Philips Norelco Beard Trimmer Series 7200

I've been using Philips Norelco products for some time now and also have another trimmer of theirs (model QG3280/41), which is still running strong after six years of use. I usually find their products to be reliable and of exceptional quality. Before purchasing the BT7215/49 model however, I read most of the reviews on here and became hesitant about acquiring it, as there were too many incidents of the tabs breaking off on either the blade or comb assembly. Still, I decided to risk it thinking those incidents were either a case of bad handling or flat-out bad luck. I even went as far as purchasing the Asurion extended warranty that Amazon offered, in addition to the warranty that already came with the unit as a safety measure. I even got a padded case to house it in whenever it wasn't being used. Fast-forward to three months of gentle handling and use, and snap—one of the tabs on the blade assembly broke off while I was brushing it of all things. At first, I didn't even bother contacting Philips Norelco about it, as I had read somewhere that they had become resistant to providing anymore replacement parts for this, as their warranty department had gotten inundated with similar complaints. I reached out to Asurion, and they informed me to first contact Philips Norelco about it. So I did—and to my surprise—they quickly took my contact and shipping info and shipped out a replacement blade and comb assembly. The rep also informed me that they were an updated version of what originally came with the unit, and that the plastic tabs were now designed to be stronger. I'm giving 5 stars here, because I feel that the original engineering for these specific parts was a case of bad luck, and that the company is now trying to correct their mistake by having improved on the design and offering a replacement for the defective parts to its customer base at no cost. If your product is still under warranty, then I encourage you to reach out to Philips Norelco so that they can get you this replacement if it's needed. As far as the device itself, I think it's great. It has a long battery life between charges, runs with the provided power supply in case your battery's running low, feels very light and ergonomic when handling it, and does a great job of trimming my facial hair. The vacuum also works pretty good, although I still get a few pieces of stubble in my sink whenever I use it. The only thing I wish could be improved would be the housing for the vacuum. I wish I didn't have to remove the blade and comb assembly whenever I wanted to empty it out, as I believe that constantly having removed them most-likely wore down the plastic tab that eventually broke off. Also, cleaning out the compartment where your hairs get vacuumed seems a bit risky. They do provide you with a soft-padded brush for this purpose, but I always feel that I need to take great care not to unintentionally damage another component within that housing, which also includes a portion of the device's motor. All-in-all, I encourage you to give this model a try, and if the tabs on either the blade or comb assembly break off, then reach out to Philips Norelco ASAP so they can mail you out a replacement.

I wanted to hold off on giving a review until I've used this for a considerable amount of time so I could address the timmer's quality and durability, as there were some reviews that mentioned the plastic length guards/guides breaking on them. Well, I purchased this at the end of Aug. 2016 and it's currently Oct. 2017, so I think I can provide a fair perspective on this. In short: this is an absolutely amazing trimmer, and I can't imagine *not* having it (or one similar). I normally keep a relatively short (~3-5mm) beard and the thing I hated the most about it was when it came time to trim it: my previous trimmer would throw the tiny clippings *everywhere* and I often had to spend just as much time trying to clean up the bathroom sink/countertop of the tiny pieces of facial hair as I did actually trimming my beard. It came to the point where I would actually go outside on our porch to trim my beard so I wouldn't have to clean the sink/counter (or annoy my wife with the numerous little pieces that managed to land outside of the sink). With the 7200, I no longer have to trim my beard outside on the porch. The first few times I shaved with this, I did so over the sink... and afterwards: there was basically nothing to clean up in the bathroom! Now I can pretty much trim it anywhere and, assuming that the vacuuming system isn't full, only a very minimal amount of the trimmings won't be caught by the trimmer (so little that it's essentially a negligent amount). My biggest "con" about this trimmer is that I _still_ sometimes try putting the head and/or plastic length guide/guard on the wrong way. There's just something about the angles and shapes of the trimmer/cannister that makes me want to put it on backwards. I read some other reviews that mentioned their plastic length guide breaking, and I suspect that the reason for this is most likely due to them trying to put it on the wrong way and using too much force. Other pros about this are: an insane battery capacity. I haven't actually had my trimmer's battery die, yet, and I only plug it in to charge it maybe once every 3-6 weeks (and I use the trimmer probably 2-3 times a week). It's quite quiet, it does a great job trimming, and using it feels good. I really like the ability to adjust the trimming length to 0.5mm precision as well. Some minor downsides: due to the size/shape of the head, it can be somewhat difficult to nicely trim the area just below your nose. The wide trimmer head makes it tough if you want to do a quick trim of the hairline over the ears (and switching to the smaller, precision trimmer head and then back takes longer than doing the actual trimming). So, would I recommend this? If you have more facial hair you trim rather than shave, absolutely! But if you have something like a goatee, then I'm not really sure if the benefits of the beard trimming collection are really going to outweigh the 7200's somewhat awkwardness when doing more precision trimming. But, perhaps more importantly: would my WIFE recommend this? Absolutely! And she already has to several of her friends whose husbands have facial hair! She has been very, very pleased by no longer finding tiny little beard trimmings all over the bathroom sink and countertop.

