Customer Reviews

Braun cruZer Z-50 Shaver

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(27)
3 star:		(19)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(16)

 

 

I have a goatee and I have been looking for a single shaving device that would trim and define my beard and also give me a decent shave for those times when I don't want to use a razor. The cruzer3 was the only device I could find that claimed to do all three tasks. I took a chance and ordered it through Amazon - and I'm very happy with the purchase. The shaver works well; not as good as a razor of course, but it's great for touching up spots I missed or a full shave when I'm in a hurry. The trimming blades are well-shaped and work much better than I thought they would. A blade that extends 90 degrees from the handle works best for trimming and defining, but the cruzer3's blades work well (you just have to tilt the shaver 90 degrees from your face). The beard trimmer attachment also works well. I have a hair trimmer that I use for buzz cuts and was using it for beard trimming, but the cruzer3 works just as well. And it's one less device I have to keep track of. Finally, I appreciate the fact that I can rinse off the unit with water when I'm done. I am completely satisified with the cruzer3; it meets all of my requirements for an all-purpose shaver/trimmer.

I got this because it has the styling attachment that you usually only get with a separate trimmer. So it's one gadget for shaving instead of two. For me it replaces a similar, but less futuristic looking model, that I had for a few years and did the job pretty well.
This one is made in China instead of Germany, and looks like a ray gun. I'm not impressed by the appearance: the combination of shiny silver plastic and black rubber looks a bit tacky, and the lettering on the body is very tacky.
But, this doesn't really matter, does it?
The good news is that it feels well built, even if it doesn't look it, though I think the buttons that release the sliding trimmer and styler adjusters are horrible to touch and a poor design.
I like the enthusiastic whirr of the motor when you press the go button, and as a regular shaver it does an adequate job. Not sure the floating head makes a scrap of difference. Does it shave as close as a blade? Nowhere near. But it's fine.
The trimmer spins around so you can use the wide head, or the narrow one. The narrow one has a rounded end, so you may be able to stick it in your ears if so inclined. But maybe a square profile would've been more useful. But... on the whole, the double ended trimmer works well.
The unique feature of course is the styling attachment. Apart from the horrible adjustment mechanism mentioned earlier, this works reasonably well, though probably not as good as a dedicated machine. But for what it is, it's fine.
You can leave the styling thing on all the time because it acts as the foil protector too. This is good, because it was separate on my previous one. Braun supply a simple foil protector if you want to leave the styler at home. You get a brush too, and a little bottle of oil. No case though.
One thing to watch is that when the battery's running low, the shaver decides at some point that it's going to switch itself off and stay off until you recharge. If you're in the middle of a shave, it grabs you and won't let go, which is, to say the least, painful! Make sure you have the power lead handy.

I've had the shaver for about a month now and used it like 3 or 4 times. I am satisfied with it's operation and capabilities, but do see some shortfalls. Gripe no. 1, the trimmer for full beards leaves something to be desired as the teeth seem a little light and you have to make a number of passes over the beard to get a good trim. Since it does an alright job on with the initial first pass, you have to follow that up with a hunt for individual hairs the trimmer might have missed and touch up the whole beard.

Gripe no. 2, the shaver also give me problems shaving under my chin right around where the jaw meets the neck, forcing me to do a once over with my razor to get it truly clean.

One of my favorite things is the mini side of the trimmer as it makes certain detail work much easier.

Ok so i saw this shaver in a magazine ad and it caught my eye, I needed a new shaver to replace my old Norelco, so i thought i'll give this one a shot since it had alot of things to offer. I don't have a beard or goatee so i can't tell you about shaping up using the features provided on this shaver but i'm really satisfied with it so far just after the first day of use. After one quick shave, my skin felt alot smoother i like the fact that you can rinse it in water and you can go wireless. Well i must warn you though, those of you looking for a perfect shave look elsewhere and expect to pay more, because this if for more of a quick shave on the go person. For the price i recommend it to everyone and amazon.com got it to my house in 3 days with free shipping!

This was my first electric razor though I have tried many others in the past. I have a thick beard and am usually clean shaven. This model caught my eye because of the wide and small angle pop up trimmers as well as the trimmer attachment. Overall, it is very good. A shave as close as a mach3 is achieved on the face, though the neck and jawline are not as good, but adequate. The razor is best if you shave everyday or relatively often, otherwise you might want to look at a rotary. However, the brauns and other foil razors are usually best in terms of closeness. The trimmers work well to an extent, if you are doing heavy trimming, get a dedicated trimmer. The wide and narrow pop ups are great.

