Philips Norelco AT880 Aquatec PowerTouch Review

I got this at Costco. Here are my thoughts on it. For a quick summary, jump to the end of the post. I've been wanting an electric razor for a while, I had a nice one before, but forgot the brand.

The one I had before had the other configuration where there are two longer sections that do the shaving instead of 3 separate heads. Like the one on this picture, except without that squiggly middle part. I just can't find a picture of the one I had.

So while at Costco the other day I saw this on the shelf and looked it up on my phone and it showed that it retails for over $100 at some places. Sometimes for $110 or more. So when I saw it for $89.99 I thought it was a bargain so I got it.

Amazon usually has it at a great price, $78 last time I checked, you can check here now.

Well, it's cheap for a reason. I now found it online elsewhere for less than that too. I haven't read any reviews yet. I wanted to write this review solely on my experience. So I pretty much found this to be a good deal on Costco, bought it and now I'm telling you how it went. I did not check ratings, reviews or anything prior to purchase.

Hopefully you don't make that mistake.

The price is ok on sale, but it could be better. I definitely would not buy it at full retail price. I would gladly buy this for $35 and at that price many of my complaints would probably go away.

Even then, I think I paid that much for my previous one which I really liked. I would still be using that one if I could find it.

I know I sound like a crabby old man saying that the "older one was better." but really it was. So before you purchase this, make sure you research your options. I am sure now that at this price point, there are way better options out there. I'll be returning this item as soon as I can and will buy a different one.

About the only thing that I liked about this shaver is the handle. The grip and the shape of it is nice and it feels good on your hand. The rest kind of sucks. The razor is pretty big, but yet the battery only lasts about 2 shaves, maybe 2.5 shaves.

It does a poor job of shaving if your face is dry. One of the things I like about electric razors is that you can shave on the go, you can walk and shave, or drive and shave. With this razor, forget about that. It really doesn't glide on your skin at all if it's dry.

I tried, dry skin, freshly washed skin, lightly moist skin, and it doesn't work well under any of those scenarios.

I then tried it in the shower under the water and it was a little bit better, but even with water, the shaving wasn't that great. The shaver still gets stuck as you try to shave and it leaves a lot of uncut hair behind. It takes quite a few passes for this to get them all.

The only way this shaver works is if you wet your face and then lather it up with a foam or soap. If the electric razor can glide like soap can make it glide then it works okay. It's even fast at shaving but that's the only way that I got it to perform well.

You know, the instructions say that your skin needs to adjust to a new shaving style so to try it for a while, but I've tried it now for about 10 days and it just isn't cutting it for me, pun intended.

I'm not sure if this is a design flaw specific to this model or if this triple head design is the problem. I see a lot of manufacturers have a similar design so they can't all be this bad. Does that mean that Philips is to blame here? I really didn't think I would get such poor quality form such a good brand name like Philips.

The last thing worth mentioning, and I feel like it's the final nail in the coffin is the battery life. It feels like it doesn't last a long time. It doesn't take a long time to charge to fully charged state. The problem is that after a few minutes of usage it feels tired.

Also in their little guide, it talks about a 5-minute shave, and that's cool and all but it takes like 5 minutes to charge for a 5 minute shave. The problem is that the five minute shave is really about three and a half or so. After that, the device feels tired and it doesn't feel like it cuts anymore.

And going back to the full charge scenario, If you shave twice, you'll really feel it slacking towards the end of the second shave. With such a bulky design you'd think the battery would last a while but sadly it doesn't.

Maybe I got it al wrong. I haven't used an electric razor to shave in about 4 years. When I lost my old one I just moved back to blades. It was recently that I decided to get one of these. As for me and this model, we will be parting ways soon and I'll be looking for something better.

At $89.00 or even $84, this isn't worth it.

Summary:

• MSRP is way too much. Anything over $35 or $40 for a razor like this is too much.
• Nice grip and handle design. It holds nicely.
• Poor battery life, 2 shaves at most before it starts "chugging along"
• Does not glide on your skin at all. Pretty much requires water and lubricant to get the job done.