Review (5/5): WOW!!
OK, I just bought this shaver and so far, it's turning out wonderfully. This is by far the most comfortable shave I've ever had. The way the razor glides over your face with practically zero irritation and razor burn is just phenomenal.
This is the second Norelco rotary I've used. The first time, I tried the Coolskin 7775x and although it gave me a really close shave, it irritated the hell out of my skin and gave me quite a bit of razor burn aswell.
From then on though, I knew that I would try another rotary. Rotaries seem to work well on my face, particularly on the hair below my jaw line.
With that said, I'm glad to say that the 9160XL shaves FASTER, CLOSER and WAAAAYYY more comfortable than the Coolskin. I never tried a Spectra though, so I can't compare the two.
The greater speed and closeness is due to the new razor heads. The new shaving heads have THREE times as many blades as the older Norelco models (including Spectra), and equally as important, more holes and slots (especially holes) aswell which equal up to 50% greater surface area being covered.
As for the comfort level, Norelco's new Smart Touch feature enables the entire razor head to flex almost 360 degrees. It also has three personal comfort control setting ranging from sensitive to normal, and inbetween.
This is why the shave is so smooth and comfortable. It's a massive improvement over the Coolskin models, but over the Spectra I'd say it would be minimal based on what others have said because the Spectra is supposedly "super" comfortable.
All in all, I'm highly impressed with Norelco's new offering and I feel they did an excellent job addressing some of the weaknesses of rotaries, such as shaving really short stubble by the addition of more holes.
5 Stars from me!