Remington Barba beard trimmer review: An excellent budget option

A beard trimmer is a vital accessory if you want to keep your facial hair looking its best without wet shaving. Remington’s Barba beard trimmer is cheaper than most, but don’t let that fool you into thinking it’s not well suited to everyday use. On the contrary, we’ve found it to be a solid workhorse of a beard trimmer that performs just as well as much more expensive products.

What do you get for the money?

Despite costing just £19, Remington’s Barba beard trimmer offers nine different cutting lengths between 1.5mm and 18mm, making it perfectly suited to all but the very longest beards. These different grades are selected via a mechanical wheel, so there’s no need to swap between different combs constantly. For detail trimming, the Barba has a second, pop-up blade.

The Barba offers up to 40 minutes’ trimming on a single charge – somewhat underwhelming when most of its rivals last for at least an hour. However, the good news is that you can use it plugged in should it ever run out of juice. Its blades are ceramic, “self-oiling” blades, which means it requires a bare minimum of maintenance and is always ready to use.

What’s it like to use?

We found the Remington Barba performs exceptionally well, especially considering its low price. Whether you have a long or short beard, or indeed areas of your beard that are long and short, it’s well equipped to keep your facial hair looking neat and tidy at all times.

We preferred using the main blade with the comb removed for detailing, rather than the smaller pop-up blade, which can feel a little fiddly. As for longevity, we’ve had an old version of the Remington Barba for many years and it has never skipped a beat.

What isn’t it good at?

Aside from the aforementioned gripe with battery life, there’s not much we disliked about the Remington Barba. It doesn’t cut quite as close as some trimmers – the Wahl Aqua Blade gets much closer at just 0.2mm – and with just nine settings, there’s not as fine a level of adjustment as you get with some models, either. Having said that, neither of these shortcomings should present a major obstacle to the vast majority of users.

Should I buy it?

Absolutely. The Remington Barba is one of the best, if not the best budget beard trimmer we’ve tested. It’s simple to use and look after, and we wouldn’t hesitate in recommending it over rivals that cost significantly more thanks to its simple, easy-to-care-for design.

If the sub-par battery life is a deal-breaker for you, you can spend £8 more and get your hands on the Remington Lithium MB 350L beard trimmer, which shares the same design but lasts a full hour between charges.