Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo: one-minute review

The Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo is an exceptionally small capsule coffee maker, which brews espresso using the company's own A Modo Mio pods. These vacuum-packed capsules are available in a wide variety of coffee types, roasts, and blends, but unlike Nespresso capsules, there are no elaborate brews with added flavors to choose from.

That's no bad thing in my opinion, because the Jolie Evo produces some of the best espresso I've had from a pod machine, and flavored coffees often tend to taste artificial.

The Jolie Evo is very reasonably priced too (considerably less than the A Modo Mio Smeg and A Modo Mio Deséa), though you'll need to pick up a standalone milk frother too (I recommend either the Smeg Mini Milk Frother or Philips Baristina Milk Frother) if you want to make lattes and cappuccinos.

The controls are extremely simple, with just a single button and a large lever. However, bear in mind that there's no timer, so you'll need to manually tap the button to stop the flow once the machine has dispensed the right amount of coffee.

Overall, it's an excellent compact espresso machine. For me, the only real drawback is that the plastic pods aren't particularly easy to recycle. They can only be dropped off at designated collection points, which can be scarce outside big cities.

Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo: specifications

Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo: price and availability

• List price £99 / AU$129 (about $190)
• Widely available in UK and Australia
• Listed on Lavazza's US site, but not available at the time of writing

The Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo has a list price of £99 / AU$129, which is about $133, but at the time of writing the machine doesn't seem to be available to actually buy in the US — even though it's listed on Lavazza's site. So it may become available in the future.

If you're in the UK, you can get the coffee maker for £49 if you subscribe to Lavazza's coffee capsule delivery service.

Even at full price, that's very reasonable for a good quality capsule coffee maker. For comparison, the Lavazza A Modo Mio Smeg is £249 / AU$349 (about $350), while the Lavazza A Modo Mio Deséa is £249 / AU$349 (about $330) — though the latter machine also has a built-in milk-frothing system.

If you want to make lattes and cappuccinos with the Jolie Evo, you'll need a standalone milk frother like the Lavazza MilkEasy Plus, which is priced at £79 / AU$119 (about $150) — or the Smeg Mini Milk Frother or Philips Baristina Milk Frother I mentioned earlier.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo: design

• Ideal for small kitchens
• Only two controls (lever and button)
• Lever is ergonomic and easy to use

The Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo is easily one of the smallest coffee makers I’ve tested, measuring a mere 4.9 x 8.3 x 13 inches / 124 x 210 x 330mm (W x H x D). That’s even tinier than the diminutive Nespresso Vertuo Pop, which is 5.3 x 9.8 x 16.7 inches / 136 x 250 x 426mm. It’s ideal for slotting into small spaces, and you can even route the power cable right or left underneath the machine if you need it to sit against a wall.

The Lavazza machine looks classier than its Nespresso counterpart as well, with a smart matte finish and a large chrome handle on top. Pulling this handle up opens a slot on top of the machine. so you can slide a coffee pod inside.

Pushing it back down closes the drawer and pierces the pod, and pulling it up a second time will drop the used capsule into a small bin behind the Jolie Evo’s drip tray. The bin has a grille at the bottom that allows the pods to drain so they’re dry when you remove them for recycling, which is a thoughtful touch.

The large lever is easy to grip and requires barely any force to move, which makes this a particularly good option for people with limited strength or mobility in their hands.

The drip tray has a plastic grate that can be removed for easy cleaning, and is just the right height for an espresso cup. A standard size cup or mug will fit neatly under the dispenser with the drip tray detached.

Other than the handle, there is just one control on the Jolie Evi: a button on top of the machine, with a white light to indicate the machine’s current status: blinking means heating, and white means ready to brew.

It’s available in black and white in Australia, with a gray option also offered in the UK. It was sold in green and red too when it launched in the US.

• Design score: 5/5

Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo: performance

• Extremely simple to use, but there's no timer for the coffee dispenser
• It makes delicious espresso in moments
• Its pods can be hard to recycle compared to Nespresso aluminum ones

What makes the Jolie Evo different from all other capsule coffee makers I’ve tested to date is its lack of a timer for brewing different sized drinks. Once you’ve pressed its single button, the little machine will continue dispensing coffee (or hot water, if there’s no pod inside) until you either tap the button again or the tank is empty.

