Review (3/5): caution
T970 is miles away from its predecessor(s) (I also own a T7500 Deluxe) as far as the feature set goes. It boasts a charge level indicator, incorporated vacuum, and fast 15-minute charging time. However, I don't know what was in the mind of the industrial designers who came up with this latest installment from Norelco/Philips other than capitalize on the truck craze that's taken such a powerful hold on us. Indeed, I wish all those miles were for the right reason. Let me explain:
I view the newly added vacuum function adding only marginal benefit to this unit, at the expense of draining battery power fast, noise making, and increased diameter size. With T7500, all one had to do was to charge the trimmer every other 15th use or so, and undo a couple of things to clean it after each use. Also, T7500 was smaller, it fit well in your hand and/or travel pouch, and could be charged at 110V-240V. Now, T970 requires a recharge every 3rd use or so, and it's so much harder to fit in you hand and/or in your travel bag since it has a larger diameter and comes with a power adaptor that works only at 110V. Cleaning T970 is akin to undoing a Matrioshka, the Russian nesting doll.
Thinking more about it, I came to the conclusion that T970 wasn't put together by industrial designers but some marketing types... For these guys I would venture to suggest that they should keep T7500 on the market; it would serve very well the traveller types, whereas its successor would be for stay-at-home folks.
Considering it sells at a discount and it comes with a 60-day return period, I am able to rate it cautiously at 3 stars.