Foil vs rotary shavers
Foil cuts in straight lines, rotary in circles. That single mechanical difference decides which face each one suits, and it is not a quality question.
By Sawyer V. · Published
We have not tested any of this. Everything below is compiled from published manufacturer specifications, and the arithmetic is printed so you can check it. This page carries affiliate links: if you buy through one we earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it does not change the order of the picks. Full disclosure.
The verdict
Foil if you shave daily and your face is relatively flat; rotary if you shave every few days and your hair is coarse or curly. A foil oscillates blades behind a perforated screen and cuts in straight lines. A rotary spins three or four circular heads and cuts in circles. Foil is closer on short growth; rotary handles longer, multi-direction growth and contours better. Neither is better in general.
| # | Pick | Lasts | Score | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Braun Series 9 PRO+ The closest electric shave | 1,300 shaves* | 7.4/10 | Check price on Amazon |
| 2 | Panasonic Arc5 ES-LV67 Speed on a dense beard | 1,300 shaves* | 7.2/10 | Check price on Amazon |
| 3 | Philips Norelco 9000 Prestige Contoured faces and coarse, curly hair | 1,300 shaves* | 6.9/10 | Check price on Amazon |
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price instead of a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
The comparison, in one table
| Foil | Rotary | |
|---|---|---|
| How it cuts | Oscillating blades behind a perforated screen | Spinning circular heads |
| Motion over the face | Straight lines, with or against the grain | Small circles |
| Suits | Flat planes, fine to medium hair | Contours, coarse or curly hair |
| Shaving frequency | Daily | Every two to three days |
| Closeness on short growth | Better | Good |
| Multi-direction growth | Struggles | Better |
| Noise | Louder | Quieter |
| Published element counts | Braun 5, Panasonic 5 | Philips 3 |
The mechanism, which decides everything else
A foil shaver has a thin perforated screen over blades that oscillate side to side behind it. Hair pokes through the perforations, the blades cut it, and the screen keeps the blades off your skin. Because the blades move in one plane, a foil wants to be moved in straight lines, and it works best when the screen can sit flat against a surface.
A rotary shaver has three or four circular cutting heads that spin. Hair is caught by slots in each head and cut by blades rotating underneath. Because each head is independent and floats, a rotary follows a contour that a flat screen cannot, and it is moved in small circles rather than lines.
Everything below follows from those two paragraphs.
Who should pick foil
Somebody who shaves daily or near-daily, whose hair is fine to medium and grows in a fairly consistent direction, and whose priority is closeness. Short growth suits a foil because the screen holds the skin flat and the hair only has to poke through a perforation.
This describes most men leaving a cartridge razor, which is why four of the five picks in the main roundup are foils and why the top two - the Braun Series 9 and the Panasonic Arc5 - are the most completely specified shavers on the site.
Who should pick rotary
Somebody who shaves every two or three days rather than daily, whose hair is coarse or tightly curled, or whose face has enough contour - a strong jaw, a prominent chin, a neck that is not flat - that a rigid screen keeps losing contact.
The Philips 9000 Prestige is the rotary in our roundup, and it publishes 60 minutes of runtime, an eighteen-minute quick charge, and a Qi charging pad. It ranks below the foils there on published disclosure - a three-hour full charge and no published head replacement interval - rather than on mechanism.
Two caveats worth stating
Noise is a real difference and nobody publishes it. Rotary shavers are generally quieter than foils, and if you shave early next to somebody asleep that may matter more to you than a cutting-element count. We cannot rank it because no manufacturer publishes a figure, and we are not going to substitute an impression for one.
Technique differs and nobody tells you. A foil is moved in straight strokes against the grain; a rotary is moved in small overlapping circles. Using a rotary like a foil is the most common reason somebody switches and hates it. The irritation guide covers both.
If neither sounds right
Then the question you are actually asking may be electric versus manual rather than foil versus rotary, and that comparison is the more useful page. The short version: electric buys you speed and near-immunity to nicks, and costs you the last fraction of closeness.
