I've owned Braun shavers in the past, and I happen to prefer the foil screen over the rotating heads that compete for facial domination. When the last one failed after several years of service, I went looking for a self-cleaning or at least rinsable electric that wouldn't cost an exorbitant amount of money, and that also worked on European current without a converter.

The Cruzer3 is built to appeal to the frat-boy manly man with facial hair who thinks chrome and rubber and see-through plastic parts are cool. Surprisingly, however, it does a fairly good job of everyday shaving and trimming, too.

The Basics

The Cruzer3 fits comfortably in my hand, and my hands are on the *ahem* larger side. The on/off is a simple button-push on the underside, and glows blue when on, apparently to help out people who cannot hear or see that the razor is indeed in operation. (The razor shuts down when the battery runs down fully, and stays in the off position if you then switch to corded operation.)

The foil-screen head is a full 2" across, and consists of all-one-size holes evenly spaced. Nothing fancy here. It detaches fairly simply for cleaning. It's also reversible, so it doesn't matter which way you snap it back on. The cutting block is theoretically removable from its pivot, but I've yet to successfully yank it from its spot. No matter - since the whole head can be rinsed, I leave it in place while cleaning and have had no issues.

The Everyday Shaving and Cleaning

First and foremost, a shaver should shave closely, pick up all the stray hairs, and not require repeated swipes across the same patch of skin. Over all, I'd say that this razor is about as good as other electrics I've tried, and a touch short of shaving with, say, a Mach 3-type flex razor.

If you shave every day, the Cruzer3 will do just fine. I find I need to go a bit slower than I'm used to to allow the foil to pick up all the whiskers on my neck; it makes short work of the sides of my face, however. The mustache area is another fairly quick shave for me.

The jawline is a problem if only because it's hard to get enough foil surface area to the whiskers located there, and I often wind up repeating my motions there three times to get it close enough to satisfy me. Also, the chin whiskers seem to be a little stronger, and can withstand the electric razor's lashings pretty well; slowing even further down reduces repetitive motion in this area.

I tend to split up the easy parts in order to give the parts I have to hit several times a break between traumas. The Cruzer3 will warm up a bit, and it can irritate my skin if I'm not aware.

A solid three-day growth is another story, though. Waiting all weekend to shave tends to leave me with a longer job, naturally, but also, the natural whisker curvature starts to make individual hairs stay out of harm's way far longer. For these, I eventually switch to the trimmer and nab the bulk of these rogue hairs, then go back to regular shaving to cut it to the skin line. It's not a major problem, and I've yet to find the razor that didn't need something similar to complete the Monday-morning shaving task.

Cleaning is a snap, and the Cruzer3's ease in this area sold me on it. While it's on, run the head under water. Then shut it off, snap the foil head off and rinse that in hot water, rinse the block under hot water, and leave the parts apart until dry. Piece of cake!

The Cruzer3 does come with a brush (translucent blue plastic, naturally) if you want to use that, but I've always been near running water when I clean the razor.

Attachments

The Cruzer3 is designed for the goatee-slash-van Dyke-wearing lot more than those of us who keep no facial hair. Porn-star mustaches are no longer trendy, alas.

The razor has not one, but TWO trimmers: a wide one and a narrow one. The wide one of course will chop down broad swaths of hair, say, sideburns or the hair around the ears; while the narrow side shapes things or gets the hair inside your ears, you hairy bastard. The narrow one is also rounded slightly, so it's easier to make turns around the ear, for instance. These are very useful when you find you're not going to get your tangled mop to the hair salon this weekend.

The Cruzer3 has one unusual attachment, which is what makes it the Cruzer3: the hair length selector. This snaps onto the shaver head like the guard on a barber's hair clipper and can be set at four hair lengths, from what amounts to a couple days' growth to nearly a quarter-inch. Then, with the trimmer mechanism extended at the ready and the guard set at the desired length, this razor becomes that clipper.

My results with this were mixed. I tried it on the hair along the sides of my head, which can get a little less ruly than I'd prefer after a few weeks. Setting the guard at the longest setting, I was able to trim a wee bit off the hairs there and cleaned up the sideburns at the same time. But beware pushing down on your face/head too hard -- you'll cause much more hair length to be swept into the trimmer, and the resulting cut will likely be shorter than you hoped.

In places where you're not forced to use a mirror or maneuver awkwardly (or in the hands of someone else), the Cruzer3 does an admirable job trimming back non-beard areas.

Charging

I've used this shaver for a full week without recharging. Its battery is rated for 30 minutes, and that seems to be what I'm getting from it. The Cruzer3 doesn't tend to wind down substantially as the battery drains, either; it slows down somewhat, and then simply shuts off and awaits its cord. You do get a few minutes' notice in this respect that the shaver is going to shut down pretty soon, and if you shut the razor off and then attempt to turn it back on around this time in the cycle, often it won't turn on again.

Once charging begins, a green light glows on the shaver body, and when charging is complete, it helpfully unlights. I've yet to need the full 60 minutes to recharge. You can start using it without a full charge, but this is generally frowned upon by lots of manufacturers (Braun is mum on this).

The cord is somewhat bulkier and heavier than an average plug, but it's not huge by any means. It's also a very pretty blue. Matches the trim on the razor.

One note: no travel pouch is included. I found a nice simple leather zip pouch for eight dollars which does the trick, but keep this in mind if you like all the attachments and the cord in one place.

The Bottom Line

I purchased the Cruzer3 for $50 from Amazon.com. After researching various sites, even shopping.com strangely enough, Amazon still had the best price, and of course the free shipping. (Edit: But if you buy it from one of those featured links, I'll get hundreds if not thousands of dollars for this review...)

It does a better-than-average job with hairy areas you want to keep, and the attachment allowing several whisker lengths works fairly well for shaping. It also works well as a guard to protect against major goofs when trimming hair that doesn't need to be perfect.

As an everyday face shaver, the Cruzer3 does a pretty good job, and as a rinsable shaver, the price is really spot-on. I enjoy using mine, and your mileage may vary, but it's a great value for the price.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 50
Noise Level: More quiet than most