If you're like me, and let's face it, who isn't, you've noticed that, as you age, nature likes to start playing cruel tricks on you. Hair stops growing where it should, and instead packs up shop and starts happily producing in other unsightly locations - your nose, ears, occasionally under some fingernails (okay, not there, but you get the idea). Plus, you may also be tempted at some point in your life to grow a stately beard. Not a shaggy lobsterman's beard, I'm talking a well-trimmed, neat, made-it-to-the-playoffs type beard. Well, how can you provide one solution to all of these hair-based problems? Why, with the Philips G370 All-in-1 grooming system, of course!

Overview

The Philips Norelco G370 All-in-1 is now my most favorite grooming tool, surpassing my excellent Norelco razor in terms of usefulness. It comes with loads of attachments, and while you may at first ask "why do I need this one?", you may end up using every single one of them! It can function as:

An adjustable beard groomer
An edging tool to neaten up your sideburns/back of your neck
A nose/ear hair trimmer
An adjustable hair buzzing tool
A plain old electric razor, in a pinch

You can probably also use it to bludgeon someone with, but that's not really why I bought it. It is cordless, small, easy to swap tools, cheap, and sturdy. For what it does, it's also not very loud. I wouldn't say it's whisper quiet, but it doesn't wake up my housemates when I use it. I just can't seem to find many problems with it! I know Philips/Norelco makes a quality product, because I've used their same electric razor for about 5 years now, with no problems the whole time. This groomer is no different.

In the box

Even though this device is inexpensive, you get a lot of bells and whistles with this guy. This includes:

1 Philips G370 personal groomer
1 nose/ear hair spinning attachment
1 adjustment base with 9 closeness settings (aka their 'AccuControl system')
1 beard grooming adjustable shield
1 long hair grooming adjustable shield (longer 'fingers' than above, much like what they use at the barber to buzz the sides/top of your head)
1 mesh-guarded electric razor attachment (similar to straight electric razor style)
1 edging attachment (about a 3/4" wide buzzer tool, like what they use to clean up your neck at the barber)
1 AC wall charger
1 cradle for groomer and all attachments
1 comb
1 cleaning brush
1 travel/storage pouch
Instruction manual

Facts about this groomer

To use the groomer, you first install the attachment you want by clicking it into place. The base has 2 buttons - release tool, and on/off. It's very easy to use, small but comfortable in the hand, and quite effective. Supposedly the blades are self-sharpening, which is great, and I haven't seen any wear in the 6+ months I've been using the device. The attachments are rinsable, but the base is not, so you have to clean it with the included brush. Cutting is for use on dry hair only, but I haven't found this to be a problem.

The charger is one of the trickle-style ones that takes a long time (10+ hours) to charge, but you just do that when it totally dies or you'll kill the life of the thing. Fully charged, Philips quotes 35 minutes battery life on the device, which sounds about right in my experience.

All of the attachments work exactly as you'd expect. The beard groomer is my favorite, because it works on all kinds of facial contours, but I also use the razor attachment because it's the only tool I've got to get a really close shave right up to the edge of my goatee without accidentally cutting into it. The edging tool works great on sideburns and can neaten up your neck in about 3 seconds. The full size trimmer attachment for your scalp hair is also very effective, though I clogged the machine with hair when I gave myself a haircut last week, and had to stop frequently to brush off the cuttings. You can go from the longest setting of about an inch down to buzz cut, and I was able to do a decent job on my head with no formal training. Lastly, the nose/ear hair trimmer is painless, unless the battery is dying. DON'T USE IT with a dying battery, unless you like having your hairs ripped out! Otherwise, this thing is great.

Complaints

I only have a few complaints about this thing. First, the charger seems to plug pretty securely into the cradle, which is fine except when the battery dies while you're using it. If you want to run it off AC power, you'd better think again, so budget your battery use and listen for when it's dying. Also, the cradle stores the attachments rather loosely, and I frequently knock them all over the room when I'm in a hurry. Otherwise, that's about it!

Why I like this groomer

Well, beyond the fact that this thing is fun, I particularly like that it replaces about 4 things that I suddenly needed all at once. Particularly if you have a beard, this device is your one-stop shop. It's also very reasonably priced for what you get, and I know that it has already paid for itself, especially since my last haircut. It has absolutely everything you need for hair grooming, including a travel pouch, and it seems like it's going to work for many years to come. I don't see any way of changing the battery if it dies, but if you charge it properly, you should get at least a few hundred cycles out of it. It's also easy to clean given the included cleaning brush, which has two stiffnesses to get at hairs in the variety of tools and near the spinning head.

I highly endorse this groomer and everything it stands for. You won't have to suffer the shame of buying an ear hair trimmer, and you'll have a lot more flexibility than if you just bought one hair tool. Even if you don't have a beard, you will find many uses for this thing, and it should be well worth the price. It's even cheaper than its predecessor, and well worth even double the price.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 20
Noise Level: More quiet than most

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