I got the Braun FreeControl electric shaver as a Christmas gift in 2007. I had mentioned to my wife that I would like to try an electric shaver again after having a late morning running to the office without shaving and having to return to get the job done. I thought it might be nice to have one I could take with me to work in emergency cases...anyway, I hadn't used an electric since I was 17 because I found that my dark and thick beard required a closer shave, the one I had at that time also tended to rip my face apart. With improving technology I thought there would be some better products out by now (12 years later).

The Braun simply failed to cut all of the whiskers on my face. I had not shaved the day before, so had two days of growth, and used the Braun for 30 minutes going over the same places on my face over and over again to no avail. After 30 minutes I stopped and checked to see how it had done, I still had patches in several places and rogue whiskers in even more places than that, and this was after 30 minutes of shaving?! I can use a normal bladed razor and get a close shave in 5 minutes, this seemed a total waste of time to me.

In addition to the worthless shave that the Braun performed, it manage to give me terrible razorburn. I don't typically use aftershave with a normal razor (I typically use the Mach 3), but my face was hurting so bad after the 30 minute ordeal that I went ahead and used some face ointment that I had in the back of the closet to get some relief.

Overall, I am very disappointed. As many others have mentioned I guess you get what you pay for and I only assume that not much was paid for this model.