Whether you’re moving on from your manual or have decided your current model needs an upgrade, there’s a world of choice when it comes to electric toothbrushes – and Philips is a leading brand in the crowded market.
While some brushes feature an oscillating and rotating head, others use multiple sonic pulses to separate the plaque from the teeth. As the name suggests, all the brushes in the bestselling Philips sonicare range use the latter. In layman's terms, this means the brush head moves rapidly from side to side over the surfaces of the teeth, while sonic vibrations have an agitating effect on the mixture of toothpaste and fluids in the mouth, which in turn helps to loosen plaque.
The 9900 prestige was the first electric toothbrush to combine this unique sonic approach with an app, run by Philips’ Sense IQ technology. This provides real-time guidance on a number of criteria from duration and frequency, to pressure and position when brushing your teeth – and myriad brands have launched similar apps in the years since.
As someone who takes oral health seriously and treats dental care as a non-negotiable part of my daily routine, I’m always on the lookout for tools that actually make a difference. I’ve tested a wide range of electric toothbrushes over the years – from stain busters to the most premium models on the market – so I’ve developed a sharp sense of what genuinely improves the brushing experience. That’s why I was especially curious to try the Philips sonicare 9900 prestige, a toothbrush that costs as much as a porcelain crown – but will it save you that kind of expense in the long run?
How I tested
I’ve spent several weeks testing this toothbrush in order to really put it through its paces. Here’s what I looked out for.
- Multiple testers: I’m an experienced electric toothbrush user and left my manual behind many years ago. So, I also enlisted the help of another tester who only recently started brushing their teeth with an electric. As a first-time user, I wanted to see how easy they got on with the Philips toothbrush, from the app to the brushing experience.
- App: Each of us spent a month with the electric toothbrush to get used to the product’s app, testing the real-time guidance while assessing the model on from everything from duration and frequency, to pressure and position when brushing our teeth.
- Performance: Of course, the performance of the brush was all-important in testing. We wanted to notice any impact it had on our dental hygiene and how fresh and clean our mouths felt after brushing our teeth.
- Battery: It’s annoying have to constantly charge your toothbrush, so we both considered how long the battery actually lasted (the brand claims it has a battery life of 14 days when used twice a day for two minutes each time) and how long it took to re-charge.
Why you can trust IndyBest reviews
Jon Axworthy is a writer with nearly three decades of experience. He has been contributing reviews to IndyBest since 2017, specialising in home, tech and garden. He applies the same rigorous testing approach to everything from grass strimmers to cordless drills and much more. Offering his honest opinions to help you find the best product, he’s also reviewed countless electric toothbrushes, from Philips to Oral B.
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Philips sonicare 9900 prestige
Modes: Five
Battery type: Li-ion
Accessories included: USB-C charging travel case and cable, brush heads, charging dock
Battery life: 14 days
Returns: 28-day money back guarantee
Travel case: Included
App connectivity: Yes
Why we love it
- Sleek profile
- Single power button
- App for personalised and guided brushing
- Gum protection
- All-in-one head
- Quiet
- Good for travelling thanks to long battery life and case
Take note
- Expensive
Ergonomics
For something that you use twice a day, how a toothbrush feels in hand is important, and the 9900 has a sleek profile that delivers a tactile user experience, which is largely thanks to its matte rubber handle being devoid of controls – apart from a single power button.
Philips have achieved this because of the brush’s heavy reliance on the accompanying sonicare app to do the job of choosing modes and intensities of brushing that’s usually dictated by multiple buttons on the handle.
It’s shorter than its predecessor, the DiamondClean, (by 18mm, to be precise) but it feels nicely balanced. So, even when you’re mid-clean and the handle is getting wet, you still have plenty of purchase on the brush, and it never feels like it’s going to fly across the bathroom.
Its ergonomics and weight also make it easy to maintain a light touch on the brush itself, which is the recommended technique to ensure that you’re not brushing too hard and doing damage to both your teeth and gums.
In app
As I have suggested, one of the biggest attributes of the 9900 is the Sense IQ app, which can simply be downloaded to any smart phone. We had no problem downloading and pairing so that we could get on with the customisation of the brush.
