USB iShaver

The basics

It seems like you can get practically anything powered by USB these days, and now the humble electric shaver has been given the same treatment, letting you juice your daily razer up via a spare port on your laptop or computer. Meet the iShaver, and just like its name suggests, it's even styled after Apple's iconiciPhone range - but is it any good? We let our five o'clock shadow become a five o'clock the next day shadow to find out.

The good

Forgive the name - the iShaver doesn't actually plug into your iPhone, nor is it an Apple accessory either, it just happens to look like an iPhone - even down to the box too. That means it's a slim and light little gizmo, that you can easily throw into your bag or even your pocket, and handily, it also charges via USB - meaning wherever you have a port handy, you can juice up your shaver. Whether that's through your laptop, the mains, your Xbox or even your TV. No matter where there's a USB port handy, you can charge it up (Of course, you might want to be concerned what your boss will think of you, but that's another matter).

The shaver itself packs in a thin net foil and floating blades, and works well enough to mow through stubble - we wouldn't suggest trying it on anything longer, as it simply just won't work, while it's flexible enough to manoeuvre around awkward angles on your face.

The bad

Unfortunately, the iShaver doesn't give that good a shave - it is a £15 novelty gift, after all. The size of the shaving head isn't that large and doesn't cover a wide area, while it also has a problem with longer hairs, as it manages to zip past them without even giving them a cut.

We also found the battery life to not be ideal - and we wish there was some sort of indicator to let us know it needed a charge. We ended up with the shaver stuck to our face, with an unfinished shave and plenty of stubble left to trim - if we knew the shaver was about to run out of battery, we would have either charged it up or skipped the shave completely. That said, with a full charge, you'll be able to eek out at least two full shaves with the charger before it needs a boost, which is pretty good for a USB powered shaver. The build quality of the shaver though, is questionable: our initial sample failed to switch on, even after a thorough charging, while on our replacement, the cap feels a little loose on the shaver, and feels like it can be easily lost.

The bottom line

The iShaver manages to do what it says on the tin, but not in a particularly glamorous way. It's a novelty item, sure, and it actually does shave, albeit not that well, and its battery life isn't perfect. It's great for a quick shave, and charging via USB is handy, but if you're planning on using this as your everyday shaver, you might want to look elsewhere. Or just start growing a beard.