Philips HQ 6940 Reflex Action > Reviews (2)

My old grandfather retired in the early 1960s & the company he worked for gave him a gold watch & a Philips electric shaver. For a man that 'wet shaved' all his adult life an electric shaver must have come as a shock, but he took to it like a duck to water.

Many years later as a young boy I remember looking at his electric shaver & being rather impressed. It came in a sturdy blue plastic case with chrome round the edges, when you opened it, you had a mirror on the back of the lid & the other side was lined with red coloured velvet. In here was the two headed shaver with lead, a brush to clean the heads with, a cloth & spare heads.
The shaver felt heavy & substantial in white & light grey, I dreamed of the day I would become 'a man' & have a shaver like this.

That day came & the novelty of shaving wore out after a week, I started off by wet shaving & then eventually to a Philips battery operated shaver. I don't like Philips products, they have always failed on me prematurely but their shavers have proved to be robust & reliable & give me a decent shave.

My old Philips electric shaver was now ten years old & staring to make funny noises & not shaving me close enough. In those ten years it had been dropped as many times on the bathroom tiled floor, fallen into a bath of water once & survived the airport baggage handlers at Belfast airport who managed to puncture one of the shaving heads. However it was time for a change & I decided to purchase another Philips shaver.

As I travel a lot, a rechargeable shaver would make more sense but I always found they always expired on you have way through a shave & you couldn't always get the chance to recharge them when you want. I decided to stick with an electric shaver & take my electrical adapter wherever I go in case a hotel doesn't have a shaver socket.

You have just got to look at the pages of Ciao to see how many shavers Philips produce, it's totally bewildering. From a £9.99 battery shaver operated by 4 x AA batteries to an all singing & dancing rechargeable shaver at £269.00 that wouldn't look out of place on an episode of Star Trek.

I chose a simple electric three head shaver for £29.99 from Boots (same price from Tesco & both offer points). When I got home & opened the box I have to say I was a little disappointed. Unlike my grandfathers shaver all I got was a shaver packed an inner box made form the same material used for eggs. It came with lead & an apology for a brush, nowt else. Not even a cheap & nasty travel pouch / bag to hold it, how mean is that? No mirror, no cloth, no spare heads, compared to my grandfathers shaver I got very little.

However, I didn't buy a shaver for the accessories (although a travel pouch/bag would have been rather handy). The shaver is very light (only 150g) much lighter than my old one but it doesn't feel so well made. It looks quite 'cool' in its blue & black colours but doesn't give me the impression it would survive the torture my old one received.

Plugging it in for the first time & the first thing you notice is how smooth it is, no vibration through your hands & a really silky smooth motor. I start to shave & notice a big difference straight away compared to my old shaver. I shave every morning & it used to take me approximately 5 minutes, this new one does it in 3 minutes flat. This means with an extra two minutes spare each day I can look forward to 12.13 hours extra in my bed next year, oh bliss!!!

The back of the shaver features a trimmer for the hairs that grow out of your other little facial orifices. It is simple in design & reasonably effective.

The top doesn't flip open like my grandfathers old shaver, you need to press a small catch & pull it off for cleaning. The blades are held together with the most flimsy & cheap plastic retainers I have ever seen.

Gripes? Apart from the lack of travel pouch / bag (I used my old one in the end) my only concern is the loose head which becomes a little disconcerting when you're shaving. Philips gives a two year warranty on the shaver so I think I will need to take it back as the problem is getting worse.

Other than that I have to say for £29.99 the shaver has proved to be quite good & worth considering if you don't want to spend a grand fortune on a shaver.