Smart 1500

Update #4: a couple of days after all this, the charging indication system went back to working normally. I am guessing that this particular Pro 1500 I ended up with has a defect in the waterproofing. So, I'm saying I think water got inside and caused a short. Now that it's had a couple of days to dry, it works fine. I'm still returning it though. I got my replacement and so far, it's been working perfectly even though I still rinse the handle like I did with the first Pro 1500.Update #3: It turns out it's still charging, but the system that allows it to indicate that it's charging just stopped working. That's all that happened. So, my Pro 1500 simply lost its ability to indicate that it's charging even though it is indeed charging. I learned this by leaving the Pro 1500 on until the battery was completely drained. I then verified the battery was completely drained by trying to turn it on, and it wouldn't turn on. I placed it on the charger for 2 hours and now it actually turns on (it's usable again), but it still doesn't indicate that it's charging. So, I just discovered here that it's definitely charging even though the indicator isn't indicating that it is. Wow. I'm glad to have found this out just in case it happens to my replacement unit.Update #1: I have bad news (but I am not going to change how many stars I give this). I just used my nice new Pro 1500 and I put it on the charger when I was done (like I always do), but now it won't charge. The charging light blinks twice and stops. When I pick the handle up and try to turn it on, I have to press the power button twice. I have done this dozens of times now, and several of those times the 2nd blink would result in the charging light being stuck on. When that happens, picking the unit up off the charger and pressing the power button ONE TIME turns that light off but the unit doesn't turn on until I press the power button a 2nd time (as expected with this problem, apparently). It's like the unit is locking up on the charger. Most of the time the light just blinks twice and stops.So I currently have the unit on and I'm leaving it on until the battery dies to see if that resets this thing. If not, then I guess I'll just return it to Amazon as 'defective' and maybe get another - I really don't know if I want another one now. I mean, after this, I don't know if I can trust the Pro 1500 again even though it blows the Pro 1000 out of the water in terms of performance and battery life and charge times. I still have my black Pro 1000 and it's still working even though now I hate the inferior performance and short battery life and long charge times (the Pro 1000 has a NiMH battery while the Pro 1500 has a Lithium Ion battery). Sigh. I just can't win.Update #2: I just won, big time. Amazon came to my rescue! I just had a super fast and easy chat with Amazon that lasted maybe 2 minutes, and all I did was I asked what my options would be if I decided to return this to Amazon since it's defective. I asked if they would offer me a prepaid return label and if they would send me a replacement Pro 1500 right away or if I had to wait, etc. etc. etc. Well, the answer that they gave me blows me away: they offered to ship out a brand new Pro 1500 today with 2-day shipping for a Saturday delivery at no cost to me and they said I can return my defective Pro 1500 within 30 days using a prepaid return label. So yeah, I went ahead with that! Wow.Prior to this chat session, I was in an e-mail conversation with Oral-B and they offered me a prepaid shipping label to send my Pro 1500 to their service center for examination and possible repair or replacement depending on what they find upon examination. When I got that e-mail, I started the chat with Amazon just to see what Amazon can do for me. :)Below is my original review:To put my experience into perspective, I have a little bit of history to share so that you can see what my basis for comparison is. I bought the Oral-B Vitality on January 5th and I immediately fell in love with using an electric toothbrush. I was never brushing before, but now I'm brushing twice a day and loving it. I thought the Vitality was an excellent electric toothbrush because it was my first one, so I planned to keep it for as long as possible.Then I started doing research and I realized I could get a very big upgrade for only $40. So on January 12th, I got the Oral-B Pro 1000 and it made the Vitality seem like a cheap generic electric toothbrush.The Vitality only does 7,600 oscillations per minute but it doesn't do any pulsation action (it just does the simple rotary oscillation action). The Pro 1000 does 8,800 oscillations per minute and 20,000 pulsations per minute. This is actually a huge upgrade over the Vitality. I could tell right away why the ADA accepted the Pro 1000 but not the Vitality (or the Pro 500 for that matter)!Then I finally tried the included CrossAction brush head that comes with the Pro 1000, and then my experience became even better (the CrossAction is amazing). With that, I thought I had the best electric toothbrush I could possibly buy without buying a much more expensive one and paying for features I'd never use. So in this price range, I thought the Pro 1000 couldn't be beaten! It turns out I was