The Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected may not be the latest model in the brand's smart toothbrush range, but it's a solid option if you want the features of the best electric toothbrushes for a little less.
It's a sleek looking toothbrush and simple to use too, with no fiddly controls to get in the way of your twice-daily oral hygiene routine. A built-in timer makes it easy to know you're brushing for the dentist-recommended two minutes at a time, while various cleaning modes enable you to access a variety of tooth and gum cleansing treatments.
The Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected is similar in performance to the Philips Sonicare DiamondClean Smart, and has a whitening function to help reduce staining at home. We'd partner this with one of the best teeth whiteners.
Let's take a closer look at this Philips Bluetooth toothbrush now to see if it's able to address your oral care needs.
Philips Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected review: Design
The Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected has an RRP of $199.99, but can often be found on sale. Like all electric toothbrushes, it's primarily designed to help you reduce plaque build-up and staining, and to improve your overall oral hygiene.
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For just under $200, you get the Philips tootbrush itself, plus two brush heads, two travel caps, a charger and a travel case. The brush heads that come as standard with this toothbrush are the Philips Sonicare’s AdaptiveClean and InterCare heads. The Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected is compatible with other Sonicare brush heads, so you can aren't limited to those too.
The AdaptiveClean brush head has soft rubber sides, so it’s gentle and massaging on your gums. The InterCare head is designed to remove plaque, and its bristles are long and high-density.
Overall, the toothbrush is lightweight and sleek in the hand, with easy-touch controls to make cycling between cleaning modes a breeze.
Philips Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected review: Features
Philips claims that the Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected removes 10 times more plaque than a manual toothbrush, and has equipped the toothbrush with three individual cleaning modes and three intensity levels. This means you can achieve as gentle or as deep a clean as you need.
The cleaning modes are: Clean (everyday clean), White (stain removal) and Deep Clean (an intense clean for reducing plaque build-up). Set the intensity to Low, Medium or High for any of them.
There are built-in pressure sensors to let you know when you're brushing too hard, plus a scrubbing sensor that encourages you to reduce scrubbing, which can be damaging to your teeth and gums.
These features are similar to the Oral-B Pro 5000. That toothbrush uses rotating, oscillating and pulsating motions instead of sonic wave technology to clean your teeth, and gives you five cleaning modes instead of just three.
The Sonicare app is great for giving you proper insight into your brushing technique, as well as how effective your current brush head is. After a while, brush heads lose their stiffness and are therefore unable to clean quite so effectively. The app will notify you of when your brush head needs replacing.
Philips Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected review: Performance
Like each of Sonicare’s electric toothbrushes, the Philips FlexCare Platinum Connected uses sonic wave technology to clean your teeth, providing up to 31,000 brush strokes per minute, which isn't as much as other toothbrushes. For example, the Pursonic S520 offers 40,000 strokes per minute, while the Wellness HP-STX has up to 38,000. Despite those brushes’ faster vibrations, our testers said their teeth still felt cleaner with Sonicare.
The FlexCare has three intensity options, however, so it gives you nine settings from which to choose. We also preferred the FlexCare’s grip and sound to the Oral-B’s. Indeed, one of our testers compared the Oral-B Pro 5000’s sound to a power drill.
Speaking of power, the FlexCare’s lithium-ion battery gives you 14 days of use between charges. Like the DiamondClean Smart, the FlexCare is Bluetooth compatible, and you can use its downloadable app to help you set oral hygiene goals and track your progress.
To help you brush properly, the app has a TouchUp feature to let you know if you’ve missed a spot. The toothbrush also has a built-in timer, a brushing pressure sensor and a brush head performance monitor to help you create an optimum brushing environment. You can even order replacement heads through the app.
We liked how well the Philips FlexCare Platinum Connected reduced the staining on our teeth over a four-week period. Our teeth felt noticeably cleaner too, and our breath remained fresher for longer between morning and evening brushing.
Should I buy the Philips Sonicare Flexcare Platinum Connected?
The Philips Sonicare FlexCare Platinum Connected is backed with a two-year warranty, and is a perfectly good electric toothbrush for reducing staining and plaque build-up, and for generally improving the health of your teeth and gums. We would have preferred a tongue cleaning mode too, but it's certainly no deal-breaker.
The thought of using the Sonicare app to begin with seemed excessive to begin with, but we soon saw the benefit of having real-time feedback on how we were brushing, and whether the brush head was still effective. The built-in pressure and scrubbing sensors help too, and stopped us from brushing too harshly. If you have sensitive teeth and gums, be wary of the Deep Clean mode, especially on the higher intensity.
