Philips Norelco 1280XCC SensoTouch 3D Electric Razor

I finally decided to bite the bullet and upgrade my shavers to one of the top of the line shavers on the market, the Philips 1280cc/42, especially since Philips-Norelco has a $50 rebate going on at the present time.I have been using Braun shavers for the past 50 years, then 2 years ago I purchased a Philips-Norelco 8260 XL shaver also and used them alternately side by side with my Braun 7570 and 8595 together. My final conclusion is that both gave me the same close shave, the Philips being a lot quieter.Now you would expect me to rave about the 1280cc/42 like most people do but all I would say that it is an excellent shaver, very quiet, does the job very well and I may even talk myself into that it gives me a bit closer shave. All in all I like this shaver and definitely deserves the 5 star rating and a keeper for me. Is it really worth the $200 (after the rebate)? I do not think so but since it is a nice, new streamlined design, well built excellent unit I will keep it for the next few years.If you do not mind to spend that much money and want an excellent shaver buy it by any means, I highly recommend it.Update after 5 months of use:I still like this shaver well and works as expected, nice and quiet. But as interesting note I would like to add that after I purchased a new cutting head for my 11 years old Braun 7570 (since the shaver still keeps the charge very well and works perfectly) this shaver beats the Philips 1280cc/42 for speed and closeness of shave HANDS DOWN!. The manual cleaning with the removable cutting head is also very fast and easy on this Braun model, never needs the wet cleaning.No question that the Philips is quieter, but as it appears I really did not need it. So I have been using them alternately now to keep the batteries in good shape on both. However for travel, the Braun is a lot easier to take in it's handy and compact travel case which accomodates the charger also.Update after 7 months :Although I can not say anything bad about this shaver, probably the best Philips ever made, but after 50 years of using Braun shavers only I could not get used to the rotary system and the little clumsy design of using the charging stand to charge it and the travel case design is ridiculously large and stupid. Molded case design would have been better for this shaver.All in all I returned to Braun and purchased the series 7 the 790CC which an outstanding shaver and to me shaves a touch even closer than the Philips. This is only personal preference and absolutely nothing against the performance of the Philips shaver.Update after almost 3 years:I still have this Braun 790CC which works well but always has been pretty noisy and although I commented before that it gives me a touch closer shave than the Philips 1280XX it is really a toss up since I just repurchased a new Philips 1280XX/42 and alternately using both of them. They equal in closeness of shave and the Philips appears to be made from better material. On the Braun 790CC some of the nice metal looking parts are silver paint covered plastic and this paint coating is now bubbling up at the back under the cutting head after a couple of years of use and Jet cleaning which is very disappointing. The only thing with the Philips that it gives me a touch more skin irritation sometimes if I am not careful enough around the lower neck area, but very close and extremely quiet shave. No doubt that these 2 shavers are the best on the market today and I will be using both of them alternately for a while and see which one I like better, I may just keep both of them.

So its about few weeks since I bought this model and a good time to write a review. I bought this model on thanksgiving and also as a personal birthday present for me. I had been using Philips Philishave (yes the model before they called their shavers Norelco) for about 10 years and it was a dry shaver. Changed the battery twice over the years before the battery finally gave up on me. They don't have batteries anymore for that model and I thought it was time to replace it. I wanted the best since I know I will be using it for a long long time. I pretty much shave daily except on weekends. My older Philishave had served me well so I was sold on the brand. After reading features on the latest models of Norelco, It was a choice between 1290 and the 1280 as they have the charge mins remaining instead of bars, looks cooler. The 1290 does not have a travel lock but after I bought the 1280, I think it's not that useful of a feature to be a deal breaker. Still I went with the 1280 cause it came with the JetClean+ for the same price. The other sensotouch models are good too.So about the shaver. Its beautiful. The finish of the product is exquisite. It feels good in the hands and the shaving grip is just perfect. I hadn't shaved for a week and had a good about half centimeter stubble on me. Good way to inaugurate the new shaver :-) After a full charge, I started dry shaving. It glided effortlessly over my face actually better than I expected. In about couple of mins I was done with a smooth clean shave. Loved it. Cleaning was a breeze, open the blade compartment with quick click and run it under faucet and let it air dry...done. I have used it almost daily since then and it did pretty good even on a day old shadow. It performs better on a decent stubble though and its kinda obvious. I haven't used this in wet shaving and will do so one of these days for fun. I like the dry shave cause I can get it done and over with a nice shave quickly. This model has a change blades and a clean indicator. Charging is quick too. The JetClean+ is interesting. Haven't used it yet but will when I need to do deep cleaning.Overall an awesome product but a little expensive. Paid $250 and saw it drop by $25 in 2 weeks..ouch!!!Highly recommended.