Review (3/5): 3.5 stars
Philips Norelco Arcitec 1090 is my first electric shaver ever and I've been using it for 7 months now. I had been pondering on whether to take Brown Pulsonic or Philips Norelco for quite a while, when ultimately it was probably the looks of the latter that prevailed so I ended up with it.
All in all it is a pretty good shaver, but not great. Perhaps I should start off with mentioning that I am NOT one of those with a thick and bushy beard, so I usually shave every other day. Normally I spend about 5 mins on shaving. At times my skin gets slightly irritated, which might result in light-red patches under my chin. Most of the time it's fine though, and I can get a decent shave. However, not always is the shave that clean. Sometimes certain hairs (esp. on the side - around my jaw and around my whiskers, or under my chin) will be left out, so I'd have to trim them separately with the trimmer.
Oh yes, the infamous trimmer. It really is more of an aesthetic feature on the shaver than a tool serving its real purpose. It's just too small and inconvenient. At times I'm having difficulties accessing parts of my face with it, unless I took off the shaving heads.
The shaver also comes with a neat LED display that shows how many minutes of shaving time there is remaining. Great. This was one of the features that won me over about this shaver. But what I resent is that it's inaccurate. Well it does accurately show how many minutes you have shaved, but when it comes down to 0 mins, one would expect the battery is about to die, yet usually I can still squeeze several shaves out of it (which means additional 10-15 mins). In the instructions manual it says that after 3 charges it should display the remaining shaving time accurately, but I've already charged it at least 5 times now, and no difference. The highest shaving time is supposedly 65 mins. What is rather curious about all this is that on each charge I've actually been gaining additional minutes to the proposed 65 mins, so the numbers have gotten up to 81 mins on my most recent charge. I would be perfectly happy with getting those additional minutes if that means that the shaver will eventually display the time properly so that if 0 mins is remaining, then 0 it really is. (Perhaps once I've have charged it 10 or more times the display will finally get normal, as suggested in the manual? If it does, I might as well mention it here.)
Anyway, speaking of the battery, this is one of the features I am really content with. I can get numerous shaves out of one charge; therefore, there's nothing but praise on this part.
I also like the fact that the shaver is easy to wash. You simply open the shaving heads and rinse it.
One thing that I as well dislike though, is the On/Off button's silver paint peeling off already after only a couple of weeks' use. But alright, that's already going into details now.
Pros:
- attractive looks
- long battery life
- light and not too loud
- easy to wash
Cons:
- trimmer
- doesn't always shave ALL the hairs clean
- sort of inaccurate LED display
- paint peeling off of the On/Off button
If I could, I would give this shaver 3.5 stars. However, for a 4, I guess it will still at least have to get the LED display straight. So if after 10 or so charges it does, then I am giving it a 4. We shall see.