And of note, the entire shaver package costs about the same as a Braun 92S replacement head! Probably a good idea to stock up on heads if you own a shaver, since I believe they're Chinese imports, although I don't know their longevity (the standard 12-18 months would be nice).
The Electric razor thread
- Thread starter Razorburn92
- Start date
Exacty i was considering stockin up on head replacements considering the low cost. Being a Xiaomi flagship it should be supported over the long run but you never know.
Thanks for the great review. My one concern is getting warranty service and replacement parts here in the United States. The shaver you have is not available on Amazon nor on the Xiaomi website. This is a concern if you like the shaver and then can’t get parts. There’s nothing wrong with a low price and if the shaver didn’t last you wouldn’t be out much money. However, usually you get what you pay for. I don’t really need another dead electric shaver in my bathroom. I would stick with the major brands when they are on sale.
You tend to forget that Xiaomi is not exactly a cheap chinese brand. They have been producing very high quality smartphones over the last years and currently has almost reached apple for the third place in quarterly sales. The build quality of my Mi8 is way better than my wife's Iphone at half the price. That said , since we are talking about shavers, i can confirm the build of my new Mijia 5 shaver is at least on par with my old (2014) arc5 (for wich i bought a new set of foils after 3 years left in the bathroom to make a future shave comparison) and maybe even better. The plastic body looks way sturdier and professional. But then again maybe it's just me. My advice: just try it, it's so cheap (if you buy from aliexpress otherwise you could spend more than 100$), the shave is perfect and the blades look very durable (they are stainless steel). I will continue monitoring the performance in the future and i promise to make a fair comparison with my old arc5 when i get the new set of foils and blades. Have a great weekend.
I’m not saying that their products are bad, but that there is no support for this model in the United States. Any company can produce a product that’s defective and that’s why they offer a warranty. At least with the major brands sold here they have warranty support. Previously, I owned a Remington shaver and within six months the batteries wouldn’t charge up. I contacted them and they sent me a new shaver within a couple of days and never asked for the defective one back.
Yes, it’s being offered at an excellent price, but I don’t need another shaver. I’m not a collector of shavers just a user who has an interest in the technology and what’s new.
update: the old arc5 battery is officially dead (doesn't even charge anymore) so i just tossed it in the bin and sent the new foil back. Meanwhile the 5 blade xiaomi works like a charm.
Although there are guys on this forum who will tell you how to replace the batteries in the arc5, nothing lasts forever. My Braun 7 series is just 18 months old and the cutter cassette is still giving me close comfortable shaves so I’m not in the market for any new shaver regardless of the price. Eventually, I will dig down into my tight wallet and spring for a replacement cassette.
Regardless, it seems to me that both the arc 5 and the 5 blade xiaomi shavers heads are too large and have too many cutting elements. I can easily shave and clean the cassette in about four minutes. How much time will I save by the shaver having two more cutters. Keep us informed on how your Chinese shaver holds up.
my arc 5 was nearly 8 years old but more importantly it layed unused (and uncharged) in a drawer over the last 2 years. So maybe the dead battery was my fault. That said only time will tell how long the xiaomi will last. Anyway Aliexpress told me it has the usual 2 years warranty. The only problem, in case of a replacement, would be the long wait. Apart from that it's essentially the same as with amazon so no need to worry at all.
very oddily the xiaomi seems to treat my flat lying hair much better than the arc5. I said very oddily because the head build is very similar (i would say nearly identical). 5 cutting elements..15000 rpm...sonic technology, 30° blades etc. But for some strange reasons it seems to work better in that regards. Of course *with my beard* so it could be a great ymmv.
The Arc 5 uses a Li-ion battery, and one limitation of Li-ion is that you never want to let the battery completely discharge. Internal circuits usually prevent this, but over time the battery will naturally discharge until "dead" if unused, whereupon it's unrevivable (unlike older technologies, where a NiCad or NiMH can be coaxed back to life). Once a Li-ion battery is completely dead, it's time for the funeral. There are YouTube videos on replacement, but a Li-ion battery is not completely innocuous (hence the hazardous label requirements on packaging), and you need to be handy with a soldering iron. Another quirk of Li-ion is that keeping it 100% charged knocks down its useful life, so most modern devices register "100%" when the battery is about 80% charged, and slowly discharge it to make sure it's never "topped off."
Thanks for your information on batteries. Li-ion batteries can very easily catch on fire or explode if mishandled and replacing them should be left to professionals or at least those with some extra handyman knowledge. I’m very frugal, but when the battery dies, then it’s time for the trash bin. Interestingly, last week I misplaced my Braun charging cord and the shaver was nearly dead. In a pinch I charged up my old Phillips Norelco shaver amd it took the charge. I found the power cord for the Braun and just put the rotary shaver back under the sink. I hadn’t charged it in over 18 months. I’m going to let it run down and see if the batteries held the charge. I might even use it over the weekend when closeness is not that important when I’m at home.
my xiaomi stodded working suddenly. Sent back to aliexpress for a refund and thy oblviously accepted (it was within 30-day trial and 2 year warranty). I am switching to wet-shaving.
Well, hope you get your money back. In the end, you get what you pay for.
Any electronic product can go belly-up. Usually if they get past the burn-in period (varies by product, but generally a few weeks or months) they last until the warranty expires. Xiaomi again has had complaints about reliability, but for the price a replacement is cheap if you like the shaver, and a warranty replacement costs nothing. I switch between DE shaving and electric routinely, and you certainly won't have to worry about reliability with a DE razor - just the reliability of your technique! 
I personally won't buy anything outside of Braun and Panasonic brands, but that's only me and based on my personal experience having almost every popular electrical shaver in the past 30+ years. Panasonic is somewhat of a latecomer, but those two have been developing and moving the technology forward. Precision and quality made products with reliability and customer satisfaction to match. I wouldn't go with any Philips/Norelco, Xiaomi or any other cheap shavers, but as we say YMMV.
