Dyson Corrale review: Is RM2,199 worth it for being cordless?

Dyson usually gets it right, especially with airflow-based gadgets. But the Dyson Corrale is one of the few non-airflow-y products that they’ve launched.

It also boasts three big things: it uses less heat, it is cordless, and it has flexi-plates that’s meant to grasp your hair better. The reason those features are important is because Dyson says it’ll do less damage to your hair, which sounds great. But at RM2,199, is the Corrale worth the price? 

I’ll go over the three big things Dyson has boasted about it, as well as a few extra details. I’ll also compare it with my cheaper and basic Philips styler—and see how big the differences are.

Look & Feel

First of all, it truly is a beautiful tool to have. The Corrale has a curvilinear design, and the hot pink details really caught my eye. But if you’re not a fan of the colour, it also comes in purple and black.

But as soon as I picked it up, I found it a little too heavy. It weighs 0.56kg, and it’s by far the heaviest straightening tool I’ve ever held. But the reason it weighs a whopping 560g is because there’s a battery in it for cordless use—but we’ll touch on that later.

The Corrale also has a lock and unlock feature so you can secure your straightener when you’re done. It also has a screen that can display battery and temperature information. It’s a tiny screen, but you’re able to look at the information clearly.

As for my own Philips straightener, it looks pretty basic. It also looks like a barbecue tong. However, it’s significantly lighter than the Corrale. I can’t exactly give you the weight—I tried to look up the weight online but there isn’t any information about it. A similar styler says that it weighs 0.70kg, but I’m guessing it also includes the other tools in the set.

I tried looking up weights of other stylers but they don’t have the information in their spec sheets either. That’s how much we disregarded the weight of a straightener before the Corrale.

It also has three modes: off, low heat and high heat. But here’s the thing, I can’t really tell when it’s at its optimum temperature. There isn’t like a beep or temperature reading so I can only make a guesstimation, but it heats up pretty quickly from my own experience.

But, this isn’t the main thing Dyson’s touting. The main feature on the Corrale is its unique plate design.

The Plates

The Dyson Corrale features something called Flexi Plates. These are manganese copper alloy plates machined to the width of a human hair.

Their purpose? To gather your hair for “enhanced styling”. Basically, they sort of hug your hair, rather than squish it.

Solid plates like with my Philips styler straightens hair with both heat and tension—and they also don’t apply heat evenly because the bulk of the strands don’t stay in place. This results in strands of hair on either side missing out on the central tension.

That means I’d have to go over that area again. And that means more opportunity for heat damage.

When I used both of these straighteners at home, the ceramic one from Philips has less friction. The copper ones on the Corrale, especially with the flexing parts, are made to grab on to the hair.

However, I stress that if you ever do try a Dyson Corrale, do not grasp the Corrale too tightly. It will snag and might make your hair uneven.

Heat Controls

The Corrale has a on and off button that you can press and hold until the screen shows a display with three heat settings—165, 185, and 210 degrees Celcius. I have fine, wavy hair, so it doesn’t take a lot of heat to straighten my hair so I would only need the lowest heat setting.

For my Philips, I would usually use the lowest heat setting, too. But I had no idea what the temperature for it was. A quick Google search tells me that the Philips lowest setting is 160 degrees celsius. 

Weirdly, Dyson promised me “less heat, half the damage” yet it’s a full 5 degrees hotter than my generic styler. Reading through more details in their own overview, they say that it’s the flexing plates that “allow you to achieve the same style with less heat”. This refers to the Corrale’s intelligent heat control feature—Not heat itself.

It’s heat control feature has an integrated sensor system that regulates the temperature of the plates a hundred times a second, allowing it to maintain its temperature better. However, other professional hair styling tools like the HSI Professional Glider—that cost RM290 on Shopee—claim to also have micro sensors that regulate the heat temperature.

