Review of The Handy

The Handy by Ohdoki was on my shortlist when I was looking for my first sextoy in June 2022. Several of them claimed to be the best on the market. I had trouble finding reviews, especially in French. Too many superlatives, too many glowing promises…

That’s how I came to choose Kiiroo‘s Keon. Not least because my desire for an interactive sextoy with videos was born via PornHub, which only offered interaction via FeelConnect. In the end, there are many sites that allow you to connect to The Handy and my choice might have been different if I’d had these sources.

At XBiz Amsterdam, I had the opportunity to meet a developer and an Account Manager from Ohdoki. So I introduced myself to them, explaining that I review sex toys on my blog. Once we got back to our respective countries, we got back in touch to see how we could work together.

So they sent me a copy of The Handy, free of charge. That’s what I’m going to tell you about in this review. They also sent me two other sleeves, Pearl and Coral, as well as their system for attaching it to a desk. However, I’ll be reviewing these separately.

In any case, I would like to remind you that even though I received these products free of charge, my work remains impartial. My reviews are meant to be honest and are my own responsibility.

The Handy is a penis masturbator that moves on a vertical axis to reproduce penetration movements up to 10 times in a single second.

The first prototype dates back to 2017, but it took another two years before the first version of this penis sextoy was marketed. Since May 2022, version 1.1 has been released, with a number of minor improvements.

It comes with a sleeve by default. It’s translucent and has different textures, which we’ll describe in more detail later. The mechanism used to hold the sleeve is a Velcro strip that tightens around the sleeve. And it certainly holds their sleeves… But there’s nothing to stop The Handy being used with other manual masturbators.

Unlike many of its competitors on the market, The Handy has also set itself apart by offering WiFi connectivity instead of Bluetooth, and by not requiring a battery to power it.

At the end of September, after the Xbiz Amsterdam and TES events, I got in touch with Ohdoki again.

On 26 September, the order was placed.

It contained the following items:

• The Handy Massager
• The Handy Mermaid Sleeve Collection – Pearl EU/UK
• The Handy Mermaid Sleeve Collection – Coral EU/UK
• The Handy Handsfree Cup
• Handsfree Kit EU

Delivery was handled by GLS and by 2 October I had a lovely parcel in my letterbox. Well, I say pretty… It was a perfectly ordinary parcel, with nothing on it like “CAUTION! A SEXTOY IS INSIDE”. And that’s what you want when you buy a sextoy.

This review will not cover the two sleeves, Perle and Corail, or the hands-free kit. I’ll do a separate review.

First of all, I like it when products are well packaged. First impressions are often important, and they can make or break a product.

In this case, I can’t complain; I was in a rather good mood to discover how they had prepared the discovery of The Handy.

The Handy‘s packaging is sober. A simple logo in a black cardboard box.

This side is much more interesting in terms of information. It says that The Handy is an automatic masturbator created in Norway and offers an experience where you can take control or let it do its thing.

The information is provided in English, Spanish, German and French.

The contents of this boxed set are detailed. You’ll find The Handy, a generic sleeve, a scratch strip, a mains adapter and a quick start guide.

Then, in the red section, you learn that an online service (handyfeeling) lets you control The Handy and synchronise it with adult content.

At the very end, a small piece of information makes me wonder where the product was made: “Made in PRC’. This is an acronym for ‘People’s Republic of China’, so in fact it just means ‘Made in China’ without actually saying it.

The main features of The Handy are then detailed, again in the same four languages, but with priority given to English.

The following information is given:

• The Handy has a powerful motor that allows up to 10 movements per second, and doesn’t require recharging – just plugging it into the mains.
• Movement length is adjustable from 0 to 11cm.
• The sleeves come in one size only and should, on the face of it, suit everyone (their words).
• Synchronisation with 2D, 3D and VR videos so you can feel what’s happening in the video
• Remote control by a partner
• Works in offline or online mode.

