Solarrific P7002 Handcrank Personal Shaver

It takes like 5 mins of winding for a decent shave. EXCELLENT. I might buy another.

Disclosure: I was contacted by Solarrific and offered this product for review. I accepted, promising a fair and honest review in return. First things first: The manufacturer may be Solarrific, but there is nothing solar about this product. The packaging copy says “Green Energy,” but that’s really only if you’re cranking it. If you’re plugging it in to your computer or the wall, sorry, that’s not green energy; it’s just regular, uh, beige energy. Overall, this is pretty neat little product. This is a nice shaver/trimmer to keep at the office, or to take on a trip. For those campers out there who want to maintain a modicum of acceptable personal appearance in the field, this is a good solution. I will be taking it to Manitoba next summer for our backwoods scout adventure. In the box you get the Solarrific dynamo shaver, an AC adapter/converter (110-250V, which is good for most of the world) with USB connection, a 25-inch USB connection cord, a mini cleaning brush, and instruction manual. As manuals for this kind of thing go, this one is pretty good, on glossy paper, in disjointed but passable English (product made in China for a NY-based company) as well as Spanish and French, and with annotated diagrams. A quick gauge of a good product is whether they offer fulsome contact info, which indicates confidence in their product, and this offers an address, phone (regular, toll-free and fax!), and email address and a web URL. Given the fact that you get all this loose stuff with this product, a simple plastic carrying case might be a good addition to the mix. Yes, the shaver operates when plugged in for charging. That’s a plus. But, given the short length of the cord, you can’t really get anything done—a longer cord would fix this. This is not a wet shaver, as the instructions specify a dry face for shaving. The manual, though, advises you to “rinse” a number of the pieces for cleaning. Reading this in context, the translation is inaccurate; they mean to say “clean.” Cleaning is easy and intuitive, with a hinged opening for the shaving heads. The manual specifies that the power source is an internal lithium battery. There is no user access to the battery, so when it loses its ability to charge, it’s likely going to be time to get rid of this product (properly, given the battery). Charging: Plug it into the wall, or crank it yourself. You get a red charging indicator when you’re cranking, and a green one when it’s plugged into the wall. Given the “green energy” copy, shouldn’t that be the other way around? And just to make sure you know what you’re doing, on the crank handle there is the molded plastic text informing you that it is indeed the “hand crank.” Thank you. The specs say you get 40 minutes of shave on a full charge (taking five hours), and 30 of trimming. One minute of cranking gets you 45 seconds of shave time. Shaver: this is definitely not the greatest electric shaver I’ve ever used, but given the product and its price, that’s not surprising. It’s also definitely not the worst shaver I’ve ever used. If you have time for a traditional wet shave, go with that. If you’re late for the big presentation to the board and you overslept due to some kind of wacky TV sitcom situation and you’ve got to dress and shave in the car on your hilarious drive to the office (as possibly depicted in one of the product images, very Office Space-y), go with this product. This shaver passes the visual test, in that you can get rid of obvious stubble, but it doesn’t pass the touch test; you can still feel stubble that this razor is not getting to. Again, given the price, this is not that big a deal. Pop-Up Trimmer: this deploys easily with a thumb switch, and the trimmer activates as it folds open. The shaver heads remain engaged while the trimmer is up and on, which will affect your battery use. This trimmer is fine for trimming beard and sideburns, but if you’re trying to do a moustache, the shaver head is smack in the way, so you can’t see a thing you’re doing with the trimmer. Bottom line: For the price, this product is a good deal. Time will tell on how well it holds up, and what the true value of the product is.

The Solarrific P7002 Handcrank Personal Shaver is a handy little electric shaver that you can recharge by turning the built in crank, plugging into a USB port to charge, or into a standard wall outlet. The versatility in charging this razor is what makes it stand out. Mind you, sitting there turning the hand crank for 3-5 minutes seems a lot longer than it is, but if you are out in the woods camping, or the power is out, or you just don't have a place to plug it in, it is a nice option when you want or need to shave. So that is the best thing about this shaver, the options to charge it, especially the hand crank. When it comes to shaving, there are better electric razors on the market, but some of these cost a lot more too. And I've never been able to get as good a shave with any electric razor as I do with blades. The two floating razor heads, and the flip up trimmer, do get the job done, but not great, and not as comfortable as others. I don't think I'd want this for a daily razor. I think it is great for camping, maybe backpacking around another country where you won't be sure of power supplies, and maybe to have traveling in the car for touch ups. For the price, it's a great deal for those uses. It's just doesn't give the best shave out of electric razors. Recommended for camping and travel.

This is a limited application shaver. Specifically, it would not be my first choice in that other razors on the market provide a much cleaner shave and of course does not then compare to using a wet shave blade. That being said, this is a product I really wish I had when in the military with definite field application and convenience. Campers, military, outdoorsman, European backpackers will probably be the most attracted to this product and they should be. The product arrived blister packed and I don't know anyone who appreciates a blister pack. I found the build quality to be very good overall. The shaver itself worked OK ("good enough") when my beard was short. However, it was difficult when my beard was longer and actually hurt a little as it tugged at the hair. If in the military in the field or on an Alaskan expedition, it works, without question, unless you really let your beard grow out. But for that really clean shave feel, you will need to look at more expensive shavers. I found the trimmer to be good enough for field application, though it is oddly positioned. Now, here is why I recommend this shaver for outdoorsman and military types. Not only is the shaver rechargeable, it can be charged by a built in hand crank (also via supplied USB cord and supplied AC Adapter). So, if you are in the field for a length of time in which batteries normally drain, you have no issues; simply use the hand crank to charge the shaver. Though the shaver operates when plugged in, the cord is not long enough to use without serious contortion. It should be noted that despite it's name, this product is not solar powered. However, there is an additional adapter you can buy that serves this purpose but that would just mean added weight and something else to keep track of or lose. Overall, I would definitely recommend for the right applications as I described.