Braun Series 1 - 190 Men's Shaver
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Customer Reviews of Braun Series 1 - 190 Men's Shaver
Customer Review: NOT BAD FOR THE MONEY
Summary: 4 Stars
I bought this electric shaver because it was inexpensive--got mine for under $30--and it was a Consumer Reports "best buy" item. I've used it and found it to be fine and worth the money. It is a foil shield razor with vibrating cutters and it's shield can be depressed but does not pivot back and forth like some other more expensive shavers. It really don't think that makes much of a difference. It can be cleaned with water, wnich is a good feature. It shaves close but not as close as a razor blade. I have never found an electric shaver that shaves as close as a good razorblade, although some have come close. On uneven surfaces like say your average chin, it probably does as good a job only safer. It has slight drawback in not signaling when the charge is weakening, although you can tell that the cutting blades are not vibrating as fast as when fully charged. As an alternative that is VERY inexpensive, try a Shaveman (tm) electric, if you can find one. They are only around $5 and use AA batteries (two come with it) and operate on the same principle (foil)as this Braun. When the charge is full the Shaveman provides an almost razorblade-like shave because the vibrating cutters go very fast, but this decreases as your batteries weaken. It can not be recharged although you can find rechargable AA batteries separately. For $5 it's worth a shot, especially if you just need it for travel. You can ALWAYS find some AA batteries somewhere.Customer Review: It's what I expected
Summary: 4 Stars
I purchased this shaver as a travel unit due to the size of the shaver and it's power cord, and the flexibility of shaving cordless or corded when needed. My expectation was that as a single-foil model the shave might not be as close as using a multi-foil shaver or wet/dry model, but it would be at least adequate for travel and convenience. This shaver hits the mark in both of those categories, provides a shave at least as good as my old rotary, and for the $'s you just can't go wrong.
General comments: It holds a charge well and in my use provides about 2 weeks worth of shaves per charge. It's best used with a dry face, so shaving before washing your face or taking a shower is best. (I have not tried it as a wet shaver, which is not a listed feature - but others use it in this way.) It's easy to clean the head under running tap water. And I will agree with many others here that as a single-foil model, it's much more effective using it every day as it does not handle growth or longer whiskers/hair very well.
My only disappointment is in the lack of a decent quality travel pouch to carry both the shaver and cord, which was at least somewhat important based on the intent of the purchase. Considering the purchase price/value I wasn't expecting a lot - but what comes with it didn't even meet the lowered expectation, so it gets 4 out of 5 for the overall rating.
Customer Review: Good if you have little facial hairs and shave daily
Summary: 2 Stars
I dropped my Norelco, one I've used for the past 3 years, where the trimmer is no longer working. As a result, I purchased the FreeControl from Walmart (after hearing great reviews on this post) as a cheap 'trimmer' replacement, as well as to try out foiled blades.
I have to say that althought it shaves a bit closer than my Norelco, it's not really for someone who has a heavy beard and likes the scruffy look.
1. This shaver has trouble shaving long (2+ days) facial stubs, they recommend a quick trim first before shave if hair is too long. Norelco won't have this issue, I go on 3-4 days without requiring to trim on my Norelco
2. The motor is noisy and weak. Whenever I tried to shave my chin, which is an area where hair are more densely packed, I ran into issue where the motor feels seemingly stuck. Various passes are required in order to get hair smoothly shaven.
3. The motor vibrates too much to be able to hold it comfortably for a long period of time... which is often required due to smaller shaving service area compared to Norelco.
4. Shaving time is too long if you have a full beard. 5+ Min on FreeControl vs 3- Min on my Norelco
The trimmer works much better than Norelco ones, but the actual shaver is another story. Unless you are light beard and shave daily, I wouldn't recommend this shaver for you.
Customer Review: Adequate, for the price
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't know if it is my face or what, but I have never had much luck with an electric shaver. I started shaving with a Braun foil shaver about 10 years ago. It left random long hairs, so I switched to a Mach 3 razor. A few years later I tried a Norelco rotary, which would work in a pinch, but for only about two days in a row before I would need to cleanup the scraps the a razor. And even then it was not as close as I would like.
After getting sick of shaving with a razor every day, but not wanting to spend $250 on something that might not work better then the shaver I already had, I decided to buy the 1775, which had good reviews.
It took over three weeks for my face to adjust to this shaver, but once it did, I was fairly happy with the results. It still leaves long hairs on my neck, but it shaves everything else quite close. I still have to clean up my neck with a razor every three days or so, but just a little bit, so its quick and I don't even both lathering up.
Overall, this is a good shaver for the price. However, for me at least, it is not sufficient to replace a razor completely. I would be happy with any shaver that allows me to need a razor once a week or less. I will probably end up trying one of Braun's top of the line models, but until then, I am content with this budget model.
Customer Review: Good, but not as close as a blade (my first electric)
Summary: 4 Stars
This was my first electric shaver, so I don't have anything to compare it to besides a blade. The FreeControl gives a good shave, its not too irritating to my skin but I've never had sensitive skin either. I have gotten mild chaffing in small spots but nothing serious. It takes about 3 times longer for me to shave with this than with a blade, but hey there's no cream and I don't have to rinse the blade continually. If you shave every day then it might be a quick shave, I like to shave every other day and it doesn't seem to do too well with longer hairs.
The trimmer is nice for those hairs that jut out parallel to the skin and don't get picked up by the foil, and also for trimming sideburns etc.
I've found that I leave it plugged in continually. I tried it cordless but by the end of the shave it was grabbing hairs not cutting, and it sped up noticeably after I plugged it back in.
Washing is a snap, it comes with a little brush that works great with some liquid hand soap. Its water proof so you can run it under the faucet which is nice.
I still have all my blade shaving stuff but I haven't used it since I got the FreeControl so I guess that says something. No more cuts, nicks or scrapes, and if I shave every day its pretty quick and painless. A good little shaver all in all.