This isn’t ideal if you want to leave your coffee maker to handle itself while you’re preparing the rest of your breakfast, but making a double espresso takes less than a minute so it’s no real hardship.

I would recommend using a measuring cup as your recepticle, though, at least until you’ve got your eye in, because it’s easy to under or over-estimate the output. You could use a coffee scale to a perfect measure, but it would be overkill; this entry-level machine makes a very good espresso, but it’s not intended for real aficionados.

It uses Lavazza’s own A Modo Mio capsules, which are excellent value compared to most coffee pods. Different types command different prices, but you can pick up 80 Qualità Rossa pods direct from Lavazza for £24.50 (about $30 / AU$50). That’s just over 30p per drink, compared to 49p for the cheapest Nespresso Vertuo pods.

Unlike Nespresso, the Modo Mio selection doesn’t include elaborate flavored drinks; there are various beans, blends and roasts to choose from in Lavazza’s store, but each pod contains only ground coffee with no extras. That's no bad thing, in my opinion — coffee capsules with added flavors can taste unpleasantly artificial.

I tested the Jolie Evo with three of Lavazza’s coffees: Qualità Rossa, Passionale, and Qualità Oro. Each comes in a box of 16, and is marked with an intensity score out of 12 to give you an idea of what to expect. The first is a blend of robusta and arabica beans, while the other two are 100% arabica.

My personal favorite was the Qualità Oro, which produced one of the best-tasting espressos I’ve had from a capsule machine and is described as “Sweet and delicate taste, with an intense and fragrant aroma”.

It goes particularly well with milk in a white americano or (if you also pick up a milk frother) a creamy latte.

The problem with these pods, delicious though they are, is that they can be difficult to recycle. Nespresso pods are made entirely from aluminum, which is relatively easy to process once the coffee grounds are removed, and there’s almost certain to be a location nearby where you can drop off the used capsules. If not, you can mail them off for recycling with a pre-paid bag.

By contrast, Lavazza A Modo Mio pods are mostly plastic and can be recycled in the UK through the company’s partnership with Terracycle, but collection points are few and far between.

If there’s nowhere to drop off your pods, your only option is to start your own collection point, accepting pods from other people and sending them for processing yourself. Individuals can’t send their pods in the mail.

South England is relatively well-served, but at the time of writing there are only four drop-off points in Scotland, and none at all in Wales or Northern Ireland.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Jolie Evo is the right espresso machine for you, here are two others to think about.

How I tested the Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo

I used the Lavazza A Modo Mio Jolie Evo in place of my usual espresso machine for two weeks. I used three different types of A Modo Mio capsules (Qualità Rossa, Passionale, and Qualità Oro), drinking it neat as an espresso, and using the Jolie Evo to add extra hot water to make an americano.

I set up and cleaned the machine following the directions in the instruction manual, and allowed the components to air-dry before reassembly.

• For more details, see how TechRadar tests, reviews, and rates products.
• First reviewed: August 2026

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: one-minute review

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max seems like a slam dunk in the robot vacuum space. Positioned right in between the budget and upper mid range sections of the market, it delivers strong vacuum and mopping performance that make it capable of tackling a wide variety of messes in your home.

With LiDAR technology, its mapping is excellent and the robot vacuum does a great job of navigating unexpected obstacles that it might encounter during a clean. The design isn't the most exciting, though it still has a good range of features like an extendable mop arm and automatic carpet detection.

The dock is large, which might make it tricky to fit into smaller homes, but it's pretty capable as well, with hot water washing and air drying capabilities to keep the mop pads clean between uses.

It's all underpinned by a competent app that's easy to use and offers key functions such as being able to schedule cleans, restricting the robot vacuum to certain rooms, and allowing you to customize the vacuuming power and amount of water used by the mop.

The elephant in the room is that my unit developed a fault after a year of testing, occasionally spilling water during a mop pad clean. It's unfortunate and, even though it doesn't seem widespread, makes this model difficult to recommend unreservedly.