It has a straightforward and clean interface, and the customisation begins with choosing one of the five modes that any existing sonicare users will be familiar with (clean, white +, gum health, deep clean and sensitive). Within those modes there are three intensity settings that can be adjusted, too.
This is why there needs to be some time investment in your early experience with the 9900, and it may take a couple of brushing sessions in order to personalise the behaviour of the brush so that it corresponds with your dental goals and feels comfortable.
The location of the brush corresponded well to where the brush was placed on the in- mouth graphic on the app. In fact, it performed better in this area than some of the other premium brushes we have tested in the past You also can choose where you start from in your mouth and the app will adapt to suit your preference, a feature we’ve not seen before, as other apps usually require you to start from the bottom right of your mouth.
The app will also trace whether you’re brushing the outer or inner surface of your pegs with enough accuracy. We have seen some online grumbles that the app only covers these surfaces and neglects the biting surface on top, but we assumed that between the outer and inner you would cover the chewing surface, so it didn’t seem to be a problem.
You can also choose whether to turn “adaptive sensitivity” on or off, which helps to protect gums from you brushing too hard by briefly pausing the motor and powering down to a lower intensity. We found this was an effective way to get us out of the bad habit of holding the brush too tightly and whenever the intensity was lowered it reminded us to hold with just our fingertips, which helps eliminate the impulse to brush too aggressively.
Another gum protection measure that can be toggled on and off in the app is “scrubbing feedback” which is geared more towards users who are coming to an electric toothbrush from a manual for the first time and are used to the scrubbing motion, which can be harmful for teeth and gums. The scrubbing feedback will alert you away from this motion to the short back and forth motion that is customary with electric brushing.
In use
Anecdotally, I have found that users of sonicare brushes often report that they find the clean feels kinder on teeth and more comfortable, compared to using a brush with an oscillating head. This is certainly the case with the 9900, which delivers a very pleasant sensation as it traces over your teeth, while still delivering what feels like an efficient and thorough clean.
Another thing that a lot of people like about sonicare brushes is the fact that the brush head is very similar to that of a manual because it doesn’t rely on the oscillating action that requires a more circular brush head. So, if you are coming to electric brushing for the first time, the jump from a manual won’t feel quite so alien.
One of the things that has frustrated us in the past with the sonicare range has been the multiple brush heads for different dental objectives, like whitening or gum care.
The all-in-one head on the 9900 contains a mix of angled and long bristles, so that stain removal, deep cleaning and gum care are all covered without the need for any faffing around. The brush head itself flexed nicely in the mouth and the angled bristles felt comfortable, while also feeling like they were doing the job they were intended to do.
Finally, if you’re always the first one up in your house and you’re worried that the sound of the sonicare motor might wake the slumbering, then we can report the 9900 operates quietly. Although, it does still have the distinctive sonicare high-pitched hum.
Buy now £278.82, Amazon.co.uk
Should you buy the Philips sonicare 9900 prestige toothbrush?
The Philips sonicare 9900 prestige requires an investment, initially of money, and then of time to ensure that you’re brushing with the mode and intensity that you believe is doing your teeth the most good – there’s no way to adjust things on the fly. This will appeal to some and be a big turn off for others as it means you can’t just pick a mode from the toothbrush itself, which will be frustrating if you just want to brush and rush.
If you have time to fine tune your dental regime in the app, then the 9900 will reward you with a targeted, personalised and comfortable brushing experience. But if you’re slightly more mood-dependent with your brushing regime, you’ll probably prefer a brush that is a bit more versatile, so that you can concentrate on whitening in the morning and a deep clean at night, for example.
If you do travel a lot, the advantages of having the 9900 along for the ride are clear as there’s always more involved with an electric brush than a manual as you need to make sure a brush is sufficiently charged beforehand, or you need to ensure that all the necessary equipment is packed up and ready to come with you. As long as the 9900’s travel case is charged and ready to go, you won’t have to bring the base with you and there’s no reason why it won’t keep teeth clean for weeks on the road.
Looking for more oral health recommendations? Check out our round-up of the best electric toothbrushes