I bought this about a year ago. I have had a number of beard trimmers over the years (25 years having a beard). This is the best of all trimmers I have owned. On the plus-side, it has one of the best vaccum systems, leaving very little trimmings on the countertop. It is very adjustable and stable in the adjustment - you don't have to worry about if slipping into a shorter setting. On the down-side, the blades are not exposed enough to use to trim a mustache very well. It works well, but is hard to exactly see where you will end up trimming. But - the worst part of this device is the extremely flimsy tabs used to hold the blade system and the trim guide. Mine broke after a year. I dropped the trimmer about six inches onto the counter and broke one of the tabs. Although it is not covered under warranty, Philips shipped me one for free. They informed me that this one was free, but that's it. This is a poor design and Philips should stand by their product. Hopefully this will not break again and I will not have to pay for a new part ($25 on a $60 trimmer). Come on Philips, fix your design and stand behind the product.

I have been using Norelco shavers and trimmers for decades and have always been extremely pleased with their products. This trimmer replaced a Philips Norelco QT4070 I purchased from Amazon in 2013. The older model was absolutely great but I had just plain worn it out. I certainly expected a new trimmer would be even better than the old one. I WAS WRONG! First some background on how I use it. I trim all my head and facial hair to the shortest setting (0.5 mm?). I do that twice a month. Both the old and the new models do about an equally good job on the trimming side. This 7200 does have some good qualities that exceed the older one. For one thing, it holds far more trimmings. With the older model, I nearly always had to empty the trimmings about midway through shaving. With the new one, I can go at least a couple of trim sessions before I need to empty it. And emptying the trimmings is at least a bit easier. With the older model, there was a lot of brushing to get all the trimmings out of the "tunnel". With the new model, I can easily use a had vacuum to suck them out in seconds. Now the bottom line that really counts--how well it trims my hair. As I mentioned, I expected the new model to do a better job than the older one. It doesn't. It is really only about equal. Further, it is slower. The width of the cutters is smaller so it takes more swipes to cover the same area. The new model also seems to less able to "slide" over the surface--it is not as smooth flowing. That slows down the process as well. So it takes longer. The fact that I don't have to stop mid-shave to empty it helps lessen the overall time. But It should be able to be faster--not the same. So I guess you could say I am sort of happy with it--but only barely. I just wish it had matched more to my expectations from Norelco products. It just does not make it to my usual "extremely pleased" level. UPDATE 1/25/2018 Sour Grapes Report: this review involves my experiences with two closely related purchases, I am including this identical review with both the Philips Norelco Beard trimmer Series 7200, Vacuum trimmer with 20 built-in length settings, BT7215/49 I purchased from Amazon on 9/6/2017 and the Philips Norelco Beard & Head trimmer Series 5100, 17 built-in length settings, hair clipping combs, BT5210/42 I also purchased from Amazon on 1/17/2018. I have been using Phillips Norelco razors and trimmers almost exclusively for over 4 decades. During that time I have also had a few other brands such as Remington and Panasonic. I think of my very earliest was a GE or Sunbeam but that is just a guess. All the other brands did a poor job at best and nearly all suffered early deaths! I found I could always depend on Norelco razors and trimmers to work well and to LAST FOR YEARS! My most recent Razor purchase was on 9/10/2006, a Norelco Model 8150XL I purchased from Wal-Mart.com. Since that time I started having a beard and eventually sported a nearly fully shaved head with a short 2 mm stubble. That was also when I started ordering from Amazon. Of course, based on past experience, I used almost exclusively Norelco Beard & Head Trimmers: a Model T980 received as a gift 12/25/2008, a Model QT4070 I purchased from Amazon on 5/1/2013 (does not show up in my orders), followed by the two mentioned at the top, the BT7215/49 on 9/6/2017 and the BT5210/42 on 1/17/2018. I say all that just to show just how satisfied (and thus, how faithful) I have been to Norelco. NONE of those other brands even came close to the Norelco! But if you look closely at those dates you might notice that all of those lasted 4 or more years. And when each was replaced, they were well used but really not totally worn out. I could still use them right up to the day they were replaced. NONE of them broke or just quit working--until the one before the most recent. After only 4 months, the BT7215/49 broke! The internal sleeve that covers the spinning rod cracked. That left the trimmer vibrating wildly and slowed the speed down to a crawl making it impossible to use. Well ok, that means getting warranty service. But I’ve never faced that before. So I started researching what I needed to do to get it repaired/replaced. To begin with, Amazon’s “Return Window” closed on 10/14/2017. No help there. There is Norelco’s “45-Day Money Back Guarantee”. Already passed. No help there either. Then there is Norelco’s “Two-Year Warranty”. But both of the last two options requires arranging for AND PAYING for “return shipment of product by insured mail, insurance prepaid”. The BT7215/49 has already cost me about $60. Paying to return it seemed like throwing more dollars away not to mention having to wait for weeks (months?) without my trimmer! My only real recourse was to just “eat it!” So I purchased a new Norelco BT5210/42 which cost me about $50. Yeah, in spite of this one bad experience with a Norelco product, my past experience led me to stay with what has worked so well in the past. And I must say I was immediately very pleased. Though less expensive, the BT5210/42 appears to be much better made and immediately gave me a MUCH better trim than any of my previous Norelco products—including the bad one before it broke. NICE! And I decided to stay with Norelco in spite of the fact that this one cost me a total of $60 (for the bad one) + $50 (for the replacement) = $110 total! There is really something bad wrong about that!!! It has certainly left a bad taste in my mouth. And after so much sweetness in my past, this one sour taste is the one I am left with! You would think that Norelco would want to know about this. I contacted Norelco to try to let them know about my experience. Because I had such great experiences in the past, I fully intended it to be a very positive review of just one bad egg in the batch. But I just ran into roadblocks all along the way. Despite hours of searching, I could find no good way to give them my suggestions. Instead I ended up on several email lists trying to sell me stuff I had no need or desire to have! Just unsubscribing from them was a major task for several days! So Amazon ends up getting my Sour Grapes Report. But at least this might be something Norelco/Amazon customers will learn from. I certainly hope so.

