Braun Series 5-590cc Men's Shaving System 1 Count

My old Braun (I think it was the 6552) died after *14* years. The battery had not been holding the charge as well, so I would shave with it plugged in, and one day it stopped. A great razor.I spent hours on Amazon looking at diffeent shavers, reading the reviews, looking for problems, before settling on this one.8/17/11PROSFirst shave - Amazingly close on the face, I could have spent more time under the chin to get it smoother, but it was still ok. Very satisfied with the closeness of the shave. It took less time to shave than with a non electric razor, and gave comparable results.The trimmer is fine for sideburns, neck har.Nice Ergonomic feel.Can be used plugged in with the cord, in case the battery gradually starts holding less and less of a charge. Thus extending the useful life of the shaver.CONSNo plastic cover for the head, which means it may get dented/nicked and that could render the foil unusable. My old Braun had a snap over plasic cover. It would have added 10 cents to the cost to include such a plastic cover, and I'd much rather have it than some bulky box with air, or a color brochure that I throw away.I tried my old plastic cover, but its around 2 millimeters too short on each side.I dont need the cleaning sysytem. The only reason I bought this model, instead of one $24 cheaper, is it seemed like it was better. The cleaning system is big and bulky. It's one more thing to stow somewhere, or take up precious counter top space. To make teh cleaning fluid last longer I only use it when recharging, then I recap the plastic container.Seems fragile - if you drop it, it could be the end of it.The battery life is listed as 45 minutes while my older Braun had a supposed life of 60 minutes. Not that big a deal, just recharge it more frequently. I get at least 3 weeks with it, maybe 4.Price is a bit high. Give me similar quality, but keep the recharging stand, and cleaner and knock of $20 from the price.Overall I am quite satisfied. The width is about the same as the old shaver.Is it a bit louder tahn my old Braun? Maybe, but with the bathroom door closed, its not a big deal.I will update this review in the future.9/28/2011I very much like this razor. Maybe I should rate it a 5 instead of a 4. I still think its a waste to have to buy the cleaning stand and expensive cleaning solution, when its not needed. Keep that and drop the price by $20 and its 5 stars.

It took me awhile to decide on this Braun after all I've never paid this much for a shaver. However, I had a problem getting parts for my old Remington so decided to bite the bullet. The unit arrived nicely boxed with a semi-hard black zippered travel case which is not mentioned in the literature. It uses the same power cord for rechargeable and corded operation. The shaver feels comfortable and solid in the hand and looks nice. I like the trimmer and flexible head. I find setting the sensitivity of the head to medium works best especially in the neck area. When not in use, the shaver sits in the cleaning station which also acts as a charger. At night, the cleaning station gives off a small blue light which is nice should you have to find the unit without turning on the lights. I've had the unit a few weeks and so far, I love it.Why? Because it's quiet (compared to my old Remington), and gives me smooth, dry close shaves. For my face and skin, it's pretty close to a razor. The head and cutter is washable under running water and if that's not enough, you can use the Clean & Renew System. Since I've only had my unit for a few weeks, I didn't see the need to give it a bath so soon. I'll do what others suggest and do it periodically. Besides, I didn't want to open the sealed cartridge filled with cleaning solution for fear I would spill it and have to buy more refill cartridges.Things I didn't like were that it was relatively expensive and the cleaning station base footprint was large. The shaver sits head down in the base unit so the bottom of the shaver is 8 3/4" above the counter. But if you don't mind charging it with the A/C cord, you can put the base unit away for another day when cleaning is needed.I decided against the Braun Series 7 Pulsonic because I didn't see how 10,000 micro vibrations would help with a smoother closer shave. Besides, my Sonicare toothbrush vibrates and I can see the logic there. I'll just hold the shaver looser and let it vibrate by itself. I picked this unit over the Series 5 570 because as far as I could tell, the only difference were the LED lights. The cost between both units was minimal so I opted for extra LED lights. I'm sure I would be just as happy with the other unit.SEPT 2009 UPDATE:I've had this unit now for about 6 months and I am still very satisfied with it. I love the flexible shaver head and the ability to adjust the sensitivity. It makes for a comfortable shave in all the right places.One of the early concerns I had before purchasing the unit was the added cost of cleaning the unit using the Clean&Renew Station and cleaning solution as often as Braun recommends. This is what I've discovered.The User Guide recommends cleaning the unit after each shave or when the yellow LED light comes on. I physically clean the shaver foil and cutter block once a week, sometimes every other week when lazy. Very easy. The yellow "time to clean" light never came on so after a month, I cleaned the shaver anyway. So far, I've only cleaned the unit 3 times and only because I thought it was time to clean. Now to prevent the cleaning solution from evaporating or spilling, I remove the cleaning cartridge after each use and replace the plastic cover and store the cartridge under the counter. So far for me, purchasing more cleaning kits has not been costly since I'm still using the original cleaning cartridge.