Oclean X Ultra S smart AI toothbrush review
The Oclean X Ultra S toothbrush is a mid-range smart toothbrush with AI features, a vast range of cleaning modes, and a fantastic battery life. Oclean might not be a dental brand you’re familiar with, but that’s surely about to change — this could be one of the best toothbrushes around.
If you use this brush for the recommended two minutes, twice a day, it’ll last a whopping 40 days from one charge. That’s upwards of a month longer than similarly-priced Oral-B and Philips brushes. You’d be able to take this toothbrush on a super long vacation and not worry about getting a travel adaptor for the charger.
The sleek black design looks great, and the IPX7 rating means it’ll survive submersion. It’s not just a pretty face, either. This brush offers insightful in-app reports on your brushing technique, including a movable 3D mouth graphic showing how well you’ve been brushing. For just $129, that’s no mean feat. Could it rival prestigious big-name brands, though? Find out in this full Oclean X Ultra S toothbrush review.
Oclean X Ultra S review: Cheat sheet
- What is it? An electric toothbrush with weekly insights, cleaning advice, and great battery life
- What does it cost? $129 direct from Oclean
- Who is it for? If you want to understand how to improve your brushing routine
- What do we wish it did better? The brush doesn’t fit in the travel case, bizarrely
Oclean X Ultra S review: Specs
| Price | $129 |
| Colors | Black, sage green |
| Size | 9.8 x 1.1 (base diameter) inches |
| Weight | 3.9 ounces |
| Motor | Maglev 3.0 |
| Features | Head replacement reminder, personalized reports, target zones |
| Accessories | 3 x brush heads (standard, gum care, wide), wall mount, charger |
| Battery life | Up to 40 days (2 x 2-mins/day, Unlimited mode) |
| Connectivity | 2.4GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth |
Oclean X Ultra S review: Price & availability
The Oclean X Ultra S is only available in the U.S. at the time of writing. You can get it for $129 directly from Oclean, where you can also get accessories like the Oclean W10 water flosser ($69), replacement brush heads, and the Oclean S1 UVC-LED sterilizer ($32). The Oral-B Genius X is $199 at Amazon; the Philips Sonicare ExpertClean 7500 is also $199 at Amazon. The Oclean X Ultra S could be a cheaper alternative to these premium brushes and doesn’t lack the personalized reports you’d expect from the pricier Philips and Oral-B options.
Oclean X Ultra S review: Design & features
The design is perhaps the X Ultra S’s strongest feature. Built over a sleek mold-resistant IPX7-rated plastic body, the toothbrush feels like a premium product. The box comes with three brush heads: standard, sensitive gum care, and wide, so you’ll be able to find which one suits you best before purchasing replacements.
You also get a wall mount, a travel case, and a charging port, which are my only qualms with the brush itself. The wall mount has a sticky back, which I’m not sure about. If you’re renting, you can’t put this on the wall lest it rip off plaster and risk your security deposit.. You could stick it to your bathroom tiles, but then it would be exposed to bathroom moisture and bacteria. I just put mine in the cabinet.
I wish this was a holder instead of a mount. Speaking of the travel case, it only has enough space to fit the toothbrush itself sans-head, so when I was traveling with this brush I had to put the head in a sandwich ziploc bag. It got pretty unsanitary in the plastic bag over my trip, so when I returned I felt I had to discard the head and use a new one.
The centre of the toothbrush houses the touchscreen and single button. The touchscreen is pretty bright considering it’s on a toothbrush, and there’s only a little lag, which makes navigating the settings easy. You can activate features using the Oclean app, too, like ‘switch area’ reminders, and customize your own brushing modes.
Speaking of brushing modes, there are plenty. On top of your standard ‘Unlimited’ mode, there’s a variety of ‘whitening’ modes, ‘sensitive’ modes, ‘teeth spa’ modes, ‘gum care’, ‘braces’, ‘travel’, ‘strong’, and even something called ‘PostWash’. I’ll cover these modes in more detail a little later on.
Oclean X Ultra S review: Battery
Oclean claims if you only use ‘Unlimited’ for 2 minutes twice a day, the X Ultra S will last for 40 days. As I used it exclusively for testing, I was using it much more than an average user would. Despite this, the battery lasted for over three weeks, which I was incredibly impressed by. In general use, I’ve no doubt it will last the full 40 days.
