The Best Electric Shavers in 2018 – Top Razor Reviews

Phillips Norelco Speed- XL 8240 Men’s Shaver

The Philips shaver is fairly basic in term of function and usability. There’s nothing special or overly different about this shaver compared to any other however it does have its own benefits and flaws, whilst it is well designed with it never catching or damaging any skin it does have a problem that I quickly noticed. It doesn’t provide a clean cut shave no matter which setting you put it on. If you want to completely remove all beard or head hair then this shaver won’t be able to cover that need. However this is the only downside to the shaver itself since the new pivot point on the head allows it to move around more to reach the curved areas of your face and head which is a big benefit to using this shaver.

The blade used in the shaver is a much smaller model, unlike a lot of newer shavers, and this is for the better since the larger blades are a lot more likely to break resulting in needing to buy another shaver most of the time unless you can manage to find the right sized blade to fit. However the best bit about this shaver is its superb battery life, after an initial 12 hour charge to condition the battery each charge can last up to 6 hours’ worth of usage time and up to a month without use, a very long time for any shaver to last. However there is no indication as to when the battery will run out because of the lack of warning light or sound, whilst this isn’t a major problem it can leave you mid-shave with no shaver, which, let’s be honest, no one would wish upon their worst enemy. The extended battery life is the reason that this shaver is ideal for anyone who travels around a lot and prefers to keep themselves looking at their best for any reason from personal preference to professional reasons.

Cleaning the shaver is relatively easy, all you need to do is undo the latch on the front to open the top of the shaver and run some warm water through the blades, leave it to air dry for up to an hour and it’s ready to go. The purchasing and packaging for this blade can be both good and bad, you can try a Phillips Norelco for up to 45 days and if you aren’t satisfied you can receive a full refund, however you have to ship and package it via insured mail, this only leaves you having to pay for shipping which isn’t an overly large price to pay for a full refund.

As for the price and packaging it can be very durable and sturdy, this keeps the product in its top condition and it doesn’t get damaged at all, although this does mean that it can be rather difficult to open without using any sharp objects. The cost varied between £90 up to £120 depending upon where you bought it from but considering the quality of product this isn’t that expensive compared to others. Overall this is a well-made shaver with no design flaws or any known problems. This shaver most suits those who travel a lot due to its extended battery life but is a good shaver for anybody despite its inability to give you a completely clean-shave.

Braun Series 3 340s-4

Easy to use with a pleasant learning curve, this shaver provides a close cut shave every time and leaves the skin feeling very smooth. This shaver is easy enough to use both in and out of the shower and doesn’t need any shaving gel or foam. However it, like all good things, isn’t without flaw. The shaver is fixed in position making it difficult to reach the corners of your face and the blade itself isn’t overly effective, the instructions say to hold it at a 90 degree angle for best results however a lot of the time it took multiple strokes to completely remove hair from an area, greatly increasing the time it took to completely shave and in some cases agitating that area of skin.

The shaver isn’t very good for anywhere over a couple of centimetres of hair so you need to buy a long hair trimmer if you don’t want to fork out for one of the more expensive models which include the extra features for different length hair treatment. The shaver is useful for the more detailed shaves which need cleaner cuts for different styles, making it very useful if you like to try different things to see which works best.

For cleaning it’s very classic in that you just need to put it under some running water and brush of the sticking hairs, making cleaning very simple and taking away any unnecessary hassle for cleaning. With regards to the battery life it only lasts around an hour or two after a full charge (which usually takes about an hour and three quarter’s) although it does have 2 display LED’s for when the battery gets low and with its adaptable outlet voltage between 100V and 250V.

As for price and packaging it comes with a 2 year warranty and with it costing anywhere between £49.99 and £99.99 it’s very reassuring to know that if it breaks you can get it fixed for free. Overall it’s a very durable shaver with an effective set of blades for short 3 day beards but for any hair longer than a few centimetres then this shaver becomes more of a hassle than a method to shave with, if you tend to grow your beards quickly then this isn’t the right shaver for you.

Remington f5-5800

The stainless steel, speed charging, close cut razor that sounds as impressive as it is. As far as shavers go this one seems to have it all. One of the best things about this shaver is that it has a built-in trimmer between the two foils that is able to cut longer hair down to stubble length, a much more manageable length that the shaver is then able to cut down to silky smooth length if that’s what you prefer from your shave that is. There is no need for excessive pressure or going back over previously done areas with this shaver, by just going in sleek motions across your skin the pivoting head is able to catch all of the hairs even at the awkward to reach angles of the jawline and neck. The only difference between this and other common shavers is that this cannot be used in the shower and requires the skin to be completely dry and oil free, a possible downside if you are prone to oily skin and don’t have any remedies for it. The blades are very sturdy and are very unlikely to go blunt even after prolonged use. With regular cleaning by just running warm water over the blades it’s easy to clean and hardly ever gets clogged unless you go very long times without cleaning it. Whilst this shaver is very effective at cutting long hair it will start to cause problems if you have a particularly burly beard and if you are without any beard trimmers then this just won’t work unless you can reduce the hair to a more manageable length.

