Review: iGino One

The iGino one was a crowd funded toy, and has gathered a fair bit of interest in the sex toy community.

This is what the box looks like:

I am fairly late to the party with my ownership of this toy, so there are a fair few reviews out there already for this toy. SubReiSkyeM has done an excellent review of this product at her blog, Thoughts of a growing sub

 At a glance: 

I didn't really get on with this toy, despite my best efforts.  The vibrations were not right for me, my theory on this is that it is because they are high frequency.  The review mainly focuses on partner sex as this is what the toy is marketed for, although I have used it solo and include a little bit of information on that.  There's a few drawbacks of this toy through design choices as well which makes it feel like it should not be in the "luxury sex toy" category in which it is marketed.  In the review I compare it to my favorite partner sex toy, the Lovehoney mains powered wand

Main review is after the jump

Packaging

The packaging for the toy is sleek and minimalistic, and reminds me of a certain high end phone company's design in lots of ways.  From viewing the manufacturer's website it seems that this isn't too far off of the target audience.

Inside the box is the toy itself on the top, and European chargers ,US chargers, USB cord, a pack of soft feel accessories, carry case and a small instruction booklet.

Charging

This toy does not come pre charged.  This is unusual in the luxury toy category, as Lelo and several others have toys useable out of the box.  As there is no UK plug I had to attach the toy to my laptop, although I tried it in my Xbox and it charges just as well.

At the base of the toy is a swing out USB male attachment.  This is pretty short, but the box does include a female to male USB cord so it could be extended if it needed to be.  The USB plug is pretty solidly made and supports the weight of the toy when plugged into a charging device.

The USB Charger with the LED light above

I was slightly confused as to how to charge this toy, as although there is an LED indicator to show the toy is charging, it does not change colour when full, which is a little useless to me.  IGinio  recommended to me on twitter to charge it for 1 to 3 hours, which compared to other toys is quite a while.  This also means that to charge it you should ideally keep an eye on the time, which is frustrating.

Use

As I have mentioned this toy reminds me of a certain technology brands product due to the white colour and rounded edges.  The toy is small and fits into my hands pretty easily.  There is a detachable top which reveals a pink clitoral nub.  The entire toy is made of hard plastic, apart from a foam like part at the bottom of the nub.  There is an on/off switch on one side of the toy.

The toy is marketed as unique because of the side to side motion of the toy, combined with vibrations.  The company also claims that this is motions that women make when they masturbate.  For me that is not true, I do not masturbate with a side to side motion.

The toy reminds me of an electric toothbrush or shaver (with the blades removed) in that they both make side to side motions. The iGino is also about as loud as a battery operated shaver as well, which makes me wonder what kind of motor is in the toys casing.  It's fair to say that this toy is really loud.  The motor is only single speed, which for a toy such as this is not that good.

My first instinct in using the toy was to hold it sideways on so that the corners were in the palm of my hand like so: 

Holding the iGino one

This seemed to make the toy harder to use accurately.  It is worth noting that the included instruction booklet is very vague and does not give any ideas on how to use the toy to it's best advantage.

Initially I tried the toy without any of the included attachments on it.  To be honest, using it was uncomfortable and mildly painful. The toy was quite strong, but also has a high frequency of vibrations.  I use the Lovehoney magic wand regularly, so I know that strong vibrations can work for me.  I am unsure on the movement aspect of the toy but also wondered if it was the frequency of the vibrations that didn't really do it for me, as the wand is more of a "rumble" even on it's highest settings. 

I then tried the attachment that is shaped like a small flower.  The attachments are a foam like material that iGino claim feels like human skin.  It does not feel quite right to me but is somewhat close to human skin once some lubricant has been applied to it.  I would describe it as "good enough", which given the claims made is not that acceptable.  I would not want to use the attachment without lube as I would be worried that it would not be as smooth as it needs to be.  With the attachment  I got on better than with just the plastic.  It did diffuse the vibrations a little and took away the over sensitivity that I experienced but it was not that much of a turn on for me.  

With the flower attachment on the toy you cannot fit the lid onto it which is disappointing if you need the attachment and want to travel with it.  The attachments did come in a little plastic bag, and do fit into the velveteen carry case along with the toy, but I would have preferred it if the lid closed so the toy would be in a ready to use state at all times and it would reassure me that the toy is  as clean as possible.

The toy is aimed at partner sex, and the website is heavily geared up to promoting the toy to heterosexual couples.  I did try this toy during partner sex with S.  We tried this toy initially during foreplay with me using it on myself.  I also tried the toy on the tip and shaft of his penis, but the vibrations were too strong for him.  During doggy position I found it hard to get the toy into the right places, the square edges at the top near the nub tended to dig into my mons pubis, and I found it hard to balance and use the toy at the same time.  

We also tried this toy in the missionary position and found again that the edges dug into my skin.  Having to keep a hand between us to keep the toy in position also meant that the sex was less intimate.  The thrusting movement involved with penetrative sex meant that there was more pressure applied to my clitoris in a rhythmic speed.  The toy was ok in this situation and it was the best use I got out of it, however I quickly became over stimulated and had to stop the use of the toy.  Through this and the fact that the toy was sticking into us during sex I soon gave up on it and proceeded to use fingers for stimulation.

Moving on

This toy is so frustrating on many levels, especially when the potential of it can be seen so clearly. iGino could do better by making simple changes to the basic design.  The hard plastic can dig into flesh and can be a little uncomfortable.  There must be a way to make this more comfortable and user friendly in that sense.  The toy has internal batteries but more could be done in terms of charging time vs use time as usage time is a rather short 40 minuets.  The LED light at the base of the toy could also change colour to indicate a full charge, which would avoid some confusion.

There is no option over speed and strength, so getting this toy could prove a costly gamble if you don't like it.  It is very rare nowadays for toys to have just one speed, and in any updated model of this toy I would like to see multiple speeds, and if possible the option to have movement and vibration controlled separately.

For me, the main thing is that the marketing of this toy is off.  The website is shockingly bad and the current price of 99 Euros ( around £78) is too much for this toy.  The toy and the website seem to over reach in terms of Luxury.  There are plenty of companies that do luxury superbly well, such as Lelo and We - Vibe.  iGino would be better off going for the middle market and attempting to re develop their product and website to be more polished and nicer.

Conclusion

It's fair to say that this toy will probably be binned shortly, as I cannot seem to get the hang of it at all.  For me toys need to be easy to use and efficient.  The iGino one is neither of these to me.