Best electric shavers for men, tried and tested on sensitive, wet and dry skin

A lightweight shaver – albeit with a hefty price tag – this German-engineered premium offering from Braun offers a close but gentle shave. The heads are optimised to lift hairs and guard skin at the same time, and it boast 40,000 cutting actions a minute. The LED display, meanwhile, tells you how many minutes of shaving you have left, comes with a travel lock and, very handily, even tells you when it’s time to replace the foils and cutter cassette.

Overall, results were some of the best – and smoothest – we achieved, though the slide-up trimmer wasn’t as well positioned as on other shavers, making precision trimming a little tricky. A cleaning station makes it a cinch to keep clean, which more than made up for that, though.

One of the big advantages of electric shavers is their convenience – especially for travel, when the last thing you want is a washbag full of razors, shaving creams and aftershave balms.

This specially designed travel shaver takes things to the next level, though, by shrinking things down. Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, with a special travel lock to prevent accidental activation, and a washable foil head, it’s perfect for holidays, festivals or last-minute overnight stays. Given its size, it delivered a great, close and irritation-free shave, helped in part by the flexible foils, which tilt to the contours of the face.

At first, the eight-hour charge time seemed like a stretch, but Wahl estimates this makes for a month’s use, so it’s a small price to pay. It comes with a cleaning brush, blade oil and storage bag, plus an impressive five-year guarantee. All you need to add is the holiday.

The original Philips oneblade pretty much re-invented the way men shave, thanks to unique blade technology that features a flat, super-safe cutting surface, making it virtually impossible to nick the skin. Now, this bigger, flashier, pro version pimps things up with the addition of an LED display (handy for telling how much charge is left), a travel lock and the addition of a 14-length precision comb, giving it greater versatility as an all-round grooming tool. Phew!

As the name suggests, it can be used on both face and body, and we can report it was as good at delivering a clean smooth shave as it was at trimming body hair. It was also especially good for creating precise edges when tidying up neck hair.

You do have to replace the blades every four months, and it’s more than twice the price of the standard oneblade, but it’s sleek, simple, portable and we found it almost impossible to fault its performance.

Solidity and durability is what Wahl is all about, and this super-tough shaver takes things to the next level. Designed with shock-proof housing but light and comfortable to hold, it’s a great foil shaver for those who might throw their gear around. It’s also perfect for anyone who travels a lot, as there’s a handy travel lock function that ensures it doesn’t accidentally go off in your case.

It’s not the quietest shaver we tried but was a cinch to use – Wahl has stuck to basics and kept things simple – and it delivered a great shave. The yellow and black design reminded of us of a DIY tool you might pick up in B&Q, but in a sea of blue, black and silver shavers, we rather loved it for that.

This top-end foil shaver features no fewer than five blades, gently arched and aligned to catch as many hairs as possible – regardless of stubble density or direction of growth. The head itself moves in 16 directions, tilting and wobbling like a jelly, to ensure it follows the contours of the face. It automatically adjusts to beard density, while a pop-up trimmer allows you to tidy up sideburns and remove stray hairs from under the nose.

So smooth is its passage over the skin, we barely felt it going to work, and the results were top-notch. Meanwhile, the sleek design, deluxe carry case, super-fast three-minute quick charge and the fact it’s self-cleaning (you just pop it into the cleaning station) elevates it above most other foil shavers.

If we have one criticism, it’s that the flexibility of the head made it feel a little delicate – even though we suspect it’s actually pretty robust. Truth is, given the premium nature of the shaver, we suspect you’d want to handle it with gloves anyway.

With more men than ever alternating between being clean shaven and sporting beards, this versatile grooming gadget is perfect for mixing things up on the facial hair front. A multifunctional shaver/trimmer, this shaver sports an array of interchangeable heads, allowing you to trim and shave everything from ear, nose and eyebrow hair to body hair, while a dinky foil shaver head allows you to get a smooth, clean shave.

Because of the size of the head, shaving did take a little longer, and results were excellent rather than exceptional, but then it’s a tool designed to cover a lot of bases rather than focus on one. In that respect, it’s pretty much the last word in multifunctional grooming, and as with all BaByliss products, a lot of effort has gone into making its design, ensuring it looks incredibly cool.

A great, mid-priced shaver, this super-speedy foil number from Braun is designed not only to guide more hairs into the cutting parts – thus knocking a bit of time off the shaving process – but to tackle up to three-day-old stubble, too, making it the perfect lazy man’s shaver.

