In short
Expert rating
Benefits
- Excellent battery life
- Quick shave
- Range of accessories
The inconvenients
- 360 upgrade doesn’t add much
Our opinion
The Philips OneBlade is as close to perfect as it gets. The OneBlade 360 doesn’t add much new, but I still can’t see any good reason not to recommend these razors to pretty much everyone.
Best prices today: Philips OneBlade
$49.96
I can review them, but in all honesty, I’m a little skeptical of electric shavers. In fact, I’m worse than that: I’m the kind of weirdo who uses a double-edged safety razor and an old-fashioned badger hair brush—even a Gillette Mach3 is too high-tech for my stubble.
This whole preface is meant to add some context to what I’m going to say next: I love the Philips OneBlade, and I’m honestly not sure I can fault it.
That’s still true now, four years later, when Philips sent me the upgraded OneBlade 360 to try. But since it remains extremely similar to the original, I am updating this review to just add my thoughts on the new model.
Price and availability
Here’s the first thing I love about the OneBlade: the price.
$50 / £50 will get you the upgraded OneBlade 360 straight from Philips, along with a spare shaver head, charging cable and some skin guards and comb heads.
If that seems a little steep, head to Amazon and you’ll find different packs for the original and 360 (which are compatible with the same shaving heads). You can buy the old razor body for a little cheaper, then upgrade to a 360° head if you feel the need – although for what it’s worth, you might not need it.
The blades are a bit pricey, around $35 / £25 for a three-pack and up for the 360 blades, but as each blade is meant to last four months, this could be enough to cover a full year of shaving – but be aware that in Philips’ fine print ratings which are based on two full shaves per week, not daily use.
Either way, with some other rotary and foil shavers costing well over $100/£100, the OneBlade is undeniably competitive on price, even taking into account the blade’s long-term commitment, and Still compares quite favorably to most manual razors over time. .
Design and build
- Compact design
- Adherent and waterproof
Here comes the next big thing: the design.
I’m not going to claim the OneBlade is the best looking razor I’ve ever seen – the Remington Heritage probably wins that award – but who really cares how their razor looks?
What matters is that it’s light, compact and incredibly portable, meaning it’s almost guaranteed to be my de facto travel shaver for years to come. It’s barely bigger or heavier than most manuals, despite packing in a motor and battery, which is quite an achievement.
Placing them side by side, you can see that not much has changed in the 360 version, which added a silver patch on the body, but left things unchanged:
The black and green finish is a little bold, but the textured grip on the green sections helps keep it steady even if you want to use it in the shower – it’s waterproof, naturally – and the curved shape is pretty ergonomic.
Philips ships it with a little clip-on cover for the blade, which is useful for keeping it safe in the closet or when traveling, and it’s fairly easy to clip and remove or attach and detach the combs cutting.
Features and performance
- Close enough shave
- The 360 head isn’t much of an upgrade
- Excellent battery life
Finally, here’s what I really like about the OneBlade: it works really well.
Philips boasts (no doubt oddly enough) that the OneBlade doesn’t shave as close as most razors, suggesting it helps reduce skin irritation and razor burn.
I certainly didn’t get any razor burn while using it, but I’m also happy with how close the shave is. Sure, it’s not the closest shave I’ve ever had in my life, and it can’t quite match my old fashioned safety razor, but it basically removes all of my visible hair and leaves my skin smooth enough to count, if not quite baby-faced.
More importantly, it is consistent. My experience with most electric shavers involves making multiple passes over the same areas of skin to achieve results, which not only takes longer, but increases the risk of skin irritation.
With the OneBlade I’ve found that one or two swipes gets the job done nearly every time, and because the head is so compact it does a wonderful job under my jawline and along my neck where much more razors dear have struggled.
Dominic Preston / Foundry
The 360 head is supposed to handle this area even better, with a less rigid design that allows the head to move more comfortably with the contours of your face.
I’ll be honest: I didn’t notice any difference at all. Shaving with the 360 certainly isn’t worse, but it’s also not noticeably better, so don’t feel the need to pay extra for the OneBlade 360 shaving heads – the originals do just fine work.
So: the OneBlade gives me a fairly close shave, without skin irritation, and quickly. That last point also helps with battery life – officially it offers 45 minutes of use on a single charge, but since it’s so quick to use, that’s probably more shaves than you think. I find that with a shave every few days I can easily go weeks between charges, and that goes for the 360 as well.
When you have to, unfortunately, there’s no fancy charging support, and it doesn’t use a convenient standard like Micro-USB, so you’ll have to carry the cable around with you, and a full charge takes eight hours. .
The original OneBlade came with a charger that plugged into a bathroom power outlet, but the newer 360 instead uses a cable that one end goes into the shaver and the other is a standard USB connector , so you will need to plug it into another USB charger to charge the shaver.
Still, the slightly annoying charging is basically the only complaint I have about the OneBlade, which is really saying something.
Verdict
The Philips OneBlade is as close to perfect as it gets. Activate a micro-USB port and reduce charging time and I’d say it’s fine, but as things stand I can’t see any good reason not to recommend this shaver to pretty much anyone.
The OneBlade 360 isn’t much of an upgrade, but the price has stayed similar and it’s definitely not worse. Current OneBlade owners shouldn’t worry about trying to upgrade to the 360, and new buyers should definitely consider the older model if it’s available, but both are great buys.
I’ve long maintained that no electric razor could ever take me away from an old-fashioned manual blade, and it’s without resentment that I admit the OneBlade finally pulled it off.
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