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: price, range & availability

• List price $999.99 / £499.99 / AU$1,199
• Launched late 2024
• No longer available in Australia
• Limited stock in the US

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max has a list price of $999.99 / £499.99 / AU$1,199, and is readily available via the brand’s website in the UK. It often receives discounts too, taking the price down by £100 or so around major sales events. At this price it sits neatly between the budget and upper mid range price brackets, coming in much more expensive than under $300 / £300 / AU$500 favorites like the Roborock Q7 M5 but cheaper than the likes of the Eufy X10 Pro Omni, which goes for $799.99 / £799 / AU$1,699.95.

That latter model is a good point of comparison here, as it also features mop and similar LiDAR sensor setup. With this in mind, the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max is very solid value - especially if you get it at that reduced price point. Accessories like replacement brushes, dust bags, and mop pads are all available via the Xiaomi website at pretty reasonable prices too.

Unfortunately, this model seems a lot harder to come by in the US. You can find it on Amazon, but it goes for an eye-watering $999.99 and stock appears limited. At this price it’s significantly worse value and you would be better off spending less on an alternative. Its list price is AU$1,199 in Australia, but it appears to no longer be available either through Xiaomi's own store, or Amazon.

• Value for money score: 3/5

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max specs

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max: design

• Raised LiDAR puck
• Extendable mop arm

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max isn’t pushing any boundaries when it comes to its overall design, but honestly that’s not such a bad thing.

It looks like your average robot vacuum, which is to say a big plastic disc with a chunky bumper at the front and a whole host of sensors. The most prominent of these is a big LiDAR sensor that sits in a little raised puck on the top, though there are others designed to spot obstacles or prevent the vacuum from falling off ledges.

Despite the basic look, the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max has a bunch of useful features including two mop pads, one of which can be extended on a little arm for edge cleaning. The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max is also capable of detecting which kind of surface it’s on, raising the mop pads when it goes over carpet to prevent any accidental stains.

Coming in at13.39 x 16.54 x 22.17 inches / 340 x 420 x 563mm, the docking station that it comes with is absolutely ginormous which could make it awkward to fit in smaller homes, but there are some good reasons for this size. Firstly, you’re getting a large 135.3oz / 4l clean water tank (removed for filling by simply popping up the lid on top of the dock) and a slightly smaller but still sizable 128.5oz / 3.8l tank for dirty water storage.

Xiaomi says that this is more than enough water to clean 2,152.8 square feet / 200 square meters on a single fill, and while my testing area was considerably smaller, I can say that it didn’t need refilling across multiple cleans.

The dock also has a hot water system to help wash both mop pads at 131F / 55C - a temperature that Xiaomi claims reduces odours more effectively. It dries the mop pads using hot air, a process that takes a few hours and produces a small level of sound akin to a desk fan.

There’s also a generous 84.5oz / 2.5l dust bag, which Xiaomi says only needs emptying once every 75 days in a three-person household with one pet. This seems like a very generous estimate to me, and your mileage will vary depending on your specific level of household mess. This bag size is on par with much of the competition, such as the aforementioned Eufy X10 Pro Omni, so you can expect similar performance to those models.

One feature that I particularly appreciate is the ability to remove parts of the dock for cleaning, including the little tray where the vacuum sits while charging. This isn't something that you will need to do regularly, but my previous robot vacuum tracked a decent layer of grime in its dock over the years and was comparatively pretty tricky to clean.

My only real complaint from a design standpoint is the vacuum’s incessant need to narrate what it's doing. By default it frequently declares 'start to dry the mop pad' and similar phrases in a loud, annoying voice. It's disruptive, though mercifully can be turned off in the app.

• Design score: 4/5

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: performance

• Good navigation
• Deals with multiple surfaces well
• Base station pump developed issues

I've been using the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max for a year now, and can say that it handles most daily cleaning tasks well. Its navigation capabilities are excellent and map that it generated of my cleaning area was spot on. I have the base station in the corner of an L-shape hallway and the robot never struggles to find it, even when it's been cleaning the handful of adjoining rooms.

