Philips Norelco Multigroom – Shavers Body

This is a great little trimmer for quick, "light" jobs. It seems well built for the price with a good design that makes it easy to handle. I've had no issues with it trimming my hair. It also uses a lithium ion battery which is a plus (lighter weight and more power). Should anything change then I will update this review.

I ordered the product on Saturday, and it arrived on Tuesday. Charged it for the requisite time in the manual, and used it Tuesday night. I will compare this to the Philips Norelco model G390 that this one replaces (not only did Norelco retire it, but so did I!). What allowed me to purchase this one instead of the other lesser model that Norelco has out is the one-hour charge time and 50-minute usage; much improved over a 10-hour charge and being lucky if it ran for a half-hour. Mind also, I've been using Norelco electric products since my mid-teens and have experienced some good shavers and trimmers, and some bad ones. This one ranks among the top of my list. 1) The machine itself is tremendously powerful compared to the G390. I'm not complaining about the latter, but it's nice to not have to run over my head, face, and neck several times with the new one. Even the buzzing is louder, and the vibration and unit itself are heavier when held. It's a personal preference, but I like that, and it correlates with the unit's strength. 2) The attachments are basically the same, with the exception of the addition of a wider form of the beard trimmer, which is supposed to be used when clipping head hair, not facial hair. 3) Hence, the hair trimmer has its own plastic bladed attachment, as does the beard trimmer (the G390 allowed you to put either plastic piece over the trimmer). The only concern I had was that the numbers which label the plastic pieces are done as every-other-number intervals, so the plastic pieces have to be slid into place with a little extra caution. 4) Getting the attachments on and off of the unit is easy with the press of a button. Getting the plastic covers off of the trimmers is a little trickier and takes some getting used to. 5) Although I wasn't supposed to wash the G390 attachments under water, I did anyway. This unit expressly states that you should! Inspecting the unit and attachments more closely, I can easily see that the new items are better sealed in general so that water would penetrate with a lot of difficulty -if at all. 6) Instead of a plastic molded stand in which one would drop the unit and attachments, this new model comes with a drawstring bag. Much nicer and collapsable; can be stored more easily or stacked, instead of having a separate space to accomodate the stand. 7) Maybe it's just me, but the new attachments didn't leave behind marks after going over some surfaces on my scalp and neck a few times at different angles without the need for pressing it heavily against my skin (that's an illusion: a person thinks they're getting the hair off better when they're really not; it's a reaction to a poorly-cutting machine!). I got used to having red marks for about a day once I was done trimming everything roughly each week or two, but this left behind a clean, smooth surface which was delicate but not irritated. My skin happens to be a bit sensitive, I suppose, but this was a relief. 8) True to form, I spent a half-hour shaving/trimming/grooming for the first time ever, and the unit still has plenty of power. 9) The new unit has a light which tells you when it's low on power and when it's done recharging. The other one had nothing which did this! 10) The plastic pieces themselves seem sturdier than the ones that came with the last model, where the blades broke off and left some very sharp edges (one of which sliced my neck while shaving two weeks ago because I hadn't known it broke mid-trim!). 11) The charger itself is not boxy at all, but (as another reviewer correctly stated) fits into any 110v socket without blocking its twin -if there are the usual two. This is extremely convenient, since I can now plug it in next to things without worrying which one takes priority for soaking up a little electricity! That's about all I can think of. I'm confident this one will last a long time. UPDATE 8/29/11: I've now been using this for weeks. So far, so good. The plastic attachments which cover two of the trimmers require a little extra effort to slide them on and off without removing the trimmers themselves, but no biggie. Also, all of the attachments which fit into the main unit seem to require very little effort to remove... perhaps the catch is too loose? Also not a deal-breaker because they stay on when they need to. This is one powerful unit, I must say, and I've only had to recharge it once (impressive, considering I use this thing at least 2-3x/week for various purposes but mostly for maintaining my a goatee and my head's fuzziness). Through some experimentation, I've found the right lengths to go with. Best of all, none of the blades -no matter how close they shave/trim and no matter how hard I accidentally push a given attachment onto my face or scalp- have left my rather sensitive skin with any irritation. I maintain my stance that this will probably go for the long haul. UPDATE, 1/9/2013: Still going strong. UPDATE, 4/20/2016: Still going strong. Unbelievable!

I'd really give this a 3.5, but I rounded up, to be fair. Positives: 1 - Very light and powerful, easily chops right through hair 2 - 2Lithium battery, great life, lasts a long time between charges 3 - Can use when plugged in (should you need to when battery is dead, unlikely, see #4 below) 4 - Rapid charge-- charges up enough for a quick trim in a few minutes Negatives: (Note, this is compared to other products, but overall, the positives outweigh the negatives in quality) 1 - accessory/trim parts are a bit clumsy- ----------the beard height adjuster is kinda flimsy-- it won't break but is is not as well-designed as some other models ----------You have to remove the main blade and attach the other blades (mustache trimmer, nose hair trimmer, etc)- no pop-up design 2 - No stand (which I don't care about, but you may) 3 - (edit) trimmer setting does not get as low as some others (see bottom of review). I won't count this as a con, but there is one brand, maybe panasonic, I can't remember, that has a little vacuum function to decrease the cut hairs getting all over. However, it doesn't work perfectly anyway, and I don't see it as a major advantage. All in all, I have used a few of these, 2 of which I purchased at Amazon. One just sucks totally (Man groomer - see my review if you're interested). The other main one is the Remington MB300, which is great, but the battery stopped holding a charge pretty quickly. It functions fine, and you can use it plugged in, just can't take it on a trip for a few days without the charger. That one is probably a nicad battery, I think they might have one with a Li battery now, would be worth checking out. I just did, actually, it is the Remington MB4040 Lithium Ion Powered Men's Rechargeable Mustache and Beard Trimmer , sold here on Amazon. Looks like they changed it, no more pop up trimmer (more like this Norelco) but it does have the dial adjustable beard height, which is much nicer. I might pick one of them up, actually, and have this as a backup/travel unit. I want to add one point in this edit: The trimmer settings for this unit do not get as low as for the Remington, so there is a bit of a gap between no guard, or 0 setting, and the next lowest, which is 1 or 2 on the Remington, but 4 on this one. That is actually pretty key if you like to keep your beard at a very close 1 or 2 setting (which I do, sometimes, actually).

Originally bought these in January 2012 and have had ZERO problems with them. The cut is still quality, the moving parts and accessories have all worked seemlessly as well. I originally bought these more for the grooming options... Closer shave, mustache trimmer, be careful with the genital area (as always) but still overall a great grooming tool. As far as cutting your hair with these... I shave my head (no guard) about once every 2 weeks, and the cut is extremely close. I thought maybe it was getting too close so I bought the Philips QC5360, which is more for cutting hair as the width is wider. The Philips QC5360 has since had problems with the overall recharging capacity diminishing (I normally have to charge it every time for a head shave that takes a total of 15 minutes). So now it's just strictly back to these Philips Norelco QG3270. Great pair of clippers/grooming tool.

I have used the Norelco Multigroom Pro for several months now and it has worked extremely well. Battery life is excellent. Althought it came with several heads and attachments, I use the wide trimmer head and the adjustable cutting length attachment. My wife cuts my hair which paid for the product during the second hair cut. I also use it to trim my beard and mustache and it just does it all well. I am very satisfied with this trimmer.