The brand’s latest, it features a stunning feat of 10 directions which is a total record in the world of electric shavers. There goes your main difference in Braun vs s. Braun exclusively produces foil shavers, while Norelco takes care of your hair with its distinguished three-blade rotary heads.
The buttons are seamlessly incorporated into the body of the shaver. If you were to slide your finger over them with your eyes closed you wouldn’t even be able to tell they are there. Pressing and holding the power button for three seconds activates travel lock. Unfortunately, there is ONLY enough room inside the carry case for the shaver. Philips has decided to use mesh along the hinge of the case.
Another welcome addition to any budget shaver is in my opinion a long hair trimmer. The rechargeable battery will also provide up to 40 minutes of cordless use. The blades are called ComfortCut by Philips and they’re supposed to be gentle on the skin — we’ll see how that pans out in the Philips Norelco Shaver performance section later on. All of them are identical in terms of shaving performance, so this review will be relevant for those models as well. A lot of thought has gone into engineering the 9000 Series shavers. But on the flip side, the retaining ring system is absolutely crap.
You’ll have to decide whether the convenience is worth it; maintaining your shaver manually with the included cleaning brush is certainly easy enough. Braun’s Series 7 razors have been around in various forms for more than a decade, and they have built a reputation for producing close shaves, being durable, and providing convenience and value. The Series 7 has been a perennial pick in many customer reviews and publications, including here at Wirecutter since 2015. It’s still our favorite razor, and it has become an even better choice because it’s significantly less expensive than it used to be.
Over all, I highly recommend the 9300 and 9700 shavers if your neck and beard hairs grow in all directions. Now electric shaving does get used to as you are Braun Series 5 essentially dragging dry metal over a dry face. I personally use a pre-shave but because this shaver was waterproof I jumped in the shower to test it out.
It handled daily shaves without complaint and powered through more days of growth without too much issue. For an update to this guide in early 2020, James tested the revamped Braun Series 5, 6, and 7 models for a month. Following the same procedures as the original panel of testers, he compared each new Braun’s performance against that of the others as well as our budget pick. Two of the reasons you may prefer using an electric razor on your face instead of a manual razor are convenience and safety .