Finally a visual of The Handy, but it’s not full size. The real one is bigger. It’s a kind of cylinder made of ABS and flexible plastic. There’s a power button, a directional cross, another button that should be used to change modes, and a power indicator light.

In the top left-hand corner, there’s a mention of dual connectivity (Bluetooth/wifi). After that, Bluetooth is mainly used to connect to Wi-Fi.

A box within a box. No additional information to be gleaned here, all that remains is to remove the lid and discover the contents of the box.

The one, the only, The Handy. It wouldn’t stand up on its own on this stand, which is why I had to hold it in place. But the base is flat and, under normal circumstances, it stands up well. Under the base you’ll find information about where The Handy comes from, where it was made, the model and its power requirements. In fact, the power socket is on the left-hand side.

It measures around 23 cm high and 7 cm in diameter. The Handy weighs just over 579 grams, according to Ohdoki. It is made of ABS, a good quality plastic that can last a long time.

All in all, it gives a feeling of solidity, quality and thoughtfulness around its design. I like that.

Generally speaking, I find it easy to handle, just like the Syncbot. But not like Lulu or Keon, which require two hands to hold it in place.

At the back there’s a slide that doesn’t go all the way to the bottom. It holds a loop for attaching the Velcro strap that holds the sleeve in place.

The sleeve is stored… in the plastic bag it comes in. Now that’s not great. Especially as the manual talks about storing the sleeve in its box, but there isn’t one.

As you can see, it’s in two parts. The section between The Handy and the power supply is 1.50m long, and then 99cm from the power supply to the wall socket. In all, there’s just under 2.50m of cable.

That’s enough to plug in at the computer’s power strip, go around the desk and back to the front, no worries.

The accepted current is 100-240V for a frequency of 50Hz and 60Hz.

Although English is indicated, the manual is also in German, French and Spanish, as are the languages on the box.

I’ve always had trouble finding a French translation for ‘thrust/stroke’ in English. Ohdoki chose the French term caresse.

It explains that the directional cross can be used to increase or decrease the ‘length’ of these strokes for the up and down buttons. The left and right buttons are used to decrease and increase the speed of these strokes respectively.

The LED indicates disconnected mode, which is green by default, connected mode, which is magenta, and Bluetooth mode, which is blue.

Then there are six images showing how to set up The Handy‘s disconnected mode to start your session. It simply omits the part where it should say to apply lubricant.

The connected mode is then indicated and they advise you to install the Handyverse application.

This is followed by maintenance instructions, warnings (including not to use The Handy without lubricant) and warranty conditions.

This is the default sleeve sold with The Handy. This means you can use it straight away.

There’s a small piece of foam inside to prevent it from collapsing in on itself.

On contact, it’s quite sticky and I can see a lot of strange veins. It’s the first time I’ve seen transparent TPE with these ribs. It doesn’t affect the feel of the sleeve in any way, but it’s not present in the photos on the site. Is this a manufacturing defect?

The full review of the Original TrueGrip is here.

The Handy itself needs little cleaning. You will need to remove any fluids (particularly lubricant) that may have settled on it. To do this, use a cloth dampened with a little soap, wipe everything off and then dry properly.

Please note that The Handy is not water-resistant! Do not clean it in a washbasin or use it in the shower! And preferably clean it only after it has been switched off.

The sleeves are made of TPE, which means they are porous. I strongly advise you to wash them quickly after use. The aim is to remove any fluids that might enter the micropores in the material. You don’t want mould to develop in them, which is responsible for bad smells. Well, bad smells… at best, stains that won’t come off, but worse… All of which is synonymous with bacteria that can make you ill.

Wash and dry your girdles carefully. For storage, Ohdoki recommends putting them back in their case. The only problem is that the original sleeve, the Original True Grip, doesn’t have one and has to make do with a plastic bag. Clearly, this was a disappointment for me.

For washing, they recommend turning the sleeve inside out, which gives you access to all the textures so you can clean them properly. I recommend using soap and lukewarm water.

