It was with some trepidation that the Remington F5790 was received as previous attempts with electric shavers have always proved rather ineffectual when compared to the close cut you'd receive from their wet counterpart. Seeing as this review conveniently coincided with Movember, hope was high that this would be the exception to rule, so as not to end up a resident in the manor of un-groomed moustache shame. 

Our quick take

Overall, the Remington F5790 performed well although it wasn't outstanding. Retailing at around the £70 mark it seems a little on the dear side but as mentioned its performance improved as we got to know the shaver.

If you have to look absolutely immaculate without the hint of a whisker then you might want to look elsewhere, however for a day-to-day workhorse this is worth a look.

Remington Titanium 360 F5790 shaver - 3.5 / 5

 

Out of the box you'll find provided one Remington R5790, a 2-pin mains lead (so be aware you'll need an adaptor if you don't have a 2 pin socket in your bathroom), cleaning brush, a plastic guard for covering the foil head and the all important instruction manual.

On first inspection the razor itself seemed weighty enough to feel like a quality product without giving the impression that you're working out. On the underside of the unit you get the on/off button and power indicator bar, with the back housing the flip-up trimmer. The business end with its "Flex and Pivot technology" seemed sturdy enough, however on closer inspection the head of the unit as well as the trimmer seemed a little light and plasticky.

As far as the tech goes the "Flex and Pivot" feature basically means that the foil guards which move against the skin flex down and the head on which they are seated pivots - all in a bid to give you a more comfortable shave. It also has titanium-coated foils that are supposed to give "long-lasting cutting performance".

On with the shave then and first impressions weren't great as we found we needed to press uncomfortably hard in order to achieve even a rudimentary shave which looked decidedly patchy after completion. So, instead our attention turned to the trimmer - this seemed to give slightly better performance, only needing a few attempts for the required effect, but because of the way the trimmer pops up - flush with the razor head - it was sometimes difficult to see the hair line. Admittedly not such a problem when dealing with sideburns but proved tricky when trying to achieve that all important shaping of the 'tache.

In the manual it does state that you should use the shaver daily for up to 4 weeks to allow your beard and skin to become accustomed. We didn't have this long, however in fairness there was an improvement in performance after we had used it consistently for a week, whether this was because technique was becoming more polished isn't clear but it did redeem itself - providing pretty decent, if not spectacular performance.

Charging times were reasonable with a full charge taking 2 hours with the 5 minute quick charge feature being of particular interest. This claims to give you enough juice for one full shave - giving a second chance to anyone who has not heeded the power bar's red hue and needs to look half decent for work. Despite its rather vague claim (the time taken for one full shave clearly depending on the recipient of said shave) this performed pretty well and due to the razor's improved performance meant that our faces were left more or less bristle-free by the time the razor started to slow.

Cleaning wasn't too arduous, with the top blade guard just popping off enabling you to rinse, whilst the blades need to be run under cold water. The main body, however, isn't waterproof and so there was a certain level care required during the operation. It would have been nice if it was fully submersible to allow a carefree bathroom routine.

To recap

After extended use the Remington F5790 seemed to be be a reasonable performer, however the design of the trimmer and plastic parts let it down