Complete Review of the smart health connected toothbrush

Oral-B has its Smart Series White Pro 7000, Vigilant has its Rainbow, Kolibree at… Kolibree. This smart health connected toothbrush, of French origin, had already been talked about at CES and is now available for sale. Particularly geared towards children, Kolibree is distinguished by a particularly refined design, a very simple handling and its sonic technology. If you're interested, don't move from your chair – we've tested it for you.

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Mark : KolibreeCategory: smart health connected toothbrushPrice: 149 €Availability: available

Kolibree Unboxing

You might as well get into the bath right away: Kolibree plays on simplicity. This is particularly noticeable by the packaging of the object. Even if the box is rather massive, all in white and covered with a few illustrations of the toothbrush, happy families (because clean teeth seem to be a real social cement) and the main advantages of Kolibree (technological and fun), everything is rather simple and pleasant.

It’s the same inside. Once the cover is lifted, a platform presents the Kolibree in its greatest simplicity. You will have to lift the plastic plate to find all the accessories for the toothbrush: the charging base, another brush (in the same format) and a small manual of ten pages (explaining all the stages of use in each language and illustrated with numerous drawings, so no need to panic).

Kolibree design and ergonomics

The advantage when trying to be simple is that everything is easier. Far from the smart health connected toothbrushes of Oral-B Smart Series, which give the impression of handling a NASA device, Kolibree has a sleek design which is reminiscent of the products struck with an apple. She is not decorated only with the brand logo and a single LED, who will take care of report the condition of the toothbrush. Green will mean a full battery, orange for a medium battery, and red for an almost flat battery. When smart health connected, a blue light will indicate that your Kolibree is ready to be paired with Bluetooth to the mobile application.

With the same idea, the toothbrush has only one button. He's the one who will turn on the toothbrush and turn it on / off for brushing. No other element since there is no other functionality to report. Depending on your tastes, it can therefore be a plus or a minus in the evaluation of the device. Personally, we believe thata toothbrush doesn't have to be particularly complex to use. Kolibree has managed to keep it simple in this aspect, which we appreciate.

Obviously we would have liked a product with a little more cachet, but better a simple object than a lousy object. No ?

Kolibree app

Simplicity, again and again. In fact, that’s where we even notice how Kolibree, even though she claims to be for the whole family, is especially aimed at children. The illustrations and avatars in profile seem really drawn to amuse the little ones, which will not necessarily bother the older ones. Several profiles can be created and managed simultaneously by the app, to allow the whole family to enjoy it, compare their results and challenge each other.

Once on its own profile, three sections open to us and present all the data collected and services offered:

– health home : this is the summary of our performances. The most important information is displayed there: our number of points, our level (these two data being linked and intended to encourage regular brushing), our positioning in the Kolibree index (statistics which show the regularity and quality of brushing ) and a summary of the different sessions during the week. This last feature will be particularly useful for parents to check the regularity of their toddlers.

– Balance sheet : the famous cartography of our dental hygiene. Depending on the areas on which we have been more diligent, this representation of the inside of our mouth will display more or less white areas. This can be useful in determining areas to focus on more … or where the toothbrush sensors don't work too much. We will come back to this point in a few lines.

– Ranking : functionality mainly interesting for families. Simply, this page displays all the registered user profiles, sorted according to their number of points. If each member of the family regularly brushes their teeth with Kolibree, this ranking will help to distinguish who is the most gifted in dental hygiene maintenance, and to pose challenges to the rest of the family.

Below these shutters stands out a small yellow tablet, which shows a drawing of a toothbrush. This button will allow you to enter the “brushing” part, and to use Kolibree with the application. Two modes of use are available to us: the “Coach”, for adults, which has a timer for each area to be brushed; and "Go! Pirate", a fun version of Coach mode that comes with a mini-game. More details in the Usage section.