wrong. Keep reading. :)I learned about the Pro 1500 recently, and after doing a ton of research on it I ordered it because it sounded like I'd feel it's well worth the cost of buying yet another one so soon. I could see from what I was reading that I'd feel it's a huge upgrade over the Pro 1000.Well, IT IS a huge upgrade! I used my new Pro 1500 for the first time today and I was almost speechless. All I could think of to say are things like, "WHOA!", and "WOW!", and "I WANT TO DO THAT AGAIN!!" I honestly didn't want to stop. I loved every second of it! I was smiling during the first minute or so of using it. I was totally blown away. In my opinion, everything about the Pro 1500 is vastly superior to the Pro 1000. Don't get me wrong, the Pro 1000 is still very nice and it's a *huge* upgrade over the Vitality (and makes the Vitality and even the Pro 500 seem like a big waste of money), but the Pro 1500 is on a much higher level and it's only $10 more than the Pro 1000 right now. With how much better it is, I think the price gap should be much bigger than that.So I'm saying that if you want the very best that Oral-B has to offer but you don't care about the Oral-B app or all those extra features and several extra brushing modes, then this is the model you should buy. The cleaning performance provided by the motor (combined with the brush head you use) is what matters the most anyway, and it blows the Pro 1000 out of the water.In an e-mail conversation I had with Oral-B, they told me that the Pro 1500 is a brand new model they made in Fall 2017 and it does 9,900 oscillations per minute and 45,000 pulsations per minute on Daily Clean mode, and 7,400 oscillations per minute and 33,000 pulsations per minute on Sensitive mode. I can definitely tell that these specs are accurate!! Again, the Pro 1000 does 8,800 oscillations per minute and 20,000 pulsations per minute, and the Vitality (and the Pro 500) just does (or do) 7,600 oscillations per minute.I still think 8,800 oscillations per minute and 20,000 pulsations per minute of the Pro 1000 is fairly adequate and I definitely enjoy it, but 9,900 oscillations per minute and 45,000 pulsations per minute is mind-blowingly awesome in comparison. It's feels like it's more than twice as good. It just feels *extremely good*. It has a cool humming sound too (at an audible 375 Hz for Daily Clean mode, and 275 Hz for Sensitive mode which seems to imply 22,500 pulsations per second and 16,500, but there are technical reasons why the audible sound is exactly half of the actual sonic frequency being produced).So that whole first experience I had today was a real pleasure, especially in comparison to the Pro 1000. I loved it! I even used the Daily Clean mode for a crown that I have (top tooth, first one next to my front left tooth). I thought I was going to need Sensitive mode and I did try it, but it didn't seem necessary so I switched back to Daily Clean mode and it felt great. I truly love cleaning my own teeth now. It feels very good thanks to this. With a manual brush, I rarely enjoyed the process of actually doing it. I only enjoyed the end result. With the Pro 1500, it's like getting a really good massage or something. I don't know.The motor sounds higher in quality than the Pro 1000 as well, especially when the timer makes it do the hesitation. It sounds like the motor handles the hesitation with no effort whatsoever. It sounds powerful. When the Vitality does it, it seems like it's a fair bit of work for the motor to stop and start back up so quickly. When the Pro 1000 does it, it's much better than the Vitality (much more powerful and cleaner sounding). So, the Pro 1500 is on a much higher level for this too.Switching between the 2 cleaning modes is super easy. The button is very easy to press, but not so easy that I'd ever press it accidentally. This also means that turning the unit off and back on is effortless. I thought I'd be kind of annoyed having to press the power button twice just to turn it off from the Daily Clean mode, but after this 1 use I'm already 100% fine with it and it gives me peace of mind to have Sensitive mode just in case I ever need it. I actually have some major dental work coming up soon here, so I'm betting I'll be glad to have Sensitive mode afterward.Yet another thing I love about the Pro 1500 is, it has a Lithium Ion battery! This means it charges much faster and it lasts much longer if you don't charge it in between each use. The Vitality, Pro 500, Pro 1000 and even the Pro 3000 all have NiMH batteries. The Vitality and Pro 500's NiMH batteries last 5 days (2 minutes 2 times per day, 20 minutes total), and the Pro 1000 and 3000 last 7 days (2 minutes 2 times per day, 28 minutes total). Oral-B's Lithium Ion battery lasts 14 days (2 minutes 2 times per day, 56 minutes total). The total charge time from a fully-drained state for the NiMH battery is 19-22 hours, depending on battery life from the Vitality all the way to the Pro 3000. The total charge time of the Lithium Ion battery is 12 hours.The charging indicator LED blinks at a comfortably slow speed while charging, and turns off when it's done. The manual says the red low-battery indicator LED will blink a few times when the handle is turned on or off - and the motor will