Let's take a look at the official information on Life and then I'll give you my breakdown.
Life is controlled from one button located about 1.5" from the tip. It works the same was as the Jopen toys do, but not like many other toys on the market. To turn on, press once. To turn it up, hold the button down until the desired speed is reached. You cannot turn it down once you reach a speed without turning it off and starting over. To turn it off, press it once. To lock it, press the button three times in rapid succession. To unlock, do the same.
The button sits slightly raised from the body. It is not raised by a lot and can hardly be seen. Once you get a hang of the controls, it's very easy to use. It can be a little too easy to press, which can sometimes result in accidentally turning it off during use. Here you can sort of see the button, though because it is raised only a very small amount it's a little hard to make out:
There are no preset power levels on Life. When you turn it on, it starts at the lowest level. When you hold it down, it gradually increases instead of jumping from one power setting to the next. This gives you a wider range of power options. There are no patterns available.
The lowest setting starts at two vrooms. It then goes up to a mid five vrooms at the highest setting. When I rate, I take wands out of the equation and assume those would actually rate somewhere more like a six or seven on the scale. Life is pretty much exactly the same power level as Mimi. It's not the absolute strongest thing you will ever run across, since wands take that crown, but for a rechargeable clitoral vibrator it is very strong. It is as strong as Salsa and a little weaker than Tango.
The vibrations are the same type as Mimi. They are rumbly, not buzzy at all. They penetrate the skin deeply. They do not cause any numbing or itching. They are low pitched and not whining. The vibrations of Life remind me very much of Mimi, so if you like Mimi's vibrations, you'll like Life.
The vibrations are located a little bit inward from the tip, as per the manual. These can be felt strongly in the tip as well as most of the rest of the toy. They can be felt less on the half of the toy that isn't used. When held, the vibrations will travel through to the hand. They won't cause numbing of the hand, but just be aware that your hand will be vibrating when you use this, especially at higher speeds.
When pressure is applied, Life doesn't lose power. It drops maybe the very slightest amount, but not enough to change the vroom level. I need a lot of pressure and I never had any issues with Life. I could press down hard with it and the very, very tiny amount of power change wasn't really noticeable unless I was looking for it.
Life is more quiet than a cell phone on vibrate. It can mostly be muffled through covers and cannot be heard through a closed door.
This is a waterproof toy, but the charging port is left often. When submerged, a bubble forms around the charging port. This is what allows it to be waterproof. I'm not exactly sure of the science behind this, but I have tested it on both my Leaf and Jopen toys and not run into issues. If you are concerned about it, you can just not use it in water if you'd like.
Life operates on a rechargeable lithium polymer battery. It requires a three hour charge before first use and in between uses. This charge should last 2 hours and 40 minutes if used on low or 1 hour and 30 minutes if used on high. I use mine on high and have gotten at least the 1.5 hours out of a charge. The charger connects near the tip of the toy.
I have not noticed that Life loses power before it dies. However, when I got Spirit it didn't lose power up until the last five minutes of battery life for a while. Then after a few charges it started to lose power about half way through the battery life. I don't know if this will happen with Life, but I wanted to mention that it did happen with another toy in the line.
Another side note is that with every Power Bullet I have, a strange thing will sometimes happen when they get close to dying. If they don't have much life left and you turn it on, sometimes the light will come on but the motor won't. If you shake it then the motor will start and you can get the last bit of life out of it. I wanted to bring this up because if it happens it appears that the toy is defective since there's lights but no power. As best I can tell, it just means you will need to charge soon.
Thank you for this informative and detailed review! I truly enjoyed it!