Review: MANGROOMER Professional Body Groomer and Trimmer Wet or Dry

• June 19, 2015
• James Skemp
• review

Budget product, that isn't as good as my Philips Norelco

For better or worse, this review of the MANGROOMER Professional Body Groomer and Trimmer will be based upon my experience with the Philips Norelco BG2040 BodyGroom Pro, which I've had for almost a year and a half.

To be honest, when I first purchased one of these products I thought I was actually getting a facial trimmer, but neglected to keep an eye on the titles and product descriptions as I bounced between the products. But having purchased one there's a certain appeal to keeping things tidy.

While the Philips Norelco feels quite sturdy, and good in my hand, I'm still not quite sure I'm holding the MANGROOMER correctly, especially given the geometry of the handle. The MANGROOMER gets points for the compactness of it's charger/stand, but again it doesn't feel as sturdy as the Norelco, and I kept thinking it was going to fall out of the stand (although it never did).

The Philips Norelco product has two heads, with a (removable) sliding bit of plastic to adjust length if you want to keep some length to your hair. The MANGROOMER instead has one head, but includes attachments for three different lengths, which have the length written directly into them. Having a facial trimmer that doesn't include this it's amazing how much it's missed when it isn't included, so props for that. However, I don't seem to have gotten as well a cut with the MANGROOMER clippers as I did with the Norelco, and the clips actually seemed to do a good job of pushing hair into the actual blades, resulting in me needing to brush it out much more than any clippers I've ever used (head, face, or body). I don't think I'm doing anything wrong, but something seems wrong, unless this was done intentionally so it could be emptied intentionally.

Finally we have the close shave. You've got to trust clippers when it comes to this bit, and I trust my Norelco much more than the MANGROOMER. The Norelco features a thicker head, which actually means less work (tilting) on my part. Additionally, because the MANGROOMER has the single head, it attempts to serve two purposes, which results in part of the blade moving in a rather menacing way. (It must be safe, but I opted not to press my luck and try doing any in-depth testing in that regard).

Finally, we come to the wet or dry bit. While these products usually say they work both wet or dry, the manual for the MANGROOMER, and others, usually recommend using it in dry conditions. So I would recommend the 'wet or dry' bit be ignored if comparison shopping. And speaking of the manual, it's a mess to read it due to a questionable folding decision. I know it's cheaper, and more and more electronics in general go this route, but I do miss nice booklets for manuals, so I don't need to unfold the entire thing to read it in a single language.

Overall, I don't think I'm the target demographic for the MANGROOMER Professional Body Groomer and Trimmer. It feels and looks like a budget item (which based upon the price it is) for teens and men in their 20s. Which isn't a knock against the product, but rather an observation. For me, I think I'm going to just stick with my Philips Norelco BG2040 BodyGroom Pro. It's not hip, but I like it.

For the reasons above I give the MANGROOMER Professional Body Groomer and Trimmer 3 of 5 stars. It's not a bad product, but it doesn't stand out either. This might serve as a good entry point, but you may want to eventually upgrade.

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