run slower. With 56 minutes of total usage time, I think the only time I'll ever see this is when I run the battery all the way down once every 6 months for battery maintenance. :)______________________Update #4! Thanks to the somewhat negative experience I had with my Pro 1500, I learned something that's very impressive. When the low battery indicator comes on, the motor *automatically* slows down to a NEW speed that sounds like it's still plenty good enough for getting professional cleaning results but slow enough that you can get several more minutes of use out of it. You see, I intentionally drained the battery all the way to 'reset' it to see if that would fix my Pro 1500, and during the process the motor hummed along at 9,900 oscillations and 45,000 pulsations (all per minute) all the way up until the red LED low battery indicator came on. At that moment, it shifted to a new lower speed and stayed at that speed perfectly all the way up until the battery was depleted, which actually seemed to take a good 15 minutes (but I didn't have a brush head on the handle either). When it became depleted, it finally started slowing down for several seconds until it finally stopped.So, it kinda has a 3rd speed mode: low battery power mode! Very cool. So now I'm actually happy to have gone through all this. I was always wondering what would happen as the battery had less and less power, and I was always wondering what it would be like when the red low battery LED came on. I'm honestly very impressed.______________________If I had to come up with things to complain about, then I'd choose these VERY minor nit-picks (but I know I will make them seem to be major, heh):1. The location of the rubber grip2. The location of the power button3. How much pressure it takes to trigger the pressure sensor4. The location of the flat bit that prevents the handle from rolling when it's laid down1. Take a look at some photos of the Vitality and Pro 500. The colored area you'll see is the rubber grip. Now, take a look at the black Pro 1000 (or any colored Pro 1000 or 3000). The black part of the black Pro 1000 is where the rubber grip is on the Pro 1500 (and all Pro 1000, 1500 and 3000 models). The rest of the handle is smooth high-gloss plastic with grip grooves molded in, as though that helps. If I had been the one to design the grip on this, then I would've placed the rubber grip in the exact opposite place (a perfect negative image) of this so that the rubber grip would be on the sides and on the back instead of only on the front. So, the front would be the part that has smooth high-gloss plastic. Or, maybe I would've just made the entire handle rubberized. I already came close to dropping it because of this. I have the same complaint and same near-dropping experience with the Pro 1000. It's a very aesthetically pleasing though.2. With the power button, the Vitality and Pro 500 has the perfect location. When I was using the Vitality, it seemed the power button was always right under my thumb and all I had to do was press it. I never had to find the button. With the Pro 1000 and 1500 (and I'd guess the 3000), I still sometimes have to find the button or just look directly at it before I try to press it. I'm certainly much better today at just knowing exactly where it is, but this was never an issue with the Vitality.3. With the pressure sensor, it seems to require way too much pressure in order to trigger it. I didn't test it while using it, but I tested it before using it (while just examining and appreciating the Pro 1500) and I wasn't really impressed by how much pressure is needed. It seems that an unsafe amount is needed in order to make the light come on. However, I guess I'm glad it's not an overly-sensitive sensor. I'd hate for the light to be turning on frequently while I'm using it. This way, I never see it turn on because I've worked toward not brushing too hard.4. The location of that flat bit that prevents the handle from rolling is in a worse location than the one on the Vitality (and Pro 500). When a brush head is on the Vitality, it's like the flat bit is right in the middle where I am most likely gripping the toothbrush handle while laying it down on the counter. This makes it completely effortless to place the handle down right on the flat bit every single time without looking or without thinking about it. On the Pro 1000, 1500 and 3000 (I don't know about the rest of the models yet), that flat bit is all the way at the base of the handle. So if I accidentally and mindlessly hang a part of the handle over the edge of the counter, then that flat bit won't be touching anything and thus the handle can roll over. If there's toothpaste on the brush and it rolls over, then guess what happens. :) I never had this problem with the Vitality due to the more intelligent location of this flat bit.So anyway, yeah, the Pro 1500 is a *huge* upgrade over the Pro 1000. Now that I own both, I see no good reason to get the Pro 1000 instead. I think it should be discontinued. It's only a $10 difference right now and again, the Pro 1500 is on a *much* higher level than the Pro 1000. The Pro 1000 seems like a complete waste of money to me now. $50 for the Pro 1500 seems like a steal to me now that I've experienced it!

