Braun 720S-7

The worst electric shaver I have ever used – If it was a good shave, it wouldn't matter. I scarcely use it at all any more because it is such a bad shave. The small companion shaver that accompanied the main shaver works much better. Show details

Disappointing – A Braun shaver user for most of my adult life, I seem to have found one that disappoints. This one is rough as guts and does not come up to the usual Braun mark (In my opinion). I note it has been discontinued. I'm not surprised.

Very happy – Bought a Philips aqua-shave. It was so bad I went back to my 15 year old blunt Remington. The Braun is in a different league. Smooth as silk. Very happy.

stop kidding consumers – 6 months ago I tried my first shaver (? the cooltec) after 60 years of shaving with razors. After 6 weeks with cooltec I considered it reasonable BUT without giving a good, smooth shave. The distributor then recommended I go to the 720S-7 and now after about 3 months usage I find no matter how many times I go over the same spot I still get a… Read more

poor shave. From memory, it seemed fair in about the first month that I used it. However, it was still impossible to get a smooth shave on the lip, chin and neck. Now, a great deal of my face feels rough, even immediately after shaving. Good luck to those who claim to get a great shave, but no doubt there there are those like me who cannot recommend with sincerity the shavers they've used.

Complete Garbage for the Money – -Spend approximately 30 minutes attacking my face to get a remotely acceptable appearance. -By which time, I've retraced the same area so many times that my skin is irritated as much as using a razor anyway.. -The trimmer attachment is equally useless in cleaning up sideburns, I end up resorting to the main blades to finish the job. 1 star -… Read more

because if you're not time poor, aren't sensitive to razors and don't feel a need to wear anything remotely close to clean side burns, this is still a terrible shaver.

Far from perfect, but at half price, it's not bad – This is actually a review for the 720S-7 (not 720S-6) but there was no option to select that from the list. I'd reckon there is no effective difference between the two anyway, and the consumables are identical. I bought this from the Shaver Shop at half price ($224.50) as the new Series 9 shavers will be released soon, so the Series 7 models… Read more

are all on special at the moment. I'm currently half way through the 60-day trial period.

I think this is a good 'Monday morning shaver' as it has no trouble powering through several days' growth. But if you shave every day, as I tend to, then it's not so effective as a 'daily driver' because it has real trouble cleaning up regular stubble. This is probably because daily stubble is coarser/stiffer than longer hair, and is also probably the case with other shavers too for the same reason.

In daily use, to get a really close shave is impossible, and to get a fair-to-middling shave takes a long time - about 6 to 8 minutes before finally giving it up as a bad job.

It's particularly ineffective under the chin - and again, this may not be so different from other shavers in that respect. In fact - despite all the extra blades (up to 5 with Panasonic), titanium cutters, and in Braun's case 'Sonic Technology with Turbo Mode' and 'ActiveLift' etc etc, I have really seen no real improvement in shaving effectiveness over the last 20 or 30 years!

I always find that the best shave I get comes from a brand new set of consumables (foil & cutters), and generally only for the first couple of shaves. With that in mind, I don't usually get a new shaver until the old one actually breaks - until then, may as well just keep replacing the consumables.

And with regard to the consumables, the Brauns are now coming in a 'cassette' which contains both the foil & cutters in a sealed unit. This is both good and bad.

The good: they are reasonably priced and easy to replace

The bad: you can't actually get at the cutters themselves, so you can't use a brush to clean the hairs out from between each blade. This means you'd better not use any shaving oils (like King of Knives) because whilst they aid electric shaving, they also tend to clog up cutters quite quickly.

The only way to clean the cassette is under running water, and I'm not sure that that's sufficient to clean out any gunk left between the blades. I wonder if the model with the self-cleaning apparatus would be advisable? (I've always avoided those as something of a gimmick.)

I've had a couple of issues in use - the first was that despite regular washing, at one point the middle blade (the one for the coarse hairs) got so hot that I could barely stand it. I thought that a fault might have developed that was causing too much friction (and if so, which would also prematurely wear out the consumables).

At the same time I could hear a slight vibration coming from the shaver itself (not from the cassette) which was also a worry.

I read in the manual that if you use hot water to wash the cassette (as they recommend) then you should also apply a drop of light machine oil weekly (which is not supplied with the shaver). After I did that, both issues disappeared. I'm still concerned that the heat/friction may have caused premature wear though.

Final observations: I can tell no difference between the various settings (from 'sensitive' through to 'intensive).

And the instructions make no reference to the Turbo Mode which is advertised on the box, saying "Even more motor power where you need it most" - there is certainly no Turbo button on the shaver, so this claim seems to be verging on fraudulent.

I haven't yet decided whether or not I'll keep the shaver - it's far from perfect, but I probably will, because I doubt that there is anything around that would be significantly better (certainly the Panasonic 5-blade shaver I had just previously was no better, and its consumables were much more expensive) - and so at half price, it's probably about the best value around.