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Brent Butterworth is a writer dedicated to audio gear. He stopped shaving to review beard trimmers in 2020 (and never restarted). waterproof clippers
Even though beards have been in vogue for at least a decade, their popularity seems to increase every year.
And unless the beard wearer plans to make regular trips to the barber (or his name is Rick Rubin), all of that bristly growth will need frequent trimming.
We’ve found that the cordless Philips Norelco Multigroom 7000 MG7750 is the trimmer best suited to getting most beards looking great. For more-powerful trimming action, consider the Wahl Aqua Blade 9899.
This cordless trimmer has a great design and lots of useful accessories. And it has just the right amount of power to deliver comfortable, precise grooming.
This extra-powerful cordless trimmer can mow through heavier beards, and it has a comfortable grip, so it’s easy to handle.
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
If you don’t mind a corded tool, this model provides cutting power that no cordless trimmer can match. And it’s durable and easy to maintain.
For facial-hair grooming, it’s easier to use something that’s cord-free. And most trimmers’ batteries last long enough to power through several trims.
It’s tough to trim a heavy beard quickly, so we preferred trimmers with the power to cut the heaviest growth in a few swipes.
We sought trimmers that are powerful enough to quickly cut through thick beards but can also cut close enough to double as a shaver.
Our top pick comes with guide combs in enough sizes to suit any beard style, as well as other useful accessories, such as a detail trimmer.
This cordless trimmer has a great design and lots of useful accessories. And it has just the right amount of power to deliver comfortable, precise grooming.
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.
This extra-powerful cordless trimmer can mow through heavier beards, and it has a comfortable grip, so it’s easy to handle.
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.
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
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.)
If you don’t mind a corded tool, this model provides cutting power that no cordless trimmer can match. And it’s durable and easy to maintain.
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.
I’m Wirecutter’s senior staff writer covering all things audio. I’ve been reviewing beard trimmers for four years, but, more importantly, I have over 30 years of product-testing experience, so I know how to conduct fair, unbiased, and thorough evaluations.
There are plenty of ways to shave, trim, or cut a beard. This guide focuses on corded and battery-powered beard trimmers designed to shape, angle, cut, or trim facial hair. These tools are suitable for practically any length of beard, from stubble to 6 inches or more. If you’re looking for an electric razor, we have a guide for that. If you’re shopping for hair clippers, we have a guide for those, too. And if you’re more old-school and prefer a manual razor, we’ve got you covered. We also have a guide to “body hair” trimmers (it includes a top pick that’s ideal for trimming pubic hair, and we also recommend a version of the Philips Norelco Multigroom 7000, the top pick in this review).
Still, the array of devices designed specifically for cutting and trimming beards is confusing: models with all-in-one, adjustable guide combs and those with clip-on guide combs; those with rechargeable batteries, and those with power cords; those with T-shaped blades for shaping and grooming, and those with precision-length combs meant for cutting hair at a uniform length. Each of these styles has its pros and cons. Our intent was to find the trimmers that could handle as many of these tasks as possible, as deftly as possible, and at a reasonable price.
In searching for the best beard trimmers, we looked for devices with the following attributes:
We’ve been reviewing beard trimmers since 2013. During that time, we’ve consulted numerous professional barbers and trimmer manufacturers to get their input, but we rely mostly on the opinions of our panel of testers, who have different facial-hair textures and styles. In our most recent round, we tested 11 new models.
I interviewed the panelists on their experience using the trimmers and then compared their feedback with my notes. Then I spent a few days testing the battery life and evaluating the design and attachments of each of the top contenders.
This cordless trimmer has a great design and lots of useful accessories. And it has just the right amount of power to deliver comfortable, precise grooming.
If you’re looking for an all-around trimmer that’s powerful enough to quickly cut through a thick beard—but not so powerful that it places unreasonable demands on your morning focus—we recommend the Philips Norelco Multigroom 7000 MG7750. Its heft and trimming power make it a pleasure to cut with, it comes with many useful accessories, and it doubles as a hair and body trimmer.
For most beards, it’s got just the right amount of muscle. The MG7750 is powerful enough to remove lots of beard hair with a single stroke, and that extra power minimizes hair pulling, too. But unlike our runner-up pick, the Wahl Aqua Blade 9899, the MG7750 isn’t so powerful or aggressive that you need to worry about a slight slip removing a large section of beard.
Pop off the guides, and this trimmer can deliver a reasonably close shave around the bottom of a beard. It’s no match for a razor, but it’ll probably be fine, unless you have a modeling gig coming up.
The cutter blades are made from stamped steel, but Philips Norelco says they’re self-sharpening and will stay sharp for years. The MG7750 does not require oiling.
It’s comfortable to hold and convenient. The heavy, 7.5-ounce stainless steel body feels sturdy and secure in the hand, and the crosshatched grooves around the top should prevent the rather slick body from slipping. The body flares into a flat bottom, so the MG7750 can stand up on a countertop or in a medicine cabinet, thereby saving space and keeping the trimmer head from getting tangled up in dental floss.