True to its promise, this shaver powered through weekend stubble like a freshly sharpened mower through an overgrown lawn. The slide-up trimmer was handy for navigating tricky bits, while the LED display tells you how the battery’s faring. Another noticeable attribute was how secure this particular shaver felt in our hand during shaving, and how it managed to be both lightweight yet robust.

With cool design and great performance, simplicity of use, a reasonable price point and the quick-charge feature (you can get a speedy five-minute shave on a five-minute charge), this is the perfect shaver for newbies.

A couple of things caught our eye about this shaver. Firstly, it comes with a “stubble styler” guard, which clips onto the shave head, allowing you to maintain a three-day-old stubble look if you fancy a change from being totally clean shaven. Secondly, the pop-up detailer is – quite literally – a stand-out feature. Distanced a little further away from the body of the shaver than on some other models we tested, it made defining much easier, making this model perfect for precision freaks.

The multi-direction shave heads made fast work of stubble, wherever it sprouted, while the textured grip offered fantastic stability – handy when we were using this 100 per cent waterproof shaver in the shower. With USB charging, meanwhile, it’s super practical for travel, while the mid-price point makes it superb value for money.

The daddy of electric shavers, this state-of-the-art rotary number offers everything you want from a top-end shaver and then some. Beautifully designed – it looks and feels super-luxe – it’s engineered to provide an incredibly smooth shave with minimum irritation. The construction of the blade guards makes their passage over the skin incredibly smooth, while an inbuilt sensor “reads” skin and stubble and adjusts accordingly. It really does glide over the skin and can even tackle five days’ worth of growth with relative ease.

What elevates this shaver, though, is how interactive it makes the shaving experience. Not only does a (very Star Trek-looking) pulsating ring of light around the shave head tell you when you’re applying the right – or wrong – amount of pressure, you can link the shaver to an app for customised advice about your shaving technique. We found the digital display both fun and useful, too, but unless you’re really into your gadgets (or sci-fi), they’re possibly a bit gimmicky. We still got a superb shave, though.

If you’re looking for a gadget that’ll shave your head rather than your face, Remington’s new ultimate series RX7 is the boy for your bonce. The successor to the company’s popular RX5 head shaver, the new model offers 30 per cent increased flex around the five shaving heads, meaning it hugs the contours of the head more, for a closer, smoother and faster shave.

On top of that, there’s a turbo-speed function, designed for ploughing through tougher hair and for times when you’re in a hurry to perfect your pate.

We like the fact it left a barely perceptible amount of hair (0.2mm), which means you look more Jason Statham than Uncle Fester, while the ergonomically designed, cordless handle made head shaving a cinch in a way a standard, longer chassis wouldn’t. As a bonus, a pop-up trimmer allowed us to tidy and shape sideburns and remove stray neck hair. Impressive.

If you’re a guy who sometimes sports facial hair and at other times likes to be clean shaven, this customisable grooming tool is for you. Although the main unit comes with a beard, hair and body trimmer, you can also buy a three-blade foil shaving head to transform it into an electric shaver.

The floating blades delivered an excellent shave by following the contours of the face, and the main unit itself was a joy to hold.

Call us shallow but what impressed us most about this multifunctional marvel was its appearance. Sleek and minimalist with a matte-black finish, it’s as nice to look at as it is to hold and, unlike many other multifunctional tools that feel gimmicky, it feels solid and built to last. What’s more, you can add other heads to the device to further increase its functionality – there’s even an electric toothbrush head available.

Not the cheapest multifunctional shaver around but definitely one of the best – and certainly the most stylish.

The new kid on the block, the X5 has been designed to make shaving fast and comfortable, with the help of a super-fast cutting speed (130,000 cutting actions per minute, apparently) and PowerSense technology, which adapts to the pressure you apply and analyses hair thickness to maximise performance.

What marks this model out from the other shavers we tried, though, is the clever 360-degree Pivotball (on which the entire shaving head sits), allowing maximum manoeuvrability over the contours of your face.

It certainly powered through stubble in no time, though, it was better on shorter stubble than longer stuff. Unencumbered by too many whizzy features, it was delightfully straightforward to use, making it great for electric-shaver newbies. The fact it’s 100 per cent waterproof and a cinch to clean is a big plus, too.

The beauty of adaptable, multifunctional tools like this one – apart from the value for money they represent – is that they’re great for guys who only occasionally shave using an electric device, or for those who fancy giving it a go but don’t want to shell out on a dedicated shaver.

An award-wining trimmer, this snazzy gold-and-black number from Remington allows you to trim your hair and beard, as well as craft stubble. It also includes a foil shaver attachment, so you can shave, too.

