Toy Review – The We-Vibe Touch

*The original Touch and Tango have been discontinued since the publishing of this post. Links have been updated to reflect the upgraded models, but the review contents apply to the original models*

If you’re looking at purchasing a clitoral vibrator from We-Vibe, like many readers before you, you will probably find yourself wondering “Touch, or Tango?” The reason being that they share the same motor, they’re both waterproof, they’re both very quiet, they’re both quite small – the only real difference is in the shape and material, but these do make a big difference.

When I was buying mine, I was pretty sure I wanted the Tango – as someone who lives for power, the hard plastic of the Tango seemed like it would deliver intense vibrations better than the silicone-coated Touch. I read a couple other bloggers’ reviews where they described the Tango as “too much”, and as a general rule if someone finds a vibrator to be too strong for them it’s probably alright for me, so the Tango is the route I took. We-Vibe was generous with me and decided to send me the Touch to talk about as well, so here we are.

Unfortunately my skepticism of the Touch’s ability to deliver the power I need to get off was well founded. I want to like the Touch because I think it’s a great little design, but it just doesn’t pack enough oomph for me to enjoy using it. Can I get an orgasm with it? Yes, but I have to try really hard, and I don’t like straining that much in order to cum. I think that’s pretty fair. In contrast I use my Tango almost every single night to help me sleep, or during the day to de-stress or focus. The tango is my go-to for quick and simple. I generally don’t reach for it during sex, because sex adds some distractions (good distractions, but distractions nonetheless) and complications of moving around too much and losing that “sweet spot,” and I usually try for more than one orgasm which the Tango isn’t strong enough to give me. With the Tango being just enough, the dampening of vibration from the silicone coating on the Touch makes it too weak, which is a shame because the silicone is nice.

I do like the shape a bit more than the Tango. The small size of the Tango is nice, I could carry it around in my pocket and no one would be the wiser for it, but I don’t lead a life that requires that much secrecy or every-day portability of my sex toys, so I’m willing to sacrifice the size and discreet design of the Tango for something a bit more comfortable to hold, like the Touch. I find they transmit vibration into my hand at about the same amount, since the silicone at the plug end of the Touch is just a thin coating of the mechanics inside. Neither toy rattles me too much but some people do find it bothersome.

The Touch fits in my hands beautifully and I actually quite like the subtle curve of the tip. I think my biggest issue with the vibration comes from the slightly squishy silicone tip of the Touch – which is something lots of other people absolutely love about the toy. Since I need all the power I can get, I find myself pushing the end of the Touch too hard into my body and despite it having a little bit of squish, it’s not that squishy, it still hurts when you jam it into your genitals. I don’t get any of the added benefit of the slightly squishy silicone that people who can just rest the tip on their clits and receive enough stimulation do. If it were more powerful and I didn’t have to push so hard I’d probably find it quite nice, but for me it’s no different than jamming a hard piece of plastic into me – you push hard enough and any material will hurt you. I get better vibrations through the sides and opposite end of the toy, and while I won’t sit here and tell you that you’re only supposed to or allowed to use your toys in one specific way, I’m not going to use this toy that way. It’s ultimately designed to be used with some part of the end opposite the plug on your clit and that doesn’t work for me, so I’ll say the whole toy doesn’t work for me. It’s sort of like ordering a cellphone on eBay and it being broken when it arrives – I’m not going to say “well it doesn’t really do it’s job as a phone…but it makes a great paper weight, so it’s not all bad!” If I wanted a paper weight I wouldn’t buy a cellphone. I want vibrators that work the direction they were designed to be used in, not ones that I have to finagle to maybe be sort of alright but not that great. So yes, now that I have it, I could find a way to make it work outside the norm, but that’s not the tone I wish to set for my reviews.

