I purchased another grooming set for my beard a few months ago and it was absolutely useless. The teeth in the clipper blade were too narrow to cut my thick beard hair and it ended up in the drawer gathering dust. So I was back to growing it again and I reached the point where I was fed up of it a few days ago. I decided to try another grooming set and after a fair bit of research I settled on this one. Please see the attached video for my detailed review.
The clippers are just what I was looking for. They dealt with my beard with ease. I tried cutting my hair and they will get that job done too. My only criticism is that the clipper blade is a bit narrow for hair cutting and you need way more passes to cut it properly. Not a big issue, but anyone who cuts their own hair like I do, will know the compulsion to keep going over it to make sure that you have not missed anywhere. A small blade leaves more room for error.
There are a good selection of combs 3 for your hair (9, 12, 16mm), three for your beard (1, 2, and an adjustable comb 3 to 7mm) and one body hair comb (3mm). The adjustable comb for the beard is great and I reckon it will be the one I use permanently. The blade is great on its own for detailing longer areas of your beard or hairline and there is also a much narrower blade for finer detailing work. There is a shaver attachment and I tried this, it was partially successful, but not really up to the task. I think that the foil holes are too small, on finer hair I think it would be fine. The nose and ear clipper works well. Once you are finished you just rinse the clippers under the tap to clean the attachments. The set is waterproof and there is an answered question above, in the questions section, where the manufacturer says that using it in the shower is OK.
The instructions are pretty poor and consist of several pages of images and no text, so no actual written instructions - poor show Philips. You are informed that the battery needs to be charged for 16 hours before use. Unfortunately, there is no indication of when the battery is fully charged or when it is running out of power - another poor choice. I will just charge mine for a few hours every other time I use them. There are 80 minutes usage time on a full charge. 16 hours is a ridiculously long time to charge a battery for nowadays! It has to be said though, that cordless grooming is a pure joy and far safer.
The blades do not require oiling and are self sharpening, I have no idea how they do that, but the unit comes with a 4 year guarantee, so they must be confident that they will work that long. The clippers have a nice feel to them with a soft rubber grip. They are very quiet to use and fitting/removing the attachments and combs is easy.
I like this product and am very happy to have found a grooming set that can deal with my beard for not too much outlay. After a few minutes use I was left looking considerably more handsome than I was before I started (remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder). Mind you, my wife never seemed to notice, but at least she never asked me why I had shaved my beard off, because this time I did not have to! Not itching under my chin and around my neck anymore has left a huge smile on my face. It is good to be able to sort out my beard easily again.