Best beard trimmer 2023: Jump Menu
00. The top 3 ↴
01. Best overall: Philips BT9000 Prestige
02. Best for shorter beards: Philips OneBlade Pro
03. Best premium option: Braun Beard Trimmer 7
04. Best for longer beards: Remington B5
05. Best budget option: Braun Beard Trimmer BT3040
06. Best for detailing: Philips Series 9000 BT9299/13
07. Best for styling: Babyliss iStubble Beard Trimmer
08. Best for attachments: Wahl Aqua Blade Beard Trimmer
09. Best for precision: Panasonic i-Shaper ER-GD60
10. Best cheap option: Philips OneBlade 360
11. Best self cleaning option: Philips Series 7000 Vacuum Beard Trimmer
12. Best hybrid option: Remington MB050 Durablade Hybrid Trimmer
13. How we test
The best beard trimmer is a modern-day essential. Crafting an attractive beard, be it a bushy hipster flex or a more sculpted number, takes time, patience and a good trimmer. The modern man needs the latest tech in his armoury to deal with such hairy issues, and, more fundamentally, he needs it to ensure he doesn't look scruffy when video conferencing with his work-from-home colleagues.
If you're looking for regular beard management or the occasional trim, what is the best beard trimmer/shaper? These ones are the sharpest, to put it bluntly. As with the best electric toothbrushes, you should never pay full price for a beard trimmer; they are always on sale.
If you're looking to fully upgrade your grooming routine, then you might want to check out the best body groomer for all-over hair removal, or, if you want to remove your facial hair completely then you'll want the best electric shaver.
Without further ado, here's the best beard trimmer you can buy today.
Beth is Home Editor for T3, covering style, living and wellness. From the comfiest mattresses to what strange things you can cook in an air fryer, Beth covers sleep, yoga, smart home, coffee machines, grooming tools, fragrances, gardening and much more. If it's something that goes in your house, chances are Beth knows about it and has the latest reviews and recommendations.
T3's top 3 beard trimmers
The best beard trimmer overall
The Philips BT9000 Prestige is the best beard trimmer overall, with a classy design, a premium feel and brilliant results. For shorter beards, stubble and detailing, this is the shaver to choose, but it can tackle some longer hair, too.
Best beard trimmer for shorter beards
For shorter beards and stubble, the Philips OneBlade Pro is the obvious choice. It delivers accurate edge trimming and its cutting comb allows for versatile grooming.
Best premium beard trimmer
Looking for something premium? The Braun Beard Trimmer 7 is the one to pick up. It has a powerful performance and a range of cutting heads to shave through even the bushiest of beards.
The best beard trimmers we recommend in 2023
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The best beard trimmer overall
Although it doesn't have a fricken' laser like its sibling later on this list, the Philips BT9000 Prestige is the classiest looking beard trimmer we've ever clapped eyes on. That's thanks to its steel body, steel blades and heavy-duty rubber grip. Heck, even the battery life indicator is neatly integrated into the base of the trimmer.
Thankfully, the BT9000 Prestige isn't just a looker, because in our review we found it offers an equally classy shave. There's a robust steel dial that quickly adjusts the blade length from 0.4mm to 5mm, or throw on a plastic guard and cover the 5.4mm to 10mm lengths.
Designed primarily with neater beard-scaping in mind, it neatly whips away whiskers without any snags or pulls. That steel cutting head is brilliantly contoured, thanks to “anti-friction skin follower” technology, and managed to get into those awkward or hard-to-reach areas where many rivals fall down.
We found the battery life is excellent too, and the 'power sensor adaptor' automatically adjusts the speed of the motor depending on how hard it works, allowing it to plough through longer sections without getting bogged down like cheaper trimmers we've tried.
Although we wouldn't recommend submerging it in a bubbly bath, it is supposedly 100-percent waterproof and performed perfectly well when we tested it in the shower. The easy flip-back shaving head also makes rinsing out any fine hairs really easy, as there's no fiddling around trying to clip a cheap plastic head back on.
Yes, it's pricey for a beard trimmer, but it feels premium and like it's built to last. Keep on top of blade maintenance (oiling them after cleaning) and this is one trimmer you won't be throwing in the bin after a few months of heavy use.