Charging has been made universally easy with the worldwide voltage charging and only 5 minutes needed for a ‘quick charge’ with 2 hours for the full charge to make the shaver last for an hour. Admittedly this isn’t a lot of time for the time it takes to fully charge however with the power you get out of the shaver and the six LED fuel gauge lights telling you how much charge is left in the shaver it makes sense why the charge drains so quickly.
As for price and packaging the shaver costs between £90.00 and £100.00 depending where you buy it from. The shaver comes with a 30 day money back guarantee so if you aren’t happy with the quality of the product you can send it back and it won’t cost you anything.

Overall this shaver is one of the best as far as quality and usability go, the only faults of it are its relatively low battery life and its inability to deal with burly hair without any aid. However its advantages are stronger than the disadvantages so overall it’s a very strong shaver that is useful to anybody no matter what they are trying to accomplish with their shaver use.

Panasonic ES8103s

As far as foil shavers go the Panasonic shaver does a great job at reaching the curved areas along the face with very effective cuts that allow you to shave down to the base of the hairs to create a very smooth feeling on your skin without repeatedly ‘nicking’ your skin or damaging it in any way. However there is a down side to this shaver. Whilst it is effective at removing facial hair it is very, very loud, to some this is a major downside and considered to be very annoying as you can’t even hear yourself think while your shaving (no more pondering the greater questions in life while shaving then). It is recommended to replace the foil once every year which doesn’t cost any more than £25 so it isn’t too much to pay when some shavers require you to buy new blades almost semi-monthly. Whilst the blade is very efficient in cutting down stubble to smooth skin it does come without a way to reduce long hairs without any external products. The blade itself is moderately durable and whilst it can handle a lot of usage it won’t be able to withstand being dropped or damaged in any way., To clean the Panasonic it’s as easy as putting it underneath running water and leaving it to dry for a little while. In regards to the battery the Panasonic does suffer with its battery life since it requires around 2 hours to fully charge but after a few weeks of using this shaver its battery life will significantly decrease from being able to last for around 2 hours to only 30 minutes per each full charge which is a very drastic decrease and since changing out the battery is impossible then you would need to re-purchase the shaver every couple of months which is a big disadvantage to choosing this shaver. The shaver requires an A/C adapter which comes with the shaver however this does limit which plugs you can use to a certain extent.  As for the price and packaging the shaver costs between £90 and £120 depending on where you can find it online and it comes with a 1 year warranty in case it does get damaged. There is also a 30 day return policy on the shaver in case you aren’t satisfied with the quality of the product and you will receive a full refund for it. Overall the Panasonic isn’t a very reliable shaver since it will slowly reduce in battery life but it is very effective compared to a lot of normal foil shavers and is able to reach along all parts of the beard to trim down to a silky smooth finish.

Braun series 7 790cc-4

Do you want a shaver that both looks good and works well? This is that kind of shaver and here’s why; the series 7 790cc-4 is running on sonic technology so it can remove hair as short as 0.05mm by using 10,000 micro vibrations to adjusts itself to the density of your beard to maximise the quality of the shaving experience. It comes with three personalised modes depending on what kind of hair you are trying to shave off or which length you want to reduce your beard too. With a very precise LCD display to show how much battery remains or if the shaver is In need of cleaning, if it needs cleaning then at the touch of a button you can have it clean, charge and lubricate itself to keep it at its best performance all the time. To do this you just need to place the shaver into the cleaning station and leave it there for an hour and it lasts usually around 50 minutes on average. This model of the Braun doesn’t leave any skin irritation and requires minimal repeated visits to the same area of skin in a single session.

The only slight downside to this shaver is its cost, whilst it does make sense why it costs this amount it is still a lot to pay for a shaver. The price range seemed to be around £190 to a maximum of £230. This doesn’t include the extra gadgets you can purchase to attach and use alongside your shaver, each of which can cost up to £25 each, creating a very expensive overall cost if you choose to add on those as well. Overall this is my personal favourite out of the different shavers because of its clear enhancement in the quality of the product and the much better shaving experience that it provided.

Comparison

All of the shavers showed their own advantages and disadvantages, some more than others however the ones that did stand out above the others are the Braun series 7 790cc-4, the Remington f5-5800 and the Panasonic ES8103s. These three showed a much better overall quality of shave than the others however the Panasonic did have the trouble of its battery life slowly decreasing over time and the Remington was unable to be flexible in which types of hair it can deal with. The prices of all the shavers varied between £90 and £230 and for the most part the price of the shaver had a direct correlation to the quality of the shave it provided.

Nearly all of the shavers were unable to be both durable and able to provide a quality of shave to suit multiple hair lengths or styles. The exception of this being the Braun series 7 790cc-4, this shaver stood out far above the others in my opinion and is my recommended shaver despite being the highest priced one. It is well worth its cost and has no faults to find even with its slightly low battery life compared to some of the other shavers. All in all the three shavers I previously listed are the best quality in my opinion however depending on your own personal preference could lead you to prefer one that suits you better, whichever you prefer all of these shavers provide a great quality shave and you would be hard pressed to make a bad choice.