7 head shaver. IPX7 Waterproof. Decent feel in the hand. Attachments of varying value
First off, I'm going to review this for face/beard shaving. I don't have a bald head (yet, anyway), so that isn't my focus.<br /><br />I have used rotary floating blade shavers for decades (usually Norelco). They work best on my face, especially for the neck region. These shavers have always featured three heads.<br /><br />Well, here we have seven heads. Seven heads!! I have used very similar shavers to this one with five and six-head shaver attachments. This is one more. The question is: Why do the high-quality venerable brands stick to three heads, and these shavers use so many more?<br /><br />The answer isn't quality of shave. In fact, I was impressed at how well this shaver cleared the stubble on my face at the end of the day. It was comfortable, and managed to navigate the nooks and crannies of my face and neck as well as my low-end Norelco (if not better). But it's no match--not even remotely close--to my top-of-the-line Norelco (though that costs about 4x as much, so that's probably not a fair comparison). But--and this is huge--the ergonomics of the shaving heads leave something to desire. First off, there's very little reservoir under the cutting heads for shaved hair (see photos). This means you'll need/want to wash the head (it's water immersible) after each shave. Second, the middle head of the seven doesn't pop up. To remove it, you have to twist it off. It's a bit of a pain--and there's even less room under this head for hair than any of the others.<br /><br />The third issue I have with the cutting heads is that there's no obvious way to replace them without simply replacing the entire shaving head assembly. Based on my experience with other shavers quite similar to this, expect the blades to get dull after a bit of use, and factor in the cost of an entire replacement head unit when they do.<br /><br />In terms of seven vs six vs five heads? Well, the motors in these shavers are effectively the same. So if you have seven heads, the amount of power you provide to each head is less than it is in a five head design. That's going to affect the maximum speed and also the ability to easily tackle heavy stubble. Given that I don't sense a huge amount of improvement with seven vs five (or six) heads, I'd be inclined to veer towards fewer heads.<br /><br />In general, I'd suggest that you can interchange the 7/6/5 head assemblies if you want to get a replacement.<br /><br />In the kit you get:<br /><br />Seven head cordless shaver with LCD readout of charge remaining and integrated activation lock<br />IPX7 Waterproof<br />Nose hair trimmer attachment<br />Hair clipper attachment<br />Two face cleaning attachments<br />Three length guides for the hair clipper attachment<br />Charging cable (requires USB-A power source; USB-C port on shaver means you can use cables you already own).<br />Small cleaning brush<br /><br />Shave is controlled via a simple on/off button. You can lock the shaver by holding the button for 3 seconds (unlocking is accomplished by holding for 3 seconds, as well). This is convenient for travel.<br /><br />The non-shaver attachments are a mixed bag. On the plus side, the nose hair trimmer works very well. This is in contrast with the nose hair trimmers that come with clippers, which are worthless. The nose hair clipper here works as well as the dedicated nose hair clippers I've used. On the minus side, the hair clipper is quite mediocre--it operates at a low speed and struggles with any amount of hair. It's about as good/useful as the clipper that's integrated into some shaver handles. Those can clip a bit of trim hair, but they are an exercise in frustration for any serious hair removal. Same here. The face cleaner attachments are probably OK, but I can't imagine using them.<br /><br />On the whole, I'd consider this a decent little kit useful for shaving your face and for nose hair removal. The remaining attachments are, in my opinion, not very useful. While it does a good job of shaving out of the box, my experience is that the heads get dull somewhat quickly, and you need to buy a not-inexpensive replacement assembly. Also, cleaning the assembly is a nuisance.<br /><br />Pros:<br />** IPX7 waterproof<br />** 7 head shaver does a good job on face<br />** Nose hair clipper works well<br />** Comfortable in your hand<br />** Li-Ion battery: 1.5 hours charge for 90 minutes run time<br />** Attractive styling<br />** Can lock the power button for travel<br /><br />Cons:<br />** Hair trimmer has limited usefulness<br />** Face cleaning attachments not very significant<br />** Shaver head assembly doesn't provide much room for hair and will need to be cleaned after each shave<br />** Middle head of shaver attachment difficult to remove for cleaning<br />** Must replace entire shaving head unit when one/more blades get dull<br />** 7th (middle) head in shaver assembly does not float like outer heads<br /><br />Note that there is a dizzying number of similar 5/6/7 head shavers sold on Amazon. As far as I can tell, having reviewed many of them, they are all made by a handful of companies and work pretty much equivalently well. The snap-in attachments even work across different models and brands. There are variances in features like level of waterproof and how the power switch works (and the body shape), but the function is pretty similar. So shop around for price.
Rating: 4 stars