Top pick
The Philips Norelco Multigroom 7000 MG7750 has enough power to make quick work of thick hair, but not so much that a slight slip will remove a large section of a beard or mustache. It feels great in the hand, and it saves space because it can stand upright on a countertop or in a medicine cabinet.
The MG7750 is an all-purpose beard, hair, and body trimmer—it has 14 guide combs, trimmer heads in three widths, a small foil shaver head, and a nose-hair trimmer. In our tests, it ran for five hours on one charge. The steel blades are designed to be self-sharpening, no oiling needed.
The downsides: It’s relatively heavy, due to its stainless steel body, and it has a lot of accessories you’ll need to keep track of.
Runner-up
The Wahl Aqua Blade 9899 offers the power we’ve encountered in other Wahl trimmers, but this model has a larger, more-secure grip. So it’s easier to achieve precise trimming, and it helps prevent slips that can accidentally remove large chunks of a beard or mustache.
The Aqua Blade 9899 has a more-powerful motor than most people need, and it also works as a hair and body trimmer. It comes with 12 guide combs, a detail trimmer head, a shaver head, and a nose-hair trimmer. The fine-pitch steel blades with ground teeth require a couple of drops of oil every month. Also, unlike our top pick, the Aqua Blade can’t stand up on its own, and the stand it comes with is a little clumsy to use.
Budget pick
This trimmer’s light weight and skin-hugging swivel head make it ideal for precise trimming and shaving. But it might be a little weak for tackling heavy beards
Buying Options
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If you have a goatee, you like to keep your beard meticulously groomed, or you just want to spend less, the Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 QP2724/90 is a great choice. It looks more like a powered razor than like a typical beard trimmer, but our testers found that its slim, pivoting head made grooming easy and precise.
The replaceable head also delivers a close shave, so goatee wearers won’t need to keep a separate electric razor around to shave their cheeks. The QP2724/90 includes a single guide comb, adjustable from 1 mm to 5 mm. For goatees and close-trimmed beards, this is fine. (If you want a guide comb with wider adjustment range, consider the OneBlade Pro 360 QP6531/70, which we review below.)
Best for
If you want a reliable tool that can cut thick hair down to a stubble—and you don’t mind wrangling a power cord—we recommend the Wahl Peanut 8655.
This less expensive yet powerful trimmer has been our corded pick for eight years running. And in terms of cutting power, durability, and closeness of trim, it’s beat everything we’ve tested it against. It’s stronger than any cordless trimmer we’ve tried, yet it’s lighter, smaller, and more maneuverable. It’s also easier to maintain than other pro trimmers and clippers, which tend to have a tank-like construction.
But you do have to plug it in. And it comes with only four sizes of guide combs and no extra trimmer accessories.