Using / getting started with Kolibree

Installation

Let's start with the beginning. Like any smart toothbrush, Kolibree requires several pieces of information to be able to function optimally. Obviously, we do not cut the need to enter his name, his email, his country, his sex and his date of birth, even if these data are not important for our oral hygiene. The application will then inquire about the user's hand and ask them to choose an avatar, either through the avatar gallery offered by the interface, or by choosing their own photo. Note that it is also during this stage that we can choose if you agree to share your data anonymously or not at all.

will follow a short tutorial of a few pages, which will explain how the toothbrush, application and profiles work. Nothing too complicated since everything is relatively intuitive, but it doesn't hurt.

Then only remains the apparatus. No problem here either, since you only need to enter the toothbrush PIN code, press its single button until it blinks blue and wait for the application to detect it . Subsequently, everything will be done almost automatically and the toothbrush will pair with the smartphone as soon as someone turns it on.

use

Let us mention the first major defect of Kolibree: it cannot work without smartphone. Let’s get it right: obviously it’s a smart health connected toothbrush, obviously the principle is to have additional services on a dedicated application. The problem is that you have to have your phone every time you brush your teeth, because Kolibree is unable to analyze our performance and synchronize it afterwards to update our statistics. It's a bit of a shame as it makes the user dependent on their phone, but Kolibree says this feature should be available soon.

Daily, two modes will be mainly used for brushing: the Coach and the Go! Pirate mini-game. We tested both.

– Coach, as indicated by his name, supervises and advises the user when brushing his teeth. As for the rest, the interface is quite simple and is relatively easy to understand: the areas to be brushed are indicated on a relief drawing and brushing time is indicated by a ring scrolling around the illustration. Its color will depend on the quality of the brushing: green if the movements are correct, red if they are not. In general, this method of use is quite effective.

The only problem we encountered comes from the sensitivity of the sensors, which, even if they are very good.require the user to brush their teeth with their head held straight. This often prevents the phone from being placed on one side of the sink, because with the head tilted, the toothbrush may not understand your movements. In addition, the gestures expected by the coach are sometimes a bit obscure, which can interfere with data analysis. For example, we never understood the movements that Kolibree required to brush our front teeth, which means that they appear “dirtier” on the final map even if we brush them normally. But hey, maybe we're just not good at it.

– Go! Pirate works on the same principle as the Coach, but is more for children. It takes the form of a minigame, in which the user will take on the skin of a pirate that he can vaguely customize, before go in search of a lost treasure. Of course, the game is rather simple and turns out to be nothing but a (vaguely) disguised Coach mode. Indeed, to make your pirate run along the pontoon and make him catch the gold coins, brush your teeth indicated by a small illustration at the bottom of the screen. Concretely, this means that we spend more time staring at the little drawing than the game itself.

The fun aspect nevertheless reveals a real feeling of progress in history. The player accumulates many coins and points, and has many cards to explore before reaching the famous hidden treasure. It could really be a motivating feature for children.

At the level of faults, we regret that the interface does not reveal more information on the quality of brushing, even if they probably would have ruined the game. Namely that in our version, brushing done via Go! Pirate did not record any data in the brushed teeth map. Difficult for parents to estimate the attendance of their offspring under these conditions.

Finally, this is a detail, but we found the somewhat long loading times. Nothing interminable, a few seconds at most, but that leads to these absurd situations in which you find yourself immobile in the bathroom because "the game of the toothbrush is loading". There, on the other hand, it's a bit our gamer side that expresses itself.

As for the sensors, they work rather well. It is advisable to hold your head straight so as not to disturb the toothbrush, and some movements are sometimes a little difficult to understand, but nothing worse than what is done elsewhere. We only regret the absence of pressure sensors, which would have provided even more information on the quality of our brushing and helped children to brush their teeth better. Suddenly, the object is much less precise and just flick the toothbrush in the air to fool the app. This is especially true for the Go! Pirate game, where tilting the brush from left to right is enough to advance the character. At the time for parents who would like to force their children to brush their teeth.

Kolibree against the competition

Competition is not very fierce when it comes to smart health connected toothbrushes. In fact, there are only two devices that can be compared to Kolibree.

