In other words, any of these shavers should work even better on legs than they did on our faces. The fact that newer shavers are almost all waterproof is also a boon if you’re used to shaving your legs in the shower. It’s easy to angle a rotary drive shaft, so each of the circular cutters can tilt to follow tricky contours like your chin. That said, foil shavers already have some contour-following advantages with the 3D shape of their foils. So the difference between types in this regard isn’t as big as it might seem. For a barber, this might still be a decent choice; it’s a simple machine and the replacement foils are the cheapest we found.
The shaver includes 72 self-sharpening blades which are guided by its Smart Hair sensor scanning system that adjusts to each hair for a consistently close and comfortable shave. The added bonus is that this razor performs even better in the shower and with shaving cream. Where possible, our team of grooming experts included electric shavers that we’ve personally tried ourselves. We’ve tested budget and premium models from Braun, Philips and Panasonic on different styles and stubble lengths. Key to any electric shaver scoring our recommendation is its balancing of ergonomics, aesthetics and ease of use whether its owner happens to be a trimming pro or an absolute beginner.
We bought Philips models that represent the newest designs Philips has to offer in both a value-priced and luxury-class shaver. If you’re looking to buy a rotary with a cleaning stand because you want to have a neat and functional way to store it on your countertop, this stand is every bit as good as the others we tried. It’s just as redundant, too, now that electric razors are designed to be waterproof, but it’s there if you want philips shaver it. That said, our second tester did find that both of the rotary designs cleaned up short hard-to-get stubble on his neck even better than the Panasonic shavers. We’re not sure if the “lift and cut” of the Philips design is working better than the straight foils, or if it’s just easier to grab tricky hairs with an equally tricky razor. The popularity of rotary-foil shavers like the Philips – Aqua-Tech 4500 is tricky to explain.
That said, if you’re okay with a bit of scruff returning at the end of each day this might be a great razor for you. It’s louder and vibrates far more than the Series 7, definitely not the same class of motor. So far as we can tell the design and construction of the cutting heads is the same, you can even snap a Series 7 head onto the Series 5 body, but the comfortable shave of the Series 7 just wasn’t there anymore. If you’re okay sacrificing a little bit of comfort to save some money, Panasonic is a much better bet. The shaver was introduced in 1939, though initial production was limited due to the outbreak of World War II (the production facility in Eindhoven, the Netherlands, was overrun by the German Army in 1940). After the war, a slightly improved version of the cigar-shaped single-head shaver was introduced.
A more ergonomic egg-shaped single-head model was introduced in 1948 and was designed by US industrial designer Raymond Loewy. Global sales increased markedly after a double-head model was introduced in 1951. In 1952, production of shavers shifted from Eindhoven to a new production facility in Drachten, the Netherlands. A triple-head model was test marketed in Australia and New Zealand in 1956, but would not be introduced globally until 1966. In 1980, Philips introduced the Lift & Cut Philishave shaver with lifters which pull whiskers slightly before cutting, allowing for closer shaves.
Our most sensitive-skinned tester said that, in comparison, the Panasonic – Arc3 felt like it was “very slightly snagging” on hairs, a tiny bit “scratchy.” The Braun shaves with a gentle, whirring caress. If you avoid blade-shaves because you don’t like the way they feel, that might be more than enough reason to cough up another $80 for the Braun. Compared to the $160 Braun Series 7, the Arc3’s shave is definitely more aggressive.
Combined with its powerful motor that provides an impressive 84,000 cutting motions per minute, it helps ensure that each shave is perfectly suited to your face. For more versatility, we recommend Panasonic’s Multishape has multiple heads that include a toothbrush, beard trimmer, hair clipper and nose hair trimmer. Now that the razors are designed to run wet, it’s pretty easy to spread some soap on the foil and run the shaver motor while the head is immersed, just as the cleaning stand does. We couldn’t see any difference between this cleaning method and the results from the stand. The Lifeproof’s performance on all hair types (straight, curly, thick, and overly-curly) ranked surprisingly above average.