Setting room boundaries works excellently too — if you want to restrict cleaning to a specific defined area, the vacuum won't stray beyond it. It also deals with unexpected obstacles like closed doors or moved furniture well, bumping into them once or twice and then adapting its path smartly. You don't need to worry about multiple surfaces, either. Every time I spot the vacuum going over the rug in the middle of a mop cycle, the pads are automatically raised as it detects the soft surface to prevent damage.

The vacuum picks up small debris and cleans up small spills with no sweat, and for a more intensive task I doused my kitchen floor with oats, cereal crumbs, flour, ketchup, and pretty much anything else that I could find in the cupboard.

How did the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max fare? I sent it out on the most intensive possible cleaning mode and it made a commendable dent in the mess. The oats, crumbs, and flour were masterfully hoovered up with the exception of a few survivors in the hardest to reach corners of the room.

The ketchup was more of a challenge, and at first I was pretty worried that it wouldn't be able to overcome it: the mop pads smeared it in a thin layer over the middle of the floor at first but, sure enough, after multiple visits to the base station in order to clean itself and to refill its water tanks, it was all gone after a few runs. I did spot some red residue in the grouting between tiles, but this took just a few seconds for me to wipe up.

It's the kind of performance you would want from a mid-range robot vacuum. It's not a total replacement for doing the cleaning, but it does decrease the need for big cleans.

That said, my unit has developed a major issue over long-term testing. Sometimes when the vacuum cleans its own mop pads (either at the start or during a cleaning task) the motor that's meant to suck away all the dirty water doesn't kick in. This means that dirty water starts to accumulate in the base station, eventually overflowing and spilling out onto the floor.

It's frustrating (and pretty gross), and I'm struggling to resolve the issue by cleaning the water sensors, fiddling with the base station, and so on. Anecdotally, a family member bought Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max a few weeks after seeing my one, and it developed a similar fault within just a couple of months. It was, after some back and forth, repaired by Xiaomi.

Looking online, it doesn't seem to be a widespread problem, though I've still been able to find at least a few others who report the same thing. Users on Facebook and Reddit also seem to have had luck getting their vacuums replaced via Xiaomi's support service, though I suspect I can't go through this route with a review sample.

For this reason, I would recommend buying from Xiaomi directly rather than through reseller if you do chose to pick one up, as you otherwise will likely have more trouble getting support if issues do arise.

• Performance score: 2.5/5

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: app

• Easy to use
• Scheduling features
• Different suction levels

The Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 is compatible with the Xiaomi Home app. It's easy to use and has plenty of features, including the ability to view the map generated by the robot, and its location real time. This is on top of the option to start cleans in specific rooms, schedule cleans, or clean the mop pads.

You can view the battery level, and change cleaning modes. These include basic vacuuming, mopping, vacuuming and mopping, or vacuuming before mopping. You can increase the water output too, with three levels to choose between, but bear in mind that this will increase how quickly you will need to refill everything.

I didn't encounter any bugs within the app, and it remained quick and responsive during my year of testing. The fact that you have to set up a Mi account is a bit annoying, but otherwise it offers everything you could from robot vacuum companion software.

• App score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max?

Buy it if… 

Don’t buy it if… 

Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max review: alternatives to consider

How I tested the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max

I tested the Xiaomi Robot Vacuum X20 Max in my home for over a year, using it to clean a hallway and two large rooms on a weekly basis. It cleaned a wide variety of messes in that time on a number of different surfaces, namely carpet and tiled flooring. I fully utilized the companion app in order to evaluate its performance and compared the overall experience to other robot vacuums that I own.

Read more about how we test

First reviewed August 2026

Eufy Omni S2: two-minute review

Eufy’s latest flagship robotic vacuum and mop, the Omni S2 is a hugely impressive appliance that combines excellent mopping with brilliant vacuuming to create one of the best home cleaning systems you can buy. It also self-cleans so thoroughly that, after several weeks of daily use, the dust bin, rollers and mop still looked like new.

The Omni S2 uses warm water to clean its spinning mop as it goes, while also scraping away dirt and using cyclone technology to whisk dust more efficiently into the onboard bin, instead of leaving it to clog up the filters. Water is ozonated in the base station to further improve cleaning performance, and there’s an integrated detergent system too.