Before you buy, be sure to check our Philips discount codes to bag the best deal and check out our Philips BT9000 Prestige review for more.
The best beard trimmer for shorter beards
The Philips OneBlade is an odd-looking thing, with what appears to be a large Mach 3-style blade instead of the familiar cutting comb (although with the Pro models you get a cutting comb too).
The main selling point here is the absence of razor burn: if you’ve found other trimmers leave your face a fiery red, we think you will find the OneBlade considerably more gentle. You'll want to stand near the sink, use it in the shower, or keep a cordless vac nearby, mind: as we found the way the head vibrates sends cut stubble all over the place.
The dual-sided blade is designed to cut more precisely than a comb and we find they last about 6 weeks to 3 months before needing to be replaced. That's somewhat less than Philips' claim of 4 months, but the replacement heads aren't especially pricey or hard to find.
The battery runs for 90 minutes on a one-hour charge and it can handle beards up to 10mm via its adjustable comb head. We'd say it is suited to shorter trims on the whole – it's most ideal for those who favour neither beards nor a smooth visage: it does perma-stubble brilliantly.
There are a number of versions of the OneBlade available at Amazon and elsewhere, and particularly if you suffer from facial irritation, they are all excellent. The hardware of the non-'Pro' versions does have more of a tendency to wear out, however. That's because rather than having an integral, adjustable comb for different lengths, they use interchangeable combs.
Read our full Philips OneBlade Pro review for more.
The best premium beard trimmer
There are slightly cheaper beard trimmers out there but the Braun Beard Trimmer 7 feels like good value for money, earning its place pretty high up on this list. It is small, light and easy to use. During our review we found the tough blades shave cleanly and feel like they are built to last.
Granted, we didn't find the quality of the main body massively impressive, and some of the included shaving attachments feel like gimmicks, but stick with the main blades and the two plastic guards and you can achieve some great results, both on the face and, if you know what you are doing, on top the head too.
During our review battery life was solid and the unit is waterproof enough for easy rinsing to clean, just beware that you’ll need a two-pin adaptor if you don’t have shaving sockets in your bathroom and actually want to charge the thing.
Read our full Braun Beard Trimmer 7 review for more.
The best beard trimmer for longer beards
The Remington B5 borrows the rotary dial set-up of rivals, which we find makes adjusting the length of the built-in comb really easy. It also boasts one of the best spread of lengths we've seen in a single comb mechanism, covering 0.4 to 18mm.
When set to its shortest setting, the Remington B5 does a good job of slicing whiskers down to a fairly even trendy perma-stubble, but the large comb does make it difficult to reach tricky spots, like those on neck or just underneath the jaw.
But for not very much money, it feels like a good buy, although it doesn't come with the nose/ear trimmer attachments like other rivals we've listed here. Bottom line: it's good for really thick beards but lacks the finesse for shorter or more lavish facial hair designs.
Read our full Remington B5 review for more.
The best budget beard trimmer
We’re big fans of Braun shavers, clippers and trimmers: they’re rock solid, last forever and do the job without any fuss, and they tend to be pretty cheap too. If you’re looking for a good all-rounder to keep your beard looking its best, the BT3040 is well worth a look: with two combs and precision length settings you get 39 different lengths to play with, from five o’clock shadow to a luxuriantly long 21mm.
That means it can double as a hair clipper too, and Braun also bundles a Gillette Fusion ProGlide for precision edging. It’s not the fastest to charge - it takes about eight hours to charge from flat, and needs charging again after an hour - but we think it’s an excellent all-rounder.
The best beard trimmer for detailing
Our lifestyle editor has had one of these for 5 years and used it – usually in the shower – multiple times per week. And yes, admittedly the battery did eventually die (it now only works when the power cable is plugged in, although that in itself is a feature that some trimmers lack), but we can't really fault it for the price.
The headline feature here is an actual laser, which projects onto your face so you can cut extra straight lines in your beard. Needless to say, this is utterly useless, so let's ignore that and press on to the non-headline features.