– The Rainbow : made by Vigilant, it is a smart health connected toothbrush specially designed for children (evidenced by the bright colors and its reduced size). There is the recreational aspect of Kolibree, but no family use. Therefore, its price is much more affordable: 39 €, with the possibility of finding it more than twice cheaper on certain platforms.

– Smart Serie White Pro 7000 : the famous smart and smart health connected toothbrush from Oral-B. Here, no functionality for children. The Pro 7000 is a toothbrush 2.0, more complete, more precise, more complex. It has six brushing modes, pressure sensors and a screen that offers more independence from your phone. At first glance, nothing like Kolibree … except its price: 150 €. In terms of expertise and functionality, it is therefore Oral-B that seems to prevail. Kolibree’s main asset seems to be its ability to appeal to both adults and children.

Conclusion

The advantages of Kolibree

> Very easy to use

> Can be used by the whole family

> Autonomy

The minuses of Kolibree

> Quality / price ratio a little excessive

> No pressure sensors

> Obligation to use it with the phone

There is food and drink in Kolibree. On the one hand, we salute its simplicity of use, the clarity with which it displays the data and the family aspect of the product, without counting on the autonomy of its battery (one week in normal use) and the sonic technology used. . On the other hand, we have a feeling of too little. Pressure sensors would have been a real asset, especially to teach children to brush their teeth properly. In addition, all the features go through the application, which means that if you do not have your smartphone in hand when brushing, Kolibree does not record any data and does not even take a timer. It's a shame, especially since at the same price, Oral B's Smart Serie Pro 7000 offers much more. Conclusion: to use especially for its playful and family side.

Overview

Design & Ergonomics: It's hard to make it more refined or simpler than the design of this toothbrush. One button, one light, everyone understands how it works and can use it without difficulty.Application : One of the highlights of the Kolibree. Very easy to use, the application clearly illustrates all our results, presents the areas to be brushed more and allows the whole family to use the object interactively.Features: Do not be fooled: the features are intended especially for children. The simplicity of use and the Go! Pirate mini-game are proof of this, although adults will surely find it useful in the most sober Coach mode. Our only regret is the lack of pressure sensors, which would make the device more complete and above all more precise. Use : You have to do it on purpose not to know how to use this smart health connected toothbrush. With a single button and a single mode of use (disguised as two), we use Kolibree without any effort and we quickly see our results. Only downside: the obligation to have your phone in hand for brushing.Value for money: This is where the shoe pinches. Concretely, Kolibree does not offer much more than a coach, a mapping of brushed areas and a classification of family members according to their results. It's good, but it's not worth 150 €. For comparison, the Oral-B Smart Serie Pro 7000 offers many more features and is available at the same price.

2.92

 2.92 out of 5 

In the average

Review Kolibree: a smart health connected toothbrush for the whole family 

Reviewed by Jérémy Pirotte  

we 2016-01-29

   Design & Ergonomics: It's hard to make it more refined or simpler than the design of this toothbrush. One button, one light, everyone understands how it works and can use it without difficulty.Application : One of the highlights of the Kolibree. Very easy to use, the application clearly illustrates all our results, presents the areas to be brushed more and allows the whole family to use the object interactively.Features: Do not be fooled: the features are intended especially for children. The simplicity of use and the Go! Pirate mini-game are proof of this, even if adults will surely find it useful with the more sober Coach mode. Our only regret is the lack of pressure sensors, which would make the device more complete and above all more precise. Use : You have to do it on purpose not to know how to use this smart health connected toothbrush. With a single button and a single mode of use (disguised as two), we use Kolibree without any effort and we quickly see our results. Only downside: the obligation to have your phone in hand for brushing.Value for money: This is where the shoe pinches. Concretely, Kolibree does not offer much more than a coach, a mapping of brushed areas and a classification of family members according to their results. It's good, but it's not worth 150 €. For comparison, the Oral-B Smart Serie Pro 7000 offers many more features and is available at the same price.

Rating: 2.92 

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