The robot itself can even be fitted with a fragrance diffuser, which makes your room smell nice after every clean; three different scents are included in the box and, along with the detergent, and can be replenished from Eufy’s website.

It navigates well, mostly avoiding contact with walls and doors while driving very closely to all manner of obstacles without pushing them around, driving over them or ingesting them. The S2 is good at climbing over raised carpets, rugs and door thresholds — something the Omni S1 struggled with – and the app does a great job of quickly mapping your home, with a simple editing system for labeling every room correctly, and even adding virtual furniture.

I was impressed by how quiet the Omni S2 is, even with its powerful Cyclone mode engaged, and how the base station doesn’t sound like an Airbus when emptying the robot. It’s a very expensive product, but one that looks good and performs extremely well.

Eufy Omni S2: price and availability

• List price: $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,299
• Launched: March 2026

Just two years on from the launch of the Omni S1 Pro, Eufy now has the Omni S2. This is now the company’s flagship robotic vacuum and mop, with a price, performance and feature set to match.

It carries a recommended retail price of $1,599 / £1,599 / AU$2,299, making it £300 more expensive than the S1 pro, which remains on sale. That’s an awful lot of money for a vacuum cleaner — especially when

Eufy’s own range of robovacs starts under the £150 mark, and one of my favourites — the X10 Pro Omni vacuum and mop — is a comparative snip at £599.

What does the extra £1,000 get you with the S2? More power, of course, with greater suction thanks to Eufy’s new AeroTurbo 2.0 tech, improved intelligence, greater threshold clearance, a more powerful mop, better computer vision, a self-cleaning mop, electrolysed water, integrated detergent and even a built-in fragrance system with three included scents to pick from.

An additional cost to bear in mind is Eufy’s replacement parts kit. The brushes, bags, mops and rollers of all vacuum cleaners need replacing, so ongoing costs aren’t unusual, but Eufy likes to charge plenty. A complete kit for the S2 is £79.99. Premium parts for a premium robovac, I suppose. More welcome is Eufy’s new two-year warranty, which applies to all robot vacuums launched in 2026 and doubles the previous coverage.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Eufy Omni S2: specifications

Eufy Omni S2: design

• Docking station with charger, dust bag, water tanks and mop drying
• Rotating, self-cleaning mop
• Integrated detergent and fragrance supply

The S2 has a similar but more refined look than its S1 predecessor. The subtle bronze tint to sections of the robot and docking station give it a premium aesthetic that blends nicely with the futuristic lighting in both the clean water tank of the dock, and the robot’s onboard dust bin.

Taller than many docking stations, but significantly more elegant than most, the Omni S2’s appearance helps to justify its lofty price tag — and that’s further aided by the display and touch controls on top of the dock. These are handily located to press without stooping down to the robot itself, while the screen is useful for checking on the robot’s status and spotting error messages.

Short of making you a cup of tea while the robot cleans up, the S2’s docking station does absolutely everything. It charges the robot, empties its dust bin, replenishes its water supply (and even ozonates fresh water before it’s fed to the mop), cleans the mop with water heated to 70 degrees centigrade, dries it with hot air, refills the detergent tank, and has enough dust bin capacity for up to a claimed 68 days between bag replacements.

The robot itself is almost circular, with a central roller that’s claimed to be 100 percent tangle free, a pair of spinning side brushes, and a roller mop that self-cleans, slides outwards by 1.5cm to reach into corners and even an onboard fragrance supply to make your home smell nice. The S2 includes three different fragrances in the box, but these are a bespoke design so replacements can only be bought from Eufy itself. The same goes for the detergent bottle too, while thankfully the 2.5-litre dust bags are generic.

I like how the Omni S2 looks. Its design is more sophisticated than that of the S1, and I can imagine it neatly complementing the lavish houses of its deep-pocketed buyers. And while tall, at 670mm (26.4 inches), the docking station is relatively slim.

