Philips Norelco Beard and Hair Trimmer, Series 5100 with 3 Attachments Cordless Hair Clipper and Face Groomer - No Blade Oil Needed, BT5210/42

For my full beard, I tried the Panasonic ER-GB60 and the Norelco BT5210/42. Both were very good shavers. Here is my comparison. In case it matters, I’ve sported a full beard for about 8 years and trim it to 3 different lengths – the goatee area is maintained slightly longer than the sides, and my neck, under chin, and upper cheeks are shaved clean (using a shaver – not a razor).Neutral/subjective differences- The Panasonic cutting head is about 1-1/4 times the width of the Norelco. This means that the Panasonic may give a quicker shave, but the Norelco maneuvers better when trimming just above my upper lip- The Norelco touts its “Lift & cut” technology while the Panasonic touts the 45 degree angle of its blade. I did not notice a difference in the comfort and closeness of either. Both cut well and cut similarly close without the guard- The Panasonic has a little heft to it while the Norelco was super-light. I actually preferred the Panasonic here, but it is pure opinion- The Panasonic’s handle is narrower than the shaving head while the Norelco is narrow at the head and foot, bowing out in the middle. I prefer the shape of the Panasonic, but this is also just opinion- The front of the Norelco is a thin, shiny, silver plastic made to look like chrome. The darker metallic-looking plastic of the Panasonic looked nicer to mePro-Panasonic- Better head range. The smallest Norelco head adjusts to 7mm. The smallest Panasonic head adjusts to 10mm. The ability to trim more ranges without changing heads was a huge deal for me. I generally trim my goatee area to 7 mm, but sometimes go to 9. Also, what my last shaver listed as “7” seems to have been slightly longer than the “7” on both of these, so I’ve been using an 8. This means that I’d have to change heads every shave with the Norelco. If you shave one area shorter and another between 7 and 10mm, the Panasonic is a better choice. I guess on the contrary, if your “short area” is between 7-1/2 and 10mm, and your longer are is 10+, you’re more likely to be able to do it all with the 2nd Norelco head. If your just starting out and aren’t sure what style you will settle on, if you lean towards a shorter beard, the Panasonic makes it more likely that you won’t need to change heads. The Panasonic can even be dialed down to 0 with the 1st head on. I don’t recall if the Norelco can do that. Both brands’ heads are easy to put on and off, but it is still an extra step, and a very important step, since an incorrectly-placed head will mess up your shave. It also is something else that would need cleaning.- Build quality – the Panasonic seemed to be made of heavier duty materials, and it’s power button seemed especially nice compared to the Norelco, whose button seemed more flimsy.- This shaver had a nicer handle. The Panasonic seemed more contoured to my hand, and it seems to be a nicer plastic. I preferred the hard patterned grip of the Panasonic to the thin soft rubberized grip of the Norelco.- The Panasonic comes with a storage bag. It is a cheap, shear bag that won’t last long if you’re at all rough with those kinds of things, but it’s better than no bag at all. The Norelco had no bag at all.- The Panasonic comes with a cleaning brush. The Norelco did not. If you don’t have a small cleaning brush from a prior shaver, then score 1 point for Panasonic!Pro-Norelco- The Norelco does not need oiling. The Panasonic does. I don’t know how annoying that will be, but I think we can agree that not needing oil is better. Panasonic says it should be oiled before and after shaving, but since oiling it preshave makes it harder to clear away hairs, my plan is to just oil after. After several shaves, the oiling does not seem like a big deal.- Norelco’s Lithium Battery should last longer between charges, and should last longer overall, than the Panasonic Ni-MH battery.- Warranty. I know that with warranties, the devil is in the details, and I didn’t do a detailed review. Both shavers come with a 2 year warranty, but the Norelco says that if you register your purchase, the warranty is extended to 5 years. I’m sure the warranties don’t cover normal wear and tear, but to the extent a “defect” might not be noticed until years 3-5, the Norelco has the edge.- The Norelco has lights to let you know when it needs charging. The Panasonic does not have a low battery indicator. It seems to run at full speed until it stops. It’s lighting indicator seems to just relay information when it is plugged in.- Both have regular plug in chargers, but the Panasonic I received is made for a foreign (non-US) plug. It came with an adapter, but a true US plug like the Norelco has is better. From reading other reviews and some of the questions, it seems that this Panasonic model is not available on Amazon with a true US charger.My conclusion: the Panasonic’s better head range, build quality, and aesthetics outweighed the Norelco’s more convenient charging and oil free maintenance. The main advantages of the Panasonic were aspects I will appreciate every shave while the Norelco’s more convenient charging should arise less than once per month and I am not sure how annoying oiling the shaver will be.

Great! Still using after 3 years!

Sour Grapes ReportBecause 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.

Bought this for my new retired "look" beard after doing a bit of research on beard trimmers. It is a very effective unit and has done double duty as a hair trimmer during the pandemic with all the barber shops closed in my neck of the woods. Wide range of settings and very easy to use, with long battery life. Recommend you buy an apron to catch the clippings, makes cleanup much easier.

Lo primero que notas cuando la sacas de la caja es la excelente calidad de materiales, se sienten muy bien al tacto. La máquina es extremadamente precisa, por lo que es perfecta para delinear la barba. El cilindro te permite seleccionar con exactitud el tamaño deseado, el cuál se queda incluso quitando las cabezas. Lo mejor de todo es que es Waterproof, lo que te permite enjuagar directamente en el chorro de agua. Lo único que le falta es tener más aditamentos como otras Phillips Norelco, pero sinceramente no se usan tan seguido. La batería le dura meses, no tienes que preocuparte por llevar el cargador a un viaje. Muy recomendable.

Been using this since a month. This is the best trimmer I have used so far. The blades are extremely sharp in fact sharpest. This will give you perfect designer stubble that was not possible with my cheaper philips trimmer that I had bought 6 years ago. The trimmer is very important accessory for any man even if you spend a couple of thousand rupees on a trimmer it is worth. With my usage of 1 month I found the battery life very good. I had needed to trim my side burns but I didn't use the head comb since I was not getting fade style I used only thebeard comb and it was doing a fine job. The only con is that there is no warranty on this product in India since this is Norelco which is american product buy it at your risk. Apart from this this product deserves 5 stars

Purchased from the Australian site to make sure it will work all ok, but arrived with a NON Australian approved charger will not even go in to our power socketsSo now I have to go and purchase a new charger for this

Excellent beard trimmer, it is doing a good job on every part of shaving area and that mainly in one pass.The only drawback is that it is a bit slim and can have the tendancy to slide from your hand (if you have big hands), but you get use it.