It trims other things, too. Because it’s also intended for trimming head hair and body hair, the MG7750 comes with numerous accessories. In addition to the 11⁄16-inch beard-trimmer head, it includes a 1⅜-inch-wide hair trimmer (which also works well with very full beards) and a detail trimmer with a ¼-inch cutting area.
The MG7750 comes with 14 stiff plastic guard combs, enough to suit any beard or hairstyle. There’s also a very effective nose-hair trimmer and a foil shaver head (a smaller version of an electric razor) that’s only marginally useful. Changing the heads is easy. And the MG7750 comes with a fabric case, to carry the accessories.
You’ll rarely have to recharge it. We confirmed the rated battery life of five hours; this is long enough to go a few months without recharging. Charge time is about five hours, and a five-minute charge will provide enough power for a couple of minutes of trimming. An LED light near the bottom illuminates when the charger is connected, and it goes out when charging is complete.
Philips offers a two-year warranty on the body (though not on the trimmer heads and accessories) and a 45-day money-back guarantee.
It’s a little heavy for travel. At nearly half a pound, the MG7750 will add noticeable weight to an overnight bag. Frequent travelers may prefer our budget pick, the lighter-weight Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 QP2724/90.
Heavy beards could require more power. The MG7750 may struggle to tame the thickest beards; if your beard is especially heavy, and you want a cordless model, try the Wahl Aqua Blade 9899 , our runner-up pick.
This extra-powerful cordless trimmer can mow through heavier beards, and it has a comfortable grip, so it’s easy to handle.
The Wahl Aqua Blade 9899 is as powerful as any cordless trimmer we’ve tested (a couple of other Wahls we’ve tried were comparable), so it’s a superb choice for thick beards. With its extensive selection of accessories, this model is great for trimming beards, head hair, and body hair, too.
The power is just right for almost any beard. All of our testers found that the Aqua Blade’s powerful motor and fine-pitch, ground-steel blades easily removed hair on the first pass, with only infrequent hair pulling and little need for multiple passes. Despite the head’s generous, 1⅜-inch cutting area, it also does a precise job of shaving hairs near the bottom of the neck. This trimmer doesn’t match the closeness that a shaver can deliver, but it should be close enough for all but the most meticulous grooming.
It offers a secure grip. The Aqua Blade’s rubbery exterior doesn’t require a particularly steady hand. “The material makes it easy to grip, and the grip is thick and fits nicely in your palm,” tester Carlos said. This design reduces the chance that you’ll accidentally swipe off half of your mustache in a split second. At 5.4 ounces, the Aqua Blade is also 28% lighter than the Philips Norelco MG7750.
It’s versatile. Like our top pick, the Aqua Blade doubles as a head-hair and body-hair trimmer. The package includes 11 guide combs, a detail trimmer head with a ¼-inch cutting area, and a nose-hair trimmer that works effectively. And its shaver head gave us a closer and faster shave than the ones included with other trimmers we tested.
It requires a bit more maintenance than our top pick. The trimmer-head blades require a couple of drops of oil every month (the Philips MG7750 and OneBlade 360 do not). But this is easy to do, and Wahl conveniently supplies a small bottle of oil.
The Aqua Blade comes with a five-year limited warranty. Wahl trimmers have a reputation for reliability through years of use, as long-term testers who’ve owned the Lithium Ion+ can attest.
A stand is included, but it requires two hands to operate. The Wahl Aqua Blade 9899 comes with a charging stand. So it can stand up and therefore takes up less counter space, but you have to hold it down with one hand while you take the trimmer out with the other.
The plastic guide combs are flimsy compared with those of our top pick. They work, but don’t put much pressure on them.
The battery life is a little underwhelming. It’s rated at 40 minutes, though we got about 2.5 hours out of it. That’s not terrible, but we got about five hours out of the Philips Norelco MG7750’s battery.
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
With its thin, razor-style trimming head, the Philips Norelco OneBlade 360 QP2724/90 doesn’t look tough enough to plow through a thick beard, yet all three of our 2024 testers said they’d buy one. Its slim, pivoting head makes it as precise as a manual razor, but it’s also powerful enough to get most beards under control.
Its pivoting head makes precise grooming easy. The replaceable head is only about 2.5-mm thick. Because it pivots back and forth, and about 10 degrees to the right or left, it can stay very close to the skin. So it’s easy to shave clean edges and lop off single hairs. The small head is also great for getting a mustache looking sharp in seconds. “It’s very smooth, slender, and simple,” according to our tester with a medium-density beard who prefers ultra-clean lines.
electric beard trimmer You can also use it like a (powered) manual razor to shave any non-bearded parts of your face, such as your neck and (if you have a goatee) your jawline.