Philips Sonicare 4+

Good but could be so much better

The app often does not recognize where in the mouth you are brushing. For example, in touch up, where the zone inside is yellow, I am brushing on the inside, yet the app is highlighting the outside area that is already a clean white. I can appreciate if the device does not think that I have brushed adequately, but when it does not register that any brushing has taken place, it is quite frustrating. Called technical support and went through a series of resets with no improvement. They then sent a new handle (under warranty), but still having same issues. It is a great concept and very good incentive to good oral care, I just wish that the bugs could get sorted out! Firmware and app are both up to date...
This is an update to previous review. The solution to my problem was found in another review—-the toothbrush must be level for the feedback to the app to be accurate. The only way to achieve this is to have the phone mounted in front of you on the mirror. My husband’s Oral B toothbrush came with this mount, which he does not use. It works like a charm and should be part of the package when buying the brush along with instructions to mount the phone and keep the toothbrush level! I would give this 5 stars, if the mount were included.

The toothbrush is amazing! The app is just ok…

I like the timer and I like the quick vibration telling me it’s time to move areas. Some things I don’t like: I’ve seen a read how there is a mouth model showing what area to brush. Mine is just curved lines that I have to watch so I can gauge when to move from the outside of teeth to top to inside by mentally breaking the timer line down onto thirds each time.
I feel like sometimes I want to keep brushi if I didn’t get an area quite good enough, however the app doesn’t recognize the extra time, only up to the timer time. I like to know how much I ACTUALLY brushed, not just the 2 minutes that it timed me.
Sometimes I’m a night owl and will brush my teeth after midnight, which then gets logged in for the next day. That would be fine I guess if the next day it showed me brushing 3 times (for example, 12:15am, 8:00am and 10:00pm), but it maxes out at 2 times a day.
And lastly, they’re is a whole wasted space showing how my very first brushing went out of the box. It’s annoying because while I can see improvement, I didn’t know how to use it very well the first time. So every time I click on that section, I’m reminded that my first brushing was less than great. Seems wasted when they could use that space for actual stats, or something.
Again, LOVE the toothbrush. My teeth have never felt so clean. But the app leaves something to be desired.

Developer Response ,

Hi there, thanks for taking the time to share your feedback. We're sorry to hear that you're not satisfied with the app. Nevertheless, we appreciate your comments and will make sure to take note of them. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us on our website - we'll be more than happy to help.

Overall good, but needs many refinements

Ultimately, this app does exactly what it’s supposed to - provide paced brushing routine to help achieve a better clean and market other Sonicare products to the consumer. My gripe is that this app seems like an afterthought rather than a priority to the brand. Firstly, it has been almost 6 months since the release of the iPhone X and yet, there has been no update to the user interface to complement this device.

Next, from my experience with my DiamondClean 9700, it seems that there is only communication in one direction (brush -> app), not the other way around. When everything goes according to plan, the usage of the app is clean and polished. The issue is when completing a touch up - the app will day “All Done” but the brush will continue a regular cleaning without a care in the world what the app thinks. Also, why doesn’t the whitening cycle allow for extra cleaning? Once it’s done, it’ll complain about missed spots but provide no way to retouch these areas. This could be fixed if the app could control the brush.

Finally, I wish there was a way for the brush to log cleanings when the app isn’t open and then transfer that information on the next app connect. I’m not sure if it’s a memory constraint within the brush, but having offline logging would be great for those times when it is inconvenient to go grab the phone.