The robot is also relatively short, at 85mm. This compares favorably against taller, bulkier robovacs like the Dyson Spot+Scrub AI, which towers over the Eufy at 110mm and is less capable of cleaning beneath low furniture.

A welcome design upgrade for the Eufy Omni S2 is its ability to now clear door thresholds up to 4.2cm tall, up from just 2cm for the Omni S1. I was often left frustrated by that robot’s inability to drive up from exposed floorboards to a carpeted neighboring room, but have had no such issues with the S2.

• Design score: 5/5

Eufy Omni S2: performance

• Impressive vacuuming
• Excellent mopping
• Strong improvement over the S1

From the setup process and mapping, to vacuuming, mopping, navigation and self-cleaning, the Omni S2 is a triumph. You might say it should well be for the massive price tag, but even in 2026 it’s rare for such a complex new product to impress so universally. Where the Eufy Omni S1 struggled in some key areas — navigation, threshold clearance and sometimes even vacuuming — the S2’s performance is close to perfect.

Yes, it’s an ultra-premium product with a price to match. This is right up there with your Leica camera, Rimowa suitcase and five-figure turntable. I imagine the typical Omni S2 owner is the sort of person who wouldn't blink at splashing out on a pair of Apple AirPods Max 2 at the airport because they forgot their first-gens at home. They’d probably deal with a flight delay by picking up a new Swiss watch, too.

And that’s absolutely fine. Whatever the product, there’s always something that happens to sell the most expensive one, and for robotic vacuums that just so happens to be Eufy with the Omni S2. That doesn’t inherently count against it, because there are always customers happy to pay a premium for the one they like, or not really care about the cost because the S2’s spec sheet, design and feature set already put it at the top of the market.

What matters is how it performs in the real world, and how that compares to user expectations. Naturally, mine were at an all-time high and the S2 mostly delivered. The vacuuming performance is noticeably better than with the S1, and after a month of testing I still smile at the neat stripes vacuumed into my lounge carpet — and at how pleasant the S2’s fragrance system makes every room smell.

Eufy has improved navigation since the S1, and now the S2 is smart enough to not vacuum over the tasselled ends of a rug. It also automatically detects rug and carpet thickness, then raises itself by up to 50mm (1.97 inches) to prevent getting stuck in deep-pile fabric. In my testing, the S2 flagged a potentially tricky bit of carpet — which was actually an integrated but deeply contoured door mat — so I could tell it to ignore the concern or permanently avoid it.

Navigation and map creation is generally good. The robot only once got stuck and called for help, and I was impressed by how quickly the S2 mapped the ground floor of my home and did a decent job of detecting room boundaries. I used the app to fine-tune these, and was pleased to see how the S2 had added 3D cupboards, sofas, tables, chairs and other bits of furniture to the map. This isn’t strictly necessary, but it’s nice to see how the S2 correctly understands its environment.

Eufy claims a maximum suction of 30,000Pa, which is a huge upgrade over the 8,000Pa of the Omni S1 and other Eufy robots like the X10. There are four suction modes — Quiet, Standard, Turbo and Max — three options of cleaning intensity, three water levels, and the option of performing each cleaning task once or twice. As with the S1, the S2 returns to base whenever it needs to empty its bin, clean the mop, replenish its water supply or charge the battery. A mode called AI Automation promises to adjust cleaning strategy based on room type, floor material and cleaning frequency.

The Omni S2 deeply impressed during the first few weeks of general use, keeping hard floors and carpets clean — even after a cockapoo puppy joined our household, and his insistence on helping with garden projects brought a lot of dirt into the house. It was a joy, quite frankly, to have the S2 on hand, ready to clean up after every chaotic evening of dog zoomies.

I also loved how the S2 kept itself clean. Not only is the mop cleaned and dried with every use, but the cyclone-style dust collection ensures the onboard bin is practically spotless after each empty, and the filters don’t get clogged up. The rollers also looked like new after many hours of use, thanks to an anti-tangle design that actually works.

The mopping system works as well as the S1’s — evidenced by the absolutely filthy water collected in the waste tank of the docking station. I’d recommend owners empty this frequently, because if you wait a couple of weeks or so until it’s full, pouring it away is a seriously stinky process.

