Braun 61-R1000s Series 6 Wet & Dry Electric Shaver - Red

Packaging: Colourful, eye catching, and informative Usability: The shaver provides an excellent shave and has to be rated as one of the best on the market today. Clearly much thought and engineering has gone into the ergonomic design, weight, ease of cleaning, and relatively fast charge time. The product would benefit from a plug-in cradle for at-home use (rather than leaving the shaver on its side by the basin while charging). Portability: I tend to use electric shavers when I travel. For this to be convenient, the carry case must be large enough to include the cables and attachments I might use. It must also be convenient to use in other countries. The charging cable I received with this product is not and being able to charge the shaver via USB would be a ... MorePackaging: Colourful, eye catching, and informative Usability: The shaver provides an excellent shave and has to be rated as one of the best on the market today. Clearly much thought and engineering has gone into the ergonomic design, weight, ease of cleaning, and relatively fast charge time. The product would benefit from a plug-in cradle for at-home use (rather than leaving the shaver on its side by the basin while charging). Portability: I tend to use electric shavers when I travel. For this to be convenient, the carry case must be large enough to include the cables and attachments I might use. It must also be convenient to use in other countries. The charging cable I received with this product is not and being able to charge the shaver via USB would be a godsend. Performance: Obtaining a smooth/close shave was surprisingly quick - the SensoFlex swivel head works very well and it was easy to access those spots typically difficult to shave. Cleaning the shaver after use was simple and very quick.

At 35 years old I was looking at changing my shaving routine to something 1) quicker and 2) less irritating to my neck. Unfortunately this experiment was a waste of time and money. I was on annual leave so had plenty of time available to try shaving with this new gadget many times. Firstly, I have to go over every area 10 times before it's shaved. Secondly - Since my neck hairs tend to grow out somewhat parallel to my skin as opposed to straight out, about 10-20% of my neck hairs get away completely untouched by this shaver, no matter how many times I go over or how I stretch the skin. Also tried to shave with foam with no noticeable improvement. I also tried to shave daily or after two days and after three days. No change. I didn't find any advantages with this ... MoreAt 35 years old I was looking at changing my shaving routine to something 1) quicker and 2) less irritating to my neck. Unfortunately this experiment was a waste of time and money. I was on annual leave so had plenty of time available to try shaving with this new gadget many times. Firstly, I have to go over every area 10 times before it's shaved. Secondly - Since my neck hairs tend to grow out somewhat parallel to my skin as opposed to straight out, about 10-20% of my neck hairs get away completely untouched by this shaver, no matter how many times I go over or how I stretch the skin. Also tried to shave with foam with no noticeable improvement. I also tried to shave daily or after two days and after three days. No change. I didn't find any advantages with this over shaving with foam and razor. The only good things I can say about it is that the battery lasts very long, and that it's waterproof.

