Review (5/5): Excellent Razor, Plain and Simple
So after eight years of faithful service, my old Norelco Quadra Action finally gave out. After checking out several options, I went for the 9160XL to be its replacement, and I couldn't be happier.
For starters, the SmartTouch has more holes and slots for beard to enter. While some have said that they haven't noticed much of a difference, I disagree. It seems to take noticeably fewer passes to completely shave my face. In addition to being faster, making fewer passes also reduces irritation. It also seems to make shaving the neck easier - with the Quadra Action, there would always be a handful of stubborn neck hairs that would refuse to be cut no matter how many passes I made with the razor. The SmartTouch seems to get these hairs with far fewer passes.
Perhaps my favorite feature of the SmartTouch is the adjustable settings, from "Normal" to "Sensitive." I loved my old Quadra Action, but it occasionally caused razor burn or irritation on my neck. With the SmartTouch, I simply use the "sensitive" setting while shaving my neck and have not had any irritation or razor bumps. And while in theory you sacrifice some closeness on the "sensitive" setting, I've found the difference (if any) to be negligable.
This is an excellent razor that I cannot recommend highly enough. Well done, Norelco.