At a glance
I’ve had all five of these out in the garden over the course of a season now, and by the time the last one went back in its box I’d lost track of which battery belonged to which trimmer, since most of them ended up borrowed by something else in the shed at one point or another. That’s not a complaint, it’s just what happens once you’ve got several cordless platforms running side by side.
The scores below are the same ones from each individual review, so this ranking reflects genuine differences in how each one performed rather than a separate scale for each brand.
How we tested. Each trimmer ran on real UK gardens through its own genuine setup process, whatever that involved, and we followed every manufacturer’s own installation, safety and maintenance guidance rather than assuming they’d all behave the same way.
Quick verdict summary
All 5 battery strimmers ranked
40cm cordless trimmer on EGO’s 56V platform. Line IQ feeds itself automatically as the line wears, and Powerload turns reloading into a one-button job rather than a fiddly manual wind. Once the technique clicked, this was the trimmer I reached for without thinking, the only one in this group where the line stopped being something I had to manage at all.
It’s one of the heavier trimmers here at 3.4kg with the battery fitted, and it’s fussy about line profile, round only, no square-section substitutes. Neither stopped it earning the top spot.
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36V on Stihl’s AK system, 280mm cutting width. Build quality is a proper step above the rest of this group, and at 74dB(A) it’s the quietest trimmer I measured here too. It coped with thicker weeds and proper overgrowth without complaint, not just tidy grass, which surprised me a little given how light it feels in the hand.
No rotating head means tilting the whole tool for edges rather than flipping just the cutting end, the one real concession against rivals here. The balance makes up for most of it.
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26cm, 18V under the POWER FOR ALL Alliance, the only battery here that isn’t locked to one brand’s own range. A drill battery bought years ago for something else entirely slotted straight in without buying anything new, no other platform in this group manages that.
It’s built for grass and edges specifically, not weeds or proper clearance, and the cutting width is the most modest here. For a tidy lawn kept up through a normal season, that’s never an issue.
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30cm, 20V PowerShare, the one trimmer here that genuinely doubles as an edger rather than just claiming to. Drop the wheels and tip the head over and it walks a properly crisp line along a path edge, no separate tool needed for that job at all.
It’s the loudest of the proper kits here, enough that a neighbour asked their dog about the noise within ten minutes, and there’s no blade attachment option if line alone won’t cut it. Worth knowing before close neighbours come into the picture.
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Adjustable 25cm to 30cm cutting width, 18V ONE+, and the only trimmer here sold with absolutely nothing else in the box, no battery, no charger. I only bought it because I already had Ryobi packs sat in a drawer from a drill years back, and on that basis alone it’s the cheapest way into this whole category.
It held up better than I expected against a deliberately long, untouched patch of grass, never stalling once. The build feels a touch flimsy next to the others though, and it’s the loudest trimmer in this group by ear.
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Head to head comparison
| Model | Width | Battery | Weight | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EGO Power+ ST1613E-T | 40cm | 56V 4.0Ah | 3.4kg | 4.4 / 5 |
| Stihl FSA 57 | 280mm | 36V AK | 3.5kg | 4.3 / 5 |
| Bosch UniversalGrassCut 18V-26 | 26cm | 18V cross-brand | 2.3kg | 4.2 / 5 |
| Worx WG163E | 30cm | 20V PowerShare | 2kg | 4.1 / 5 |
| Ryobi OLT1832 | 25-30cm | 18V ONE+ | 2.3kg | 4.0 / 5 |
What to look for when buying
The first real decision is the battery platform, not the trimmer itself. Four of these five lock you into one manufacturer’s own range, and the Bosch is the outlier, sharing a battery standard across several different brands’ tools rather than just its own. If you’re starting from nothing, that’s worth weighing before anything else on this list.
Noise varies more between these five than I expected going in. The Stihl was the quietest by a noticeable margin, while the Worx and the Ryobi both carried far enough to matter if you’ve got close neighbours. Match that to your own garden rather than assuming they’re all roughly the same.
Check what’s actually in the box before you buy. Only worth going for the cheapest listing if you’re already on the right battery platform, otherwise a proper kit elsewhere works out simpler.
Final verdict and recommendations
For most people wanting the best line handling on the market: EGO Power+ ST1613E-T. The line stopped being something I had to think about at all.
For build quality and balance above everything else: Stihl FSA 57. The quietest, best built trimmer of the five, with a back-seat compromise on edging only.
For anyone not already tied to one battery brand: Bosch UniversalGrassCut 18V-26. Sharing a battery across several manufacturers’ tools is a real advantage the rest of this list can’t match.
For a garden with real edges to keep tidy: Worx WG163E. The only one here that properly earns its place as both trimmer and edger.
For anyone already sat on Ryobi batteries: Ryobi OLT1832. Cheapest way into the category, on one condition only.
The EGO Power+ ST1613E-T is our top pick overall, the line feed alone makes it worth the extra weight. For a battery that isn’t tied to one brand, the Bosch UniversalGrassCut 18V-26 is the strongest alternative. Beyond those two, match the platform and noise level to your own garden and any of the remaining three will do the job properly.
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