Oral-B’s Genius X has a battery life of just 10 days, and Philips Sonicare ProtectiveClean 6500 ($179) is a little longer at 14 days. The budget Philips Sonicare 4100 ($49) is also just 14 days. At the other end of the price scale, the top-of-the-range Oral-B iO Series 10 ($379) and the Philips Sonicare 9900 Prestige ($379) tap out at 14 days, too. If you’re after a brush with excellent battery life, the Oclean X Ultra S will suit you well.
Oclean X Ultra S review: App
The Oclean app has a wide variety of functionality. Not only can you select more nuanced and specific cleaning modes, you can also view your overall cleaning report.
This teeth model below displays your cleaning efficiency in an easy-to-read graphic. It’s a little nauseating to have your teeth cleanliness displayed for the whole world to see, so I hope you appreciate my commitment to the cause.
As you can see, I missed a section on the second brush. I wish you could instantly turn the brush on again and return to that specific area and have it re-evaluate your clean, but it doesn’t work like that. Even better, I wish the brush alerted you during cleaning about missed areas.
In the app you can also toggle the ‘switch area’ commands or turn off the AI voice altogether, which is what I did. The AI voice sounds too much like a robotic child, and really creeps me out. If it reminded me of missed areas mid-clean I would keep it on despite the creepiness, but as things stand, its alerts haven’t yet proved particularly fundamental to my brushing routine.
Oclean X Ultra S review: Cleaning performance
As touched upon in the ‘Design & features’ section, there’s a huge variety of cleaning modes on this brush. The difference between these modes feels negligible: the ‘teeth spa’ mode is almost identical to ‘whitening’ in practice. The ‘Gentle Spa’ setting was almost identical to the standard ‘Sunrise’ setting when I tried it out — perhaps the brushing was a little faster yet gentler, but that could be a placebo.
Although there’s a wide variety of cleaning modes, after my initial testing, I found myself solely using the ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Sunset’ modes at morning and night respectively. This is because you have to go into the Oclean app to use the more specific modes, which is unrealistic to do every time you want to brush your teeth. I wish there was a way to load these presets onto your toothbrush and customize the on-brush modes.
Given that the toothbrush rates your clean 0-100 post-use, as I already mentioned above, I wish it alerted you to areas you missed while brushing. So instead of waiting until the end to see I’d missed the top left of my mouth, I could get any spots I missed while still brushing.
The toothbrush maxed at 51dB, which is much quieter than the aged Oral-B brush I was using before. In general, the operating and cleaning feel of the Oclean X Ultra S is premium and feels like a much pricier model, save the AI child voice and the fact that the travel case doesn’t fit the head — these really lend a budget brand feel.
Oclean X Ultra S review: How does it compare?
Despite this toothbrush’s mid-range price, it feels like a luxurious brush. The range of features feel a little gimmicky at times and I found myself using the standard modes rather than the super specific ‘PostWash care’ or ‘Gentle Teeth Spa’. However, it’s nice to have the option.
Oral-B’s iO range of toothbrushes varies from $44 to $379. The Series 10 ($379), Series 9 ($299), and Series 8 ($239) models offer many of the same features as the X Ultra S, such as AI clean analysis and smart pressure sensor. The iO Series 5 is $149, $20 more than the X Ultra S’s $129, and offers app control, brushing pressure alerts, and a range of modes. I feel like once you have a smart toothbrush with these features, loading more ‘AI features’ on top is overkill — so this sub-$150 price-point is probably the priciest you’ll ever need to go.
After Oral-B, the most recognized toothbrush brand is probably Philips. Philips’ range is around the same as Oral-B’s, with the most expensive option the $379 Sonicare 9900 Prestige, and the most affordable the $24 Sonicare 1100. As with the Oral-B iO Series, you probably don’t need all the AI features on the Sonicare 9900 Prestige. For most users, the Sonicare ExpertClean 7500 ($199) is probably as feature-stuffed as you’ll ever need, and features the in-app progress reports you get with the Oclean X Ultra S but for $70 more.
Oclean X Ultra S review: Verdict
Considering this toothbrush is a far sight cheaper than similarly-spec-heavy Oral-B and Philips versions, I can wholeheartedly recommend the Oclean X Ultra S. If you get an alternative travel case and can look past the unsettling AI child voice (or simply turn it off, like I did), this is a fantastic brush. My teeth are clean, I know which areas of my mouth I need to focus on, and I’ve got a polished-looking toothbrush sitting in my bathroom cabinet.
The 40 day battery life is a major plus, as is the range of cleaning modes and variety of insights in the Oclean app. If you need a new smart toothbrush but are a bit jaded with the likes of Oral-B and Philips, why not try the Oclean X Ultra S? I won’t be going back to my Oral-B brush, that’s for certain.
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