The Philips HP8401 is the 2000 Series straightener, and the honest way to describe it is as the narrow-plate option — which is a genuine advantage for some hair and a genuine limitation for others.

Its plates are 19 × 85 mm. That is noticeably narrower than the 28 mm plates on the Essential HP8321 or the BHS375. Narrow plates are better at precise work: short hair, a fringe, the hair around your face, and getting close to the roots where a wide plate cannot reach without touching your scalp. They are worse at volume — straightening long hair with 19 mm plates simply takes more passes.

So the choice is about what you are straightening. If you are smoothing a fringe, tidying short hair or doing detail work, this is the right shape of tool. If you have long hair to get through, the 100 mm-plate models will finish faster and with less total heat.

The plates are ceramic infused with keratin — the same protein hair is made of — which Philips includes to help hair stay strong and shiny rather than just flattened. At 210 °C it has full professional heat, and it is ready in 60 seconds.

The narrow plates also make the whole tool shorter and lighter than a full-size straightener, so it packs into a bag easily. The cord is 1.6 m, which is enough for working at a mirror.