REVIEW – It takes a lot to shave my face. I mean, it takes at least 5 different shavers to get everything done that I need to be trimmed. I’ll put a picture below so you can see all of them laid out. I have a goatee on my chin and around my mouth, so that means I need to keep it fairly short and I need some precision around the edges as well. But I want it as smooth as a baby’s behind on the rest of my face. And between shaves, I need to trim it up. I also need to keep my eyebrows in check and of course, my nose hairs need to be trimmed from time to time. I know… too much information. But hey, we all have to do that, right? So when the $69.95 Viper Shaver Platinum came along and I was presented with the chance to simplify my life by getting rid of some of these other shavers, I was willing to give it a shot. Let’s see how it turned out.
What is it?
The Viper Shaver Platinum is an electric wet/dry shaver with 7 pivoting rotary heads, and many types of accessories.
What’s in the box?
- The Viper Shaver Platinum
- A USB-C power cord
- A clipper attachment with 3 guards
- A nose & ear trimmer attachment
- An exfoliation attachment
- A pre-shave massager attachment
- A draw-string bag to hold everything
Product Features & Performance:
First things first, here is the picture I promised that shows the 5 shavers I have used up to this point.
From right to left…
- The Gillette Fusion5 that I use as my main shaver in the shower.
- My nose trimmer.
- The triple head rotary shaver that I use between regular shaves to freshen up my face.
- The basic electric clipper I use to shape up the edges of the goatee and my eyebrows.
- The shaver I use for trimming my goatee hair to various lengths.
So there’s a reason I have so many. I mean, I can’t use my Gillette Fusion5 to trim my ears or my eyebrows. I can’t use the triple head rotary shaver to get at those nose hairs. I can’t use the nose trimmer to get a smooth shave on my face. So I have to have all these different shavers, right? Well, the Viper proposes to solve all those problems.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Viper Shaver Platinum electric wet/dry shaver is how strange it looks, and I admit the movie Alien did cross my mind. The main body of the Viper is large and oblong and kinda looks like an alien head, but that’s what makes it fit nicely in the hand. The business end of the shaver is a flexible head with 7 pivoting rotary heads and it can easily be popped off as needed to connect some other attachments. The main shaving head will also probably need to be removed if you are gonna travel with the Viper. It’s oddly shaped and doesn’t fit well inside my travel toiletries bag unless I remove the main shaving head so it fits in my bag. The included drawstring bag does help keep everything together, so it’s nice to have that. When you see the Viper you can see how handy this would be if you have a bald head. I don’t have a bald head but I use the Viper for shaving, and I can see how this shaver would be wonderful if I needed to shave my entire head.
As you can see from the picture below, the Viper can easily be cleaned by opening the rotating heads to empty the captured hair, and can be run under water as well because it is waterproof. Which means it can be used in the shower of course. And I did use it in the shower with shaving gel, as well as a dry shaver without any gel or lotion. In both situations, the Viper performed excellently. This shaver is fast and sharp, and it gives me a very smooth shave in much less time than my other shavers. Honestly, I think I can say that it gives me just as close a shave as my Gillette Fusion5 does, and I didn’t think that was possible. I should mention however that it is a little difficult to open each blade head. I learned how to bend them to make it easier to open, but the first time I tried I got frustrated because it was kinda hard. So be prepared for that.
The battery life is amazing. It has a digital screen on the main body of the shaver that shows you exactly how many minutes you have left to use it, which is very handy. The digital screen also allows you to lock the shaver for traveling so it doesn’t turn on accidentally, so that’s helpful. The USB-C charging port is on the very end of the shaver and it took me right at 2 hours to fully charge it once it died, which is exactly how long Viper says it should take to charge it.
When you remove the main head from Viper Shaver Platinum electric wet/dry shaver and attach some of the other attachments, then you start to see the utility of having one shaver to handle everything. The nose trimmer is amazing and better than any nose trimmer I have ever used. The clipper attachment with the 3 different-size guards is handy and works well. It isn’t quite as wide as the aforementioned shaver that I use to keep my goatee trimmed short, so it takes a little longer than I expected to get the entire goatee trimmed. But it works. I can also use that clipper attachment without a guard to keep my eyebrows trimmed and the edges of my goatee nice and trimmed. I tried using the pre-shave massage and exfoliating attachments, but I didn’t get much out of those so I don’t use them anymore.
So I can confirm that the Viper Shaver Platinum electric wet/dry shaver does indeed replace all my other shavers. But what are the drawbacks? There are only 2 that I can mention. I already mentioned the difficulty of getting the blade heads open when you want to clean it. And the second drawback is that when I use the Viper to shave my face around the edges of my goatee, I can’t really get to every bit of skin all the way up to the edges of my goatee like I can with the Gillette Fusion5. The rotating heads of the Viper are nice and sharp, but the blades in each head don’t go all the way to the edge of the head. There’s a small bevel around each one that doesn’t allow me to really get 100% of the way up to the edge of my goatee. It’s a little thing, but it does force me to go back and forth over those places more than I would like to make sure I get all the hair in those spots. Now, if I didn’t have a goatee, it wouldn’t be an issue. The Viper is so fast at shaving that I would be done with my whole face in probably 2 minutes or less.
What I like
- Great price
- Amazing battery life
- The accessories give you lots of options for shaving
- Can be used wet or dry
What I would change
- It would be nice if the shave heads were a little easier to open
- Precision around goatees can be challenging
Final thoughts
If you have a bald head, then I think you’ll love the Viper Shaver Platinum electric wet/dry shaver. But you don’t have to be bald to enjoy this product. The blades are very sharp and provide an excellent shave. It’s fast and can be used either wet or dry. The battery lasts a very long time between charges and the digital readout tells you exactly how much time you have left, which is very helpful. The additional accessories can be used to keep all those hairs under control no matter where they are, and the carrying pouch stores them nicely. If you have a goatee then you might find it a challenge to get as close to the edges as you need, but that shouldn’t be enough to dissuade you from considering the Viper Shaver Platinum.
Price: $69.95
Where to buy: Viper’s website
Source: The sample of this product was provided by Viper.