Ok. Here's the thing. Overall, it's a good beard trimmer for $50 bucks. Is it the best? No, but it's still comparable to beard trimmers that are more expensive than it. If we were going just based off the shave it provides, I'd say it's a solid 3 if not 4. This is only because I have very curly beard hair, which makes it harder to cut evenly, but this would more be the fault of my parents, not necessarily the trimmer; though one may think that they'd make the trimmer more applicable to all hair types... The adjustable guard is great for all desired lengths and makes it beyond easy to select different beard lengths without fooling around with easy-to-lose guards. Still, not the best cut, but not the worst. Where it falls short is the quality of the material it's made out of; specifically the shaver head/blades. The small pegs that hold the trimmer head (part number: 422203632301) in place are made of cheap, thin plastic that, even with care, will break within a year of normal use. These breaking render the product 100% useless as if the blade will not lock down, it simply will not cut. A replacement head from their manufacturer (encompass.com) costs about $35 w/o shipping if you buy it outright. Bogus is an understatement. This fact would normally render my review a 1 or 2-star review, but... Where this thing kinda redeems itself in at least one respect is that Phillips Norelco offers pretty darn good customer service. They offer a 24-month warranty on men's grooming products (and this gets extended if you register within 90 days of purchase). After registering my product (because I never did when I first got it), I was able to contact their customer service line (1-800-243-3050) and was on the phone with a well-spoken representative within 5 minutes. He couldn't find my registration information, but just took my word for it and pushed me through. I provided him with the part number I needed, he took my information, and now a new head is on its way from Georgia. The entire call took less than 10 minutes. Still, the shaver is not the best, but for $50 and some pretty dang good customer service, I'd say this product earns the stars I gave it. Would I buy this trimmer again? Proooobably not, due to the aforementioned quality problems. Would I buy from Phillips again? You're damn right.

