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AUTOSTRADDLE ANONYMOUS SEX TOY REVIEW #33:

It’s our 33rd Autostraddle Anonymous Sex Toy Review! Over the last few years, sex toy companies and stores have propositioned us, wondering if we’d like to review their toys in exchange for, you know, their toys.

This week, one of our anonymous reviewers looked at the Ammo Mei.

+ Materials: medical-grade silicone and ABS
+ Size: 8.6″ long, 1.7″ high, 1.6″ wide
+ Noise: < 65 decibles
+ Price: $120

The Ammo line is firmly part of the new generation of “luxury” vibrators that come with higher price tags and exchange the tacky neon plastic of the past for the classy neon silicone of the present.

The Ammo Mei vibrator has a white ABS handle and a body of medical-grade silicone with a silky, sleek finish — unlike other silicone toys, dust doesn’t seem to stick to the surface the second you set it on the bed for a minute, and lube lasts a little longer. For its size, it’s surprisingly light, which can be good if you want to take it with you and bad if you’ve come to associate weight with power in sex toys.

It has a USB charging cord with a few plug adapters on one end and magnetic charging ports on the other. It’s smooth and abstractly shaped, has a motor in a shorter end and a motor in the longer end, curves in a way that could allegedly hit your g-spot and has ten patterns, some that change in speed and some in intensity. It’s pretty quiet. It’s described alternatively as water proof and water resistant, which makes me hesitant to bring it into the shower (or immerse it to clean it) just in case.

If you hold the middle button for three seconds, it travel locks (or unlocks). Buttons on either side control the motors they’re closer to. They also glow, which makes them easier to see even with the lights on.

These things are great, and increasingly expected, but so far they’re nothing unique.

Used on its regular settings, the Ammo Mei has an admittedly vulva-fitting shape on one end and a nice, only slightly novel texture on the other. The vibrations are respectable, but not particularly powerful — and changing the settings during play is as awkward as ever.

But the Ammo Mei really stands out because of what Ammo Vibes calls skin sensor technology.

In this awesome new mode, rather than responding to intentional user feedback via listening when you push buttons, the toy responds to pressure and touch. If you squeeze it harder, it vibrates harder. If you drop it on the bed, it stops completely.

In addition to the fun you can have just playing with the settings, this mode feels absolutely amazing. You don’t have to play with the settings unless you want to and the vibrator will respond to you. You can use your muscles or fingers to control the vibrations, which in addition to feeling amazing works your kegels. It’s way easier to stay in the moment, and you don’t have to remember to do anything to increase the intensity right before you come.

The setting isn’t perfect, of course. I found it not quite as responsive to my muscles as I thought it’d be, and sometimes I had to grip it a specific way to keep it going. Still, it was far less distracting than tapping in patterns, waiting for them to work and going from there.

To get to the skin sensor setting, you hold down the top and bottom buttons for three seconds. This isn’t obvious from either the settings themselves or from the manual, which has a tiny strip of text that mentions the alternate setting below a page of vibration patterns. I also saw one review that didn’t even mention the skin sensor option, which makes me think the instructions need to be clearer.

The Mei and another of Ammo’s vibes, the rabbit-style Mika, are the only two toys to use the skin sensor (so far). After using the Mei, I’m very excited to see where Ammo takes its line. My number one feeling is wanting more.

Though it’s similar to other luxury vibrators, it really falls under the same umbrella category as the Stronic Eins, a dildo that thrusts rather than vibrates. These toys and others like them aim to be less intentionally user-directed. The Stronic Eins addresses the problem of needing to move your hands or body around a lot to emulate the feeling of someone else moving with or for you. The Ammo Mei addresses the problem of user interfaces that are awkward — and often counter-intuitive — to use during play. And gets one giant step closer to solving it.

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