Every pick, with the working
Each entry shows the published specifications, the axis scores they produce and what you give up. The order is the computed order, not a commercial one, and the arithmetic is open underneath every score.
Our pickThe closest electric shave
Braun Series 9 PRO+
Five synchronized shaving elements — two gliding foils, a SkinGuard, a Direct & Cut blade and a Lift & Cut blade — plus a titanium-coated ProLift blade, 60 minutes of runtime, a five-minute charge for one shave, and it is fully waterproof. If the requirement is 'as close as an electric gets', this is the answer and there is not much argument about it.
- Runtime
- 60 min
- Charge time
- Not published
- Cutting elements
- 5
- Head replacement
- Every 18 months
- Waterproof
- Yes
- Made in
- Not published
- Refill
- Proprietary to the maker
- Warranty
- Not published
- Assumed service life
- 1,300 uses
The arithmetic: 260 uses a year x 5 years of assumed service life = 1300 uses.
What it gets right
- Five published cutting elements, each with a stated job, plus the ProLift blade
- 60-minute Li-Ion runtime, the longest of the shavers here
- 5-minute quick charge for a full shave
- 100% waterproof; usable wet with lather
Flaws
- Replacement head cassettes are proprietary and are the real long-run cost
- Braun's published 18-month replacement interval is guidance on its parts pages rather than a figure on the product specification, so it is easy to miss before you buy
- The most expensive way to remove hair in this ledger
The working behind the 7.4
- How long it lasts: not scored
- Not scored. This is a durable item, not a consumable, so how long it lasts is an assumption about service life rather than something the pack size tells us.
- Ease of switching: 9.0
- Wet-and-dry with 60 minutes of runtime and a 5-minute quick charge; nothing about daily use requires a decision (++). Braun publishes an 18-month foil-and-cutter replacement interval, which at least makes the running cost plannable (+), but the cassettes are proprietary so the price of it is Braun's to set (-).
- Refill economics: 4.0
- Only this maker's refill fits, so the ongoing price is set by the maker rather than by a market. This is where the real cost of ownership hides.
- What the maker publishes: 8.0
- 4 of 5 specifications a buyer would expect are published: runtimeMin, cuttingElements, waterproof, headReplacementMonths. Not published: chargeMin. 4 / 5 x 10 = 8.0.
Axes with no published input are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized, so a product is not punished for a category where an axis does not apply. Specifications compiled 3 September 2026 from Braun Series 9 PRO+ published specifications.
2Speed on a dense beard
Panasonic Arc5 ES-LV67
A 14,000 CPM linear motor producing up to 70,000 cross-cuts a minute across five blades, a head that flexes in 16 directions, and a beard sensor taking 220 readings a second. It is the fastest shaver here on dense growth. The trade is 45 minutes of runtime, the shortest of the three.
- Runtime
- 45 min
- Charge time
- 60 min
- Cutting elements
- 5
- Waterproof
- Yes
- Made in
- Not published
- Refill
- Proprietary to the maker
- Warranty
- Not published
- Assumed service life
- 1,300 uses
The arithmetic: 260 uses a year x 5 years of assumed service life = 1300 uses.
What it gets right
- Published 14,000 CPM linear motor and up to 70,000 cross-cuts per minute
- Five blades and a 16-direction flexing head
- Beard sensor with a published 220 detections per second and 14 power adjustments per second
- 3-minute quick charge for one shave; wet and dry
Flaws
- 45 minutes of runtime, the shortest of the shavers here
- Proprietary foil and cutter assemblies
- Louder than the Braun units, which is a real daily consideration
The working behind the 7.2
- How long it lasts: not scored
- Not scored. This is a durable item, not a consumable, so how long it lasts is an assumption about service life rather than something the pack size tells us.
