Well, well, well… what do we have here? Lelo Sona, you have genuinely surprised me. I hated you so much the first several times I used you… but then you snuck up on me and all of a sudden… BOOM… heeeey… you are actually pretty amazing! I guess it’s just proof that if at first you don’t succeed, masturbate again and again… (and again and again and again…).
So, Lelo has (wisely) decided to tap into the wildly successful touch free orgasm market. A market that up until now has been pretty much dominated by the Womanizer and Satisfyer brands… but instead of just looking at the pioneer of the market (the Womanizer) and saying “Oh, yeah! Hey, that’s great, I’ll make one just like that!” *cough* Satisfyer *cough* Lele has managed to put their own spin on the whole idea.
When I agreed to review the Lelo Sona I had it in my head it was just going to be another Womanizer knock off. I really didn’t know much about the toy when Peepshow Toys offered it to me, but judging from it’s shape and some vague comments I had read on Twitter, I was really expecting just more of the same basic “touch free orgasm” stuff. Don’t get me wrong, I love both my Womanizers and Satisfyers… it’s just that I don’t think I have much left in me to say on the topic… after seven reviews, what more is there I can possible say about that style of toy?! THANKFULLY the Lelo Sona seems to be a horse of a different color, sure it’s got it’s similarities, but over all… it is different enough that I don’t feel like I’m using just another suction based toy.
How the Sona differs from existing touchless orgasm products is that it utilizes ‘sonic waves’ to produce what I can best describe as an odd tapping and massaging sensation, as opposed to the sucking sensation that is created by the Womanizer or Satisfyer. Using its sonic waves and pulses the Lelo Sona manages to stimulate the entire clit (and I mean the ENTIRE clit, not just the external part, but the internal bit as well). So, while a traditional vibrator typically stimulates only the glans of the clitoris (the external bit of the clit that can be seen) the Lelo claims that the Sona can stimulate up to 75% more of the clitoris than a traditional vibrator. It claims to use its sonic waves and pulses to resonate deep down into the internal struction of the clitoris. So, while the suction based toys like the Womanizer and Satisfyer use air to pull (suck) the clit, the Lelo Sona likens its sensations to that feeling you get when standing in front of a huge speaker at a rock concert. While I have no scientific means in which to measure that claim… I can tell you that after using the Sona for a few weeks now, I am kind of inclined to believe them.
I feel like there is one thing that Lelo seems to know how to do and do well…and that is package their toys. I love the sleek black box design of the Lelo Sona (so pretty, it’s ideal for gift giving). Nestled in its little foam nest the Sona looks like a very elegant kidney with its shiny gold accent plate and sleek silicone design. Unlike the Womanizer and Satisfyers that have a habit of looking gaudy or vaguely medical, the Sona is almost lovely. I say almost… because at some angles the Sona looks like something that you would find wedged into an anatomical dummy or something. It might be the kind of sickly bubble-gum pink color of it… it makes it look organ-esque. But… if you can over look that, it’s a lovely toy. I think it looks much lovelier in its other colors, especially the black.
The majority of the Sona’s body is made up of a seamless silicone that is quite soft to the touch. The gold plate on the back is made up of a reflective (do you know how hard it was to take a photo without my goofy face reflected back at me?!) ABS plastic. The Sona is a fairly small (practically palm sized) toy that is also quite lightweight, comfortable to hold and easy to maneuver. Ergonomically speaking, I love the Sona’s kidney shaped design. With some of my external vibrators (and some of the Satisfyer models) my wrist gets cramped trying to hold it in a way that is both comfortable and effective and forget about being able to use the buttons… a lot of times I will have to completely pull a toy away just to switch settings because the buttons are so poorly placed. But with the Sona, everything is set up pretty perfectly for my grip.
The Lelo Sona features three buttons, all of which are quite simple to navigate. To turn the Sona on, hold down the (+) button until the toy whirrs to life, continuing to press this button will increase the intensity levels of the Sona. To adjust the intensity of the Sona back down to a lower level, just press and hold down the (-) button, continuing to press this button will eventually switch the Sona off. These buttons operate a little differently than I was expecting, instead of pressing the button once to adjust, you actually have to push and hold the buttons in order to bump the intensity up or down. When I was first testing out the Sona I was getting frustrated that I couldn’t seem to change the intensity and I just kept repeatedly mashing at the buttons (which incidentally is the same way I play Mortal Kombat)… then just by a happy accident I held down the (+) button and the intensity shot up (hey, no one ever said I was the sharpest tool in the shed). Now, the third button, which looks like a pair of parentheses in between the the (+) and (-) buttons, controls the Sona’s pattern feature. To use this button you just press it, no holding down necessary. The Lelo Sona contains 8 different patterns, normally I totally ignore patterns, I’m not a pattern girl… but I actually really enjoyed what the Sona had to offer. I think part of why I liked them so much is that because I found this toy to be SO intense at time, the brief pauses built into the patterns gave my clit just a nanosecond of recovery time and kept me from getting super overwhelmed by it.
