Spotlight Oral Care Sonic toothbrush review 

We tested the Spotlight Oral Care sonic toothbrush twice a day over several weeks. As well as testing how well it cleaned teeth, we also looked at how easy it was to set –up, clean, and how well the different functions worked.

The brush arrived in a hard cardboard box, with two further cardboard boxes within. One held the brush and travel case, the other housed the charging dock, user manual, and replacement brush heads. All the packaging is recyclable.  

The manual is easy to follow and detailed enough for our tastes. We liked that it explained the different cleaning modes and gave brushing tips as well as special oral care advice for children, teenagers, pregnant women and adults.  

We weren’t told whether the brush was ready to use or not, so we popped it on charge for a few hours. The charging cable is a fixed three-point plug, which feels a little dated.

We would have found it easier if it were a USB cable like the Foreo Issa or two-point shaving plug like the Oral-B Vitality, but that may not be an issue for everyone.  

The brush comes with three replacement heads, which equates to a nine-month supply. After you’ve used those, replacement heads cost £29 (currently discounted to £20) for three on the Spotlight Oral Care website, which we feel is good value given their quality.

Philips Sonicare replacement heads are a similar price, while Oral-B are slightly more for a similar spec brush. There’s also a sturdy travel case, which can hold two heads as well. We really liked this touch – if something happens to one of the heads while you’re away (we’ve dropped brushes in the toilet before), you’ve got another on hand.  

To use the brush, you press the button and you’re in clean mode right away. Press it again and it switches to whitening mode, one more press and you’re into sensitive mode. There’s a handy two-minute built-in timer so you know how long to brush for, and the device switches off when done.  

There isn’t an app for the Spotlight Oral Care sonic toothbrush, but we didn’t feel the brush was lacking for that. Some people enjoy tracking their brushing data and if that’s the case, this isn’t the product for you.  

The Spotlight Oral Care brush looks sleek, smart, and fits in nicely on the bathroom shelf. It comes in three different colours, but we liked our white one, as it didn’t stand out too much.

It’s all plastic, so easy to clean, and the head comes on and off easily, so you can wash away any build-up of toothpaste. The travel case is also sleek, so you could easily store the brush unit in there if you didn’t want it on display.  

The brush head is straight, so we would recommend following Spotlight’s guidance of angling the brush to 45 degrees against your teeth before switching on. We found this delivered the best results and we managed not to spray toothpaste everywhere. Holding it straight on means you need to apply more pressure when brushing in order to get in between the teeth.  

The brush head is similar in size to a regular manual brush-head size. We found that particularly useful for getting the whole surface of the tooth clean, but it did make it a little trickier to get into the crevices between each tooth. For comparison, oscillating brushes (such as the Oral-B range) usually have much smaller, round heads.  

The brush gives a brief pause every 30 seconds while brushing, to prompt you to move to another quadrant of the mouth. After two minutes, it turns itself off. We like this touch, as it takes the guesswork out of brushing.  

The Spotlight Oral Care toothbrush works with sonic vibrations, meaning it moves from side to side across your teeth, as opposed to an oscillating brush, which rotates (these tend to have small, round heads).  

You move the brush lightly across and in between the teeth, and let the sonic vibrations do their thing. The bristles are medium-firm but didn’t aggravate our gums in any way.

The brush gives an exceptional clean, like that you’d get from a dentist. If you’re new to electric brushes, it might take you a while to get used to the method, but once you’ve got it, you’ll really notice a difference compared to a manual brush.

We were really impressed by how clean our teeth felt and became mildly obsessed with running our tongue along our teeth. There is a special whitening programme on this brush, which is more intense than the regular clean, and possibly not suitable if you have really sensitive gums.

We used the whitening mode in the evening; surface stains were lifted nicely, and our teeth looked whiter after six weeks.  

It’s also worth noting that Spotlight sell a range of teeth whitening products. Although we’ve not tested them, they do have very favourable reviews across the internet.  

This brush is very light, making it easy to hold and move about the mouth. There isn’t any rubber grip on the handle, though, so bear that in mind if grip is an issue.

There also isn’t a pressure sensor like on some models, so you’ll need to figure out what’s too light and what’s too heavy. That was a bit frustrating at first, but we found our groove fairly quickly.  

We really liked that it’s quiet. In fact, it’s hard to hear it at all through the bathroom door. Our family were especially grateful when we were using it at 5am. The hum does increase on the whitening setting, so you might not want to use that mode when everyone else is trying to sleep.  

On the box, Spotlight state the brush has a “Long Life Battery”. In the manual this is clarified as “240 minutes, mode depending”, which the website equates to being up to 70 days. Often, we find these claims are over– exaggerated but in Spotlight’s case it’s correct.  

We charged the brush on first opening and then got over a month of solid twice-daily use before needing to charge it again. It does take a long time to fully charge from flat, though – 15 hours. That wasn’t an issue, as we left it all day, but it’s worth bearing in mind if you want to charge it before going away, for example.  

Overall, we felt it was an impressive level of battery life. We haven’t tested it long enough to establish if this efficiency diminishes over time. 

The Oral Care sonic has an RRP of £110, but at the time of writing it’s available direct from Spotlight for just £66. Even at full price we feel this is great value for money.

The quality of the brush alone is worth the price point but what really sets it apart in terms of value is the added extras.  

Three brush heads included is a big selling point – you know you’ve not got to shell out for more anytime soon, and they’re neatly enclosed in a hard plastic case with their own plastic caps on, so no worries about storage either.  

The travel case is robust but not overly large, so it’ll easily fit in a washbag. Being able to take an extra head in the case is also an advantage. A lot of electric brushes offer very little in the way of extras, so although there’s no app or fancy gimmicks, the Spotlight Oral Care sonic toothbrush does offer very good value.  

If you prefer a high-end possibility, the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean 9000 is another sonic option, while their Sonicare 3100 has a much lower price point.

The Foreo Issa 3 is a quirky, unique silicone design and comes in at about £170.  

If an oscillating brush is more your style, you could splash out on the Oral-B iO series 10 but be prepared to part with £800 for the privilege (although it’s often heavily reduced).

Alternatively, Oral-B offer a whole range of price points for the rest of their electric toothbrush range, all of which use oscillations to clean as opposed to sonic vibrations.

We loved this brush and will definitely be investing in one. It offers a great clean, superb value for money, and gently whitened our teeth.

At this price point, it’s hard to find anything that comes close, and it gives much higher priced brushes a good run for their money.