[section_title title=Performance]
Performance
I took my time when it came to testing the Braun Series 9 9040s Premium Shaver Wet & Dry so that I was able to put it through its paces; trying to find the limits in terms of the battery, trimmer accuracy and efficiency, and of course how it performs as both a dry and wet shaver. First of course came charging. The shaver comes with a standard 2-pin lead to charge and not having that socket in my bathroom I had to get myself a converter, but once plugged in the shaver charged very quickly. A safety feature is that the shaver cannot be used when connected to the power socket to minimise the chance that it’s going to be used in the shower when charging.
Later I discharged the battery and charged it again, confirming that it takes around an hour to go from empty to full. A full battery lasted me over three weeks, with around 15 shaves in total during that time. Needless to say I am really impressed by the battery! Not only does it charge very quickly but it keeps its charge even when it’s not used for a whole week, allowing me to instantly pick up where I had left off after forgetting to pack it for my family holiday.
It took just a few minutes for the trimmer to get me from a full beard to stubble and I then moved on to shaving. To start with I wasn’t even sure it was working. Shaving felt no more uncomfortable than using the trimmer attachment, certainly not what I expected considering the 40,000 movements per minute that the shaver does. It was working, though, and working very quickly. I remember cheaper shavers needing to be rubbed across my face numerous times just to cut through daily growth and then many more times to catch those awkward hairs, but the Braun Series 9 9040s easily sliced through what the trimmer had left behind without any after effects like the rashes I had anticipated.
I had left myself a goatee and moustache so I could test the trimmer some more as well as see how the shaver dealt with different beard styles, but after a day or so I realised that I didn’t need to really worry about trying to ‘keep within the lines’ when shaving close to my beard. I did not need to use the trimmer again to maintain the shape of the goatee as the shaver was nibbling the shorter hairs and not really affecting the rest bar maybe two or three at a time. This, along with that exceptional battery, really reinforces the convenience that Braun is aiming for with my morning shave being completed in around 3 minutes.
I had planned to remove the rest of the beard as part of a wet shave, but since photographs don’t really show the full story I wanted to record the removal during a video review to show just how fast and efficient that trimmer is as well as the shave itself. Unfortunately, my camera proved unreliable and so that plan was lost in the ether, without even any photos to show for it.
After trimming the left-over goatee, I wiped my face with damp flannel and that was enough to cause a lot of friction pulling at my face with every stroke. Definitely not something I would recommend! So it was a full wet shave or nothing at that point, and for that I used Gillette gel. The difference was remarkable; it felt so smooth that again I really wasn’t sure that any hair was being taken off at all. That might have something to do with the gel that I selected, but the outcome was all about the Braun 9040s. Once I had finished the wet shave my face really was as smooth as I’ve ever felt and with no cuts or irritation on the parts of my neck that had previously been played with by my cat. The result was so good in fact that when I waited three days to again try a wet shave the regrowth had only just become noticeable. A full shave without the goatee was easily less than five minutes and quickly became part of my morning routine.
