I believe the charcoal brush head was clarisonic's last newly designed brush head before they closed their doors and at least just with that in mind Clarisonic certainly went out with a bang.
It really deep cleans your skin and it makes your skin feel so soft, which actually puts it in a range above the Deep pore brush head because it's much more gentle than the Deep Pore brush head and it's even slightly less abrasive than the old school acne brush head.
I don't think it's better as a pre-shave cleanse than the alpha fit men's brush head, but it's definitely great and it is certainly the best of all of the newly redesigned brush heads that Clarisonic put out in their last year or two (excluding the exfoliating brush head which is in an entirely different category).