The Best Vibrators That Truly Live Up To All The Buzz

We're really feeling all the ~good vibes~.

There’s never been a better time to buy a vibrator. And we can say that definitively. From wider accessibility and improved technology to the influx of women-run sex-toy companies and the fact that our options nowadays go beyond sparkly phallic objects, the current state of self-pleasure, much like sexual preference itself, is diverse — and more importantly, it’s evolving.

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That said, finding an adult toy that works for you can feel like searching for a bullet vibrator in a mattress stack, especially if you’ve never stopped to think of spending time with yourself in such ways. To help guide you, we recruited nine testers, providing them each with an assortment of vibes to test for months on end. For the purpose of this review, we tested only toys targeted toward people with a vulva and a clitoris, taking into consideration factors like intensity range, comfort and material, battery life, noise level, aesthetics, ease of cleaning, and, most importantly, the ability to consistently make our testers pleased as punch.

But before you read on, an asterisk: Like with all things sex, nothing is universal. Body types are unique, sexual wants and needs shift constantly, and what works for one may not work for another. It can also be hard to gauge any given toy’s ability to satisfy your preferences without using it first. And then there’s the choice between external (or clitoral) and internal (aka insertable) vibrators, as well as those that are both. Because of this, more than perhaps any product we’ve ever tested at BuzzFeed Reviews, we can’t guarantee that each one of our picks will be the best for everyone.

We can, however, confidently say that our recommendations are the top of tops. Based on the feedback provided by our testers — the majority of whom said they prefer vibrators that offer clitoral stimulation over the insertable variety — below you’ll find the best vibrators at three different price points.

Shibari Mini Halo

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It is a rare and wondrous occurrence for a vibrator to garner over 1,500 positive reviews on Amazon — a place notorious for sketchy sellers and risky knockoffs. When we heard about the Shibari Mini Halo, we wanted to see for ourselves what all the, ahem, buzz was about. Turns out those reviews aren’t playing: This vibe, a sized-down version of the Shibari Halo, had our testers climaxing in record speed while its other features wowed us, particularly given its modest price tag.

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With 20 pulsation patterns and eight speeds, the Mini Halo is a versatile device that can readily be customized to suit one’s preferences. Despite its compact size, it still packs a powerful punch, and the smooth silicone wand features a textured base to provide a sturdy grip.

Speaking of silicone, you’d think all sex toys would be 100% safe to use with our bodies, but sadly that ain’t the case. Because there isn’t much legal regulation around the materials they’re made from, it’s important to note that the term “body-safe” can mean anything. As Lisa Finn, New York–based brand manager and sex educator at Babeland, tells us, shoppers should look for “nontoxic and nonporous materials that are produced in a way that makes it completely safe to use anywhere on the body, internally or externally.” That means skipping anything made from jelly rubber or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and looking instead for products made from high-grade silicone, stainless steel, glass, or ABS (a hard type of plastic).

Finn also notes that as far as lubes go, remember that “silicone lubricant can deteriorate even medical-grade or platinum-grade silicone. In order to make sure your silicone stays good as new, only use water-based lubricants.”

Now back to the Mini Halo: With three buttons — for power, pulsation, and speed — this is a user-friendly toy that won’t have you fumbling around figuring out how to switch between modes or turn it off. We found its battery life to be impressive, clocking in at just under two hours on a full 90-minute charge. This wand is also one of the few vibrators we tested that include a wall plug, not just a USB charging wire — a convenient feature surprisingly hard to come by, even with spendy toys. It also has a full one-year warranty, and Amazon customers have attested to responsive customer service and speedy replacements for faulty products.

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But its best quality? “Orgasm was achieved literally the fastest I’ve ever experienced in my life,” said one tester, echoing the sentiments of its loyal fan club. Keep in mind, the Mini Halo is a wand-style vibe, so if you’re sensitive to intense vibrations, there’s a chance you may find it a bit too strong.

If you fall into that camp, or you’re in the market for a more discreet toy that also won’t drain your bank account, we enjoyed the classic, battery-powered Tracey Cox Supersex Bullet Vibrator for its moderate intensity and its ability, as one of our testers put it, “to draw out a masturbation session, which resulted in a better orgasm.” While it features just one setting, it’s only 3.5 inches long and submersible in water, making it a versatile toy to travel with, handle, and store.

And since (let’s say it all once again, for the people in the back!) the ideal vibrator is so heavily dependent on personal preference, we’d be remiss not to shout out PlusOne, an affordable line of toys available at Walmart. Our testing group particularly loved the quiet, rabbit-style Dual Vibrating Massager, a solid option if you’re looking for an insertable toy, but not more than the Air Pulsing Arouser, which uses delicate air pressure to stimulate the clitoris, and, as one of our testers remarked, “mimics oral sex better than any other vibrator I’ve used.”