The razor is sturdy and looks a little flashy but is washable which makes cleanup easy. I just rinse it off with hot water or use compressed air to blow off the hair. Once a week, I will soak the cutting head in alcohol and oil the trimmers and foil. Unfortunately it is made in China not Germany. It holds a charge for over a week, more like 2. Also the quick charge option lets you charge it for a single shave quite quickly, though if it does run out it will suddenly stop grabbing the hairs on your face.

Cliffs: Great all around razor, trimming pop ups and attachments are great, worth the price despite a few flaws.

I have no idea what is wrong with some of these people. One actually said in the trimmer mode the hairs don't reach the screen. That's because they aren't supposed to, the trimmer does the cutting. I guess that's why they call it a trimmer. Read the directions and you shouldn't have a problem. Some people apparently expect this thing to act like a ladies electric. This is a razor for a man so like all mens razors it has power and isn't delicate. If you want that buy a ladies version.

With electrics you have to go in different directions more than once a lot of the time. This is no exception but it does a great job on my neck which was ALWAYS a problem with the Remington's I've had.

I've had a couple of Remington's that didn't last but a couple years then broke down or the battery died. I had an old Braun that worked well for several years with little sharpening. Now that I'm back to Braun I'll never switch back. HUGE difference.

This thing does a great job of keeping my facial hair trimmed and once you get used to the trimmers you can easily create anything you want. Just be extra careful when you start using it and you shouldn't have problems.

Strengths: Fast charging, sleek and ergonomic design, easy to clean, international voltage adapter (low-end panasonic models dont have this feature), 2-yr warranty (again panasonic lacks this)

Weaknesses: Heavy, Vibrates a lot, Noisy, Does not have battery low indicator, the trimmer is almost useless, cant be used for wet-shave, does not shave very closely around neck and chin.

Summary: I got one of the closest shaves on my cheeks and moustache. However, the neck and chin area were not the best. I had to dig in there with the shaver to get a good shave.

A dry-shave irritates my skin for a few hours... probably because I m not used to it. So the next time I m going to try a dry/wet Panasonic shaver.

In spite of the weaknesses, I think this is still one of the better products. Panasonic ES7035 is the closest competitor in terms of features and price.

Needs a battery-level indicator as it is pretty useful if one travels a lot and needs to find out the battery status.

First electric I've had in a while. I was surprised by how close it shaves, but as another reviewer pointed out, if you go a few days between shaves the longer whiskers don't get in the foil. it's also necessary to go over the same area from different directions a few times, this shaver is not faster than a blade. I like the beard trimmer, I usually keep my beard trimmed pretty short and the trimmer attachment will get it down to three-day-growth short if you want. I have not gotten used to using the trimmer without the attachment, there's two sides to it; one rounded and one straight. The straight side is an inch long which is a bit too long and unwieldy, I usually end up using a separate mustache trimmer. Cleaning is a breeze, just run under hot water. Seems to keep a charge for a about a week for me, but I don't use it everyday. As far as maintenance, I'll know more in a couple months.

I purchased this in June 2007 as it seemed to be the ideal solution for a guy with a goatee. At first, it pretty much matched my expectations - a good three-function trimmer and a half-decent shaver all in one. It's stamina sucks, however. By March 2009 I had to keep my thumb on the trimmer blade extender to prevent the blades from pulling the hairs out rather than cutting them off. By mid-July 2009 this tactic no longer worked and rather than suffer more pain and expletives I now have a full-face beard of over four weeks growth while I wait for my Philips Norelco hybrid trimmer/vacuum cleaner to arrive. If that doesn't do the business it might not help convince my wife I'm not trying to look like Steve Earle but at least I'll be able to give the living room the once over. All I can do with the Braun is throw it away.

I picked this up hoping to use it a few times a week and keep a short beard. What I got was a pain in the neck. Unless you want to keep a lumberjack length beard, this is not the trimmer for you. The attachments do not give you a close trim and the razor itself only worked for about 4 months before it started cutting me through the foil. And I'm not even talking through holes in the foil. I come away from using the razor with scrapes all over my face on a daily basis. Save your money and invest in a higher quality product.