I ditched my Oral-B for this sonic toothbrush — now I look like Ross Geller after he got his teeth whitened

I am very picky when it comes to toothbrushes. You will never catch me using a manual toothbrush. And until now, you wouldn’t have caught me using any brand other than Oral-B.

But when it comes to the best electric toothbrushes on the market, The Quip Ultra has entered to shake everything up. The toothbrush uses sonic vibrations to clean your teeth rather than an oscillating brush head.

The Ultra gives you a whiter smile in just one week and is so user friendly I was actually looking for something I’d missed. Spoiler: it is just that easy to use!

You have the option to use an app, but unless you want to track your brushing habits I’d skip out on that since it doesn’t add much to the experience. It did make my teeth very slightly sensitive, but if you brush at a lower sonic intensity this shouldn’t be an issue.

Find out more about my experience in this full Quip Ultra review.

Quip Ultra review: Specs

Quip Ultra review: Price & availability

The Quip Ultra toothbrush is available for $119 from Amazon U.S. and comes with a travel case, charger, mirror mount, and toothbrush stand. That’s a lot of accessories, and when ordering from Amazon there are two extra brush heads included.

You can also buy the toothbrush directly from Quip for $110, but you won’t get the extra brush heads. Quip also offers a refill plan for $100 where you will be charged $8 every three months for replacement brush heads rather than buying them for $12 each.

The toothbrush is available in five different colors: moss (the color I tested), stone, dusk, onyx and eclipse.

Quip Ultra review: Design & features

The Quip Ultra is going to look good in your bathroom. Whether you’re mounting it to your mirror or using the stand that comes with the brush, the trendy design and color options are clearly made with aesthetics in mind.

Apart from some metal detailing on both sides of the handle, the body and brush head neck of the Quip Ultra is covered in silicone. This makes it easy to rinse and wipe clean after use, and extremely comfortable to hold.

I’m not a massive fan of the silicone, as it cheapens the overall look of the toothbrush a little, and clashes with the premium metal detailing on the sides. Still, when it’s on its accompanying stand, the Quip looks great regardless.

The stand that the brush comes with is a little heavy, so I wouldn’t take it with me on any trips where I need to conserve luggage weight. However, the weight does mean it won’t tip over easily, minimizing the risk of damage.

But fear not! If you are taking the toothbrush on a trip you don’t need to worry about just laying it on the side of the sink. It comes with a travel case which the brush clips into snuggly. The case is plastic and lightweight, so suits travel much better than the stand.

Another perk of this toothbrush is that its battery lasts up to 30 days (more on this later), meaning if you were going on a trip for less than a month you wouldn’t need to worry about packing the charger, further saving on luggage weight and space.

Controls

The toothbrush has a button for starting and stopping brushing, but the other controls are touch sensitive. The toothbrush wakes up when you get near to it by lighting up the LED touch bar in the centre of the handle.

The touch sensitive slider allows you to dynamically select your brushing intensity, with over 10 options available. It vibrates every 30 seconds to let you know when to move to the next quadrant of your mouth.

The touch bar also lights up and to signify the two-minute brush time before vibrating and automatically shutting off. My trusty Oral-B iO3 ($99) also has this feature but does not switch off automatically.

This has meant in the past that if I’m super tired in the morning (most days) I keep brushing on auto pilot. This obviously isn’t very good for my gums, so I’m glad the Quip Ultra shuts off.

“Smart” features

Where this brush loses me is the “smart” features. The Quip app is the companion to daily teeth brushing.

However, I don’t think a toothbrush should ever need an app or AI. Sure it can be good to have a little instruction sometimes, but I don’t want my life to be ruled by a glorified timer posing as artificial intelligence.

Saying that, the Quip app is very user friendly, connecting to the brush via Bluetooth. It shows you the quadrants of your mouth and gives feedback on daily brushing habits. So if “smart” features are something you look for this could be great — it’s just not for me.

Quip Ultra review: Cleaning performance

The Quip Ultra is a sonic toothbrush. This means that rather than the rotating brush heads you’re probably used to seeing in TV advertisements, the bristles clean your teeth by vibrating.

This did take some getting used to at first since, after using an oscillating round- brush-head toothbrush for most of my life, going to a sonic oval brush-head was quite the adjustment.

I’ve always used round brush-heads because it is easier to get around the molars and wisdom teeth. However, since the oval toothbrush head that comes with the Quip Ultra is a lot smaller than on a manual toothbrush for example, this wasn’t an issue for me.

The packaging of the toothbrush makes a pretty wild claim too, that it can make your teeth 2x whiter in just one week. I was incredibly skeptical about this because in every dental advertisement you get the same schtick — that your teeth will be so much whiter.

However, for all my cynicism, my teeth actually are so much whiter. I’ve added two pictures here so you can see how visible the difference is. I have never whitened my teeth but have used a whitening toothpaste every day for around 5 years.

Image 1 of 2

The picture on the left is of my teeth right now after using the Quip for a week, and on the right is about 5 months ago. The difference is pretty stark without changing anything else in my dental routine.

Quip also says there is 15x more plaque removal between teeth compared to when using a manual toothbrush. And while my teeth do feel cleaner, they also feel a little more sensitive. I have never had an issue with tooth sensitivity before but found myself removing ice cubes from my Diet Coke. Of course this could be because I was brushing on a higher intensity than I should have been.

The toothbrush does have a pressure sensor to help protect your teeth. The lights trickle down the LED slider and the brush pulses to let you know to ease up a little.

Quip Ultra review: Battery life

How long the battery on your electric toothbrush lasts varies from person to person. Whether you brush at a low or high intensity setting. If you’re brushing twice or three times daily.

The battery life on the Quip is the real showstopper aspect of this toothbrush. While your average electric toothbrush will have a battery life of one to two weeks, the Quip has up to 30 days.

With my Oral-B iO3 toothbrush I get around 1.5 weeks of use before it starts to slow down. The Suri toothbrush has a battery life of 40 days though, but no smart features.

You only get 30 days of charge providing you use the brush twice daily on a medium intensity setting. It only takes the brush 8 hours to fully charge as well so you can easily just pop it on charge overnight.

Quip Ultra review: How does it compare?

The Quip Ultra is a super stripped-back smart toothbrush. Although you get smart features with the app, they don’t bog the toothbrush down, and you don’t need to use them.

If you want something that’s going to give you in depth feedback though rather than just tracking your habits, then you may want to consider the Oclean X Ultra S.

Quip Ultra review: Verdict

If you want to track your brushing habits and have a visibly whiter smile, then I can’t recommend the Quip Ultra toothbrush enough. It’s incredibly user friendly,comfortable to use and, most importantly, it cleans extremely well. And just because the design is sleek, the function hasn’t been compromised one bit.

While you have the option to use the Quip companion app, it isn’t necessary to do so, and you can get just as good a clean and user experience without it. Although you just need to make sure you’re not brushing at too high a setting to avoid tooth sensitivity.

So if you, like Ross Geller, have an upcoming hot date and want to impress with pearly whites, this is the toothbrush for you.