You like your beard to be perfectly trimmed, stylized, “contoured”. That not a hair sticks out? Braun and his BT9 puts forward arguments to seduce you by evoking for this new trimmer “professional shaving precision” at home. 20 minutes wanted to see if it was possible to play the barber like in real life.
In the jungle of mowers…
Generally, buying a beard trimmer in stores is a headache. Brands and products flock, with more or less accessories, clogs, combs. There are devices that shave, others that shave and cut the hair, some even claiming to be able to clear the “sensitive areas” of their unsightly hair… And the prices are yo-yoing: from a few tens of euros to several hundred euros. euros. Don’t throw any more!
Thin blades
Among the arguments of the BT9 (a compact and light mower weighing 157 grams, supplied with protective cover), an in-house technology called ProBlade. ProBlade? Its principle is based on the fact that the tips of the three steel shoes provided (with widths of 4.2 mm, 3.5 mm and 1.3 mm) would be flat. On arrival, Braun promises, “24% more precision”. It is, of course, impossible to verify these statements.
However, we were able to observe during our tests, spread over a week, that it was very easy to perfectly target a specific area of the face, with a good cutting angle. These blades have the main advantage of not stretching the hairs. Admittedly, the ones we used were new…
Up to forty cutting heights
Another advanced advantage for the BT9 is its rotary knob on the handle. Named ProWheel, it allows you to modulate up to forty cutting heights in 5 mm increments. Depending on the different combs provided (six, including four for creating gradients), this trimmer can thus be suitable for most bearded who, from a simple three-day beard to a Viking beard, should find the settings that suit them best. However, this famous toothed wheel is not really innovative: many mowers offer similar ones.
Finally, and this is more original, Braun supplied with its BT9, a transparent stencil. Vocation: to allow a perfectly symmetrical size, to take care of the contours, the borders… Not always easy to use alone, as we have seen, this equipment allows however, if it is used well, to perfectly succeed what is called THE “contouring” and to adjust, to the millimeter, the cut of his beard on each half of the face by taking care of the lines.
Towards a universal charger?
Two regrets however: like most manufacturers of razors and clippers, Braun provides a proprietary charger with its BT9. At a time when Europe is going to impose a single USB-C charger, it would be good for Braun, Remington, Philips… to look into this question. It would also be wise to imagine a more virtuous model around accessories. Supplied en masse in each box (the BT9 is no exception), they are not always used. With its Multishape razor, Panasonic has imagined an interesting model: that of a handle on which accessories will be grafted which can be purchased as an option, according to its real needs. We put it here…
In the meantime, the Braun BT9 mower remains good equipment, which benefits from a very long autonomy (180 minutes), but whose price is quite high in this category of products: 120 euros. As for the “professional” aspect of the device, it remains quite limited, also echoing well-thought-out marketing so that the BT9 mower stands out from its countless competitors on the shelves. And can justify its price.