This Braun clipper is slender and has a very comfortable feel in the hand, which is surprising for being cordless. You'd expect the batteries would make it bulkier than typical corded clippers, but it's just the opposite. I find it rather remarkable they were able to squeeze 50 minutes of runtime out of such a light build. My only wish is that it had a lithium battery for better longevity. But, they somewhat addressed that by giving it the dual functionality of running off of corded power, so it's still usable when the NiMH battery eventually falls on its face. NiMH has roughly half the lifespan of lithium, but at least it doesn't have a memory effect like the rechargeables of old. (It does need to be fully drained down periodically, though, unlike lithium.) The shortest/closest setting (with plastic guard removed) isn't as short as I'm used to with Wahl clippers and their adjustable blade. But, that also means you don't have to worry about nicking yourself and drawing blood... These will leave behind a bit more stubble than you might be used to. It's closer to what you get from the pop-up trimmer on a typical cordless shaver. My initial concern was the description of the 1-piece adjustable trimmer length: what happens if it slips during use and you have to get it back to the same length for the rest of the cut? Well, it turns out there are two safeguards: 1) The lengths are marked on the side of the plastic trimmer guard, so just make a mental note of the position used. 2) More importantly, it's not the guard itself that moves. Rather, what looks like a power button on the front of the trimmer is a depressable button that allows a tab on the side of the trimmer to move. That in turn moves the guard which is always anchored on that tab. The button has good, positive feedback to its detents. Nice design. The 1-piece guard's minimum setting (3mm) is the same as a typical #1 guard. The charge indicator isn't explained well (at all, really) in the manual. It's the green circle around the power button and is fully charged when the circle is nearly complete. Mine was difficult to tell how to interpret out of the box, as it was so close to fully charged that there was not much of an incomplete sliver visible. (It's the width of the straight line above it.) But, after several hours on the charger, the sliver hadn't gotten any smaller. The indicator doesn't illuminate when in use or pressing the power button, so the only way to know the charge remaining is to put it on the charger. Hopefully, the next revision will address that. Also, the manual's explanation of how to open it for cleaning leaves a lot to be desired. Remove the plastic trimmer guard, then press on the front, just below the blades, and it'll pivot open with little resistance. UPDATE: It took 6+ weeks of fairly regular use to drain the fully charged battery. I still love everything about these clippers functionally, but I'm dropping my rating to 4 stars because apparently no thought went into the charging indicator. It never alerts you to a low charge, it simply slows down until it stops running. And when you put it on the charger, the green dial indicator reads exactly the same as what I assumed meant a full charge, so there's no way to know when it's done. (Actually, several hours later, it's a very slow blink which I guess means charging is completed.)