Clearly, the fact that the sleeve is reversible for washing is a big plus.

To dry, a lint-free cloth will do, and you can also use a diatomite stick, which works really well! (Or in this case, I place three in the sleeve).

The Handy‘s sleeves are made of TPE, as mentioned earlier. This means that you should only use water-based lubricants. If you use a silicone-based lubricant, it will gradually destroy your sleeve.

Before you can use your Handy properly, we recommend you update its firmware. To do this, you need to connect your Handy to the local network.

Unfortunately, I had a few problems updating the firmware. This enabled me to contact customer service, who got back to me within 30 hours. There must have been a problem on their network at the time because when I tried the firmware update again, without doing anything else, it went through without a hitch.

Whether you’re using your phone or the internet, the steps are the same. You need to install the application or go to the website. For the application, enter the fact that you are a new user.
For the website, go to the “Configure Handy” section.

From there, you just need to carry out a few simple actions.

• Connect The Handy to its power source
• Wait until the LED is a steady green
• Press the wifi button until the LED turns blue
• Select wifi from the list of available networks and enter the password

During the installation process, you will be given a key. Write it down carefully, as it will enable you to connect The Handy to any online service. Whether it’s for video synchronisation, using a script or giving control to a third party.

At the lowest speed, with the default depth of movement, The Handy displays an average of 50 decibels.

At the highest speed, but with the greatest depth of movement, the average is 68 decibels.

The noisiest part is when you set the maximum speed with the shortest depth of movement, where the average rises to 72 decibels.

At maximum, The Handy generates 74 decibels.

Compared with official scales, this is the noise generated by a noisy classroom, a hoover, a lawnmower or a blower. That seems an excessive comparison to me… Perhaps my device for detecting noise is slightly excessive.

However, it displays the ambient noise in my office at 40 decibels, which corresponds well to a “quiet office or flat”, so I don’t think there’s any problem with the measurement.

Clearly, if you have your flatmate in the room right next to you, I’m sure he’ll hear you on the fastest speeds.

I did the test in an adjoining room as well as behind a closed door, it’s audible. Other sextoy reviewers have written that for them it was rather quiet, so I don’t understand. But to each his own.

After that, if you don’t go all out, you can enjoy yourself without discovering it. What’s more, the mechanical noise can be covered by a bit of music in headphones or earphones.

Manual mode

In manual mode, The Handy must be plugged in and then you can press the ON/OFF button to switch to this mode. The green LED indicates that OFFLINE mode is activated.

From here, we recommend that you lubricate the sleeve and then lower it as far as possible onto your limb. Then, simply loosen the grip band, place the sleeve between, and tighten (but not too much).

Are The Handy‘s controls facing you? Then you’re ready to go.

Simply press the up and down buttons to control the depth of the strokes. Press the left and right buttons to control the speed between strokes.

Simple and effective, you’re in control of your destiny.

More interesting in my opinion. The Handy can be connected to a number of services.

It’s extremely easy to do.

When you set up your Handy, you were given a key. In my case, it was TAseST66 (I changed it). With this simple key, all you have to do is enter it on any of these sites and you have control of The Handy by pressing a button to connect. It’s as simple as that.

I didn’t try too hard to understand how it worked behind the scenes, so maybe I’ll go into more detail another time.

In any case, there’s one thing to be said for the connected mode… You can choose a lot of stuff like where you want to act on the penis.

Or if you want to stimulate only the base, only the glans, the base plus part of the penis, the glans and part of the penis, the whole penis… You choose the start and end of the strokes yourself using sliders.

That’s if you use a tool to control it manually. If you let The Handy be controlled by a script, you won’t necessarily have control over it. However, you will be able to manage a synchronisation delay between the script and the video if you feel that things aren’t quite synchronised.

The one recommended by Ohdoki is HandyFeeling. It’s almost the same thing as the Handyverse application. In fact, it has the same name when you arrive on the site… And this is what will enable you to configure The Handy correctly.

