Review (3/5): Beautiful and flawed
The Norelco arcitec 1050 is beautiful and flawed. The beauty lays in the eye catching design and craftsmanship found in the shaver, the flaw--unfortunately--is in it's primary purpose, which is, as a shaver. As it turns out, I've owned two other Norelcos and a mid-range Braun which have proven to be dependable, well made and produce a good, clean shave. The Norelco arcitec 1050, while doing reasonably well at the job of cleaning the scruff off one's mug, seems to require more passes to do the same thing the older models managed with one. The trimmer is also different. The idea is that you must pop off the razor head to get use of it. A novel idea I suppose, but I cannot say that it is any better or worse than the trimmer on my old Norelcos, though it is narrower. Want to buy an Norelco arcitec? Then the 1050 is absolutely the model you should get as the much pricier 1090 is identical in every respect except that the LED array includes a battery charge countdown(which ironically draws power), providing you a ballpark idea of when you'll run out of juice. This shaver is still a little expensive (mine happened to be a gift), but it is well made and should provide years of service. I've had mine for over a year and the battery still holds a good charge lasting over a week of daily use. The included travel carrier is useful, though a little tricky to figure out how to use at first.