I received the Braun Series 6 shaver through promotion and was curious to see how it would differ from the three-head corded Philishave I’ve had for 20 years. The box was well laid out with the key features on the front, being that the shaver is sensitive on skin and has the SensoFlex head. I also noted that the shaver was 100% waterproof which was a pleasant surprise. The side of the box had a combination of pictographs and text explaining the features in more detail, but with minimal words. In comparison so far with my Philishave, the Braun wins on the fact that it is rechargeable, cordless, has a swiveling head, and appears to have some ability to be upgraded with different heads. Interesting… Inside the box were a carry case, cleaning brush, charger and the ... MoreI received the Braun Series 6 shaver through promotion and was curious to see how it would differ from the three-head corded Philishave I’ve had for 20 years. The box was well laid out with the key features on the front, being that the shaver is sensitive on skin and has the SensoFlex head. I also noted that the shaver was 100% waterproof which was a pleasant surprise. The side of the box had a combination of pictographs and text explaining the features in more detail, but with minimal words. In comparison so far with my Philishave, the Braun wins on the fact that it is rechargeable, cordless, has a swiveling head, and appears to have some ability to be upgraded with different heads. Interesting… Inside the box were a carry case, cleaning brush, charger and the shaver itself (in my favourite colour: red). I immediately reached for the instructions (because I’m a Tech Writer and love looking at instructions). As I read through the pictorial instructions I scratched my head at some of them. I couldn’t quite understand what some of them meant, but after looking at them for a bit I eventually got what the diagrams meant. After charging the shaver for the recommended time of one hour (for a 50 minute shave time!) I was ready to go. In comparison to this point with the Philishave, the pack contents weren’t that different. I’m a pretty fair-haired type of guy, with not a lot of thick facial hair. You could say I was a bit of a ginger nut on the beard while being blondish on top. I don’t use any fancy shaving oils or anything like that. Just a shaver on skin. Normally before a shower because for me it seems to make for a closer cut. I found that with the Philishave’s three-head design, I found it had difficulty lifting the hairs on my neck if they were a little bit longer. I also found some problems with getting a close shave when my “beard” was a day old. I think there wasn’t much to grab onto so I ended up with a rough-to-the-touch finish, which was not satisfying. I powered up the Series 6 and the speed of the shaver was about twice the RPMs compared with the Philishave. This thing really hums! The motor speed reminded me of the speed of a buzz-cutter I use when I have to do my Number 3 cut at home on my head hair. I started to work down my cheek to get some of the longer curlies that were growing. The Series 6 cut them off like a lawnmower. I didn’t feel like I had to make too many passes to get a smooth finish. Because the head is flat, not triangular, it was easy to line up the sideburn level I wanted compared with the Philishave. I think the centre trimmer blade which is recessed below the cutline of the foils did its job perfectly by trimming the longer hairs before it reached the second foil. Nice one! Onto the problematic neckbeard, and the SensoFlex swivel head really seemed to follow the contours of my face more than the fixed head of the Philishave. I didn’t feel like I had to press the shaver into my face as much as I did on the 20-year-old Philishave. I had to do a couple of passes over the neck region to really get a baby-butt smooth sensation, but I would’ve been getting a shaving rash by now in comparison with the Philishave. The all-important “kid kiss test” passed with flying colours. The kids reckon that the shaver did a much better job and preventing the “spikey hairs” from getting them when I kissed them goodnight. Cleaning the shaver is easy. You soap up the head and run it under the hot tap to remove oils and hair, then take the replaceable blade assembly off and let the two halves dry. I also take the blade assembly off and GENTLY tap any hairs out into the basin before rinsing, but this is not suggested in the manual (just a habit I got into with the Philishave). The instruction manual shows a picture of a male figure with a red box around the sensitive groin area. The manual seems to recommend that you use the 06-BDT trimmer attachment. I didn’t get this included in the kit (it is sold separately) to work in this area, but given how good the experience was on my face, I decided to throw caution to the wind and just try it out anyway. I was a little bit nervous because the Philishave had a tendency to bite in that area. It either ripped out hairs or didn’t do well with the tight folds of skin generally found on a bloke's bits. The blades will trim hairs down there, but I suggest either getting the recommended attachment or doing a pre-trim with a hair-trimmer fitted with a 3mm skin guard to make the job faster. I used the SensoFlex directly on all cylindrical and curved surfaces below the belt, including the perilous centre line, and had absolutely no bites from the SensoFlex blades. When they say “for sensitive skin” they aren’t kidding. The important thing to consider when buying a shaver is consumable costs. Blades need to be replaced eventually, and the Braun Series 6 is no exception. The recommended replacement interval is 18 months, and a google search found a Series 6 head for about A$45. This is about the same consumable cost for my Philishave heads so it is a comparable interval and cost of ownership. Based on my experience with the shaver, I think I’m jumping ship and ditching the Philishave. You have served me well old buddy but the features of the Braun Series 6 make it hard to hang onto you.