Oral-B iO9 Review: a very good toothbrush with a very painful price tag

I’ve been using the Oral-B iO9 for a while now, and I’ll be blunt: this is a fancy toothbrush with a price that hurts. Before this, I used a regular Oral-B electric brush in the £40–£60 range, so moving to something that can easily hit £200+ felt a bit ridiculous. But I was curious about the pressure sensor, the app, and all the tech that’s supposed to help with gums and brushing habits.

From day one, the thing that hits you is how much effort Oral-B has put into making this feel like a premium gadget. The unboxing feels closer to opening a phone than a toothbrush. There’s a colour screen on the handle, a magnetic charger, and a travel case that can charge the brush. It all looks high-end, but at the end of the day, it’s still just meant to clean your teeth twice a day for two minutes.

In actual use, the cleaning performance is clearly better than my old basic Oral-B. My teeth feel smoother, and my gums complain less, especially when I use the gentle modes. But the whole app, AI and 3D tracking side of it is a bit hit and miss. Some people will play with it for a week, then never open it again. That’s pretty much what happened with me.

So the real question is: is this overkill, or is it a smart upgrade if you care about your teeth and hate the dentist’s drill? My honest view: it’s a very solid brush, but it only makes sense for a specific type of person. If you’re just trying to get a decent clean on a budget, you can stop reading and grab a cheaper Oral-B model. If you’re already half-sold on the idea of a smart toothbrush and have cash to burn, then it starts to make more sense.

Let’s not dance around it: the Oral-B iO9 is expensive. Even when it’s “on offer”, you’re often looking at well over £200. That’s a lot for something that cleans your teeth basically the same way as cheaper electric brushes, just with more polish and tech layered on top. If you’re tight on money or just want a solid electric toothbrush, this is overkill. You can get 70–80% of the cleaning performance from much cheaper Oral-B models, especially if you use them properly.

Where it starts to make sense is if you: 1) already use electric brushes and want better gum care and pressure control, 2) like tech and know you’ll actually use the app at least for a while, or 3) travel a lot and will make use of the charging case. In those cases, you’re paying for comfort, nicer design, and extra feedback on your brushing. Think of it more like buying a higher-end phone than “just a toothbrush”. It’s not essential, but it’s nicer to use.

However, there are some clear value downsides. Only one brush head in the box, pricey replacement heads, and an app that’s not always reliable (especially on Android) all take away from the feeling that you’re getting what you pay for. The so-called “AI” stuff is more marketing than magic. It helps a bit, but it doesn’t feel like the main reason to buy this. The real benefit is the consistent, gentle but thorough clean and the pressure feedback.

If I’m honest, I’d say this: if buying this means you’ll stress about the price, don’t do it. Grab a cheaper Oral-B with a basic pressure sensor and you’ll still massively improve over manual brushing. If money is less of an issue and you like nice gadgets, the iO9 is a very good, very comfortable toothbrush that you’ll enjoy using every day. Just go in knowing you’re paying a hefty premium for comfort and tech, not some magical dental miracle.

The iO9 handle looks and feels more like a modern gadget than the chunky old Oral-B bodies. It’s slimmer, smoother and sits nicely in the hand. I used the white version, which looks clean and a bit “Apple-ish”. The colour display on the front is clear enough, and the menus are simple: you scroll through the modes, see a little icon, and it gives you basic messages like “Good morning” or a smiley when you finish. It’s a bit gimmicky, but it does make it feel more like a small device than a dumb brush.

Weight-wise, it’s light enough to hold comfortably for a few minutes without feeling like you’re doing a forearm workout. The grip is decent, though the surface is fairly smooth, so if your hands get really wet and soapy, it can feel a bit slippery. Nothing crazy, but my older rubberised handle felt more secure in a steamy bathroom. The power and mode buttons are easy to press, even with wet fingers.

The LED pressure ring around the top is actually one of the better design elements. It glows green when your pressure is good, red when you’re pressing too hard, and white/other colours when you’re too light or in a different mode. The only downside is visibility: when you’re brushing the back or inside surfaces, your hand and face angle can hide the ring, so you don’t always see it clearly in the mirror. It’s helpful, but not perfect.

One thing I noticed is the brush head is slightly smaller and more compact than some older Oral-B heads I used. That’s nice for getting to the back molars without feeling like you’re trying to shove a brick into your mouth. Overall, the design is pretty solid: it looks good on the sink, feels well built, but there are small usability details (magnet strength, grip texture, LED visibility) that don’t quite match the luxury price.

Battery life is one of those things where expectations have gone up because cheaper brushes now last ages. With the iO9, using it twice a day for about 2–3 minutes each time, I was getting roughly 10–14 days on a full charge when it was new. That’s not bad at all, especially coming from older Oral-B models that barely lasted a few days. But it’s also not the best on the market, especially compared to some Sonicare-type brushes that can go three weeks or more.

The annoying bit is that you can’t see a clear battery percentage on the handle itself. You just get a low battery icon when it’s running down. The app also doesn’t show a proper percentage, which is a missed opportunity. For a brush that sells itself as high-tech, not being able to see “you’re at 25%” feels lazy. You basically just wait until the warning pops up and then throw it on the stand.

