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The Arc5 electric razor comes in a leatherette zippered case, A/C charger, blade oil, cleaning brush, and an instruction manual. There’s also a chrome-colored version of this shaver, and you can get either style with a cleaning and charging station, if you prefer. Inside the case the electric razor has a clear plastic protective cap, and it measures 6 inches long, 2-3/4” across the head, and about 2 inches thick. I have the matte black version, and it has gold lettering and trim, but the plastic material doesn’t look or feel super premium. However, it is pretty lightweight at about 7 oz or 200 grams. The shaver head features a 5-blade design with outer finishing foils, inner lift-tech foils for flat-laying hair, and central slit blade foil for longer hairs.
Squeezing the release buttons on the sides, you can remove the foils for cleaning and servicing the cutting blades beneath, then to reassemble you just snap that back into place. As far as the controls, there is only the power button and a long LCD screen. On the back, there’s a trimmer that can be used by moving the sliding switch up past the head lock function to the trimmer icon, which pops the trimmer out on a curved arm into a horizontal position.
The shaver head has quite a lot of freedom of motion side-to-side and front-to-back to help guide the blades over the contours of your face. When you push the switch up to ‘lock’ position, this locks the shaver head so that it stays pretty still if you need to target a specific spot without the head moving around. On the back of the handle is a rubber grip, and there are three round metal contacts for the drop-in charging feature, if you have the cleaning and charging base. Other than that, the fine ridges on the handle give the unit a nice slip-free grip whether you’re right or left-handed. At the bottom of the handle is the charging port for the proprietary charger; a one hour charge gives you about 45-50 minutes of run time. When charging, a red plug indicator illuminates, and the current charge level will be flashing on the LCD. The shaver cannot be used to shave while plugged in for safety reasons.
The Arc5 is a wet/dry shaver, so you can use it at the sink or in the shower and with or without shaving cream. I tried it both ways so I could compare results. First, I made sure to take my facial hair down to 0.5mm using the trimmers. For me that’s like a couple days worth of stubble, but that will vary depending on how fast and how thick your facial hair grows. Short press the power button to turn the razor on. I found that despite the length of my facial hair being about a centimeter, or half an inch, the trimmer didn’t have any difficulty gliding through them in one pass.
This razor employs a beard density sensor and adapts the motor speed based on the density and coarseness of the section of beard it is trimming. I thought this worked pretty well on my uneven and patchy beard growth. One of the things I think this razor does well is maneuver around the neck and jawline smoothly without catching or snagging.
When shaving with shaving gel/cream I avoided doing multiple passes over the same area using the shaving scream as a guide, while rinsing off the blades between strokes. The gel provides some lubrication making things go much faster and reducing skin irritation. When looking at a side by side comparison of the two shaving methods, for me, the dry side came out with a closer shave that was more consistent but had more skin irritation. On the wet side, I had less razor burn for sure, but also I didn’t get as close as a shave either doing single passes over that side of my face. As someone who prefers dry shaving with an electric razor, maybe I’m just doing it wrong — so I’d be open hearing to any tips and suggestions for wet shaving that you might want to leave me in the comments.
The shaver has a dedicated cleaning mode that you activate by pressing and holding the power button for several seconds. In the sonic vibration cleaning mode the battery indicators will flash, and there is reduced splashing and foaming, if cleaning with liquid soap. When travelling, you can also lock the power button so that the shaver doesn’t get turned on by accident in your travel bag.
Overall, I think the shaver did a good job of giving me a clean, smooth shave. I use it dry most days for a quick clean shave, especially when I’m shaving every day, but even if I get a bit lazy, I can take down the growth with the trimmers quickly to get a close shave as well.
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28 Comments
the neck is always hard to get perfect! I never got it perfect but close! I just got the Braun series 7 7071cc and this is the best razor I ever owned! still might get this one!
You're not going to believe this… I've an arc4 from over 10 years ago… I haven't been using it everyday. I even misplaced it during a move a couple of years ago. Original foil. Still shaves close. Doesn't hold a charge for more than a week and half the lcd doesn't work anymore, but I still get 3 shaves per charge and it still shaves as close as shaving against the grain with one of those 5 bladed cartridge razors without the burn. I get better results with plain foaming hand soap. Thick lather or shave foam doesn't produce good results. When this gives up the ghost I'll be torn between getting another arc4 or the arc5. 😎
My arc5 doesnt shave my bread that well. Do you always have to trim before shaving?
I meant to get this as a trimmer. Are there any attachments to use it as such? It seems wild to me they don’t have any stackable heads to accommodate this
Thank you for a great review
Finally a review that's not sponsored or an ad. Great job, thank you!
You can stop the irritation on the dry side by using a few drops of mineral oil on your face before shaving.
I must be the only one who is not impressed with this razor and wish I had bought a Braun. On my beard, this thing does not come anywhere near to being a close as a blade. I have to use it two or three times a day just to get all the whiskers it missed. IMO this is a 3 (out of 5) star razor at a $50 price point. But at $125 … 1 star, Mine appear genuine and not defective. I just don't understand all the glowing reviews here and elsewhere. Phil, your videos are just fine. My issue is with the razor.
Is it possible to get different settings for not a full shave but like a trim or different hair levels?
I got this for my brother, i recently switched over to an arc 3 shaver and loved it. My brother wanted a shaver and as early Christmas gift got him this particular shaver your using. He used to rotary shavers but he been thinking going to foil shavers himself so i got this for him. Im liking the new pansonic shaver i got and hope he enjoys the one i got him
Yup. I can confirm the Panasonic Arc 5 is better than the Philips Prestige 9000. Had both. ARC 5 wins hands down: 4D / 16 Direction Shaving, Japanese Blades, 40,000 bla blah blah, yes, selling my 9000 for this (Having owned an Arc 5 ES-LV 65 as well.) Just listen to the vibration pitch. Best on the Market.
Great comprehensive review. Thank you for taking the time to make it.
Your beard have little bit of hair
Great review but let me tell you, you look so much better with that stache
Great review!
Thank you for making and posting this. I was struggling with using it properly, and this really helped.
Marvelous review. Thank you.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for this video. I am a daughter that is helping my elderly Alchemizes father. And I had no clue how to work this type of shaver. This video has helped me in so many ways. Once again, thank you.
A very good demo session with your crazy grown out beard. This really shows what I needed to see with the electric razor. Very helpful. I'm 60 now, and I have never in my entirely life grown out my beard like that! So this is better than what I could of expected for a test, and likewise probably for a lot of other guys too! I think most guys who use electric razors or for that matter use old school double edge blade fed safety razors, tend to be clean shaved very regularly. When it's warmer, I'll almost never go more than two days and that's with a blond beard too! There was a scary moment in your shave you know. Right sideburn area on the foam side. Way too much growth, and way too close with the blades. An oh no moment for me! Cheers.
Problem with arc shavers is that they are the loudest
This review covered everything so well, thanks for including the close ups. Honestly it’s so hard finding a good quality video review like this!
This was absolutely the BEST product review I have ever seen! Really great video
Great review! Very thorough and answered all my questions except for one. Would have loved to see the charging base but great job!💯🥳🙋🏾
I feel like you could pull off mustache+goatee pretty well
In the market for a new shaver and watched several videos. This review is, hands down, the best. Thank you.
Dry shaving with electric razor gives me irritation. Safety razor takes too long (for me). I found using shaving cream from a tube as a wet shave with a electric razor delivers amazing results. Has to be from a tube not a canned cream
Very good review, thanks!
Sorry but i thought this shaver was terrible..
First off it was way to noisey..and left stray hairs all over the neckline