The Andis WDT-1 Beard and Hair Trimmer has a handy integral comb and trimmer adjustment, but removing the comb for close trims is a pain. And even with the comb removed, it can’t make close trims.
Even at its lowest blade-height setting, the Beard Club PT45 can’t trim close enough to double as a razor.
The Bell & Howell Vacutrim has a built-in vacuum function to keep whiskers from littering your sink. One tester didn’t find the vacuum feature adequately effective; another did, but he found the added noise of the vacuum annoying.
The Braun BT5070 (currently unavailable) has an odd design, with a second trimmer built in for detail work. It’s a decent trimmer for certain beard lengths, but it’s not very versatile.
The Braun BT5265 is a solid trimmer with two adjustable guide combs. Each of these can be set for 20 different lengths using a top-mounted knob that’s easily flicked with the thumb. Our testers found it powerful enough, but one tester noticed that the combs didn’t glide well through his thicker beard.
The Brio Beardscape is a fairly powerful trimmer with five speeds, and it feels nice and solid in the hand. But it can’t trim close enough to double as a razor, and it’s about double the price of our top pick.
With the ConairMan Cordless Beard and Mustache Trimmer, we found too many reliability-related complaints to consider it as a contender.
The King C. Gillette Beard Trimmer is affordable, but it lacks sufficient cutting power to trim a beard quickly.
The King C. Gillette Beard Trimmer Pro offers 40 cutting lengths in 0.5-mm increments, which is cool. But we found its vibration excessive, and the body’s slick sides were tough to keep hold of.
The Mowbie Beard Trimmer incorporates a silicone scrub brush and a vibrating mode intended to act as a face scrubber. However, the scrubbing power added by the vibration is negligible, and this model didn’t trim as close as our top picks.
The beloved Oster Classic 76 Universal Motor Clipper is a corded model available in 12 colors. But it regularly costs more than double what our corded pick, the Wahl Peanut, costs; it is significantly heavier; and it doesn’t come with guide combs (though you can buy a set of 10 separately).
The Panasonic ER-GB60-K is a powerful, versatile beard trimmer with a whopping 39 length settings. But in our tests it seemed to pull too many hairs for comfort, and the list price is rather high, given the performance flaws.
The Panasonic ER-SB40, another trimmer with an adjustable guide, cuts well, but it’s bulky in the hand. And its guide-adjustment knob has to be spun with your thumb and forefinger, rather than just flicked with the thumb, as with the OneBlade 360 QP6531/70 Pro. We found the ER-SB40’s dial uncomfortable and inconvenient to use.
The Remington PG6025 All-in-1 Lithium Powered Grooming Kit doesn’t perform quite as well as our budget pick. The motor is slightly weaker, and the attachments are flimsier.
The Remington MB4700 Smart Beard Trimmer is a high-tech model with a motorized, adjustable guide comb and an “auto turbo” function, which Remington says will automatically adjust the motor speed for the thickness of the beard. It cuts well but is bulky in the hand, and you have to remember to turn the touchscreen off before you start shaving, otherwise you might accidentally change a setting.
Remington’s MB6850 Vacuum Stubble and Beard Trimmer has a built-in vacuum to catch cut hairs, but for us it seemed to miss a lot of them, and it’s also very bulky in the hand.
The TPOB Ghost X is inexpensive, but it’s tough to get a grip on its plastic body, and it vibrates to the point where it’s annoying.
A pro-style corded trimmer, the Wahl Chrome Pro 3024635 has wide, sharp blades that are too large to trim facial hair effectively.
Wahl’s Lithium Ion All-in-One Rechargeable Trimmer 9854 is a decent trimmer, but we’ve found that as time passes the battery gets flaky, its performance diminishes, and it begins to pull hair.
The Wahl Lithium Ion+ Stainless Steel Trimmer 9818 was once our runner-up pick; the Aqua Blade 9899 we now recommend is basically the same trimmer, with a much more comfortable and secure grip.
The Wahl Power Pro 9686 is typically less expensive than the Wahl Peanut, but we prefer the latter’s slim, peanut shape over the Power Pro’s candy-bar shape. Most reviews from customers who’ve bought the Power Pro 9686 as a replacement for the Peanut consider the Peanut superior. The Wahl T-Styler Pro 9686-300 is virtually identical to the Power Pro 9686 but comes with a wider, T-shaped blade.
The Wahl Extreme Visibility Pro has a very thin cutting head for precise grooming. We liked its power and thought it felt great in the hand. It comes with a lot of accessories—even a foil shaver—but it is about twice the price of our top picks.
The Walker & Company Bevel Trimmer is one of the most powerful cordless trimmers we’ve tested, with exceptionally sharp blades. But the design feels odd, and this trimmer doesn’t have an option to attach a guide comb, which is essential for many people.
Séamus Bellamy and Tyler Wells Lynch contributed reporting. This article was edited by Tracy Vence and Kalee Thompson.