The magnetic stand looks neat and is very compact, but the magnet isn’t very strong. If you keep it somewhere where it won’t be knocked, it’s fine. If your sink area is busy and you’re always moving stuff around, you’ll quickly learn not to brush against the handle, because it can slip off. It’s not like it flies off at every touch, but it’s not as secure as you’d expect on a product at this price point.

On the plus side, the charging travel case is handy if you’re away from home for a week or two. You can just bring the case and cable and ignore the stand completely. For travel, that’s actually a nice setup and better than my old toothbrush where I had to pack a clunky charger. Overall, battery life is decent and totally usable, but if you’re expecting some monster battery that lasts a month, this isn’t it. It’s “good enough”, not special.

In terms of build, the iO9 does feel solid in the hand. The plastics don’t feel cheap, the buttons are firm, and the head clicks on securely without wobbling. After regular use, rinsing, and the usual toothpaste mess, the handle still looks fine once you wipe it down. There are no obvious weak points like loose panels or creaky seams. It feels like something that should last a few years if you don’t drop it on tiles every other day.

One thing to keep in mind is that because of the smooth finish and lack of big rubber grips, it can get a bit slippery when covered in toothpaste foam. That’s not a huge durability issue, but if you do drop it, you’re dropping a very expensive object. I haven’t had any cracks or chips, but I’m also pretty careful with it purely because of the price. It’s not fragile, but I wouldn’t call it super tough either.

The travel case is sturdy and snaps shut securely. It protects the brush well in a bag or suitcase, and the hinge feels strong enough to survive regular travel. Internally, everything is laid out so the brush doesn’t rattle around. Again, it gives a decent impression of quality. The charging stand is the only part that feels a bit more “meh”; it works, but if it did fall off a shelf, I wouldn’t be shocked if it cracked.

Long-term, the main cost isn’t the handle dying, it’s the brush heads. The dedicated iO heads are not cheap, and you’re supposed to change them about every three months. Over a few years, that adds up. So yes, the handle itself seems durable enough, but you’re locking yourself into a more expensive head ecosystem. If you’re fine with that, the overall build quality should be good enough to get your money’s worth over time, assuming no weird electronic failures.

Let’s talk about the actual brushing, because that’s where this thing does well. Compared to my old mid-range Oral-B, the iO9 feels smoother but more controlled. The micro-vibrations and round head combo give a very “polished” feel after a full two minutes. After a few days, my teeth felt less rough between cleanings, and plaque build-up around the gumline dropped quite a bit. On the gum care and sensitive modes, it’s gentle enough that my gums didn’t feel battered like they sometimes did with my older, more basic model.

There are 7 modes: Daily Clean, Sensitive, Super Sensitive, Gum Care, Intense, Whitening, and Tongue Cleaner. In reality, I mostly rotate between Daily Clean and Sensitive. Intense feels a bit too much for everyday use, especially if you have any gum issues. Whitening just feels like a more “aggressive” pattern; don’t expect Hollywood teeth just from that setting. Tongue Cleaner is nice to have, but again, it’s just a different vibration pattern and short timer.

The app and “AI 3D tracking” are where it gets messy. When it works, you see a 3D model of your teeth and it colours in areas as you brush them. The idea is good: make sure you cover every surface evenly. In practice, the tracking can be off. Sometimes it thinks you’re on the right side when you’re clearly on the left, or it tells you you’ve missed spots even when you’re sure you’ve gone over everything. It’s also annoying to stand at the sink holding your phone or trying to balance it somewhere you can see it.

After the novelty wore off, I stopped using the app live and just let it sync in the background. For me, the biggest benefits are the pressure control and the general quality of the clean, not the fancy 3D animations. If you’re a data geek, you might enjoy the stats and streaks, but if you’re expecting truly clever “AI”, it feels more like a glorified motion sensor with some graphics on top. The cleaning performance itself is very good; the smart features are decent but not life-changing.

Out of the box, the Oral-B iO9 gives off strong “premium gadget” vibes. You get the handle with the colour display, one iO brush head, a magnetic charging puck, and a charging travel case. That’s it. For the price, the first thing that annoyed me is you only get one brush head. At this level, I expected at least two or three heads in the box so I’m not straight back online spending more money on refills.

The charging base is a small round magnetic stand with a 2-pin plug, so you’ll need an adapter if your bathroom doesn’t have a shaver socket. The magnet is fine if you place it somewhere stable and don’t keep knocking it, but it’s not some super-strong magnet that glues the brush to the stand. A light bump and it can wobble off, which is stupid on a product this expensive. You learn quickly to park it somewhere it won’t get hit.

The travel case is probably the most genuinely useful extra if you travel a lot. It’s a hard case that holds the handle and two heads, and you can charge the brush while it’s inside using the included cable. If you barely travel, it’ll sit in a drawer like mine, but if you’re often away for work or holidays, it’s nice not having to bring the stand.

Overall, the package looks high-end, but when you strip away the nice presentation, you’re still looking at a handle, one head and a stand. No wall plug, no head storage stand, nothing extra. For this price bracket, it feels a bit bare-bones. The hardware itself is good, but the value feeling when you open the box isn’t great once the initial “ooh, shiny” moment passes.