Ordo’s £14.99 Sonic Edge toothbrush is far better than it has any right to be

Price When Reviewed

Not yet available in the US

Best Prices Today: Ordo Sonic Edge electric toothbrush

Just how cheap can an effective electric toothbrush be? That’s what I was asking myself as I unwrapped the Ordo Sonic Edge brush.

The best cheap electric toothbrush we’ve recommended until now – and that’s with caveats – is the Oral-B Vitality Pro, which you can currently buy from Amazon for £23.99.

But could you be paying less? We tested the £14.99 Ordo Sonic Edge to find out.

Design and Build

• Single brushing mode
• 2-minute timer
• USB charging

The Sonic Edge is a light, slim brush, weighing only 63g versus the Suri 2.0’s 77g and the Oral-B iO4’s 135g.

It has a narrow brush head, with nylon bristles cut into a W shape for better contact with your teeth, and an X-shaped silicone polisher in the centre.

At the base of the handle is a cap you can pop off. Underneath it is the charging port. The cap does mean that the brush is water resistant to some degree but it isn’t IP-rated, so don’t immerse it. And to keep it in good shape for as long as possible, I’d advise against brushing your teeth in the shower.

You won’t get a spare brush head in the box but that’s as expected for this price. When it’s time to replace the brush head in three months’ time, a pack of two replacement heads will cost you £10. Yes, that’s nearly as much as the brush itself but it’s hard to find non-generic heads for any brand for less.

But you will get a travel cap for the toothbrush and a USB-C charging cable included. As always these days, you can forget about a plug.

A really nice thing about these brushes is the number of available colourways. I’m testing peach sunrise (orange and red, if we’re being honest), but there’s also paradise pink, lime sorbet, cobalt breeze, Fiji fuchsia, charcoal, snow and two Wicked film tie-in options in green and pink.

The included brush head is white (unless you choose the charcoal model) but when you replace it, you can opt for any one of a rainbow of colours.

One more thing to note is that the Sonic Edge is thoughtfully packaged in plastic-free, recyclable cardboard. Not only is it environmentally friendly but it’s a lot easier to get into than a moulded plastic box.

Performance and Features

• 6-week battery life
• Quiet in use
• Battery indicator light

There’s a single button to switch the brush on and there’s no choice of brushing modes, as you’d expect from such an inexpensive brush. What you might not expect is that it has two-minute brushing timer, with alerts every 30 seconds to let you know to move onto the next part of your mouth, after which point it switches off.

And the brushing performance is a bit more lively than you’d think. It’s not too gentle, it’s fairly quiet in use, and not rattly at all. Once again, it certainly performs far above its price point and it feels as though it gives an effective clean.

The only thing that concerns me is that effective sonic movements range from around 24,000 to over 30,000 vibrations per minute and Ordo doesn’t disclose figures for this brush.

What this means is that it will be more effective than using a manual model – but probably not as effective as an Oral-B iO or Sonicare.

Once again, it certainly performs far above its price point

I wasn’t able to come anywhere near testing Ordo’s stated six-week battery life, but I can say that it showed no signs of slowing down after two weeks, so it’s more than holiday-approved.

There’s an indicator light below the power button that glows white when it’s switched on, and red when the battery is low or it’s plugged in to charge. It turns green when it’s ready. This is a really handy feature that inexpensive brushes tend to lack – it’s very annoying not to know when a device is fully charged, or even if it’s charging properly.

There’s only one feature that this brush really lacks, apart from multiple brushing modes, and that’s a pressure sensor.

If your dentist has told you that you press too hard while brushing, or that you have damaged gums or tooth enamel, we’d recommend a brush with a sensor to help you to change your habits. You can find our top recommendations in our round-up of the best electric toothbrushes and the best Oral-B models.

Price and Availability

The Ordo Sonic Edge is available from the Ordo website and from Amazon UK for £14.99. At this stage, it isn’t available in the US, but you can see our round-up of the best cheap electric toothbrushes for our top recommendations.

Should you buy the Ordo Sonic Edge electric toothbrush?

Increasingly, there are very few products you can genuinely call a bargain. But this is one of them.

Electric toothbrushes at this price point tend to be more of a buzzy annoyance than a useful tool but this one is worth buying.

If you can afford a higher-quality brush for everyday care, I’d recommend an Oral-B iO to most people. But if you’re looking for a travel brush, or you use a manual brush and are thinking about upgrading to an electric model, this is an inexpensive way to test it out.