During TechRadar’s standardized robovac tests the Omni S2 continued to perform very well. These tests include two rounds of vacuuming on both carpets and hard floors, plus an obstacle avoidance test and a mopping test.

Pleasingly, the Omni S2’s vacuum performance is better than its predecessor, the two-year-old Omni S1. Vacuuming up oats from carpet was particularly impressive, with not a single piece being missed (except where I set the target zone in slightly the wrong place).

Before vacuuming

After vacuuming

During these tests I found the quickest, least powerful mode, called Quiet, was indeed very quiet (just 55 decibels on carpet), but the S2 performs best when suction is upped to the Standard or Turbo modes, cleaning intensity is increased from Fast to Standard, and the S2 is asked to perform two passes of the target zone or room, instead of one.

A crumb mix made of flour and crushed biscuit was completely lifted from a wooden kitchen floor using the S2’s standard intensity and suction settings, while on carpet I found Turbo or Cyclone (the most powerful suction mode) was best.

Crumb mix before first pass

Crumb mix after first pass

With that enabled, plus the intensity increased to Deep and the number of passes upped to two, the robot did a superb job.

Crumb mix after first pass

Crumb mix after second pass

The oat test is usually tougher, because robovacs tend to flick larger debris across hard floors with their spinning side brushes. The Omni S2 fell foul of this too, but as ever my advice is to set the robot to vacuum the entire room twice, instead of aiming for a target and kicking it everywhere.

With the right settings applied, the S2 picked up every single piece – and passed the same test with flying colors on carpet too, where flicking debris is less of an issue.

Before vacuuming

After vacuuming

I tested the mopping system with a dried smear of ketchup, which was promptly removed from the wooden floor. The cylindrical mop spins and pivots outwards to reach into the edges of the room, while the robot scrapes it clean and washes it while driving. The mop is then dried with hot air at the base station, which takes several hours but is very quiet.

Before mopping

After mopping

Meanwhile, the S2’s obstacle avoidance saw it drive neatly around a shoe, a sock and a USB cable strewn across the floor. I was impressed by how close it got to each, with moving or ingesting anything.

Overall, the Eufy Omni S2 performed brilliantly. I would recommend using Standard intensity and Standard suction with two passes most of the time, then up the suction to Turbo or Cyclone for a deeper clean. The latter hitting just 70 decibels was also impressive — for context, my Dyson V10 stick vacuum is 90 dB at medium power.

I only encountered one serious problem with the S2, and unfortunately it led to a replacement unit being provided by Eufy. The first S2 performed perfectly for a month, but developed a fault where the robot and docking station lost their connection. Several reboots and lots of advice from customer services failed to find a solution, so a second S2 was delivered and the original went back to Eufy for an inspection.

Naturally, this is disappointing for such an expensive product. But I was impressed by Eufy’s customer service department — which I approached as a customer and not a journalist — and how quickly the problem was resolved. The second unit performed perfectly throughout the rest of my test.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Eufy Omni S2: app

• Easy to use
• Lots of configurability
• Also handles Eufy security products
• Option to charge at night — great if you have an EV tariff

The Eufy app gets better with every revision, and today it’s one of the best robovac apps I’ve ever used. Everything is logically laid out, with just the right amount of adjustability on offer to keep both newcomers and power users happy. The app is quick, responsive and presents everything in a way that’s easy to understand.

I especially like how it adds virtual furniture to your floor maps, which makes it easier to understand the layout and visualize where the robot is. Editing floor plans also works well, with simple tools for splitting, combining and renaming rooms after the robot has created an initial (but not always accurate) map of your home. Multiple floormaps can also be created, making it easy to save a second map for your bedrooms upstairs, for example.

Another feature I like is how pre-defined tasks can be created. I have one called “After dinner”, which tells the S2 to vacuum and mop my kitchen a certain way. A single tap of this from the Eufy app home screen, and the robot gets to work.

Since getting a puppy I’ve come to value Eufy’s child lock function, which disables the buttons on top of the robot – handy for both inquisitive children and dogs alike. I also like the off-peak charging function, where you can configure the S2 to only charge its battery at certain times of day. Since I have an electric car and an EV tariff, I’ve set the robovac to only charge at night, when my electricity is much cheaper.

