Panasonic Arc 5 Palm Shaver Review: Nippon Steel

That said, the performance is still adorable compared to most travel shavers, as long as your hair doesn’t grow too long. Like many foil shavers, the Arc 5 does not like to cut hair for longer than a few millimeters. Shaving a long whisker requires a huge amount of passes. And you’ll almost certainly get some painful hair. The ARC 5 is a neat and clean shaver for someone who is already neat and clean.

The ARC 5 is not a detailed shaver either. This is an attachmentless device that does what it does. It adapts widely to the large surface area of ​​the face and neck. If you have a whisker line, or have solidly maintained geometry on your sideburn or mustache, this shaver will not serve you as a daily driver without another detail trimmer.

Photo: Panasonic

Shell Game

But the lack of sharp edges in the shaver can also be a virtue. The palm of the Arc 5 has a very wide face, is very sharp, and its shaving is very high, so it is comfortable to use it in the shower without a mirror. (If you’re someone who has a mirror in the shower, there’s no attack, but I don’t understand.) By the way, I might even feel ok to shave while walking.

But now we’re back to the full circle to why I still like the white arc 5 palm despite its narrow use case and intermediate shaving and high prices. I enjoy a bit of how it feels in my hands. The fun is of such a rare quality that it fades away between shavers.

Photo: Matthew Korfhage

“Nagori,” the name of Mitsui Chemicals’ new material, which offers the strange organic textures of Arc 5, is a kind of word that people often like to call “untranslated.” Nagori refers to a kind of instantaneous nostalgia. It’s the kind you may feel when passing seasonal or in the final course of your meal. It comes from the old Japanese phrase “Wave Ruins,” which refers to the shells and trucks left behind when the tide returns.

The name of this material almost certainly comes from the marine minerals that form its foundation. But it also explains the feeling I got when I pulled the shaver out of that package: nostalgia without replacement for the object in my hand. Over time, this feeling will become dull. The light granular shell plastic in Arc 5 starts to look like a bit of a nice plastic.

But for now I have had a small emotional experience with a travel shaver. Whether that feeling is worth $300 is between you and your accountant.