14-03-2025
Panasonic's Arc 5 Shaver Is Made of Japanese Steel and Sea Minerals—and Might Make You Nostalgic
Its lid fits snugly tight, even before you tuck the thing into its travel case with the cord and cleaning brush, meaning it's well protected in any travel case. The device is, quite simply, handy, compact, and elegant, and it can go pretty much anywhere you do: showers, downpours, lakes, whatever. Not only is this thing waterproof externally (provided you keep its USB-C power cord bay safely closed), you can take the top off its foils and wash off the motor arms with a running tap. It's rated to be plunged into a bathtub for as long as 30 minutes.
To drive home the fact that this device is comfortable in the wet, the Arc 5 also boasts an oddly useless 'foam mode' to play around with. Hold the power button down for two seconds for foam mode, and supposedly, vibrating the shaver foils against some shave lotion is easier than lathering shave soap by hand.
It didn't play out this way for me, nor did I need shaving cream with a device this gentle. I really had no idea why I was buzzing my shaver against a palm full of shave lotion, other than that the instruction manual suggested I might enjoy it. But for the truly sensitive of skin, this is indeed a foil shaver that's happy to get foamy, and is easy to rinse off. Close but no Nagori
Battery life is no great shakes, with a full charge netting less than an hour, and the shave is only moderately close. I can still feel a little stubble sandpaper after multiple passes. In a head-to-head shave-off against other devices, the Arc 5 performed fairly similarly to a Philips Norelco OneBlade ($38), a popular, T-shaped ultra-smooth shaver that likewise errs on the side of protecting the sensitive. Difference is, the OneBlade costs less than $40.
The precision foil from the Philips Norelco 7000 ($69), one of the top picks in WIRED's guide to the best beard trimmers, mopped the floor with the Arc 5 for sheer close-shaving prowess. Blades, of course, like Leaf's Thorn and Twig models (8/10, WIRED Recommends), shave much closer than any of these.
Photograph: Matthew Korfhage
