Philips Hair Clipper HC5450/83 with Dual Cut Technology and Titanium Blades

This is the first Philips hair clipper I have bought, and the build quality and performance is impressive. I have used a fairly cheap rechargeable hair clipper (from Lidl) to cut my own hair for a couple of years. I also use an old battery powered Remington beard trimmer. Both devices are nearing the end of their useful lives now, with the rechargeable battery declining on the Lidl hair clipper and the Remington beard trimmer becoming noisy and feeling old - well I have used it weekly for over 10 years!The instruction leaflet for the Philips clippers is small, but has clear diagrams, without text, so it is universal in terms of showing how to use the various parts of the kit. All the parts of the set are clearly marked and it was fairly easy to use the beard trimmer, although it was a little heavier and larger than my old Remington trimmer. The beard combs work well, but the 3mm seemed not short enough for my weekly trim and the 1.5mm seemed too short. The sound of the motor was much less than my noisy old trimmer, just a nice smooth hum.The hair clipper comb has a good range of adjustments and was easy to set and was fairly reliable to use without fear of it moving. I did manage to nudge it down one notch by accident, but I felt my thumb move the wheel, so I was able to reset it immediately, before I cut at the wrong length. It took a few minutes to become used to the difference from my old Lidl clippers, but once I did I had no interest in going back to them, because the Philips clippers are much sharper and quieter. Overall the final cut was much easier to do, even though it was my first use of the Philips clippers. Cleaning was also easy.Enough power in the battery out of the box to complete both a beard and hair trim and still not need a recharge. I may add to this review once I have used the recharge.

I have been through many hairclippers (wahl, babyliss, remington, and various older models of philips hair clippers) and this is the one I like the best.The blades cut cleanly and the clipper itself is pretty lightweight compared to most. Even at full charge, the motor seems to be significantly quieter too. This model does not come with a comb and scissors, which seems to be the default accessories you get with most hair clipper products.There is a rotating dial from 1 to 23 which allows you to flick through 23 different length settings with the hair trimming attachment. Using this dial on the three beard attachments has no effect. When I initially got it, I didn't understand how they could claim 24 hair lengths, yet offer 23. Apparently, they consider the clipper without any attachment to be the 24th (and closest) cut. Personally I would have liked an additional hair clipper attachment for lengths greater than the current 24 settings, but it's not too big of an issue.The power on/off button is located right beneath the dial, and a turbo button underneath that. To enable the turbo feature you have to press the power on button first, you cannot just press the turbo button from a cold start.Now what I really like about this clipper is the charging speed and process. It does charge fully really quickly and retains it's charge for a long time. A lot longer than my experience with the others, which would range from immaediately have a depleted battery after disconnecting the power plug, to a few days of intermittent usage. I've managed to get it to retain it's charge over two months with just one complete hair cut, and an occasional trim on the tasche every two/three days on a single charge and it hasn't died down totally yet.During charging a green light will slowly blink, and remain on when fully charged. After a certain time of it still being connected, this light will turn itself off. When it needs charging, a yellow blinking light will appear when it's turned on. I find these indicators a real useful feature. Some of philips older models just use a single red light when it's being charged with not way to determine how fully charged they are, and no way of telling you that it's about to run out of steam just as you are about to begin the tedious chore of cutting.The attachments are a little fragile, but the protective case should prevent any damage to them if you store them away after use. It's a shame the organisation of the attachments in the case is a little haphazard.Will update this review when and if I encounter anything worth adding or editing.

I purchased this Philips hair clipper to replace a 10 year old Remington one that started pulling my hair instead of cutting it due to the blades becoming dull over the years. In this respect, the titanium blades with dual-cut technology on the Philips are incredibly sharp - so sharp that I had to call my wife over to ensure it was actually cutting as I couldn't feel a thing compared to my old Remington.The device has two buttons and a click wheel. One button turns it on and the other turns on 'Turbo' which boosts the cutting speed. The click wheel sets the cutting depth - WARNING - you still need to use the comb attachment otherwise it will just cut at '0' and shave you bald! This, along with the fact that the wheel can be easily turned whilst in use without realizing is why I decided to give this product 4 stars. Another flaw I noticed - but this could be due to my thick hair - is that I constantly had to remove the comb attachment to clear out the hair as it was getting clogged.The adjustable height comb attachment is quite bulky and I've scratched and poked the back of my ear a few times trying to get around them - though in my case I could use one of the static, 3mm, comb attachments as I use the shaver on 3mm anyway.The battery life is very good, I've done two full head shaves with 2 months in between - but you can use it whilst charging also. The click wheel has 24 length settings...just in case you need 24 different settings... And so far the blades themselves haven't scratched me yet.Overall it is a good Philips product with a few flaws. I bought this for £27.53 which I believe was a fair price but I wouldn't suggest this particular model it at the current price of £36.97.