Philips Norelco Shaver 7800, Rechargeable Wet & Dry Electric Shaver with SenseIQ Technology, Quick Clean Pod, Charging Stand, Travel Case and Pop-up Trimmer, S7885/85

Long, long ago I had an early version of the Norelco razor. It, too, had the three blades but was short and squat by comparison. Nevertheless, it was a good, functional razor. That lasted me decades. I remember the commercials. A guy would appear with the razor, can’t recall his name, and would say that he liked it so much he bought the Norelco company. It was a very effective and appealing ad. Must have been because I got mine as a Christmas present.I am glad that some version of the original razor still exists. Phillips has done a pretty good job at maintaining and improving the quality of the product. They have given it a longer handle and modernized the “floating” heads.My beard is somewhat heavy, or it would be heavy if I let it grow. It took a while – maybe a week to a week and a half – to become accustomed to the razor – where it would cut easily and thoroughly. Part of this, of course, was me becoming familiar with the operation of the razor. I have had it now for about three months.I started out with ‘wet’ shaves in which I used a shaving oil on my face and am now trying it as a “dry” shave. It does a good job both ways. I usually take my time and will take 5 to 6 minutes though once I have really taken my time at 13 minutes. Phillips Norelco recommends about three minutes to save your face. They also recommend that you go in circular patterns which I sometimes try but I sometimes ignore their advice on parts of my face that are more difficult to cut – jaw line, etc. Overall, a good shave.Occasionally, I will use the popup trimmer. The early versions of this razor also had this feature and it would be especially useful if I still had a mustache.Manual cleaning is a little harder than I recall as there are now three parts to each circular blade. There is a definite “screw to lock in” process when reassembling. Still not too difficult. It is easier to manual clean after a dry shave than after a wet shave as the oil has a tendency to make the cut whiskers stick together and to the razor. How often you clean it will depend on how often you use it combined with how heavy a stubble you are shaving. I clean it about once a week or so but then I sometimes don’t shave every day.In addition to manual cleaning, I have the 7000 with a cleaning pod. The cleaning pod is a small cylindrically shaped device which has a detachable top so that you can drop in a container of their cleaning fluid. Once the cleaning fluid is in you put the razor into the molded slot razor side down and it will cause the razor to turn on and off again as it cleans the cutting heads. It does a pretty good job and it has a pleasant, clean smell to it. However, after thinking about this for a while, I tried an experiment in which I placed the razor in a container with no more than 2 -3 millimeters of water so that only the razor heads were in the water, and I turned it on for about thirty seconds. This did a pretty good job at cleaning the razor but leaves stubble in the container you use. I would not recommend using more water as you do not want to drop the razor into the water.Did not realize this at the time I purchased it but this razor is high tech. You can get the Phillips Norelco app and pair the razor with your smart phone. This allows the app to monitor and time your shaves (refer to above). The app will also chide you when it thinks you are not doing a good job or take too long. Still learning how to use this.Overall, a good razor that does a good job at cutting stubble and they have made it high tech. I would buy it again and would recommend it to anybody.