Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost Hair Clipper Review
Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost Hair Clipper
As an inexpensive, effective and sleek-looking clipper to trim your beard or your hair, I think this is perfect.
What's Good?
- Sleek, clean design
- Silent operation
- Convenient USB-C charging
- Comes with lube, a brush and a USB-C cable
What's Not?
- Not fully water resistant
- Smooth plastic body can be slippery
I know, this review probably should have come out two years ago during the MCO. That was probably the time that most of you are hunting for hair clippers to trip your hair. But I just recently got my hands on the Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost hair clippers, and it’s actually pretty decent. For those of you who’re unaware, ENCHEN is part of of Xiaomi’s ecosystem, but it doesn’t actually have any smart features. But hey, what kind of smart features would you want in a hair clipper?
What’s Good?
Sleek, clean design
Typical of products related to Xiaomi’s ecosystem, the design of the Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost is very minimalistic. A smooth black plastic — it also comes in white — chassis with the brand name, a single button and two LED power indicators are all that you see on the front. This is perfect to blend in with most of your other appliances, especially if you are using other Xiaomi ecosystem products as well.
Over on the back we have this other button, which controls the guard. The numbers are somewhat nominal, as the first number is “3” but will provide a 0.7mm trim, while the “21” setting is actually 21mm. Yes, quite confusing. The button lets you slide the guard up and down, and it locks rather sturdily in place. It can also come out entirely for a closer trim, or easy cleaning and maintenance of the clipper blades. Overall, I really love the design here as it looks way sleeker than any clipper I have seen elsewhere.
Silent operation
If you have been to your local anneh barber, you might have encountered a few toddlers crying from the loud, incessant buzzing noise that the anneh‘s clippers make. Well, this is almost silent by comparison. Of course, the power output are vastly different. However, I had no issues with trimming my beard nor the tougher hair down below with the two modes — a 4500rpm “Normal” mode and a 5800rpm “Turbo” mode — which are accessible via a long press of the power button.
Noise wise, as measured with my phone, comes in at around 70dB in Turbo mode, which is quite low when the noise floor in my room is around 60dB already with my stand fans running. The key to its less annoying noise is also its lower pitch. This is probably contributed to by the ceramic blades, which ENCHEN claims to be quieter than the metal blades that most industrial-grade clippers feature.
Convenient USB-C charging
This is a rather common feature across these affordable hair clippers, but I do appreciate the small things. USB-C charging is really convenient and I can easily juice up my hair clippers with my phone charger. It does seem that it doesn’t actually have the proper protocols to negotiate USB-PD charging with my Rocoren 140W GaN Fast Charger. It works perfectly fine with my POCO’s chargers though, so I am fine with that. Overall, I am just glad that I don’t need to whip out some microUSB cables, or God forbid, proprietary adapter cables to charge the Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost.
For those who are worried that the clippers will get stuck in your hair as it runs low on battery, well ENCHEN claims that the Energy Smart Manager (ESM) will prevent the motor from slowing down as the 550mAh battery runs out. The battery life claim of 90 minutes should also be plenty for simple touch-up trims. A single use should be around 5-10 minutes, so you have plenty of juice for future trims as well. The ESM also works to ensure safer charging, which is important since we have a rechargeable lithium battery in there.
Comes with lube, a brush and a USB-C cable
Speaking of convenience, there’s a USB-A to USB-C cable in the box. Unless you are fully immersed in the Appleverse, you should at least have a free USB-A port somewhere to charge the Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost up. Next, the lube. Or oil. The clipper blades need to be oiled to function efficiently, so it’s nice to see Xiaomi include a small bottle for maintenance down the line. A brush is also included to clean up the blades after use. Overall, I do feel that this is a very comprehensive kit for something this affordable.
On the topic of maintenance, you can get replacement heads for the Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost, which somewhat surprised me considering the entry-level positioning of this device. So provided that the electronics don’t fail too soon, this should last you a very, very long time. Of course, provided that ENCHEN doesn’t phase it out anytime soon.
What’s Not?
Not fully water resistant
The Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost is apparently splash resistant, which means that you can wash the clipper head under the tap. However, it doesn’t actually have any official IP rating AFAIK, so don’t take my word for it. For one, the USB-C port doesn’t seem adequately protected, so I wouldn’t recommend using it in the shower. This limits its potential as a trimmer for the nether regions, but I guess you can still do it in the shower area, just with the water turned off? I guess that makes cleanup duty easier.
Smooth plastic body can be slippery
Since this is not meant to be used in the shower, perhaps ENCHEN did this on purpose? The ABS plastic chassis can get somewhat slippery when wet, and it gets a bit difficult to hold. I wish there were some rubber grips or at least some ridges to provide a bit more security in the hands. With that said, the design is somewhat ergonomic with a larger head that you can hold while your fingers support underneath the tapering frame, but a bit more friction would have been really welcome.
Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost — should you buy this?
As an inexpensive, effective and sleek-looking clipper to trim your beard or your hair, I think this is perfect. And since I got it for that exact purpose, I would say this served me very well. For RM32.90 — or even less, if you look a bit harder — the Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost is a very affordable and simple hair clipper that you can use to trim most of your hairs. For a full haircut, I would still have my doubts entrusting it to the Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost, but for stuff like beards, or pubic hair, I think this is a solid choice. The main bummer is that it isn’t IP-rated, so I don’t dare to use it in the shower with the water running.
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If you are interested in the Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost, we would really appreciate if you purchase them via the links below. The affiliate links won’t cost you any extra, but it will be a great help to keep the lights on here at HelloExpress.
- Xiaomi ENCHEN Boost (Lazada): https://s.lazada.com.my/s.Tbo62