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As for the Mini Halo, like all wand-style vibes, it can be used to stimulate various body parts on all genders (it’s especially great for perineum stimulation), and, hey, you can actually use it for massaging, too. It’s also available via Amazon Prime, so if your current vibe just died and you need one, like, yesterday, this thing could be at your service in roughly 24 hours.

With all things budget, you, as they say, get what you pay for — and with the Shibari Mini Halo, that may mean a battery that craps out after a year or two, once the warranty has expired. But at under $30 a pop, we’d say that’s a pretty solid run, and we’re confident it’s one of the most crowd-pleasing, wallet-friendly options out there right now.

Get it from Amazon for $27.95.

Dame Pom

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The power that the Dame Pom packs despite its diminutive form more than justifies its $95 price tag — but there’s so much more we can say about what we love about this vibe. So here we go!

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To understand what the Pom is all about, all you need to do is hold it in your…well, palm. For an understated little toy, it’s designed to rest comfortably in your hand and thus it’s surprisingly intuitive to use. And because it’s so bendy and flexible, it offers a kind of tactile control that stiffer vibrators can only dream of giving. With a shape similar to a flattened pear, it features a sort of pointy “shelf,” or ridge, intended to provide targeted clitoral stimulation, but its broad base means you can use it to experience vibrations across the entire vulva.

As for material feel, the exterior is made with what might be the smoothest, silkiest medical-grade silicone your fingertips will ever grace, making it ideal for anyone with skin sensitivities. And while the material feels luxurious to the touch, we must say it’s also a magnet for lint, so you’ll want to make sure to clean it after every use (which of course you should be doing anyway).

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Also a huge plus: The Pom was the quietest vibe we tested at this price point — and perhaps even across all price points — so if hushed satisfaction is of the essence, you’ve got nothing to worry about. One of our testers likened its buzz to the “soft hum of a bumblebee.” But don’t let that delightful anecdote mislead you: The Pom provided enough power to please all of our testers.

With five vibration intensities and five patterns, ranging from “this is nice” to “holy shit,” the Pom consistently got all of our testers where they wanted to go; the most glowing review credited it for one tester’s ability to orgasm “in less than three minutes” every time it was used. It also gets points for a travel-friendly feature, in which it locks so it won’t accidentally go off in your bag and provide a TSA agent with a fun surprise before your flight. It has a decent battery life, at 90 minutes on a full charge, and comes with a three-year warranty.

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Coming in a very close second place was the Maude Vibe, also nontraditional in design and so lovely to look at it could double as a decorative midcentury-modern object. Though not as flexible as the Pom, this sturdy but soft silicone vibrator is shaped like an elongated teardrop, and can be used both internally and externally. While it features just three speeds (no patterns here, only steady vibrations), they each were varied enough and all seemed more than up to the task of producing multiple orgasms.

And that’s not really surprising: Consistent intensity, rather than breadth of patterns, is what the majority of (though of course, not all) people find necessary to get them over the edge. “Vibration patterns for most vulva owners do nothing,” says Megan Stubbs, EdD, board-certified sexologist. “It’s like when you’re experiencing oral sex and you’re so close and then your partner changes up. You just want to have that consistent, constant rhythm.” The Maude Vibe is water-resistant, but not fully submersible; charges via USB; is housed in a cute zippered canvas bag; and has a battery life of up to 90 minutes on the highest speed and up to 150 minutes on the lowest.

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Between Dame and Maude, and labels like Unbound, We-Vibe, and Crave, our midrange and splurgeworthy test groups largely consisted of toys with decidedly non-sex-toy designs. And while we can only feature a handful in this review, it’s worth exploring each company’s offerings. Even so, some standard forms won our testers over, like the Desire Luxury Rabbit Vibrator, which blew our testers’ minds, with one saying: “I came in ways I never imagined before. The dildo and appendage increase the variables of all the possibilities and positions to try.” This toy offers 12 speeds and eight patterns, will last for approximately an hour on a full two-hour charge, is fully waterproof, and also has a travel lock.

While our testers had conflicting opinions about suction-style clit stimulators, if this type of vibe is up your alley, we’d recommend the Satisfyer Pro 3, the newest model in the Satisfyer line, which features a whopping 110(!) combination options and a sleek design.

Get it from Dame, Amazon, or Free People for $95 (available in plum and jade).

Magic Wand Rechargeable

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Let us preface our love letter to our winner at this price point by reiterating that there are a ton of new sex-toy companies on the scene doing great things, designing vibrators that women want — not what men think women want — and there are so many worth checking out. But if you’re looking for sheer, unadulterated power, there’s the Magic Wand. Perhaps you’ve heard of the time-tested vibrator, and maybe you’ve also heard it described as “iconic” or “mind-blowing.” As we discovered while testing a myriad of higher-end vibrators, there’s good reason for that. If you’re a power queen and proud of it, you’ll want to read on.