- Ease of switching: 8.5
- The most completely specified shaver here — motor speed, cross-cut rate, sensor rate and head articulation are all published figures (++). 45-minute runtime is the shortest of the three (-).
- Refill economics: 4.0
- Only this maker's refill fits, so the ongoing price is set by the maker rather than by a market. This is where the real cost of ownership hides.
- What the maker publishes: 8.0
- 4 of 5 specifications a buyer would expect are published: runtimeMin, chargeMin, cuttingElements, waterproof. Not published: headReplacementMonths. 4 / 5 x 10 = 8.0.
Axes with no published input are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized, so a product is not punished for a category where an axis does not apply. Specifications compiled 3 September 2026 from Panasonic Arc5 ES-LV67-K published specifications.
3Contoured faces and coarse, curly hair
Philips Norelco 9000 Prestige
The rotary answer, and the only one in this ledger. Three circular heads that cut in circles rather than straight lines, 60 minutes of published runtime, wet and dry, with a Qi charging pad. If your face is contoured or your hair is curly and grows in several directions at once, a rotary handles that better than any foil does.
- Runtime
- 60 min
- Charge time
- 180 min
- Cutting elements
- 3
- Head replacement
- Not published
- Waterproof
- Yes
- Made in
- Not published
- Refill
- Proprietary to the maker
- Warranty
- Not published
- Assumed service life
- 1,300 uses
The arithmetic: 260 uses a year x 5 years of assumed service life = 1300 uses.
What it gets right
- Rotary heads follow contours in a way a flat foil cannot
- Published 60-minute runtime with an 18-minute quick charge
- Wet and dry, with a Qi charging pad rather than a socket
- Cuts hair growing in mixed directions, which is where foils struggle
Flaws
- Three-hour full charge on the Qi pad is the slowest here
- Rotary shavers suit every-few-days growth better than daily shaving
- Philips does not publish a head replacement interval for this line
The working behind the 6.9
- How long it lasts: not scored
- Not scored. This is a durable item, not a consumable, so how long it lasts is an assumption about service life rather than something the pack size tells us.
- Ease of switching: 8.0
- 60 minutes of published runtime and an 18-minute quick charge (+), wet and dry (+), rotary heads handle mixed growth directions without technique (+), but a three-hour full charge and no published head replacement interval both count against it (--).
- Refill economics: 4.0
- Only this maker's refill fits, so the ongoing price is set by the maker rather than by a market. This is where the real cost of ownership hides.
- What the maker publishes: 8.0
- 4 of 5 specifications a buyer would expect are published: runtimeMin, chargeMin, cuttingElements, waterproof. Not published: headReplacementMonths. 4 / 5 x 10 = 8.0.
Axes with no published input are dropped and the remaining weights re-normalized, so a product is not punished for a category where an axis does not apply. Specifications compiled 3 September 2026 from Philips Norelco S9000 Prestige published specifications.
No live price is currently verified, so every button here reads Check price instead of a number we cannot stand behind. Why we do it that way.
Questions people actually ask
Which is closer, foil or rotary?
Foil, on short daily growth, because the screen holds the skin flat and the blade cuts in a single plane against it. On several days of growth the gap narrows, and on coarse hair growing in several directions rotary can end up closer because it is not fighting the grain.
Which is better for sensitive skin?
Usually foil, for a reason people find counter-intuitive: rotary heads work in circles over the same patch, which is more mechanical action on the skin. On skin prone to ingrown hairs specifically, the sensitive-skin roundup starts somewhere else entirely.
Which is quieter?
Rotary, generally. Nobody publishes a noise figure so this cannot be ranked, and it is a real daily consideration - a shaver used at six in the morning next to a sleeping person is a different product from one used at nine.
Do the replacement heads cost the same?
Both are proprietary and neither is a commodity, so the maker sets the price in both cases. What differs is disclosure: Braun publishes guidance of about 18 months for its foil and cutter block, and Philips publishes no interval for the Prestige rotary.