For shorter beards (up to 7mm), there's nothing to beat the 9000 Series. It goes through even wiry neck hair with ease, edges neatly, yet there's never any danger of being cut or suffering irritation. That's despite the fact that you never ever need to oil it or replace the self-sharpening blades. Because it's 100-percent waterproof you can use it in the shower and it's very easy to clean.
Bottom line: because Philips wanted this to have a premium feel, they put a laser in it. But the good news for beardies is that they also made it as good as a beard trimmer could be. The only bum note is that if you have a beard longer than 7mm, you can't use this, unless you 3D print a longer comb attachment or something.
Read our full Philips Series 9000 BT9297/13 review for more.
The best beard trimmer for styling
As much as we hate the fashion for adding an “i” prefix to make things sound modern, the iStubble is a smart shaver indeed: its trimmer guard is motorised, enabling you to set the length perfectly.
You can expect around 45 minutes use from 90 minutes of charging, and if you forget to charge it completely there’s enough power for a single shave after just five minutes - although a full charge does take 16 hours.
It’s not suitable for Santa or hipsters - the maximum cutting length is 5mm - but if you prefer your beard to be short then the iStubble is one of the best shavers to keep it that way.
The best beard trimmer for attachments
Wahl's excellent emergency charge system is just one reason to get excited about this trimmer, because it delivers enough power for a quick trim in just one minute - perfect for when you inevitably run it flat and need a last-minute shave before work.
On top of that, it comes with a staggering 16 guide combs, which means you can go from a 0.2mm super close shave, all the way up to a proper barbershop hair-do tidy up if you really want to. There is also the obligatory nose hair trimmer, detailer head for fancy beards and a foil shaver for getting that "smooth as a baby's bottom" look to your cheeks and chin.
The best beard trimmer for precision
We were a bit sceptical of this Panasonic trimmer at first, as it's unlike any trimmer we've used before, but after getting used to it (that does take some time) it's quickly become one of our favourite grooming tools.
Why is it so difficult to get used to? As you can see from the image, you don't hold it like a traditional trimmer, as the cutting blades are in-line, rather than perpendicular, to the handle. This results in a lot more visibility while trimming, making it easier to create clean edges to your stubble. This is also aided by the long and sharp cutting blades.
If you're after more precision, the Panasonic comes with a detail attachment, which essentially covers 2/3s of the blade, and makes getting to those hard to reach places easier. As well as the detail attachment, you'll also get an adjustable comb with 20 cutting lengths from 0.5 - 10 mm. This makes getting your stubble the perfect length a breeze.
Unlike the Philips above, however, you do need to oil and replace the blades. Panasonic suggests oiling after every use, which is a bit of a hassle. It also has quite a plasticky quality but then, to be fair, these things all do.
The best cheap beard trimmer
Another good choice from Philips is the OneBlade 360. Despite it's garish looks, this is a cheap and cheerful face and body groomer that’s great value for money, and easier and more comfortable to use than ever before. The slim and lightweight design is comfortable to use, and its flexible head makes shaving easier. The 5-in-1 adjustable comb works well on longer hair although the blades dull quicker than you might expect.
The best self cleaning beard trimmer
I used to carpool for work, and one of my colleagues would always jump in the passenger seat and immediately fire up his electric shaver - something I wasn't happy about until I realised he was leaving his DNA everywhere and framed him for a series of murders. If only he’d bought the Philips, which has an integrated vacuum system to catch most of the facial fallout. It promises to catch 90% of your cuttings (albeit in lab conditions), so that should mean less cleaning up after each cut.
In my experience, you still need to clean up after, just as you do with any other beard trimmer. In fact, I'd even go so far as to say that, as with its 'laser-guided' trimmer at #1, Philips has again come up with a trimmer whose 'bonus feature' is a pure gimmick to catch your attention.
On the other hand, also like the laser-trim-o-matic, this is an excellent beard tamer, so long as you aren't too fussed about its headline feature. The lockable cutter has 20 settings from 0.5mm to 10mm and you’ll get around an hour of shaving from a single charge. Also as with the laser one, don’t pay the RRP as it’s frequently available for much less.