Oh! by Handy review: Disappointing vibes and… kinda weird

Back in 2020, Norwegian sextech start-up Ohdoki (formerly Sweet Tech) unveiled the Handy, an innovative and interactive “smart stroker” for people with penises. Following this product’s great reviews, it was no surprise that the company has followed it up with the release of a toy aimed primarily at vulva owners.

The result is the Oh!, a smart vibrator that transforms audio into tactile sensations and can sync with music, videos, or a partner’s device – but how does it measure up to the alternatives?

Design & Technology

The Oh by Handy is a smart vibrator that claims to “enable new sexual experiences through interactive technology.” It uses something called ResoTouch technology and an LRA motor to create vibrations through real-time audio signal processing. In plain English, this means that it “transforms sound waves into sensations.” Its frequency and intensity can be controlled separately, allowing you to customize the vibrations in whatever way works for you.

Similar to other sound-activation vibrators, the Oh can be synchronized with various audio and video players such as Spotify and YouTube, and will then vibrate along to the beat of the music. You can also sync the Oh with interactive content including VR porn for a truly immersive experience.

The best way to enjoy the Oh is to pair it with your smartphone via the free app, available on both Android and iOS, as well as a web version. This allows you to sync up your toy with your music or adult content, as well as creating your own frequency and vibrations patterns and handing control over to a partner via a link.

You can also sync up your toy with a partner’s toy to play together either in person or remotely, if you wish. I particularly appreciate that the Oh can be paired with either a Handy or with another Oh.

Many of the compatible sex toys assume a heterosexual, cisgender couple as standard. Since I’m gay, I find this pretty alienating. These pairing capabilities mean that no matter your and your partner’s gender or genital configuration, you can use these toys in a way that works for you.

The Oh is USB-C rechargeable via the included cable, with a full 90-minute charge giving up to 120 minutes of runtime depending on what settings you use. It is splashproof but not submersible, which is pretty disappointing in a toy at this price-point. The Oh is made of body-safe silicone with ABS plastic accents.

How it feels in use

Ultimately, the single biggest and most important thing I want from a vibrator are strong and rumbly vibrations. Sadly, the Oh fails to deliver in this regard. I do like that you can change the frequency of the vibrations (make them more buzzy or more rumbly) but unfortunately, even on the lowest (most rumbly) frequency, the experience is seriously lacking.

And, for some reason, on the lowest frequency setting it is impossible to get any significant level of power. The highest power setting feels like the lowest setting on many of the other toys I own, including some products which cost a quarter of the price of this one… or less.

There is absolutely no way this toy is ever going to get me off. I’m left choosing between kinda-rumbly vibrations that are so weak I can barely feel them, or mid-strength vibrations that are so buzzy my entire vulva feels numb within three minutes.

One of the Oh’s selling points is that it transmits minimal vibrations through the shaft, and therefore your hand doesn’t get uncomfortably vibrated during use. The problem is that this just isn’t really true. My hand vibrated just as much with the Oh as it does with any other handheld silicone vibrator. I don’t really mind about some level of hand vibration—it’s pretty inevitable with certain types of toys—but it’s not okay to use this as a selling point when it can’t really live up to these claims, in our testing.

User experience and interface

The user interface and overall user-friendliness has been a major downside for many of the high-tech sex toys I have tested. They are often fiddly and needlessly complicated.

I first looked at the Oh’s manual interface, that is, the buttons located on the toy itself that you can use without connecting to the app. These are pretty self-explanatory: there’s an on/off button, up and down buttons to change the intensity, and left and right buttons to change the frequency. The “action” button does nothing in this mode. The buttons are easy to press and the responsiveness is good.

Weirdly, this vibrator does not appear to have any inbuilt patterns. I’m not mad about it–who uses patterns anyway?–but it’s certainly unusual.

Next, I looked at the Oh’s connective and app-controlled functionalities. It took only a minute to connect to the Handy Onboarding app via Bluetooth, and the responsiveness and connectivity were great.

Once you’re in, you can select “remote control” to control the toy’s frequency and intensity via your phone, or use the unique code provided to hand over control to a partner. This is also where you can put the toy into “audio mode” and connect with your preferred music player, also via Bluetooth.

Here’s what I didn’t fully grasp until I tried it: the toy actually contains a speaker. This means that, unlike other sound-responsive toys that just pick up the beat and vibe along to it, music plays out of the toy itself.

This is just deeply weird. No-one needed a vibrator that is also a music speaker. I don’t want my vibrator to play music, I want it to give me an orgasm! I could forgive the bizarreness of the entire concept if it actually felt good. Despite the timing with the beat and rhythm of the music being genuinely impressive, the vibrations are still too weak to really do anything for me.

In case you’re wondering (and I know you are), of the songs on my playlist that I tested, those that got the best results with this toy were Hayley Kiyoko’s For The Girls, Girli’s Matriarchy, and Self Esteem’s Moody.

Overall, though? It’s a miss for me. Yet again, it’s too much gimmick and not enough substance.

Oh! by Handy review: The verdict

The Oh was so promising! I was really hoping for amazing things from this product, given its innovative tech and extensive features. However, it fails to meet the most basic requirement of a vibrator, in that its vibrations are far too weak and buzzy to ever give me an orgasm.

In addition, I just find the vibrator/speaker combo incredibly odd.

When I’m tossing the $179 vibrator aside and reaching for my trusty $30 bullet, something has gone wrong.