Braun cruZer Z-50 Shaver

well to be honest, I took my chances while purchasing this product, after reading all the bad reviews

I took it basically for trimming and it doesnt work.

Totally useless product, its all the hype, totally not worth it

Great idea. Bad quality. It has some issues cutting long hair but you have the trimmer/whatever. Well, tonight the trimmer chocked and died on me on my beard. Basically the blades got enough "hair inside" that something got suck and stopped moving. I have had this product for about 4-6 months.

Sorry but if a product is aimed at trimming beards/goatees, etc also, I expect it to work *and last*. Didn't.

Went back to my Norelco for a second to finish my shave (it runs low on batteries even at full charge for being old) and I was surprised how much better even in non-trimmer mode it grabbed longer hair.

My disappointment is that Norelco doesn't make an "all in one" product like this anymore. They charge high, but I have to say, they work better, and I think this is the first and last Braun shaving product I buy.

Hint to Braun: you have the right idea. But it needs to last. Even if that means charging $20 USD more for it.

This shaver gives a nice clean cut, however it seems to take over twice as long as my last Braun shaver. My previous Braun has two heads while this one only has one. At the time, I didn't give it much thought, but in retrospect, I would have sought after one which had two. All in all, paying an extra $30 for one of the nicer Brauns would have been a better idea.

The Braun CruZer 3 is many tools in one, let's take a look at them one by one:

1-Shaver: This shaver uses the Braun shaving foil which is supposed to catch all hair regardless of the direction of growth, it raises it and then the cutter block finishes the job.

It's a nice theory that doesn't work as intended. The shaver foil doesn't catch all hair and the cutter block isn't sharp enough or maybe the whole mechanism needs a redesign.

At first when I tried to shave after a few days of not shaving (Braun in that case recommends using the trimmer first then the shaver) well, I did exactly that and only thing that worked was the trimmer, the shaver still didn't shave well.

Next time I used the shaver I had just shaved the day before and I noticed that the shaver did a better job than the time before but still not as good as I expected.

After a while I figured that this shaver doesn't need to be moved quickly up-down like others, you better press well against your skin and move very slow, that gave me the best results. Still not perfect but acceptable.

2-Styler: The CruZer 3 comes with a very good trimmer, it's sharp and accurate, you can use the wide shaper (1.1 in / 28 mm) or the narrow shaper (0.55 in / 14 mm).

I personally think the styler part is great, the ability to do wide and narrow areas of your face and the way the trimmer rotates 180 degrees with a push of a finger gives you quick access to both trimmers while in the middle of styling.

At first I was bothered because I couldn't see the trimmer from all angles, also if you lean the shaver against your face there chance the foil might miss another area. So, I tweaked the thing a bit, I removed the foil, pulled the cutter block out then used the trimmers just like that (no foil and no cutter block). That eliminated the threat of the foil cutting hair and also made the visible area bigger and clearer.

No kidding, but with a styler as good as that you can write your initials on one check and draw a picture on the other.

3-Beard trimmer : This part is flawless, all you have to do is attach the beard trimmer, select the desired length then enjoy a fast and easy beard trimming.

With that said, the shaver comes with universal power adapter which serves as both a power supply and charger. Yes! You can use the CruZer 3 in cordless mode for 30 minutes.

The on/off switch is neat and the light on the front informs you about charge power and other information.

You can wash the machine --when not connected to the power chord-- also it comes with cleaning oil and a nice brush to clean all and every part

That's all to it, I do recommend this machine for the serious styler, if you just want to have a clean shave then maybe this machine is too much beside the shaving part isn't exactly where it excels.

I got mine on clearance at Target for about twenty five bucks, but mainly use it as a trimmer. The foil shaver is good but still not as easy and close as using a plain old razor blade, and does irritate my skin unless I use some sort of aftershave toning cream afterwards. So instead I now use the trimmer to shave...this leaves me with a five o'clock shadow look but it's much faster and doesn't require the lather-up-and-rinse process of using a blade and shaving cream.

Really appreciate the ergonomics of this thing, it fits perfectly in my hand. The battery holds a decent charge, I recharge it maybe twice a month tops. It's not too loud either, which is a plus.

If I had to do it all over again I'd probably buy one of those Norelco Beard Trimmers and use it for shaving because they have a vaccuum which means that your hairs are tidily sucked up so there's no mess you have to clean up afterwards...but for the time being am pretty happy with this thing. I also like that it's water resistant, so I can use it in the shower if I want to.