I agree with you except that Philips/Norelco shavers are high quality products. I have a Norelco shaver that’s about 10 years old. I haven’t used it for a couple of years and charged it up last week when I thought I had misplaced the Braun charging cord. It doesn’t shave very well and the motor runs slow compared to my Braun or Panasonic. But, at the time we bought it it was less than $50. We bought it for my son when he was 13. He has since been wearing a beard for several years and hasn’t used the Norelco.
The only issue I have with Panasonic shavers is that their replacement screens and cutters are expensive. I hve a Panasonic ES8103 shaver that started to not hold a charge a couple of years ago and the cutters finally got dull after five years of daily use. It is nearly the same price to replace the shaver with the same model from Amazon as to buy new cutters and screens. I went with a Braun 7893s shaver this go around instead and it’s terrific.
What’s YMMV?
YMMV - Your Mileage May Vary. Meaning everyone's experience is different. As far as the "Big Three" now - Braun, Panasonic and Philips - they're all pretty equivalent products on the high end, in quality and price. Representing the basic two electric shaving technologies - rotary and foil. Which you might use depends totally on personal preference, technique and experience, and they are all capable of delivering a smooth, comfortable shave, at least as good as a DFS in the hands of an experienced user. BBS is blade territory, but electrics have come far in the last decade or so, and continue to improve. Panasonic in particular is noted for its closeness. The benchmark remains, however, a bare blade, wielded by a skilled hand.
Thanks for the meaning of YMMV. I agree with you 100%. I’m not convinced that electric shavers can be improved much if at all as far as closness and comfort are concerned. Every feature that’s on the newest Braun shavers doesn’t seem to make any difference in the shave from my 18 month old Braun 7893s shaver. There are improvements in cleaning stations, battery capacity, capacity indicators and other minor changes. But the actual shaving mechanism hasn’t changed any in recent years which is where the rubber actually meets the road.
Well, I completely agree with above comments, but I want to clarify my standing and why I have this point of view.
First, I was always driven by quality (closeness) and comfort of the shave. Second, now I use my electric shavers 90% of the time for wet shaving, but in the past I used them only for dry shaving (when those for wet shaving were not available yet). In both instances I found the rotary type models inferior to foils. I was particularly disappointed by Philips top and most expensive models until recently. They just didn’t work for me. I drew the line and I firmly moved to the “foil” camp. I always had good results with foils, even 35 years ago with my first, old fashioned Braun. And last, the cost of replacement parts was never an issue for me, because I never had to replace any (with one exception for Braun shaver which I kept for 15 years).
My philosophy in shaving is that comfort, quality, pleasure and satisfaction shouldn’t and can’t have a price tag attached to them. After all, these devices fall in consumable category group, they are not luxury cars or houses and pretty much everyone in the western world can afford to have and change them more frequently, imo, in search of ones with better technology or improvements (when they appear ofc). In times when CNC machined safety razor sells from $100 to $300+, not to mention the ridiculous prices for brand name brushes and soaps, I think I can afford to change the foil/cassette on my electric shaver.
First, I was always driven by quality (closeness) and comfort of the shave. Second, now I use my electric shavers 90% of the time for wet shaving, but in the past I used them only for dry shaving (when those for wet shaving were not available yet). In both instances I found the rotary type models inferior to foils. I was particularly disappointed by Philips top and most expensive models until recently. They just didn’t work for me. I drew the line and I firmly moved to the “foil” camp. I always had good results with foils, even 35 years ago with my first, old fashioned Braun. And last, the cost of replacement parts was never an issue for me, because I never had to replace any (with one exception for Braun shaver which I kept for 15 years).
My philosophy in shaving is that comfort, quality, pleasure and satisfaction shouldn’t and can’t have a price tag attached to them. After all, these devices fall in consumable category group, they are not luxury cars or houses and pretty much everyone in the western world can afford to have and change them more frequently, imo, in search of ones with better technology or improvements (when they appear ofc). In times when CNC machined safety razor sells from $100 to $300+, not to mention the ridiculous prices for brand name brushes and soaps, I think I can afford to change the foil/cassette on my electric shaver.
I agree with your assessment except for one point. I’m not 100% convinced that buying the top of the line electric shaver will give you an appreciably better or more comfortable shave than a middle of the line model from the same manufacturer. For example, would the nine series Braun shaver give enough of a closer, more comfortable or faster shave than the seven series model I use now? Would the larger head cover a greater area of my face than the smaller version of on the seven series would amd would it reduce the shaving time a perceptible amount? The compellable 9 series would cost nearly $100 more money and the improvements don’t seem to make that much difference in the quality, comfort or closeness of the shave. I only shave dry in the morning before taking a shower and don’t use or care to use shaving cream to wet shave wet with an electric shaver. Doing this would only increase the shaving time which is one of the best features of an electric shaver, speed.
Another area that makes me crazy is the amount of useless accessories that the higher priced shavers have added. I don’t use nor think a cleaning station is worthwhile or even worth giving up counter space for in the bathroom. The merits of those things have been debated on this forum previously and you either love them or hate them. The various accessories that come with the new Braun shavers are useless to me. Somehow turning my shaver into a hair clipper or a body hair trimmer is ludicrous. Those devices are cheap enough to buy separately if you want them and are probably only occasionally used. In the process of including those things, Braun has made removing the shaving cassette more difficult and seemingly more prone to damage. I not only shave dry, but I clean the shaver dry after each use with the included brush. For all you cleaning station proponents, my shaver is always clean and doesn’t smell. It’s not a surgical instrument but more like a pair of scissors.
