I compared this Pulsonic with the
Philips Norelco arcitec 1060 Men's Shaving System and the
Panasonic ES8077 Linear Shaver with Vortex Hydraclean System. Obviously, every man's face is different, so there is only so much utility in a description, but here goes:
I shaved half my face with one, the other half with another - with my wife providing objective testing of the shaved skin (she didn't know which side was shaved with which until after). I shave using both a blade and an electric razor (this testing was to find a replacement for my old Panasonic 7000 series) so my skin is 'used' to dry shaving with an electric.
I started with the Braun versus the Philips. No contest - the Braun won handily. The only things that the Arcitec had better were quietness and styling of the shaver (to my taste). The Arcitec was more irritating to my skin, and yet didn't shave as close (a very poor combination). It is almost impossible to shave a straight line with the Arcitec (hence the name?) - which would prevent styling a Van Dyke or other facial hair patterns. The trimmer is small and awkwardly placed on the Philips. Even the packaging was bad - one of those hard plastic shrink wraps you have to cut through. Even though it was made in Holland, the Philips seemed a little plasticky in the handle portion, though the shave unit itself was very finely engineered. The Arcitec also offered neither the wet/dry shaving of the Panasonic nor the plug in useability of the Braun.
Next, comparing the Braun to the Panasonic. This was a much closer (pun intended) contest. The Pro-Curve shaved closer on 3 of 4 attempts (the only time it "lost" was after 3 days of no shaving - thus more stubble to deal with), according to my wife - I had trouble telling which side was a closer shave (i.e. both shaved very close to the skin). However, it was marginally more irritating to the skin - though nowhere near as bad as the Arcitec. The Pro-Curve is a smaller unit, though it is a fair bit louder than the Braun in use. The trimmer is almost the same as the Braun's in terms of size and ease of use, and the build quality is fine. The Panasonic is made in China and has the best packaging, in terms of minimal material and ease of access. The Panasonic has the otherwise useful feature of being able to be used wet or dry, though for me this feature is less important since if I am going to use shaving cream, I'll use a blade... Since the shave quality was almost identical, it was the Braun's other elements that won the day in my decision of which shaver to keep.
The Braun, made in Germany, is excellently put together. It is the largest physically of the three compared shavers, in the middle as far as noise goes, and in the middle as far as packaging goes. It caused the least irritation to my skin and was the closest of the three on cutting the hairs on my neck. The travel case is plain plastic, but well designed to avoid accidental power up in a suitcase - a problem with the Panasonic design (the Arcitec has a long button press that disables the power for travelling). The other major feature that the Braun has is the ability to be run while plugged in - so if you run out of battery power, you don't need to wait to recharge it before finishing your shave - just plug it in and keep shaving. These features, combined with the lower cost for replacement shave-units, meant that my new shaver for the next decade or more (hopefully) will be the Pulsonic 9585.
I haven't compared the cleaning of the three, since my testing was only over a two week period, so I didn't use the included cleaning system(s) during the tests. The Arcitec didn't have a cleaning apparatus - and is designed (well designed) to be cleaned in running water. It was very easy to clean the Philips. The Panasonic and the Braun both came with cleaning and recharging units (the Panasonic is water based, the Braun is alcohol based). Both of these latter units can be cleaned under running water as well as in their specialized cleaning systems, and both are relatively easy to clean using a tap, as would be the case if you are travelling with them.
While I didn't use the Panasonic Hydra-Clean system, I examined its set up, and it is easy, but looks to be slightly susceptible to a breakdown of the plug connection when the shaver is inserted. The Braun, on the other hand, has the recharging take place by way of contact points, so there are less mechanical parts to that subsystem of the cleaning/charging base. Since I decided to keep the Braun, I used the base (once so far - I doubt I will use it everytime) - and it is extremely simple to use (and faster at ~1 hour compared to the ~3 hours estimated for the Panasonic base).
The only other factor I can speak to is the battery charging of the three shavers - and all three went from no charge to full in about an hour. I can't say how many shaves this would give you since the batteries lasted for the entirety of my testing. Each of the three shavers had lights for showing how much battery power remains (with three levels on the Braun and the Panasonic, five on the Philips).
If you are contemplating this razor, I can heartily recommend it, especially since you can get your money back if you happen not to be satisfied.