Review (3/5): Good, but not good enough
I would have thought, due to the high price of this shaver, that it would give just an outstanding shave. Not so. Like another recent reviewer, I have a heavy beard, and the shaver really struggles with it.
I should mention that I'm not a new user. I've now owned mine for over a year. If you read the reviews, you'll see that there have been quality problems with batteries in this model. I got one of the bad ones. Norelco exchanged it under warranty. Annoying, but they didn't give me a hard time. The new unit's battery has behaved flawlessly, and holds a charge good for an absurdly large number of shaves.
Besides the long battery life, a feature I *LOVE* is the ability to clean it under the sink. That is really handy, and not just hype.
I haven't seen any mentions in other reviews of replacement shaving heads. Norelco recommends that you replace them yearly. Like the shaver itself, they're very costly. However, after I replaced them, I did notice an immediate improvement in the feel and quality of the shave.
I think as you read the other reviews here, you may come to the conclusion, as I have, that if you have a heavy beard, this unit will give you a very good, but not great, shave. Combine that with the high initial cost of the unit and the high cost of yearly shaving head replacement, and I can recommend this only if you have a light to medium beard and really must have an electric.
Instead, I STRONGLY recommend that you check out the Gillette M3Power razor if you want the best quality shave. It seems like a gimmick, but it works. It's so good that I have switched back to it, away from this electric unit. Not only is the quality better, but it only costs a fraction of this Norelco.