The New We-Vibe Thrill – A solo version of the We-Vibe

I’mma be upfront and honest with you right now.

I’m not thrilled.

Yeah I know, that was cheesy. Actually, I’m disappointed, pissed off and feeling like I wasted my money.

The We-Vibe thrill’s shape is very reminiscent of the original couple’s vibrator version, but with one major design change: an odd plastic housing over the clitoral stimulator and a “control handle”. This vibrator is not at all meant to be used during sex and so the g-spot stimulator is more pronounced that the original We-Vibe and of course on the whole the Thrill is much bigger than the We-Vibe. 

I purchased the Thrill on my own for one reason: I’d read that the vibrations were very comparable to my darling favorites, the We-Vibe Salsa/Tango. I now have to wonder if that person even owned a Salsa or Tango because having that in mind when trying out the Thrill leads to one giant disappointment. The Salsa/Tango is, hands down, my favorite vibrator. If you held a gun to my head and made me pick only one vibrator to ever have, that would be it. In fact, I’ve only used something else on the off chances I’ve forgotten to charge up all 3 of mine. Yes, 3. I have my original Tango and Salsa plus one that I won during MomentumCon. And you’ll pry them from my cold, dead hands thankyouverymuch.

I would recommend the Salsa and/or Tango to anybody, heartily and with no reservations. On the reverse side though I will tell you to stay away from the Thrill. At $170, it is overpriced and underwhelming. The design seems to be a little similar to the Rock Chick, but with a much better vibrator motor. In fact, the Rock Chick would probably benefit from an upgrade to the Salsa vibe in place of its removable, watch-battery wimpy bullet. At least the Rock Chick had hopes of applying some pressure to my g-spot. The Thrill has no chance of that. The internal portion and the connecting arm are just like the We-Vibe – flexible and therefore applying no pressure. The vibrations are definitely pretty rumbly, which is always a good thing, but it’s just not enough to matter.

Let’s talk about the clitoral portion, because for as disappointing and fail as the g-spot portion is…..the clitoral stimulator is abysmal. Utterly freaking worthless, unless you would consider yourself on the more sensitive scale, requiring more movement/pressure than vibration. But for someone who has an unholy love for the We-Vibe Salsa….the We-Vibe Thrill needs to die in a fire. They made the clitoral portion hard plastic. The fact that the Salsa/Tango is hard plastic was a good thing, because the We-Vibe Touch has the exact same motor but is encased in typical We-Vibe silicone- making it easier to hold, but dampening the vibrations. Yet the Thrill goes in the opposite direction. The vibrations are actually severely dampened on the hard plastic portion – I would estimate that the vibrations on the silicone portion are 2 or 3 times more powerful than the vibrations on the plastic portion. The “control handle” is silicone and it vibrates more than the part that touches your clit. WHERE IS THE SENSE IN THIS? DID THEY TEST THIS? The demarcation line between the silicone and plastic is irritating, as well, and makes it as hard to clean as that damn Lelo Insignia vibrator I hated.

The singular control button is identical to the Touch and Salsa/Tango, as is the charging method: The button is in the middle of two tiny metal dots; you press it for 4 different power levels and then 4 different pattern settings. Press and hold to turn it off or on. However….this button is located at the tip which means it ends up buried in the apex of my labia. This makes the thing very damn difficult to control during use. If they added a handle, why not put the button up there on the handle??

The charger connects magnetically, but the magnetic connection is not very strong. It topples off so very easily, but I find that this is the case with any charging connection that is magnetic. As I was taking photos, I could barely get the thing to stay on if the cable was hanging down. Here’s another kicker for you – it charges via USB. Awesome, right? I suppose. I just don’t like for that to be my only charging option. Luckily since I already own the Salsa & Tango, I was just using that charger since it still fits and works the same. We-Vibe’s official statement on the USB-only matter is that in the interest of “conservation” they did not include a USB power adapter, since those things are so widely available elsewhere, which is fine I suppose but given the high price of the thing I would expect that to be included. But my charger for the Salsa is always plugged in and sitting ready and waiting – I wasn’t about to take up what precious little desk real estate is left just to make sure this thing was fully charged before I made my final decree of it being utter crap. We-Vibe also has this bad habit of giving you your charger in pieces. The “dock” that actually connects to the toy can separate from the cord. With the Touch/Salsa/Tango, a headset-style jack plugs into the tiny, weird-shaped white dome. With the Thrill, the “dock” is a teeny little black piece that merely plugs into a USB-to-mini-USB cable. This could mean that with the same cable, you could then start charging your phone or something but then you would have to remove the teeny black piece and if you’re anything like me, it’ll get lost. We-Vibe says that the Thrill will charge fully in 90 minutes and give you 2 hours of play time.

Yes, they give you a pouch to hold everything but it has not changed from the Salsa/Touch/Tango line – it is a very cheap faux-satin material that feels crinkly and weird. The box that it all comes in is actually quite nice – very sturdy and definitely usable for storage, the lid clicks closed magnetically. Ironically, it’s a stronger magnetic bond that the charger base is to the toy. If I cared about being discrete I could simply put a sticker over the logo on the front of the red box and that would render it completely incognito to first glance. The interior portions that hold the vibe in place for pretty presentation remove easily and are not glued in.

The Thrill comes in only one color option thus far – an admittedly pretty, dark fuchsia/ruby pink. The Thrill is 100% waterproof which is good because it’s not easy to clean and it will need cleaning often – it uses the typical We-Vibe silicone which is shiny and grabby. You can see below that after only a few minutes of taking photos, it accumulated a bunch of hair, fur and dust. You’ll want to rinse it off before you use it (which is never a plus in my book, I like spontaneity with my toys).

Honestly I’m not sure where I stand anymore with We-Vibe on the whole. The fact that they made the Salsa/Tango unlike any other rechargeable vibrator and that it could very well serve as my only clitoral vibrator needed, ever, tends to hold a LOT of weight. The fact that they kept making improvements to their original namesake also holds some weight. While it’s still a hetero-couple’s vibe and isn’t perfect, they did make very necessary and worthy changes. The Touch has merits and is great for those who don’t need the big oomph of the Salsa/Tango and need something easier to hold. It’s not my cup of tea, but it’s still nice. But the Thrill? It really just pisses me off. Experienced sex toy owners know if a toy will work for them in the first minute they hold it in their hands. It took me less than a minute to know that the Thrill was going to bore me. The nice packaging, the silicone, the recharge factor…none of that matters. None of it. The design is a complete and utter fail. If they had just made the entire thing silicone it would be better – the massive amount of silicone would still dampen the vibrations from the strong motor (I’m going to assume here that the motor is the same as the Touch/Salsa/Tango because that is what makes sense, and I do detect the same rumbly factor), but it wouldn’t kill it completely like the bizarre plastic portion does.

I think I’d recommend something like the Lelo Ina 2 over this is you’re looking for a nicer, rechargeable, part-silicone vibrator. Totally different shape and style yet still a dual-stimulator. There really is very little on the market that is similar to the Thrill – most dual stimulator vibrators are of the “rabbit” style, with a long control handle rather than being C-shaped. Other than the much-larger Rock-Chick/G-Rock there is the “Snugglepuss” by Vibratex, which has been around for longer than I’ve been reviewing, yet it’s pretty weak.