Gillette Fusion ProGlide Power razor January 2011
A new and improved Fusion from Gillette?
The new Gillette Fusion ProGlide Power is the latest addition to Gillette's growing family of Fusion razors. The standard Fusion design has been given a complete overhaul to create the ProGlide Power, and it comes with Gillette's thinnest ever blades. We asked a Which? researcher to test out the ProGlide. Here are our first impressions.
Multi-blade Fusion from Gillette
The Fusion ProGlide is the latest multi-blade razor to be added to Gillette’s Fusion family of men's razors.
Gillette promises this latest razor outperforms its existing Fusion razor and comes with the thinnest blades its ever created – but our first impressions found it to be very similar to the Fusion and if you’re a regular Fusion user, it will be hard to tell the difference in the quality of shave provided.
Check out our first impressions of the ProGlide in our first look video review:
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New blade design
Like the other Fusion manual and battery-powered Fusion razors, the Stealth, Phenom and the Gamer, the Fusion ProGlide comes with five blades on the front for shaving with and one on the back for edging beards and sideburns.
But though the ProGlide looks very similar, most parts of the blade cartridge have been re-designed. It now comes with a larger lubricant strip above the blades, an improved precision trimmer for edging and a re-worked handle with more areas to grip.
There are two versions of the ProGlide, a battery-powered model (ProGlide Power) and a manual version.The battery-powered Gillette Fusion ProGlide Power comes with one blade cartridge and is available for £12.99. The manual version comes with two blade cartridges and costs £9.99.
Gillette Fusion ProGlide first look review
We haven’t fully lab tested the ProGlide yet, but we gave it to our Which? razor expert to try out for two weeks.
Results of the two-week trial show that the ProGlide is very similar to other Fusion razors. Like the Fusion Power Stealth, previously tested by Which?, the ProGlide offers an extremely close-feeling and comfortable shave.
The new blade cartridge didn’t give a noticeably different shave to other Fusion razors, but the redesigned shaft did feel easier to control thanks to the extra gripping areas. There’s also a funky blue light on the back which gives it the feel of Doctor Who’s sonic screwdriver.
Our researcher shaved with the battery-powered ProGlide, which costs £3 more than the manual version. Shaving with the power on didn’t deliver noticeably improved results, and it felt more natural to shave with the power off. Gillette tells us that the battery 'delivers soothing micro-pulses for incredible comfort', but in our quick trial, this seemed a bit superfluous and gimmicky.
Blades are interchangeable between the Fusion and the Fusion ProGlide. So if you own one type, and see the others on a special offer, you’ll be able to attach them without any problems. You can also use the same Fusion or Fusion ProGlide blades on both the battery-powered and manual versions of the razor.
We’ve tested the Gillette Fusion Power in our laboratory and with a panel of users. To see how it did on test, go to our full razors review.
Pros: Close feeling shave, edging blade is good for sideburns and beards.
Cons: Battery-powered version doesn’t deliver noticeably better results but costs more.