wow im pleasantly surprised. a couple disclaimers: i just got this so it doesn't account longevity or longterm performance overall. Also im coming from the sonicare diamond clean bought in 2018.So Unfortunately my sonicare purple diamond care toothbrush was dying where the vibrations were slowing down when toothbrush got near my teeth. It would turn on out of nowhere until i tried fixing it and found out that water had gotten past the seal and killed it. I wont lie it lasted me about 4-5 years although it costing around $200-250 i would definitely expect that as a minimum. i did do minimum research and wanted to try oral b due to the different technology in brushing. i discovered the oral b pro 1000 was a fan favorite but looking at reviews and further investigation the oral b smart 1500 was the better option with improvements but double the price.the toothbrush left my mouth clean and that feeling of smooth and clean teeth that the sonicare couldn't do. i can see how better the rotating head would outperform a sonic vibration brush and im happy i switched hands down. however of course its not perfect and ill compare and contrast with the sonicare.pros:- cleans way better than the sonicare hands down.- ergonomic: so i have seen the new sonicare has rubber added to the handle but my sonicare was just sleek with no rubber or grip and it has at certain times slipped out of my hands while brushing. however the oral b does has rubber and has on the back small grip indentations like a golf ball and its pretty great. it also is slightly lighter which helps alot.- the 3 different modes actually work. so the diamond clean had like 4 or 5 different modes and i honestly never used them because i never saw or felt any real difference however the 3 on the oral b i can definitely feel the difference and will use them.-visual pressure sensor as a precaution-no bluetooth gimicks- less use of pressure is nice. coming from the sonicare where you learn not to use any pressure when brushing so this brush makes you actually feel doing a better cleaning job the less pressure you use the better cleaning the bristles do. it may have to do with angle of the brush but u can feel it cleaning deeper and better with less pressure.-no rusting: my sonicare had a aluminum bottom cover with the model and brand name etc and over time it had rusted but was able to be cleaned using alcohol prep pads. the oral b has a rubber base so no need to worry about that.- no cup cleaning and no charging fidgeting.: the sonicare used an induction base that had a thick glass cup that you would use to place the brush to charge. although it was cool and the glass cup was thick and good quality. 2 problems happened . 1 was you would occasionally need to clean and wipe the glass cup. 2 sometimes you had to adjust the brush in the cup for it to start charging. with the oral b no issues . you put the handle on the little protruding nub where it goes into the handles insert.-way more brush head options-noise: will explain in the con section-price to performance: honestly for around 80 bucks this is a no brainer. the oral b wins hands down with some cons of course.- braun over philips: through using different products over the years i realized braun products are way superior than philips be them electric shavers or brushes..cons: certain things can make or break it for you.-no travel case: my sonicare came with a nice though bulky and heavy case that also charged your brush.- no mode indicator / power on and off: the oral b has no mode indicator. you have to press the button every time to switch modes. you have to hold the power button down to turn off without going through the modes. the sonicare is the opposite. you have to hold to switch modes and single press to turn off or on but it has led indicators.- Loudness: alot of people will mention this but dont do a good job at explaining it. the oral b has an actual motor sound so yes it is more louder than the sonicare but with a caveat. yes a sonicare brush is silent as it is a vibrating brush however, i listen to youtube while i brush my teeth and with the sonicare i could barely hear a podcast or news but the oral b although louder i can hear the podcast clearer. to me it its just the different way each brush use their tech and i dont mind either one.-charge time is 12 hours for a full charge- longer brush time: i see this as a pro but you might think its a con. because the brush is much smaller it takes longer and makes you more focused in brushing so it takes me maybe 3 minutes as after i finish my regular cleaning i switch to whitening mode.- messier? because it takes longer you might have to empty your mouth more often to avoid splashing- cons for both brushes no tongue cleaning so i use a tongue scraper.conclusion: so far the oral b smart 1500 is the best choice in most important ways and sure the sonicare has some good features but, for the best bang for your buck, performance and essentials go for oral b smart 1500 over sonicare and the oral b 1000 and higher tiers. The higher tiers of oral b have the dumb gimmicks of Bluetooth feautures. I also read a lot of reviews complaining it was hard to hold. unless you have severe arthritis or a disability I have to call hogwash on that claim. The oral b is a lot easier to hold and harder to drop. Also a lot of people are also complaining that it's hard to turn off? All you do is either hold the button down for a couple of seconds or press the button 3 or 4 times an it turns off. Reading the manual isn't that hard either.