Lovense Solace Pro review: Evolution, not revolution

In the world of smart sex toys, Lovense is one of the most recognisable names. After adding to its extensive line of smart vibrators with the Lovense Solace last year, the company has now expanded with the Lovense Solace Pro – a beefed-up model with improved specs and a few more features.

The Solace Pro is more of a minor upgrade to its predecessor, rather than a full-on generational update, but for those that are in the market for a connected stroker, it may be worth the extra cash.

Lovense Solace Pro review: Design

In the world of smartphones and laptops, the ‘Pro’ moniker tends to mean devices that are bigger, bulkier and generally more impressive-looking, and that’s certainly the case with the Solace Pro.

In terms of appearance, it looks much more high-tech than the original Solace, with a brushed silver finish and a row of initially-inscrutable LEDs above the soft-touch buttons to indicate the current strength level.

The design has been updated so that the main control unit and the sleeve are effectively two separate components stacked on top of each other, rather than the self-contained structure of the previous model, which creates the feeling of getting intimate with the Starship Enterprise. It’s presumably been done to accommodate the improved motor, but it brings its own issues.

For one, the Solace’s Pro’s inner sleeve is now much more difficult to get back into its housing, which is a problem we never had with the original. Unlike its predecessor’s hinged design, the Pro forces you to painstakingly cram the inner sleeve back into its unyielding shell, which isn’t helped by the natural friction of silicon on plastic.

Aside from being generally annoying to deal with after cleaning, this presents a potential problem for anyone with mobility issues.

The new sleeve design is also more confusing; it was only after a few uses that we realised we’d been reinserting the inner sleeve into the housing slightly incorrectly. Overall, it’s a baffling step backwards from a design that was near-perfect to begin with.

The neutral sleeve that comes with the Solace Pro by default is now flesh-toned, where the original Solace’s sleeve was a semi-transparent crystal colour. This is admittedly subjective, and your aesthetic preferences may vary, but we found the new light flesh-coloured sleeve to be more off-putting compared to the colourless original – which is also arguably more inclusive.

There have been some improvements, of course: the included mounting clamp for attaching the device to a desk or table is more versatile, thanks to the inclusion of an adjustable slider to fine-tune position. This is gratifying, as the new design has made mounting the Pro to a solid surface much more necessary – but more on that shortly.

Also, rather than a barrel-plug DC charger, Lovense has switched to a much more convenient USB-C charger for the Solace Pro, which now boasts a 14-hour battery life from just two hours charge – although we seriously doubt that anyone will be making that much uninterrupted use of it.

Lovense Solace Pro review: Features

The changes to the Solace Pro are more than just cosmetic, of course. It goes both faster and deeper than the original model – up to 300 strokes per minute, with a 3.11in thrusting depth, compared to 280 strokes and a 2.75in depth – but while this added muscle is welcome, it doesn’t feel particularly necessary when the Solace already felt plenty powerful enough.

Despite the increased power, Lovense says that the Solace Pro’s maximum noise level of 63dB is only just higher than conversational volume, and while it is a little quieter than the original, it’s still far from discreet, so you may want to pump up some background music if you’re worried about disturbing the neighbors.

As with the original Solace, the Lovense Remote app provides direct control over the toy’s motions, as well as the ability to program customised patterns, and also offers a range of more esoteric modes, but the real draw of a device like this is likely to be its smart functionality.

The big new feature is AI Sync which, as the name suggests, supposedly uses smart algorithms to match the motion of on-screen content. Accessed via Lovense’s partner app VibeMate (iOS and Android), an AI-powered browser, this feature works with any video content regardless of what site it’s on, with the premise that it will automatically detect and replicate any relevant movements.

In theory, this is a fantastic feature, and addresses the issue we had with the previous device that its supposed interactive video features weren’t actually all that interactive, thanks to a lack of 1:1 motions. In practice, however, we found that this feature was patchy at best, and frequently failed to accurately replicate even simple onscreen action, often speeding up as performers slowed down and vice versa.

While this is an improvement over the original Solace’s feature set, and Lovense says it’s continually improving the underlying technology, it’s still too patchy to reliably recommend. We also initially had trouble getting the syncing functionality to even activate – which was eventually solved by deleting our original Solace from the app.

The Solace Pro is compatible with a range of VR headsets for both virtual porn and porn games, and the gaming side has been expanded with almost 10 new titles now including some form of compatibility, bringing the number of supported games up to a more robust 35.

On the other hand, while the selection has increased, bear in mind that the same caveats that applied to the original Solace apply here – the games themselves aren’t exactly guaranteed to be particularly functional or expertly-designed, and the Lovense integrations can be a bit hit-and-miss.

Lovense Solace Pro review: Experience

We mentioned the importance of mounting the Solace Pro earlier, and that’s because the new design actually makes it quite awkward to use handheld, which was our preferred method with the Solace. Without getting too bogged down in the physics, the motor’s new location alongside the sleeve rather than behind it means that it’s much more difficult to keep balanced at speed if it’s not securely clamped down.

Even if you are using it with the desk mount, you’ll want to make sure you’ve got a sturdy setup, as the improved motor means you could inadvertently send your coffee flying if you’re not careful. Attaching it to our desk’s slide-out keyboard shelf, for example, almost caused it to come out of its bracket.

The Solace Pro is an evolution of Lovense’s previous design, but it’s not necessarily a refinement; instead, think of it as a slightly souped-up version of the Solace that trades convenience and usability for increased horsepower and a few more bells and whistles. Personally, we prefer the flexibility of the original Solace’s design, but the faster speed and deeper movement may be enough to sway others.

Thankfully, Lovense has very sensibly slashed the price of the Solace Pro – it’s currently discounted to ($199) £169 at time of writing, down from $398 (£338) – but with a price difference of less than (£15) between it and the original Solace, you can opt for whichever model has the most appealing feature-set for your individual needs, safe in the knowledge that you’re not missing out on any radical upgrades.

Solace Pro review: The verdict

It’s still a little more expensive than the ever-popular Kiiroo Titan, which many may prefer for the compact design (and mostly cheaper than the superior Keon). The interactivity features are still too patchy to carry a recommendation alone, but if you’re seeking maximum power, then the Solace Pro will deliver.