Works well enough, and looks nice, but has exposed moving parts that are annoying
This isn't a bad trimmer for the price. But I wouldn't describe this as "professional" by any stretch of the imagination. It's a beard/sideburn/hair trimmer made for the hipster crowd.<br /><br />The trimmer body is a cylinder that isn't very ergonomic in its design -- which a professional would definitely notice. The design is interesting and somewhat artistic in the darkish metal.<br /><br />The entire design of the trimmer is similar to the mercurial style known as "steampunk" in people who are familiar with that artistic genre. The metal parts made of dull metal mixed with shiny metal along with the etched artwork of a bearded man circa 1850 give it that touch. It would be a nice gift for that kind of hipster person on your list.<br /><br />It operates okay and has a few different interchangeable blades to adjust the trim length. It recharges via USB cable and has a blue LED display that goes to '99' when fully charged.<br /><br />There are a few things that make this less than a professional trimmer. First, the pin mechanism that moves the lower blade when the motor spins is exposed. This is to give it the intended style, but it also presents a hazard where hair can get caught in the exposed mechanism with a likely possibility of hair getting wound around it and yanked out. This is covered in every professional set of trimmers that I've seen and having it exposed would immediately put it into the category of "personal" rather than professional.<br /><br />The handle is made of a somewhat shiny metal, etched with the artwork, but it's a simple cylinder without any attempt to create a more natural fit for a hand -- in other words, not ergonomic for someone who would be holding it for long periods of time.<br /><br />The other thing is that the battery life is decent if you're using it once a day to trim up your Victorian era beard and moustache, but a professional might not like having to recharge it frequently depending on how much it's used. To its credit, though, this trimmer does have a display that will show when the battery is getting low, so that's a plus. It might just be attractive to a hipster barber/stylist.<br /><br />One small nit-pick is that the blade cover is extremely tight-fitting and takes more than a simple flick of the finger to remove. I suppose that will get easier as it's used more, but I have to pry it off using a comb because my fingers aren't hard enough to get it to pop off.<br /><br />Overall, it's a decent value for the price, but definitely a novelty for the hipster crowd and not made for professional use. But because it works well enough and would make for a nice gift, it still gets a four-star rating.
Rating: 4 stars