Review (2/5): It could have been great, but ...
I've lusted after this thing since it appeared on the market a couple of years ago. Amazon's recent Gold Box deal on it made further sales resistance futile. Wish I could get all enthusiastic about scoring a great piece of shaver technology at a great price, but sadly, the only great thing there was, was the price. Oh, it's competent enough. The three-track cutter heads make short work of a day or two's worth of beard, but for some reason when the little guys get longer than that, you're faced with quite a lot of work to mow 'em all down. Then there's the wide strip of real estate that surrounds each cutter that makes those buggers under your nose nearly unreachable without a serious attack on them while your nose suffers the collateral damage. Now all that would be enough to take off a star or two, but there are a couple of other things that Norelco has really hosed on this thing. First is the recharging operation. For crying out loud, just give me a cord to plug in the shaver and into the wall!! No. That's too simple for Norelco. They seem to have this inordinate fascination with stands and holders. There are two and you have to use one to charge the thing. They're big, obnoxious, and take up a lot of drawer or counter real estate. The "travel holder" is GIGANTIC and looks like a sex toy from the planet Zork. No one in their right mind would EVER pack this thing in a suitcase! What were they thinking? Then there's the cleaning. Opening each of the three fragile thin plastic head holders is irritating, difficult, and dirty since it's impossible to do without clippings coating your fingers. I'll be amazed if I don't break at least one of them within a year. The capacity to hold clippings is VERY small too. If you wait too long, with too much to mow, they're going to fill up and stop cutting. Even tapping the thing to dislodge the clippings is tricky since at least one of the doors will close and the contents will fall back into the cutter. The trimmer is difficult to deploy with the small recessed slide "switch" and its versatility is severely compromised by the cutter looming just over it. The head cover is fussy to install. No simple snap-on like the older models, this has to slide, and you have to get it aligned just so or you risk dragging something hard over the sensitive cutter surface.
On the plus side, it DOES take care of those difficult concave facial surfaces pretty well. The LiOn power seems to run forever without slowing down. It is light and reasonably easy to handle with its new form factor.