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Quick history lesson: The Magic Wand, originally sold under the Hitachi brand name in the early ’70s, was first marketed as a body massager (you can certainly use today’s models that way as well, if you so desire). As people realized the power of this hunk of plastic to not only soothe their aching muscles but also provide a hell of an orgasm, it quickly rose to fame as the gold-standard vibrator to rule them all. In 2012, Hitachi dropped its name from the product, which is now distributed by a company called Vibratex.

Make no mistake: The modern Magic Wand, though certainly an upgrade from its earlier iterations, is not sleek. It’s weighty and measures over a foot long, and its aesthetic cannot be described as pretty or sexy. But this doesn’t matter! Because the Magic Wand is capable of doing things to your body that’ll make you look past all of that.

This is the vibe you bust out when you need to have an earth-shattering, full-body orgasm, and you need one fast. Like any longer wand, it’s great to use with a partner, and it’s such a powerhouse that “you can even just close your legs and let the residual vibrations make you come,” as one of our testers reported. This new model, most importantly, is cordless, because it’s not 1970. In comparison to the corded Magic Wand’s two-speed setting, the rechargeable version offers four, and it’s also got four pulsation patterns.

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And though it seems bulky, “it’s actually the long handle and broad head of this wand-style toy that make it so amazing,” says Lisa Finn from Babeland. “That large handle houses the famed motor that makes the Magic Wand able to pack such a powerful punch — and the reach that it allows makes it accessible to use with a partner, and to provide some extra length for the harder-to-reach spots of the body during solo play. The broad silicone head offers more surface area for vibration to really coat the body instead of being super pinpoint and direct, allowing users to feel those sensations deep throughout the body.”

Additionally, as Finn explains, “the original has a TPR (a body-safe, yet slightly porous material) head, and the rechargeable has a nonporous silicone head.” That means this newer version is easier to clean and generally feels better against your most sensitive areas.

And the attachments! Oh, the attachments. From penis stimulation to a triple stimulator (clitoral, G-spot, and anal) to a perineum and prostate attachment to a harness that keeps the toy in place, there are seemingly endless opportunities to use the Magic Wand in various pleasurable permutations. It also has a remarkable three-hour battery life on a full charge, but note that after 20 minutes of continuous use, its auto-shutoff feature will go into effect.

One con (which, dependent on your preferences, may not be a deal breaker at all) is that the Magic Wand Rechargeable isn’t waterproof or splash-proof. If you’re looking for a top-dollar toy that is, and one that’s totable and elegant to boot, the Crave Duet makes for a worthy investment. The Crave is designed with tips that essentially hug your clitoris, with dual motors as well as different beveled edges that make it narrower on one side than the other, for different sensations. The body detaches to charge directly in a USB port and runs for 40 to 120 minutes on a 1.5-hour charge life. It features four patterns, four power modes, and a “turbo” setting, and our testers were impressed by its quiet motor and ability to build up to an intense orgasm. As one put it: “This thing is small but mighty. I love its unique shape and it allowed me to ~explore~ with it in other ways that, say, you can’t with something in a similar shape.” Its sophisticated leather case is a nice touch, and it offers an engravable option — good to know if you’re gifting this to a lucky recipient.

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Then there’s the Le Wand line, a worthy wand-style competitor that is splash-proof (but not fully submersible) and also comes in a petite version that many of our testers enjoyed, when compared to the Magic Wand, for its lighter-weight design and range of speeds (10!). Two of our testers called the Le Wand Petite “the most beautiful thing [they’ve] ever seen,” and though the full-size version is a bit pricer than the Magic Wand Rechargeable, if you’re seeking a high-end wand vibrator with some softer vibrations thrown in the mix, this could be the one for you.

We also appreciated the softly contoured, incredibly silky silicone Lelo Sona Cruise, which uses sonic waves (fancy!) for clitoral stimulation of the highest caliber without direct contact — similar in function to the Satisfyer line or the (unfortunately monikered) Womanizer. The “cruise” part of the toy’s name is a nod to what Lelo calls its “cruise control” feature: When pressed hard against the body, the Sona Cruise automatically increases intensity. Also? It’s just really pretty. “This thing RULES,” as one of our testers put it succinctly. “I thought Satisfyer was it for me for this style of vibe, but whoa, this is way better. The quality of the air movement just feels better, and I like the design of the opening more.”

That said, if you’re ready to drop three figures on a vibrator that might make you feel things you’ve never felt before, we think the Magic Wand Rechargeable is the most versatile and effective choice for pleasuring the most diverse group of people and preferences. Indeed, it truly is something magical.

Get it from Babeland for $124.95 or Lovehoney for $149.99.