It will give you access to The Handy shop to buy accessories or new sleeves. It also gives you access to different applications, content and the configuration of your Handy.

For the first part, the applications, you have remote control (or you have to give the private key to your partner). From there, you can control the speed and depth of your movements.

The second application lets you add a random game. You still control the speed and depth, but you can specify a minimum and maximum value. You can also add pauses and specify the time during which a random pattern is applied.

Finally, the last application lets you play a local file with a funscript (also local). Funscripts are flat files generated by third-party applications to give instructions to The Handy. This makes it possible to synchronise movements with video actions or music.

If you don’t mind paying for access to content, the list goes on and on!

A huge number of partners are listed, whether for 2D, 3D or VR videos. Some have free trial offers, others are low-cost. It’s up to you to see if any of the sites catch your eye.

There are also a few free resources.

This is the part that was used to configure The Handy in particular. This is also where you should go if you want to renew your key or change your wifi.

Connect My Handy is a site with mostly studio content from what I could see.

I counted 125 videos. However, despite being a free resource, there are a few problems.

• Empty categories – it’s easier not to include them if the content doesn’t exist.
• The sound is deactivated by default on videos, so you have to reactivate it each time.
• On some videos I had the impression that a setting had been activated so that The Handy could only move from 75 to 100% height.

Apart from that, the scripts are good and the videos are advertised in 4K. From my rural connection, I can’t verify this.

I wonder whether the site’s content is regularly updated or not though.

The source is IVDB, a HandyFeeling sub-domain that you may have used to connect your Handy and update its firmware. Via a plugin, it will be able to control your Handy on the proposed videos.

An independent graphical redesign was then carried out to create Wanks/AdultSync.

Over 5,000 videos are available, and the scripts appear to be of good quality.

This site is definitely one to bookmark.

This website also offers a version 2 (beta).

The programme includes the ability to link a local video with a local script, manual control of The Handy and random control of The Handy. There’s also a ‘cyclic’ mode, where movements are repeated according to your choices, and the option of modifying a local script.

Faptap isn’t a site that can be used exclusively with The Handy, you can control many other toys and that’s why I really like it. On the other hand, there’s still work to be done on it (particularly the ability to alert you to video content).

That said, there are new videos every day… It’s a shame that advertising is so visible, but hey… It’s still a business.

A word about this site, or rather discussion forum.

It’s not a site for interfacing directly with The Handy, but it is home to an outstanding community of scripters.

Many videos and scripts are available, and it’s even possible to make requests. Clearly, keep this site in the back of your mind.

It’s not specific to The Handy though.

Unfortunately, as many sites seem to be available for doing 3D with The Handy… I don’t have a virtual reality headset. It may come one day, but I haven’t been able to test what it’s like.

I’m not going to say that nothing exists, I’ve been able to find scripts that allow you to synchronise flash games with The Handy. There are a few modified games where, in the same way, you can use The Handy by entering your connection key…

Unfortunately, there’s nothing conclusive, which is astonishing. How can a sextoy with such a large community and an open API not end up with synchronised games?

I don’t have the answer, but I think it’s a shame, because others are offering it.

Yet another thing that I wasn’t able to test out fully but for lack of material… Well, compatible sex toys.

The only hand-held masturbators I have at the moment are Kiiroo‘s FeelStroker penis masturbators. And clearly, they’re not compatible with The Handy.

The first reason is their weight. At around 800 grams, they’re too heavy to hold with quick ‘strokes’ from The Handy, the Velcro can’t hold them properly and they end up falling off. The second reason would be the torch shape. It doesn’t help either and will cause friction between The Handy and the FeelStroker.

Sleeve out of the case? I can’t believe it, I’ve already tested FeelStrokers outside their casing. Unfortunately, this means that they are no longer contained and the TPE expands, the sensations are less.

However, I’m receiving a parcel of Tenga toys next week and I’ve got the impression that there could be something good in it. Lighter, with a shape that’s suitable for gripping with a Velcro strap… I think the Tenga disposable “CUP” could fit over it. The Flip range remains to be seen.