As excited as I am about the Lelo Sona now, it wasn’t actually love at first sight. As I said earlier, the first few times I used the Sona I really hated it. I thought that the vibrations… I mean “sonic waves” were uncomfortable, they tickled, they felt weird, and I just wasn’t in to it. You know how if you masturbate with a dry clit and it starts to feel raw and overwhelmed (or is this just me)? That is how the Sona was making me feel, everything was just uncomfortably intense and not pleasurable at all. I was really kind of disheartened at first, I was hoping to enjoy the Sona… it looked like something I should enjoy, but I just wasn’t, so I set it aside for awhile. As time passed, more and more reviews of the Lelo Sona trickled in and it seemed like other bloggers were really enjoying to Sona, so I thought… “well, I can’t avoid my review forever, I’ll give it another go and start writing.” From what I gather, the Sona is designed to be used by kind of just hovering it over your clit without applying any actual pressure… while I can see this working out just fine for some people, it just tickled and irritated me more than anything else. I neeeeeeed pressure! So… I gave up using the Sona in the way it was meant to be used and just smashed that puppy down against my clit. Boy, what a difference that made! The pressure felt amazing! Suddenly the Lelo Sona’s sonic waves started to feel good, I could actually feel the stimulation reaching deeper than I was expecting (definitely much deeper than I feel with most of my other vibrators) and I started to enjoy this toy… in fact… I started to love this toy! Hooray! I swear, even when on its lowest setting the Lelo Sona provides an incredibly intense experience, especially when placed directly on the clit. Often I end up placing the Sona’s nozzle either above or to the side of my clit, because the direct hit is more than I can handle.
What is a little perplexing to me is that even though this toy seems incredibly intense, it also takes me a long time to reach an orgasm with it. With a Satisfyer or Womanizer I can reach zero to orgasm in seconds, but with the Sona it seems to be a very slow build. The Sona is running a marathon, not a sprint. Even though the build up to orgasm is slow (which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but sometimes I’m impatient) there is nothing slow about the orgasm itself! The orgasms the Sona delivers are deep and toe-clinchingly strong. I am really glad I picked the Sona back up to give it another try. Once I was able to work out the best way for me to use the Sona, the orgasms have not disappointed!
As awesome as the Lelo Sona has been, I did have one small issue (besides its sick bubble-gum kidney aesthetic)… when I press the Sona down too hard, it will occasionally start to lose power… kind of like if the motor was getting gummed up somehow. I did a little bit of research on this issue and found that Lelo introduced the Sona Cruise to combat this issue, when it detects the toy slowing down it kicks up the power to counteract the slow down… but that toy is more expensive, and honestly, the Sona doesn’t really slow down on me all that frequently, so I’m not sure the Cruise is worth the extra money.
The Lelo Sona is rechargeable. It arrives with a USB cable that you can plug into either your computer or a compatible wall plugger-doodle (that’s the official term, right?). The cable plugs right in to the bottom of the Sona and takes roughly about two hours to charge it up to full. That two hours of charge time should equal out to about an hour or so of play time. I have been using mine mostly at lower intensity levels and have managed to eke out about an hour and a half out of it before needing to recharge, so time may vary depending on which intensity levels you run it at.
So, the million dollar question is… do I recommend the Lelo Sona? This is a tricky one! I want to recommend it, but it was kind of a finicky toy for me to master and it did not feel utterly amazing right away. I don’t want to say “OMG GET THIS, GET THIS NOW!” and then have you be disappointed because you can’t make it work for yourself. It does feel pretty amazing, but if you have a sensitive clit, I could see the Lelo Sona being uncomfortable to use. Because of its added patterns, the Sona does seem like a more versatile toy than the Womanizer or Satisfyer… I know, I know… it’s a different style of toy than either of those, so its silly to keep comparing them… but at the same time, the Sona does feel pretty similar to those suction based toys so it is hard for me not to make comparisons. Even though the orgasms its given me do feel deeper, if I were blind folded and told to tell the toys apart on sensation alone, I’m not sure I could tell the difference (although eventually, to slow build orgasm style would give it away). Also, aesthetically, my pale pink Sona really looks like something I pulled out of a dissected pig in high school biology… Normally I am a fan of pink… but this shade just isn’t doing it for me. Thankfully though the Sona is available in both black and cerise (which is a much deeper, more attractive shade of pink). The price of the Lelo Sona is pretty attractive, it is much more affordable than the Womanizer and about on par with what you would pay for a Satisfyer, I’m always impressed when I find a great toy for under $100! Overall, I think the Sona is a solid toy and will likely be worth the price you pay for it, and if it doesn’t work… well… repurpose it for a biology project… it can double as a model of the kidney!
Itching to give the Lelo Sona a try? My peeps at Peepshow Toys can set you up! Be sure to use the code KITTEN for an extra 10% off your order!
