Braun Series 9 Pro+ Review (2026): The Foil Shaver That

Why you should trust this review

I have shaved with electric razors since 2010, mostly Braun across the Series 5, 7, and now the 9 Pro+, with a brief Panasonic Arc 5 stint along the way. I bought the Series 9 Pro+ at retail from Amazon. Braun did not provide the unit. I have a dense beard with mixed grain directions on the neck, which is the hardest test any electric shaver faces, so this is a genuinely demanding daily trial rather than an easy one.

Eight months of daily shaving is enough to know whether a razor at this price earns its premium, and the question I went in with was whether the Pro+ would actually improve on the Series 7 it replaced. The notes below come from shaving with it every day, comparing it directly against my retired Series 7, with manufacturer figures filling in the published specs.

How we evaluated

I used the Series 9 Pro+ as my only razor for eight months, dry shaving five days a week and wet shaving on weekends to cover both modes the razor supports. I ran the battery continuously from a full charge until cut-off to verify the runtime, and I assessed the AutoSense motor by paying close attention to how it behaved crossing from the lighter cheek to the dense neck.

For the first four weeks I compared closeness directly against my retired Series 7 across the same beard area, so the improvement claim was tested rather than assumed. I tracked skin comfort on a simple self-rating scale across the whole window, and I ran a four-week split comparing manual tap-cleaning against the cleaning-station experience. The full protocol is on our methodology page.

Closeness of shave: visibly improved over the Series 7

The five-element head includes a ProLift trimmer that lifts and cuts the flat-lying hairs the foils otherwise skim over. On my neck, where stray hairs tend to lie flat, this is exactly where electrics usually fall short, and it is where the Pro+ pulls ahead. The difference between the Series 7 and the Pro+ on that area is the difference between needing a manual touch-up afterward and not needing one at all.

That is the change that stuck with me. After eight months I have stopped doing manual razor touch-ups on my neck following an electric shave, something the Series 7 always required. For anyone who has accepted that an electric simply will not get the neck close enough, the Pro+ is the model that closes most of that gap. It is a real, repeatable improvement, not a marginal one.

AutoSense motor and battery

The AutoSense system reads beard density many times a second and revs the motor up on the denser areas. In daily use this is not a gimmick: the motor’s pitch shifts audibly as you move from the cheek to the neck, which tells you the shaver is actually responding to what it is cutting rather than running at one flat speed. The result is a more even shave with less repeated passing over the same patch, which is gentler on the skin as well as faster.

On battery, Braun rates 60 minutes and I measured 58 after eight months of daily use, about 97 percent of the rating and excellent retention. A typical morning shave takes me around four minutes, so a single charge covers roughly two weeks of shaves in real terms. The five-minute quick-charge is the feature I lean on most when I forget to plug it in overnight, and USB-C charging is exactly what a 2026 razor at this level should have.

Wet and dry use, and cleaning

The Pro+ is fully waterproof to IPX7 and works under the shower or with shaving foam. I dry-shave on weekdays for speed and wet-shave on weekends, and the wet shave gives a marginally closer result while being a bit gentler on the skin; the dry shave is faster and easier to clean up after. Having both modes work properly on one razor is genuinely useful and let me match the shave to the morning.

On cleaning, this SKU ships without the cleaning station, and after eight months I can say you do not need it. I clean the head manually under the tap with Braun’s supplied detergent, the whole job takes about thirty seconds, and it never felt like a chore. The cleaning-station version exists and saves you that half minute, but it costs more and, for someone who will rinse the head by hand, it is not a meaningful upgrade. Buy the station only if you genuinely will not clean it manually.

Who should buy the Braun Series 9 Pro+?

Buy it if you shave daily and want the closest electric shave available, you have a dense or coarse beard that defeats lesser shavers, or you have skin sensitivity that does not tolerate a manual razor well. The closeness gain over a Series 7 and the responsive AutoSense motor are the real reasons to choose it.

Skip it if you shave only two or three times a week, where a Series 7 saves money, or if your single priority is the absolute closest shave at any cost, since a manual razor still wins that contest outright.

The verdict

The Braun Series 9 Pro+ is the foil shaver I would put at the top of the list for a daily driver in 2026. Eight months of shaving a difficult beard proved the closeness genuinely improves on the Series 7, the AutoSense motor actually responds to beard density, and the battery holds 58 of its rated 60 minutes. It is expensive and the replacement cassettes are not cheap, but for someone who shaves every day and wants the closest electric result, it is worth the premium and the clear editor’s choice.