Shave A Little Cash

This shaver would make a great gift. Why? Because it’s from Norelco, a brand synonymous with great shaving technology. And that usually wouldn’t matter, except, again, we’re talking about gifting here. You don’t want to wrap up a printed-out Wirecutter article or a packet of Amazon reviews to prove whatever weird off-brand product you got is actually good. No, if you’re shopping for someone else, you want a well-known, trusted name.

But, to backtrack for a second, let’s talk about Amazon reviews.

Now, we look at Amazon reviews a lot here on Meh, because it’s an easy way to quantify how good consumers think a product is. Take something simple, like a pack of Granola bars, for example, and you’ll see a number of reviews that basically say:

Yum! I wanted Granola bars, so I ordered these. Turns out, they are granola bars! Can really taste the granola! Shape is very bar-like! Will buy again!

That’s useful information. Because that’s really all you care about when it comes to granola bars, how they taste and if they look appetizing. So, if they look and taste good, they get 4 or 5 stars.

With stuff like this Norelco, on the other hand, it’s interesting to take further information into account.

Yes, it is good that it’s rated 4.5 out of 5. Yes, it is good that said 4.5 rating is based on more than 4,200 reviews. Yes, it is great to see the feature-by-feature breakdown, where we find that it scores a 4.8 for traveling, a 4.6 for ease of cleaning, and a 4.5 for how nice it is to hold.

And yet, perhaps the most encouraging thing is that all of those ratings have come with a price tag of nearly $160. In other words, DOUBLE the price we are offering it for today.

That means people are coming in with HIGH expectations. They paid a lot of money for this thing, and so they’re not handing out 5 stars willy-nilly. They’re using all the features. They are placing it in the cleaning pod and timing it for exactly 1 minute to ensure it cleans and lubricates the razor as promised. They are using it in torrential downpours and desert-like conditions to ensure it really does work in wet and dry environments. And they are counting each one of the “cutting actions” to ensure the 90,000 per minute advertised.

Or, maybe not. But we do feel fairly confident that nobody’s dropping more than $150 on a razor and then being like, “It works fine. Here’s 5 stars.” No way. This thing is EARNING those high marks!

In conclusion: you should buy it. As a gift. Or for yourself. We don’t care.