Philips Norelco 2300 Electric Shaver Review: It’s Not For Everyone

In this hands-on review, I’ll take a look at the Philips Norelco 2300 electric shaver. Read on for all of the details!

If you’ve ever looked for an electric facial hair shaver, you’ve probably come across Philips Norelco in your search (among many other types of razors).

They’re a big name brand that makes everything from entry-level trimmers, like the OneBlade, to high-end models that cost nearly $300, like the S9000 Prestige.

In this review, I’ll look at the Philips Norelco 2300 which costs around $40.

Quick Take

While Philips Norelco is a trusted brand that’s known for making solid products, you’re better off steering clear of the 2300 shaver.

The 2300 seems like an awesome entry-level electric razor, but after using it, I can’t really recommend it to anyone.

We’ll get into the nitty-gritty details shortly, but to put it simply, this shaver doesn’t do a very good job at, well, shaving.

What’s in the Box?

The Philips Norelco 2300 is packaged nicely. I like the color of the box a lot, and it displays the trimmer well.

In the box, you’ll find pretty standard stuff like the shaver itself, a blade cover, a charger and an instruction manual.

How Does It Work?

One of the first things you’ll notice about the 2300 shaver is that it looks odd. The blade doesn’t look like a standard facial hair trimmer at all.

Instead of having a visible blade similar to a regular razor, it has three blades that are covered by circular pieces. You’re supposed to rub the trimmer in circles on your face so your hairs go into the little blade covers and get trimmed by the blades.

Philips Norelco 2300 Review

Now, I’ll get into the functionality of the trimmer.

When I tried the 2300, I hadn’t shaved in a couple of weeks so I had a light beard.

The trimmer didn’t work very well at shaving it off. After going over my face several times, I still had a lot of stray hairs that hadn’t been trimmed. I mean, it was looking pretty patchy.

It was an annoying experience. I felt as though shaving shouldn’t take so long. For me, one of the big selling points of electric shavers is that they’re quicker than shaving with a manual razor.

I used the pop-up trimmer to shave the rest of the hairs that got missed by the main part of the trimmer. I like the idea of the pop-up trimmer (to help shape your mustache and sideburns), but I really don’t like that you can’t shave against the grain with it.

The trimmer folds out so shaving upwards with it results in it folding back in.

With an electric razor, shaving against the grain results in a cleaner shave so it’s kind of whack to not really have that option. Hypothetically, you could turn the entire shaver upside down and use the pop-up trimmer against the grain, but yeah, who wants to do that? Not me.

Also, a general complaint I have is that the shape of the trimmer is bad at shaving along curves like your jawline and neck.

After I used the 2300 for the first time, it didn’t work well so I actually took a look at the manual to see if there was something I was missing.

The manual says that the trimmer has a “21-day adaptation process” and that your skin will adjust to the razor after using it exclusively for three weeks, resulting in a closer shave.

There may be something to that, but I gotta say, it sounds totally bogus to me. I’ve been using electric razors since I was 16 years old, and personally, I’m skeptical about the entire design of this razor.

Rather than it being an innovative design that will positively change the future of razors, I think it’s an oddball design that doesn’t work very well.

After shaving, my skin was definitely irritated. My face was left with some redness that faded within an hour or so. It wasn’t a huge deal for me, but I could see how that would really irk someone’s nerves. Especially if they shaved right before a date or business meeting.

Second Time’s the Charm? Not Exactly

On my quest to find out why this razor didn’t work very well, I also read that the razor is intended to be used with three days worth of facial hair growth. Meaning that if you’ve grown your beard out for more than three days, it’s not recommended to use it. That’s a very short window of time.

For good measure, I used the razor a second time after I had grown some stubble. It didn’t take as long to shave as the first go-round because I had less facial hair, but the same problems occurred with skin irritation and having to go over my face several times to get a somewhat decent shave.

Of course, there were plenty of stray hairs that the shaver missed. I don’t mind telling you that at that point, I pulled out my Philips Norelco OneBlade to finish the job. It just works a lot better than the 2300 (it’s cheaper too).

My Overall Recommendation

After using the Philips Norelco 2300 twice, I’m not at all convinced that it’s worth trying to use again. You can’t use it to trim your beard to different lengths, and it doesn’t do a good job of clean shaving. I just don’t believe that if I use it for three weeks, it’s going to become a great shaver.

The 2300 does have some good features like being washable and having a rechargeable battery, but as you may have guessed, I don’t recommend this shaver. It’s really just not as good as a standard electric shaver like the OneBlade or OneBlade Pro.