I liked the company so much that I bought the razor, the Braun Flex Integral 5010 that is.
After some fifteen, or maybe more, years in daily use, my old Braun Synchron Plus was on the verge of expiring. The foil had a tiny split, which would only get worse and could possibly cut my face and I wasn’t prepared to pay over £10 for a replacement foil. So a trip to my favourite electrical super store saw me mulling over a huge selection of electric razors. It was no contest after such a sterling service from Braun, so it had to be something similar. My old model was no longer in production so it had to be something new and a bright yellow machine caught my eye. It wasn’t my first choice but that was the only Braun that they had that was within my price range. Presumably that model does come in different colours but none were on display.
Yellow seemed a strange colour for me but as a rule my primary concern is how the device performs and how reliable it is. The colour has always been at the bottom of any requirement list. It’s not that I’m colour blind, I’m not, I just don’t care about aesthetics’.
The 5010 is light and its 13 cm length, 6 cm width and 2.5 cm thickness fits comfortably into the hand with the on-off switch perfectly placed for a right-handed person. It is reasonably placed for a left-handed person too as is the switch that brings the trimmer into play which incidentally does what it supposed to without fuss.
It has two cutting surfaces and a swing head (that can be locked into place when required) that eases the razor around the curves of the face giving as close a shave that you could expect from an electric razor. Being English mains only, this razor would not suit the traveller but as the chances of me travelling further a field are remote in the extreme I was happy to pay the £40.95 that the cashier demanded. She did give me a puzzled look when I opened the box to inspect the razor before parting with my money though. I too had heard on programmes like Watchdog where a razor had been sold to a customer that had been used and the difficulty that the customer had had to convince the shop that they bought it that way. I wasn’t taking any chances.
After one year of daily use, the guarantee has now expired, but the Braun Flex Integral 5010 is as good as new and I look forward to many years trouble free use.