Today I review the Philips OneBlade Wet & Dry Electric Shaver, for which I had to do some serious chin cultivation… that is, whisker growing! So, join me below if you’d like to hear all of the details of just how it went… not the growing, though… I mean the shaving… Join me below and I’ll tell you all about the shaving, and just how well the Philips OneBlade performed.
INTRODUCTION
The Philips OneBlade Wet/Dry Electric Shaver represents a very interesting concept when it comes to men’s shaving. Its motto is “OneBlade to trim, edge, and shave any length of hair”. What’s interesting about that is that many men actually require multiple tools to do these different jobs properly. But the OneBlade is not your typical electric razor, so I was very interested in giving it a try. The features and specs of the OneBlade are as follows: It’s got a dual-sided blade (which is great for edging work and sculpting clean edges), 3 different attachments (a 1mm, a 3mm, & a 5mm grooming head—for keeping your beard trimmed to a specific, favoured length), and a cutting edge that moves at an incredible 200 times per second (for a quick and painless shave weather you choose to use the OneBlade for a wet or a dry shave). In keeping with the painless theme, the OneBlade also employs the Philips Dual Protection System. This is really just a fancy way of saying that the OneBlade has rounded tips and a glide coating that together help to protect your skin while shaving. It all sounds pretty good to me, but how well does the OneBlade actually work?
SHAVING WITH THE ONEBLADE
My experience shaving with the OneBlade was very, very good. I was seriously impressed with this thing! I got a full shave in just under 5 minutes, and it was both close and comfortable—as well as completely nick free. I also found that the OneBlade gave a very close shave for an electric shaver. I really wasn’t expecting that! My regular shaver is also a Philips, for which reason I have great confidence in the brand, but I’ve never found any electric razor to provide a particularly close shave. At least not when compared to a multi-blade manual razor. But the Philips OneBlade has a way of getting right up against your skin, and I even pressed it in good and hard as a sort of comfort versus cut test. I never found it the least bit uncomfortable, no matter how hard I pressed, and I never even got the slightest hint of a nick or a cut. If I had tried the same sort of a test with a manual razor blade, half of my face would still be attached to the razor…
Other electric shavers that I’ve tried in the past (including my own Philips shaver) have caused a bit of irritation when I’ve had as much growth as I did this time around. These shavers, all of which were covered blade models (see photo at right), tended to sometimes pull at the longer hairs. I think that due to their length (up to 1 centimetre), they would often slip too deep into the rotating blades and get pulled before being cut. Not a fun experience! For this reason, I normally use a small pair of scissors to closely trim my beard before taking an electric shaver to it if there’s around a centimetre or more of growth. Then I finish the job with the electric shaver. With the Philips OneBlade, there is no need to do a pre shave. You can just turn it on and begin shaving with no preparation whatsoever, and you won’t have to worry about painful hair pulling.
In conducting my shaving test, I actually wanted to give all aspects of the OneBlade a try, so I did one half of my face as a dry shave, the other half as a wet shave, and I left a temporary goatee in the middle to test the OneBlade’s edging capabilities. What I found was that the OneBlade works just as well for a wet shave as it does for a dry, and in either case it is quick and painless. Had I not been trying to shoot the process for my video review below, I would have finished the entire shave in 2 or 3 minutes tops, and I would have only gone with the dry version of the shave. What this means is that you should be able to get quite a few shaves in with the OneBlade between charging sessions. The shaver takes 8 hours to fully charge, and for that time investment you’ll get 45 minutes of total running time. If you can shave in just 2-3 minutes, that’s a lot of shaves per charge, so if you only shave every 2-3 days like I do, you should get well over a month of shaves from each full charging of your OneBlade. That’s pretty respectable if you ask me.
When testing the OneBlade, I didn’t really require the included attachments. Still, I wanted to make sure that they held firmly to the shaver & stayed properly in place during use, so I did mess with them a bit just to see how well they connected and how easily (or not so easily) they would become detached. Overall I found the attachments to be fairly typical of electric shaver attachments. In other words, they stay in place just fine and they are always around if you need them.
EXAMINING THE VIDEO EVIDENCE
Please take a look at my short video overview of the Philips OneBlade Electric Shaver and see what it looks like up close and in action. I tested the OneBlade on my Yeti-like beard, which, believe me, is the ultimate test of any shaving appliance—whether electronic or otherwise! Few obstacles pose as much difficulty to a brand new shaving device as a face full of 1-2 week old stubborn, wire-like stubble:
FINAL THOUGHTS
In the final analysis, I just can’t recommend the Philips OneBlade highly enough. I have used a number of different electric (and manual) shavers & razors in the past, and this one beats them all. Possibly its most convenient feature is the dual-sided blade, which allows you to shave in either direction without having to turn the OneBlade around, unlike the experience of using a manual razor. One thing that strikes me as interesting about this shaver is that it kind of has the look of a manual razor. If you accept this premise as true, then I suppose the OneBlade combines the look of a manual razor with the speed & efficiency of an electric shaver. One way or another, I definitely, and highly, recommend this appliance!
GALLERY OF ADDITIONAL PHOTOS
This thing is a piece of junk! Had it for 2 weeks and 2 of the 4 plastic arms that hold the blade in place sheared off. Philips wanted to send me a replacement blade, that would be great if the new blade had something to attach to! Duh! Save your money, there are plenty of less expensive, better constructed shavers out there. Consider yourself warned, buyer beware
It seems very strange that you would have so much trouble with it. The video is 100% real (I don’t know anyone at Industrial Light and Magic), and I still use the OneBlade a few times a month to this day. It’s the best electric shaver I’ve ever had, especially for when I haven’t shaved in a few days. If I’m on a shave everyday kick, I use my rotary shaver more because it traps the clippings inside. But when I have more than a couple of days growth, I use the ObeBlade because the rotary shaver pulls and hurts. The OneBlade never hurts, and aside from sending hair all over the place if you’re doing a dry shave, I couldn’t be happier with it. I’ve actually even tried to cut myself with the OneBlade as well just to see if it would, and even pressing it hard into my skin it wouldn’t cut. I can’t imagine how it did so much damage to you, but I’m sorry to hear that it did. You might want to stick with some of those other shavers. I like a quick shave myself. Anything over 5 minutes is just too long for me, so that’s where the OneBlade comes in handy. My days of the 20 minute wet shave with a manual razor are thankfully over. I only do that now if I need a super close shave to attend a wedding or something.
Did you somehow fake that video? I had about the same amount of facial hair(was clean shaven, and waited approximately 1 week without shaving), and this was the worst shave of my life. I have been using Gillette(Mach 3, Fusion, Proglide, etc.) for over 20 years. Gillette is a nice close shave, but its time consuming(20 minutes)requires shaving cream, and the blades are pricey. I heard about this product, that it was fast and doesn’t need shaving cream. This product is also pricey, and so are the blades. Shaving with the One Blade iIt took over 30 minutes, and got scratches, nicked, and cut, and there was a lot of blood of my face. Some places that I tried to shave as I was shaving up the razor just got stuck on my skin and then cut it. Horrible razor. 0.5 out of 10. I would rate the Gillette Fusion Proglide a 7 out of 10. Looks like I will be buying another Gillette razor and try the Fusion Proglide 5, and hopefully it will score higher than a 7.
A good rotary shaver. Fits well in your hand and has the beard/edge trimmer built-in. Nice sprung rotary heads, which are sharp and cut close enough for an electric shaver. Easy to clean and comes with the small cleaning brush. One charge lasts over two weeks, which is pretty good.
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