Should you find yourself in a rush and neglect to pair the brush with your phone on a regular basis, then, the Genius X quickly becomes no smarter than many of Oral-B’s cheaper toothbrushes. I’ll come on to how that affects the user experience in more detail below, but aside from this, there is really no discernible difference between the design and features of the two toothbrushes. And as with all the technology that’s exciting at first, one of my main worries with the Genius X is how quickly the novelty wears off. For a start, the process is more seamless as you don’t have to mess around with mounting your phone in a dedicated holder so it can use its front camera to assess your brushing style. Though there’s a USB slot on the case, don’t be fooled into thinking you can use it to charge the toothbrush, as I was.

Oral-B Genius X Black Electric Toothbrush + Travel Case

To better customize our communications to your interest we will combine the data you are providing above with other data we may have collected about you from multiple sources and third parties. Even in the few weeks when I was testing it, I found myself only using the brushing assessment occasionally rather than each time I brushed my teeth. It can also identify which areas of your mouth you’ve brushed using your smartphone’s selfie camera. Put them next to one another and it’s impossible to distinguish the Genius X from the older Genius 9000. Fast forward several months and I imagine the regularity of those sessions would only diminish further in proportion with my interest.This meant I could more or less guarantee a high brushing score providing I simply waited for each section to turn white. It splits the mouth broadly into six areas and each section turns from blue to white when you’ve spent long enough brushing it. Crucially, I found the on-screen visualisation much more likely to correspond with my actions when using the Genius X compared to the Genius 9000. Though the app identifies which area of your mouth you’re brushing, the sensors only enable it to know this in broad terms. Where the Oral-B Genius 9000 comes with four brush heads, it’s also worth pointing out that the Genius X comes with just one and there’s no phone holder or brush head holder.

Oral-B Genius X review: The future of toothbrushing | Expert Oral-B Genius X review: The future of toothbrushing | Expert

Instead, you simply open the Oral-B app, press the bottom button on your toothbrush handle and a banner appears to let you know when it’s connected and you can start brushing. In addition to the standard charger, you get a luxury travel case that carries the handle with up to two heads and that also doubles up as a charger. Though the mobile app lets you set up “Dental Care Journeys” that promote different brushing modes by disabling others, I think it’d be useful if it also offered more simplistic advice about the benefits of using different modes.

This beautifully advanced toothbrush protects your delicate gums and helps prevent from future issues: the combination of the new revolutionary Gum Guard technology, 360 SmartRing and Pressure Control alert you, reduce speed when you brush too hard and tell you where you overbrush for a gentler routine. Take care not to miss any areas of your mouth when brushing and it’ll do every bit as good as job as the newer model. In Midnight Black, they’re essentially the same glossy black toothbrush handle from the outside with identical LEDs to indicate the brushing mode and battery status. On the whole, I found myself using Daily Clean or Pro Clean, but it wouldn’t have gone amiss to have some guidance on how long to brush your tongue for or when to use the Massage function.