Atmoko Electric Toothbrush Review: Inexpensive Style, Weak Cleaning

Atmoko Electric Toothbrush Test Results

One Job: Cleaning your teeth

When we decide to test products, we focus on the single most important feature. What is the one thing an electric toothbrush should do above all else? Clean your teeth. Unfortunately, the Atmoko is not very good at this one job.

They claim that this is a powerful brush that vibrates at 40,000 cycles per minute, and we are not disputing that claim. However, the brush motions are not very strong, and when you brush, you can hardly tell if it is cleaning anything. This was also backed up in our lab tests. This was one of the weakest brushes we tested.

Cleaning performance test results

Electric toothbrush cleaning performance rated from 1-5 based on test results (higher score is better).

To access all tests and scores of brushes we tested, read our full best electric toothbrush article.

Consequently, the Atmoko did not do well in our plaque tests either. The Dupont brush head just doesn’t seem to vibrate and dance like the better brushes we tested. It is not completely ineffective, but if you want plaque-free teeth and healthy gums, we would not choose this one.

Unboxing

The Atmoko comes packed in a thin cardboard box with a nice clean design. It says “Sonic Power Toothbrush model HP107A”. They do have another brush, but it does not have an induction charger, so we chose this “higher end” model for testing. It only comes in one color—black.

Inside the box is an old-school plastic tray with the brush handle, travel case, induction charger and an impressive array of 6 brush heads which will last the typical user 18 months!

You also get an instruction manual in six different languages.

Look and feel

For as cheap as the Atmoko is, we were impressed with the styling and finish. The brush handle has an old-fashioned 1950s radio look to it with the two-buttoned control panel on glossy plastic and a vertical LED light display. It is very easy to understand and use.

The handle is wrapped in a soft, seamless plastic that gives a good grip. The only negative is the cheap, shiny plastic bottom and the same cheap metallic plastic at the base of the brush heads. Everything else feels much more polished than we would have expected!

We like that it has two buttons, one larger that turns it off and on, and one smaller to change modes. The modes are clearly labeled and written in English.

The brush is surprisingly light and very easy to handle.

Brushing experience

Of all the toothbrushes we tested, we think Atmoko really got the controls right. They don’t try to do anything fancy or tricky with the buttons. You turn it on and off with the big button and then you change the modes with the small button. Some other brushes only have one button which can cause confusion, and the most expensive brushes in our tests had problems with the second button controls.

The brush head fits a bit tight and was hard to get off and on, but it fits well and is secure. The Atmoko has a 2-minute quadpacer that stops every 30 seconds to let you know when to move from one quadrant of your mouth to the next. We didn’t like the stopping sensation. We prefer a beep or change in vibration as a signal. Stopping means that we lose about 4 seconds of brushing time during each session.

Once the brush is running, you can cycle through modes by pressing the smaller button. It also remembers the last mode you used, so you don’t have to worry about that.

As discussed before, the brushing experience is one of the worst overall of any brush we tested. Brushing with the Atmoko just feels soft and soggy as if it isn’t really doing any work. The brush just vibrates and makes noise as you move it around, but you do not get the sense that any sonic action is happening to clean your teeth.

The noise is about standard for a sonic toothbrush. We measured 62 decibels which is equivalent to a normal conversation.

Battery life

Atmoko claims that their brush will last for 4 weeks on a single charge, and we found this to be accurate. We got 56 brushes in our lab test which is twice a day for 28 days.

Using the induction charger, the brush was fully charged after about 13 hours, which is better than the 24 hours they claim in the manual.

The USB induction charger is nicely weighted to hold the brush upright, but it does not come with a USB adapter brick, so you need to find something to plug it into. We like the USB option for travel, but since most of us do not have a USB plug in the bathroom, we would also like an adapter.

Brush heads

The Atmoko comes with 6 w-shaped brush heads with “Dupont bristles” like so many other low cost sonic brushes on the market. We are not big fans of this brush head. We find that the bristles are a bit stiff, and the overall cleaning experience just isn’t very good.

We would like to see brush head options, especially a sensitive brush. The lower-cost Atmoko brush does have multiple brush heads available, so we are surprised that this model does not.

What else does it do?

The Atmoko sonic brush comes with an impressive five modes. We mostly used the standard clean mode, and as with the other brushes we tested we found that modes were mostly useless.

In this case, the brush is already pretty soft to begin with, so the soft mode feels really worthless. There is a whiten mode which seems to change something in the vibration, but we do not think this mode is really doing any whitening.

The massage mode is truly something that must be experienced. It sounds like there are a bunch of aliens having a conversation in your mouth, and it tickles in a comically uncomfortable way. I am not sure if it did anything for my gums, but it was interesting!

Finally there is the polish mode which Atmoko claims, “…has a more direct effect on users who have deep cleaning demand, effectively cleaning the stubborn impurities in the mouth personalized customization.” It does not offer any customization and based on sound and vibration tests, it seems to just be a slightly weaker mode than the standard cleaning.

As with all the brushes we tested, we feel that these additional modes are mostly gimmicks to make a brush sound impressive. Over time, we think most customers would settle on the clean mode and very rarely use another.

All of these modes ran for 2 minutes with a 30-second quadpacer.

The brush also has a charge light at the base which is off when it is fully charged. It then starts to blink red when the battery is at about 7%. We got 4 full cleanings after the light turned red before the brush quit completely.

Accessories

This package comes with a plastic travel case that actually does an okay job for such an inexpensive brush. It is made of semi-transparent black plastic with the Atmoko brand name in white letters. We are still confused about the font choice for Atmoko because even brand new, the letters on both the brush handle and case look like they are wearing off.

The case holds the handle and two brush heads. It has a drain system so the brush heads will dry off if wet. The plastic latch stays closed securely, and the case is lightweight and functional.

It is not a great case, but it will do the job it is intended to do.

Long term

The brush comes with a 2-year limited warranty and a 45-day money back guarantee. The manual also says you get lifetime online support, so if you have problems and questions, customer service is available. Fortunately, the brush operated as promised during testing, so we did not have to contact customer support.

The brush is easy to clean, and we see no problem with owning this and using it for a long time.

Replacement brush heads are available and relatively cheap, so you will have no problem once you get through all the ones that came with the initial package. The good news is that if you ever get through the 6 included brush heads, replacements are also inexpensive and available. You can continue using this brush for less than 14 pounds a year if you so choose!

Conclusion

Atmoko has done a nice job taking a cheap sonic brush and wrapping it in a classy styling and creating a tempting package with the travel case and many replacement brush heads. However, the brush is still a disappointment in terms of doing that one thing a brush is supposed to do: Cleaning.

We would not recommend that anyone purchase this brush. We think Atmoko is on the right track, and maybe they will improve the motor or other guts of this handle to make the cleaning more effective, but as it stands there are brushes that clean much better for about the same price.

Atmoko Features & Specs