Going back to my Philips styler, I felt that it still uses more heat than the Dyson does. A lot more steam comes out of it as compared to the Corrale. I tested the two flat irons on pieces of white bread to see if the Corrale really was better at heat regulating, and here were the results:

I heated up one piece of bread with the Philips styler, and this piece with the Dyson Corrale. I used the same heat settings I used for my own hair (160 degrees for the Philips, 165 degrees for the Corrale).

Then I clipped both of them in for 20 seconds each, and see how ‘toasty’ things turned out. To my expectations, the bread toasted by the Philips was significantly more burnt than the one toasted by the Dyson.

Cord vs. No Cord

The Dyson Corrale’s best feature, in my opinion, is that I can use it without a cord which means that I don’t have to worry about a wire tangling with my arms. However, I have to charge it for 70 minutes to get full battery—which gives me about 30 minutes of power. 

If you run out of battery, you can still do the job with the 360 degree cord plugged in. It’s got that satisfying magnetic schlup to it, and it helps charge the Corrale while you continue styling your hair. But it’s not as nice to use corded. 

Thanks to a video on the internet, I found that the Corrale also drains power faster than its cord can charge. Luckily for me, I have very little hair so I could easily style my hair in 15 minutes or less. For people with longer, thicker, and curlier hair, this can be a problem.

I can still use the Dyson at low battery if it’s corded. But at zero battery, I have to wait quite a while for the battery to charge before I can start using it—even if it’s corded. It takes 30 to 40 mins to charge the battery to 90 percent, but another additional 30 minutes to get it to 100 percent. 

The Corrale can be charged with the stand it comes with as well. It even has a flight mode feature, which means that you can safely store it in cabin luggage if you wanna travel.

To enable flight mode, the Corrale has a flight mode “button” that you can pull at the back of the straightener. Once it’s pulled, you won’t be able to switch the straightener on—making it safe to carry on planes. It’s also got a fancy heat-proof case which you can use to lay the Corrale on while you wait for it to heat up by letting out a small beep sound, or if you’re parting your hair.

Testing it on my hair

I asked a professional hair stylist Reina Lum to help straighten my hair with the two flat irons. One side is straightened by the Dyson Corrale, and the other is done by the Philips styler.

At first glance, I didn’t see a big difference. But Reina pointed out that the side done by my Philips straightener is straighter and flatter than the one by Dyson. Looking at the picture above, I do agree with her.

But even with the results, my Philips straightener certainly did make my hair feel more pressured in heat. Based on the bread test, even though the temperature was supposed to be lower than the Dyson, the Philips does more heat damage.

The Dyson made my hair less straight, but I felt more comfortable using it on a whole. I felt less heat and less steam.

Is it worth RM2,199?

The Dyson Corrale is way too expensive for a straightener. To compare, the GHD Platinum+ hair styler—which was recommended by Reina—costs about RM1000. That’s one of the most expensive ones I can find that isn’t a Dyson.

If you’re looking for the features like better plates and heat control, the GHD offers that too. It has a wishbone hinge plate that has the same idea as the flexing plates, and a 9 foot swivel cord. It’s just, you know, corded.

If you’re looking for a good cordless straightener, that’s what the Dyson has a lot of straighteners beat. There are plenty of cordless straighteners if you try to Google them, but you need to really read through reviews and descriptions before you invest in them.

If you’re expecting to travel a lot soon (which I doubt) or a celebrity looking to have a convenient way to bring a styler to different locations, the Dyson Corrale is for you. Not so surprisingly, the price point might not be an issue for you if you fit the profile.

But even if you do have the money to fork out RM2,199, reconsider things like how thick and curly your hair is. You might as well just get a corded tool that will last you longer than a half hour session.

Think of this as more of a luxury item. As for me, and a lot of others, I can’t afford to spend so much on a hair styler—but it really did make me feel like I gave my hair something luxurious to try out.

You can check out the Dyson Corrale here, and buy it on Lazada here.

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