Generally speaking, I think (without having been able to test it at the time of writing) that small masturbators will fit. By this I mean Fleshlight QuickShots should work well with The Handy. Medium-sized masturbators, such as the Tenga CUP or Spinner, should be able to compete. But that’s just a guess.

My very first experience with The Handy wasn’t the best. Partly, I think, because I didn’t know what to do with the sleeve after use. How to store it. It’s silly, but it bothered me during my experience. That, plus the fact that to use The Handy in online mode, you have to update the firmware. And that day… It wasn’t possible, the connection for the update wasn’t working. That said, customer service responded very quickly.

Another point that raised a question in my mind was how to be sure that I was holding The Handy the right way round, and that I’d put the sleeve on correctly. Well, I looked it up, I hadn’t read the instructions at the time (well, not all of them).

How should I position The Handy in relation to my body? The official version is to position The Handy with the buttons facing you, i.e. to press on the pelvis with the base of The Handy, but I’m not convinced about this. It doesn’t feel natural and I have the impression that it prevents the Handy from reaching the base.

I’m used to automatic penis masturbators that make the penis disappear inside, so I was confused. Whether I put The Handy on the side, in front or behind, nothing really felt right. Whether it was because it was pressing on the pelvis, pulling on hairs or something else…

The next time, especially with interactive content, The Handy‘s appeal was much more visible and I liked that. It has a long stroke, perhaps a little too long at times. It stimulates the entire penis, regardless of its size.

The Handy‘s features are really great. I like the fact that you can use random patterns, that you can choose where to act on the penis. And the speed can really be incredible. Where the Keon is 230 strokes per minute, with The Handy it’s over 600. But speed isn’t everything. The ‘few’ synchronised videos I tested were of good quality and showed off The Handy to good effect.

A point of honour, though, for the electric cable, which can be a little annoying, but it does allow for very, very long sessions. The Keon, Pulse Solo Interactive and other battery-powered sex toys will stop working at the worst possible moment… The Handy will always be there to carry on. Got an hour? Two hours? Three hours to spare? No problem, as long as you’ve got enough lubricant.

Does that mean it’s better than the Keon on? Perhaps, yes, especially since the addition of FeelMe AI with The Handy. Any online video (on a whitelisted site) is interactive with The Handy. Then there’s the difference between FeelStroker and TrueGrip. Finally, if you want to synchronise your toy with your partner’s, the Keon will be up front. But still? Wouldn’t it still be possible to synchronise The Handy from xtoys.net?

As mentioned at the very beginning of this review, The Handy has been available on their online shop since 2019. Of course, due to its notoriety, you can now find it in lots of other different shops.

If you’d like to buy it from Ohdoki, they’ve passed on a 15% off code for you. Just apply the code “PAPAR15” before payment.

On the other hand… I’ve found another 20% code which is more interesting for you. It’s less interesting for me because it’s likely to make an affiliation mess… And give them the income but never mind. If you use the code “SLR20OFF“, you can get 20% off your basket.

At the time of writing, it’s just under 190€.

The only real drawback for me is the positioning of The Handy when in use. I’ve got mixed feelings about this and I’ll have to look into it… And I need to find out how to orientate the HandFree kit properly before I review it. I think it could really help the Handy get over this flaw.

Still, the community around The Handy is huge and that’s great. There’s a whole ecosystem around this sextoy, which has just celebrated its fourth birthday. You can feel that things are moving and evolving. However, I’m sorry I wasn’t able to test the VR compatibility. Maybe one day I’ll get a headset…

For me, The Handy is a perfect competitor to Kiiroo‘s Keon for solo use. It’s very easy to use, to clean, to dry… So you don’t have to wonder whether it’s worth taking it out or not. You just do it.

It’s not the best automatic masturbator I’ve tested, for that you’d have to more than double your budget and look at the Syncbot. But for 200€, it’s a safe bet.