Whether you are someone who is planning on moving over to using electric shavers or you are looking for cool shavers that could replace your old one, you are in for a treat. Here we will discuss three of the world’s top producers of electric shavers and their top of the line products. Braun, Philips Norelco and Panasonic are all known for their exceptional grooming products. The question is, which one is the best? So hold on to your seats because we’re about to tackle a head to head of their flagship grooming products to date.
While shaving can be a small deal for some people, having the best shaving device you can purchase can actually save you time and effort. It also saves your skin from more irritation which is the most important thing. Let’s get on to business and see what these three electric shavers can do and what their differences are.
The following are the flagship electric shavers from each brand:
| Shavers | Product | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Braun: Series 9 9295cc |  | Wet and Dry Men’s Electric Shaver |
| Philips Norelco: 9700 |  | Philips Norelco Electric Shaver 9700 with Cleansing Brush |
| Panasonic: ES-LV95-S Arc5 Electric Razor |  | Men’s 5-Blade Cordless |
Wet and Dry Shaving
| Braun: Series 9 9295cc Wet and Dry Men’s Electric Shaver |
Braun, as popular as you may think it is, does not have the wet and dry feature at the top of its list. Although it advertises the Wet and Dry shaving feature on the product’s name, it is not their main highlight. But if that is not the main thing that you are after then Braun is a pretty decent choice. If you don’t know it yet, Wet and Dry shaving means that the electric shaver is capable of performing wet shaving with either gel or foam and dry shaving as well.
The Philips Norelco, however, has Wet and Dry shaving at the top of their most prized features for almost all of their electric shavers. They call this feature the AquaTec technology that gives the user a comfortable shave either dry or wet with the use of shaving gel or foam.
The Panasonic model also has the Wet and Dry shaving feature on their premium shaving machine. It gives the user a quick and dry shave for when you’re in a hurry or an option to shave in the shower using shaving gel or shaving foam when you’ve got enough time for it.
More: Braun Series 7 Comparison – “799cc vs 790cc vs 760cc“.
Shaving Head Movement
One of the best things about Braun’s Series 9 electric shaver is that it has the 10-D Flexible Shaving System which is short for 10 dimensional. It is composed of independent flexible cutting tools that is installed on a 10 directional rotating head. It combines together micro motions and macro motions to give the best possible facial adaptability with closer skin contact for a cleaner shave.
| Philips Norelco: Philips Norelco Electric Shaver 9700 with Cleansing Brush |
On the one side, the Philips Norelco 9700 also has an exceptional counterpart for this, it has 8 direction contour detect technology that manages to follow the contours of the face and neck. With this, it enables the shaver to cut up to 20% more hair than ordinary shavers in a single pass. This also results in a very clean and smooth shave as well.
If the Braun Series 9 calls it the 10-D Flexible Shaving System and the Philips Norelco 9700 calls it the Contour Detect Technology, then Panasonic also has something called its Multi Flex Technology. Multi Flex technology provides a pivoting head to the ES-LV95-S Arc5 Electric Razor so that it glides smoothly onto the user’s face, chin neck and jaw areas. This results in an enhanced shaving experience and a smoother and cleaner shave.
More: A comparison of “Philips Norelco 9300 vs 9700“.
Cleaning Technology
Braun is indeed very proud of one of their most famous features which is the Clean and Charge 5. It is the world’s only alcohol based electric shaver cleaning system that cleans, lubricates and dries the electric razor at only the push of one button.
Panasonic: ES-LV95-S Arc5 Electric Razor, Men’s 5-Blade Cordless |
Philips Norelco is also equally proud of its Smart Clean Plus System. Like Braun’s Clean and Charge, the Smart Clean Plus also cleans, lubricates, dries and charges the electric shaver at the push of a button. However, if Braun uses an alcohol based formula, Philips Norelco on the other had uses an alcohol free solution which is friendly to the skin to remove hair from the shaver. The lubrication process of the Smart Clean System not only keeps the shaving blades in top condition but also reduces the friction for your next shaving. Then after drying, Smart Clean charges the electric shaver ready for the next use. Plus, the Smart Clean System dock comes with an interactive interface which tells the user where it is on the cleaning process and how much time is left. That’s a pretty cool feature is you ask me.