While both ends of the Tango and Touch operate with the same single-button design, I find my Touch a bit harder to press than the Tango. A few times while I was testing it,  I tried to push the button to switch to a new setting but hadn’t pressed it hard enough (and sat there going “this setting feels just like the last one…oh wait”) It may seem like a non-issue, you just press harder, but plenty of people with mobility issues in their hands still want sex toys, so easy to press buttons and switches are important. This is also an issue with turning the toy off, which you do by pressing and holding the button for a few seconds. It strains my fingers to press and hold that hard and I don’t have any issues with my hands – my arthritic mother would have a hell of a time (not that I’m asking my mom to turn my sex toys on and off.) The one thing I absolutely hate about both of these toys is the single button control. They come with 4 constant speeds and 4 patterns, which is fine except that you can’t switch backwards, you have to cycle all the way through to turn the toy “down.” I’m someone who really loves turning the intensity up and down a few times on my way to orgasm, but I will 100% “lose it” if I have to click the button 8 times to get to one setting lower than the one I was just on. I also hate just turning the toy off when my orgasm is over, I like to ease myself off slowly, allowing myself to fully savour that after-glow, but these types of switches don’t allow that. I usually need to be on the highest steady vibration to cum and then it’s weird patterns after that, and again, if I click the button a bunch trying to reach level 3, I’ve totally lost the enjoyment and might as well just turn it off. I certainly wouldnt ramp it back up to level 4 and go through all the patterns to reach level 2 and then again to reach level 1 and then turn it off. This is another reason I don’t use the Tango during partnered sex and only reach for it when I can’t get to sleep or can’t focus – orgasm and immediately turn it off isn’t fun, it’s utilitarian. I do understand that there simply isn’t room on these tiny toys for more than a single button, if you want tiny you have to make sacrifices somewhere and We-Vibe at least managed not to sacrifice power – I’ll give them that. It still bothers me though, and especially so in larger toys that DO have plenty of room for an up and down button but fail to use it. No matter who makes it, no matter how big or small, the single-button model and/or the forced to cycle through instead of backwards model will always upset me.

My final qualm with the Touch, and the Tango, and any other toy We-Vibe makes with this charging port…is the charging port.

I want to like the idea of magnetic chargers, but in reality they’re a pain in the ass. The charging cord comes bundled up, and if you’re like me and keep all your cords in a binder the cord will remain bundled up, so I’ll never have a perfectly flat and pliable cord for this thing. The magnets in the port are not strong enough to combat the twists the cord want to make, which means these things are always tilting just the tiniest bit and then coming disconnected. The Tango is especially a problem because the damn thing rolls off any flat surface you put it on. With the Touch I had to straighten the cord and turn the toy over a few times on my nightstand trying to get the magnets to stay connected, and god forbid you bump it accidentally. They’re just bad. Additionally, the magnet end isn’t connected to the cord, they’re two pieces that come apart. I can sort of understand that We-vibe didn’t want to design all different cords for all their toys, and this cord fits the charging docks for the 4Plus and Sync (and possibly other models in the “couples” line, but I don’t own any so don’t hold me to that) so I guess if I lose my 4plus cord I can use this one, but I can’t use my 4plus cord on the Touch or Tango without the magnet piece and since they come apart isn’t there a chance I lose the magnet piece? This also isn’t the cord they use for the Rave so they can and have branched out…just not here I guess. I don’t know, I hope we get away from this magnet idea in new designs.

I think the Touch is and can be an excellent tiny toy for a lot of people, but unfortunately it’s just not enough for me. If you’re a first-time toy buyer discerning which toy you’d like best is certainly tough, so I recommend trying to find a toy store near you where you can at least hold these toys in your hands to test how the vibrations feel. If this won’t be your first toy I’d suggest you think hard on what it is you liked and disliked about your previous toys and try to do a bit of comparison – my favourite vibrators are the Hitachi and Eroscillator, arguably two of the most powerful ones on the market, so I’ve usually got a pretty good idea of what kind of toy/shape of toy/function I’ll need and how strong I’ll need it to be to compare with those two. Almost everyone in my Blogroll has reviewed the Touch, Tango, or both so I recommend checking them out as well for different opinions.

Big thanks to We-Vibe for sending me the Touch to review!

We-Vibe Touch TL;dr