescale faster than a darker colour. The ring light around the neck is where the pressure sensor shows red, green or white, and it’s also used for a bit of light show when you finish brushing. That’s fun for about a week, then you stop caring, but it doesn’t hurt anything. The screen is very basic – more like simple icons than a full screen – but it’s enough to switch modes and see the timer.

The two included heads are handy because iO heads are not cheap. You’re supposed to change them every three months, and the app even nags you when it thinks it’s time. In reality, how fast they wear out will depend on how hard and how often you brush. Some people report the bristles fraying and changing colour a bit faster than older Oral-B heads. I noticed mine starting to soften and splay slightly earlier than I expected, so I can see how this becomes a running cost you feel over the year.

As for the travel case, it’s very basic: hard plastic shell, space for the handle and two heads, and that’s it. No built‑in charger, no padding, just a simple clamshell. It protects the brush in a bag, but it doesn’t feel premium. If you travel a lot and throw luggage around, you might want something sturdier. Overall, what’s in the box is decent and functional, but nothing here screams high-end apart from the price tag and the fact it’s an iO model.