The plastic tabs failed. They OVERNIGHTED me the replacement at NO COST. It is very rare indeed these days for a company to show such care about customer satisfaction. As other reviews mention, the original contour comb had a design flaw. Over time the plastic tabs would break. Being cheap and resourceful I don't generally replace what I can fix. I clipped a couple pieces of spring and affixed them into the tabs by heating them up and melting them into place, then sealing them in with epoxy. This worked for several years. But eventually this failed. I called the parts number in the owners manual (yes, I saved that) to make sure I was getting the correct part. I spoke with a real human being, not some purgatorial automaton, who was here in the United States. After getting my name and address and the serial number of the part she informed we that we were all set and to expect an envelope by 8am the following morning. A little confused, I asked her to clarify. Yes, as we were speaking she had put in an order through parts and it would be FedEx-ed overnight. That was it. 16 hours later I had a redesigned, reinforced replacement part. Years later and no issues. It's been nearly six years since I purchased this trimmer. I don't drop the thing or beat it up, but it hasn't had a coddled life either. I liked it when I got, I still like it. Countless trips, including several months at a time here and overseas, and it still works just fine. Does the vacuum capture every hair? It's a handheld trimmer, would you really expect it to? It does suck up most though, surprisingly well. Direction and angle matter, but for me it captures most trimmed hairs, well over 90% I'd say. I certainly hope this continues to hold up as well as it has because I really don't want to ever have to get another trimmer. Nearly every product I've ever encountered could be improved in some way. But there isn't anything about this trimmer that I would change. It does everything I need it to and I find it wants for nothing. And I appreciate a company that I believe appreciates me.

Bought this to replace my 2nd QT4070, which is also a vacuum trimmer, but was of a higher quality. I have purchased 10+ Norelco products in the last 30 years, the last 6 were beard trimmers that did their jobs with few problems. My QT4070's vacuum was no longer optimal, and the door latch to hold the collected hair, was defective (2 latches vibrated off), but I continued its use with a rubberband to keep the seal, but then without vacuum, you have hair everywhere. The 7200 sounded good and advertised 90% hair removal by it's vacuum system, and its features and attachments were similar to the Norelco inclusions in my previous purchased products, of which I had high familiarity. I have a beard and mustache of 10mm at chin, to 3mm at ears. I additionally use it to keep my hair, which is now almost just an expression as I am really bald, trimmed over my ears and along the back of my neck. This 7200 takes work to use. You will have to continually pull the guide off, then pull the shaver's head off, just to empty the hair from the collection area. Then brush and brush and brush. The vacuum, which sits below the shaver head, is relatively weak, and does not capture any where near 90%, more like 60-70%. But the real problem in this unit is that it does not cut smoothly, and that the main hair guide is just not good enough to keep the geographic locations from ears to chin looking like you haven't been in a fight with a tomcat, much less smooth and keeping that smooth line from low hair growth to high hair growth (10mm) without "hedges" or "sculpting", which should be an absolutely mandatory minimum to accomplish this with ease of use, every use. This trimmer takes 3 times longer to use to get its maximum results, and then I have to correct with an elderly trimmer, then scissors, which takes another 3 times longer, and a brush to get the hair off. This is just a very average product that will take time, patience, and maintenance to get a satisfying result. If you have a beard that you want to keep fairly wellkempt, lined, and smoothly transitioned, this is not the one. I'm going back to the QT4070 which costs almost $100, and I know that the inside latch to the hair receptacle will vibrate off within 6 months, but it takes me less than 5 minutes to groom myself whether for yardwork, church, or other areas of public scrutiny. And if you're on a blood thinner...

THIS is the trimmer you're looking for! The hair catcher works exactly as described - it catches about 95% of the hair, leaving just a tiny bit to wash down the sink. I love that I can just pull this out of the drawer, get a trim, and clean up in just a few minutes. I was comparing this one to the one that's water proof and then I thought, have I ever been in the shower and thought it was a good idea to trim my hair? How would it even work on wet hair? Don't buy that other one, it's stupid, buy this one, it's smart. I've had a plug-in Oster for years, and it's been great, but I didn't use it as often as I should because the cleanup was annoying. I'd either put paper towels in the sink or hang my head over the trash can, or both. I use the lowest setting to shave my beard once it starts to become itchy, every couple of weeks, and do some body grooming every couple of months. this 7200 is the best thing that ever happened to my beard trimming routine. The clean up is so easy that I trim way more often, keeping me looking trim without wasting my time. The body grooming isn't great... If you use the longer settings it starts getting pretty uneven. Maybe I just need more practice. I think the smaller head has something to do with that. The Oster gives a much more even trim at longer settings, so I'll probably continue using that for my seasonal hedge trimming. But anyway, this is great quality and once you've experienced the joys of the hair vacuum you'll be bummed you waited this long to buy it. Quit wasting your time, you have more important things to do than sweep hair from behind the toilet. Norelco - please add a nose hair attachment!