Review (5/5): Much better then the Sonic Spinbrush by Arm & Hammer
Until a year ago, I never liked the idea of owning an electric toothbrush: I'd owned several cheap ones and never liked any of them. Then I figured that I'd try one again about a year ago and so I chose the Sonic Spinbrush by Arm & Hammer. I chose the Spinbrush because it had a large brush, which I thought meant less time/effort brushing my teeth.
The Spinbrush worked pretty well, but the large brush head gagged me horribly. Because of this, I decided to give the Oral-B Vitality a try and I like it much better. The first reason I prefer the Vitality is because it has a much smaller brush head (you don't need a large brush with an electric toothbrush, since the toothbrush is doing all the work.) The smaller brush head also allows me to reach places the larger Spinbrush cannot reach, because it's too big. The Vitality is easier to maneuver in your hand as well, thanks to the smaller handle base.
Another thing I didn't like about the Spinbrush is how it would click off automatically after 2 minutes (I don't think all models of the Spinbrush do this, though.) The Vitality purposely sputters after 2 minutes for it's timing function, but then continues it's normal operation after a second or two. I still find this annoying, but at least I don't have to remove it from my mouth, dripping with toothpaste, just to turn it back on. And if I finish early, the Spinbrush required me to punch the button twice to stop it (again, something not easy to do with a vibrating toothbrush in your mouth), whereas the Vitality only requires a single button push. These two things alone make the Vitality much more convenient.
I also think the Vitality is more powerful then the Spinbrush. The reason you had to push the button on the Spinbrush twice was so you could use it at a lower speed if necessary, but I never found that necessary at all. I prefer the more powerful Vitality, because it feels like it's cleaning better by not slowing down if I push too hard.
About the only thing I liked better about the Spinbrush was that it had an indicator light on the base to tell you it was receiving power (I think it gauged the charge, too, but that was never a problem for me.) I'm not sure if that's even important, but it is something I tend to prefer with rechargeable items. Other than that, I love the Vitality and I much prefer it over the Spinbrush. Now I can brush my teeth without gagging and I am thankful for that.