Not to be left out among its competitors, the Panasonic Arc5 also comes with its own high tech cleaning technology. It is called the Premium Automatic Cleaning and Charging Station. One of the good things about the Panasonic Arc5 is that it is 100% completely washable in water with vibrating motions for a more thorough cleaning. And after washing it in running water, you can dock the Arc5 on to the automatic clean and charge station to clean it some more, dry the electric razor and then charge it full so that it is ready for your next usage.
More: The Best Electric Shavers or Razors for Women.
Parts and Accessories
The Braun Series 9 is pretty famous for the parts that come with its electric shaver. It has 5 specialized elements that enables the electric razor to catch more hair in just one stroke for lesser irritation of the skin. It is called the SyncroSonic™ technology. Also, it comes with the Hyper Lift and Cut trimmer which lifts flat lying hairs to cut it even more close to the skin for smoother results. It also comes with the Direct and Cut trimmer which aligns hairs that grow in different directions to get to each and every one of them. Plus, it has the Protective Skin Guard which smoothens the skin after shaving. And to add icing to the cake, the Braun Series 9 comes in a beautiful titanium finish that makes it very durable and very resistant to corrosion with which electric shavers are very prone to.
The Philips Norelco 9700 prides itself with its V-Track Precision Blades Pro that captures each kind of hair, long or short, thick or thin. It comes with a Smart Click Precision trimmer gives the user the option to just trim their beard into a perfect grooming shape instead of shaving it all off completely. It also comes with the Smart Click Facial Cleansing Brush that you can use with your facial wash of choice to deeply cleanse and exfoliate your skin in one wash. And let us not forget the Smart Clean System that is its own charging station as well. And because the Philips Norelco 9700 is a smart shaver, it has a very intelligent digital user interface that also comes with backlit battery percentage display that displays the exact percent battery left.
| Panasonic Arc5 |
The Panasonic Arc5 of course does not get left out of the mix. As stated earlier, it comes with the Clean and Charge docking Station which provides its smart cleaning system. Additionally, it comes with a shaver machine detergent cartridge for the cleaning effect when running it in tap water. It also comes with a pop up trimmer that quickly fixes sideburns and mustaches into shape when you do not want to shave them off completely.
Which one to buy?
Here are some points you need to consider before choosing among the top 3 choices for the world’s best electric shaver you can buy.
The Braun Series 9 comes together with 5 specialized shaving accessories that you could interchange depending on your shaving needs. It has the SyncroSonic™ technology for a cleaner shave as well. And for the cleaning technology, it has the Clean and Charge 5. It also has wet and dry shaving options.
As for the Philips Norelco 9700, it has V-Track precision blades that capture hair regardless of its length and direction. It has the contour detect technology which moves in 8 different directions to follow contours of the face, neck and jaw. And its cleaning system is called the Smart Clean Plus which is pretty awesome. And let us not forget the digital user interface that it comes with as well.
Then last but not the least, the Panasonic Arc5 has a 5-blade shaving system for a very close and clean shave. It has the Multi Flex pivoting head that makes following the face’s contours a breeze. Then its cleaning system is the Premium Automatic Cleaning and Charging Station. It comes with an LCD screen to tell the cleaning status.
So which one should you really buy? When you really think about it and compare all of these three products’ features, we can decipher that there is a very definitive differences among the three. Which one? It all really depends on your shaving needs. If you’d like the highest end kind then go for the Philips Norelco 9700 with all the bells and whistles to boot.
I have tried the Norelco and Braun Series 7 series shavers in direct comparison. While I realize that part of the decision is personal preference, for me the Norelco shave is so much closer and so much smoother. I even did the test where you first shave with one and then the other to see how much of the beard was missed by he other. In this test, the Norelco caught WAY MORE than the Braun.
Thank you for your nice feedback.