With a much smaller surface area than a dedicated shaver, it takes a bit more time to get the job done and, in truth, you do get the impression it’s not designed to be used as a shaver all the time, but for occasional shaving, it’s absolutely fine.

Other features that impressed us include superb battery time (five hours), the five-minutes quick charge and the fact you can wash it under a tap. A good buy if electric shaving is only one of the many things for which you need a grooming device.

A great mid-priced option for foil fans, Panasonic’s series 700 3-blade shaver combines great performance (thanks to three foil blades, an ultra-flexible head and a built-in shaving sensor that allows the shaver to adapt to different beard densities) with beautiful design, featuring a matte, metallic blue finish on the handle.

Lightweight but sturdy, it looks and feels more expensive than it is, while performance was pretty good too (no snagging, and a smooth shave with only the toughest of hair requiring a few additional passes). We also liked the addition of a pop-up trimmer, which makes sideburn edging and removing stray hairs under the nose a cinch.

A subtle but likeable bonus is its size: a little smaller than some of the fancier, pricier, models, it never feels cumbersome in the hand and is very easy to manoeuvre across the face.

One of the quietest shavers we tried (it purrs rather than roars), this smart device reads and adapts to the beard density as it goes to work, ensuring you always get the most efficient shave. Like all Philips shavers, everything is thoroughly thought out – there’s a super-useful pop-up trimmer, a digital display to remind you of battery levels and a cleaning pod to ensure it’s well maintained (though replacement fluid represents an additional, ongoing cost).

The thing about this, and all of Philips’ high-end shavers, is everything is positioned perfectly, meaning it’s easy to switch on, easy to grip and the pop-up trimmer is easily activated. Like all rotary shavers, it’s a little harder to master than foils (technique is everything) but we absolutely loved using it.

Part of Remington’s first ever unisex grooming tool collection (the Remington one range also features a hairdryer and hair straighter), this useful gadget not only delivers a great face shave but can be used to remove body hair and tidy up ear, nose and eyebrow hair, too.

Unlike some other multi-groomers, it offers a full-sized foil shaving head, so it gets the job done just like a dedicated face shaver. What’s more, it packs a motor twice as powerful than those in standard Remington multi-groomers, so you can spend as little time as possible using this gadget.

It’s not the quietest shaver in our selection but it’s beautifully designed (the whole one range features the same copper/gunmetal colourway), is light in the hand, without feeling cheap, and the interchangeable heads come off easily with a simple twist (something that can’t be said for all multi-groomers). Impressive.

If you’re the type of guy who likes to groom on the go, whether you’re on holiday, at the gym or at the office, this little guy from US company Manscaped is the shaver for you.  Not much bigger than a bar of soap and charged via a USB-C cable, it’s especially good for travel, delivering a perfectly serviceable shave, given its compact size.

Sure, it doesn’t have a lot of the fancy features of larger, pricier shavers but when speed and convenience are paramount, those features aren’t so important. On the downside, it’s a little noisy but it’s beautifully designed, has a handy magnetic blade cover and also has the best instruction guide of all the shavers we tried, making it great for newbies, too.

Similar to the Philips OneBlade, this hybrid device from Remington (looks a bit like a razor but works like a shaver) not only allows you to achieve a clean shave but allows you to maintain stubble up to 5mm in length as well. There’s also a separate head for body hair and eyebrows, though, we found aligning the special comb guard that alters the length a bit fiddly.

As with the OneBlade, it doesn’t shave as close as a traditional wet razor but you’d have to examine skin pretty closely to notice any significant difference, and a big plus is that the blades are guaranteed for five years, so won’t need replacing all the time.

It’s not quite as well designed as some similar models (rather than a simple on/off button, you have to twist the base to activate it and the body hair attachment is a bit fiddly to master) but we liked the fact it isn’t the usual silver, blue or grey in colour. As a side note, the instruction booklet provided a useful tip about preserving the battery life: for the best performance, let it run out completely every six months then recharge for four hours.

Coming it blue and grey versions, too, it was the red one that initially caught our eye, because it stands out from the usual shaver colourways.

Performance-wise, it’s especially good for sensitive skin, because its “SensoFlex” technology ensures it works with the minimum amount of pressure. As a piece of kit, it’s super lightweight and really lovely to hold.

As it’s a mid-priced model, extras are kept to a minimum, though you can upgrade your shaver using the precision trimmer it comes with. The whole feel of this particular shaver is a bit more youthful and affordable than some top-end models, making it attractive to first-time buyers. Needless to say, the red version is a great choice for Liverpool, Arsenal and Man U fans, too.