Review (4/5): Pretty good rotary shaver
When I was a teenager I got a Norelco as a gift and at first I got a really good shave, I really liked it over a razor. Then, I started to get such bad rashes that I finally had to give it up and went back to a razor for about 25 years.
I was too dumb to know that you had to periodically replace the heads. I just assumed that they lasted forever. Oh well.
My first new electric was a Remington, and I'll say that their adverstisements, for me, were true; It gave the closest electric shave.
The problem was my beard grows at a steep angel to the skin and electrics have a hard time getting all of the whiskers. If you missed a whisker on day one, you might get it on day two, but after that, forget it.
I went to a Braun after the Remington wore out, and it has a coarse cutter on the inside that can get those errant whiskers. It was not quite as close as the Remington, but was a lot faster because it would find the longer hairs.
This has all been to give background to the Norelco.
I've had it for over 2 months now.
It falls somewhere in between the other two. It is not quite as close as either, but very close to the Braun.
It will get those stray whiskers usually, but every 4 or 5 days, I need to use the trimmer to get ones that have gotten away.
As far as irritation goes, it borders right on the edge of a problem on my neck. The cause is obvious. The screens on this rotary are a lot rougher that a foil shaver. That is to say that you can feel the grid of depressions and holes. Be careful in pressing too hard or using repeated passes, to avoid irritation.
Because of the large surface area of the heads, I find shaving to be about 1/3 faster now, as long as I don't try to get a blade quality shave.
This razor is extremely quiet, with only a very soft whirring versus the loud buzz of any foil.
The trimmer works adequately with my only complaint that it does not lock in the up position. If you push it the wrong way, it folds back down.
The batteries last 3 to 4 weeks on a charge. If it starts to get low I just plug it in and continue shaving. To get around the lack of a low battery indicator I will charge it up before a trip so that I don't need to take the charger with me.
I consider the lack of an indicator to be a non-issue.
Overall I like the shaver a lot