I like it, I like it!

For half a century I had been content to use Remington electric razors. But the last Remington I bought was absolute junk. The trimmer broke completely off after only three weeks, and the replacement razor kept threatening to loose its trimmer too. Stray hairs were left behind after every shave, so each day I had to follow up with a safety razor. Finally, one morning my face was badly chewed up when the foil split wide open. It took two weeks for my face to heal, and it made me look really bad. A tiny Remington hair trimmer that I also bought fell apart within days. Goodbye Remington.

I did much research and settled on the Braun 5614. What a difference! It gives the smoothest shave I can ever remember getting. It has yet to leave a single facial hair untrimmed. The swivel head helps it follow the facial contours. I don't need a safety razor any more.

The Braun fits nicely in my travel case, which was one of my requirements. It actually comes with a very nice, compact, hard shell, molded case of its own, but I want my razor in the same case with all my other travel stuff, like my tooth brush, toothpaste, hair cream, hair brush, etc. Besides that, the charging cord doesn't fit in their travel case, but it does fit in mine.

The razor is five and three quarters inches long, two and one quarter inches wide, and one and three eighths inches thick. The charger on the end of the cord is a little larger than I would like. It is three and three eights inches long, including the prongs on the end, one and three fourths inches wide, and one and seven eighths inches thick, not counting the cord itself. But it fits OK in my case since it points straight out from the cord, unlike many chargers.

The first charge of the battery lasted for 17 shaves before the red light came on. I didn't test their claim that there are about three shaves left after that light comes on. It's now almost 17 days into the second charge, and the light hasn't come on yet.

Everything feels like solid German engineering. No parts threaten to fall off. However, the first time that I pressed the button to clean out the clippings, the foil head did go flying across the room, so you need to have a grip on it when you press the button. Fortunately, it made a gentle landing on soft carpet.

Another reviewer commented that the razor was noisy. I haven't found that to be the case. Mine has a very quiet, smooth hum. Perhaps it depends upon what you're comparing it to. You can, however, hear it cutting off the whiskers, so when you hear only the smooth hum as you sweep across the face, you know there are no more whiskers left to shave.