• App score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Eufy Omni S2?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the Eufy Omni S2

I lived with the Eufy Omni S2 for several weeks before writing this review. During that time it was used exclusively to vacuum the carpets and mop the floors of my house. I tested its cleaning abilities, tried some of the included fragrance diffusers, and noted how its self-cleaning systems fared after many hours of use.

I then carried out a number of specific tests to understand how well it cleans different types of debris from carpet and hard floors, how effective its mopping system is, how good it is at avoiding obstacles, and how loud it is.

First reviewed July 2026

Dimplex FlexBlade Multi-Directional Bladeless Fan: two minute review

The Dimplex FlexBlade isn't your traditional tower fan, although you can use it as one. It's bladeless, Dyson-style, so it delivers smooth airflow without the buffeting of a bladed fan.

The design is very flexible, enabling you to use it as a T-shaped floor fan, a vertical pedestal fan, or any angle in between. Air comes out of two wide vents, and those vents can be rotated 90 degrees in either direction so that you can have wider airflow or cool two areas simultaneously. That could be useful in shared spaces such as offices, although as the fan's stand isn't telescopic, one of you will get a cool back while the other gets cool legs.

The FlexBlade looks like it'll be extremely powerful but the strength of airflow drops off quickly with distance, so at full power with both blades pointing forward it felt like a breeze at three meters. It's fairly quiet, though, and delivers similar airflow and noise levels to our trusty Dyson Hot+Cool fan.

This isn't the most powerful floor fan we've tested by any means but it does move a decent amount of air and that flexible design makes it useful for multiple applications, such as the bedroom at night and home office or living room during the day.

Dimplex FlexBlade fan review: price and availability

• Launched June 2026
• UK only
• £199.99 (about $160 / AU$230)

With fortunate timing, the FlexBlade launched during a month of record-breaking heat in the UK. The Dimplex FlexBlade Multi-Directional Bladeless Fan launched in the UK in June 2026 with a recommended retail price of £199.99 (about $160 / AU$230). It isn't currently available in Australia, and Dimplex doesn't sell its home cooling products in the US.

I'm writing this as more really hot weather is toasting the UK, so I need to temper my usual buying advice with the fact that for many people the only criteria for a fan right now are 'will it cool me down?' and 'is it in stock?', to which the answers are yes and at the time of writing, yes. But I would point out that Dimplex dropped the price to just £123 for Amazon Prime Day 2026, so if you're not reading this in sweltering temperatures you can expect similar discounts in the cooler months when demand sags.

Value for money: 4/5

Dimplex FlexBlade fan review: design

• Horizontal and vertical adjustment
• Horizontal oscillation
• Simple but effective controls

I can't talk about the design of the Dimplex FlexBlade without addressing the elephant in the room, or rather the Shark: the Shark TurboBlade cooling fan, which seems to have inspired Dimplex's designers. Both have a propeller-esque T-shaped design with two independent, rotatable bladeless vents. Both can pivot from horizontal to vertical mode. Both project air up to 20 meters. Both have a magnetic remote control. Both have a quiet sleep mode. And both have multiple speed settings: 10 for the Shark and five for the Dimplex. I think the Shark is a little nicer looking, more flexible thanks to its telescopic pole and less top-heavy — the Dimplex wobbles a bit when you touch it — but it's also £50 (about $70 / AU$100) more expensive when it's not in the sales.

The FlexBlade arrives in six parts: the main motor unit, a two-part riser with a heavy base, and the two vents. It's simple and quick to put together – the only tool required is the provided Allen key for securing the base — and the remote attaches magnetically to the top of the unit so it's always handy.

Controls are kept to a minimum on the fan itself: power/speed, oscillation and timer. The remote is simple too, with the addition of dedicated speed up/down buttons, a full speed button and a sleep mode button to put the fan into its lowest power state overnight.

The T-shaped, two-vent design delivers a lot of flexibility. You can't adjust the 1.1m height of the main motor unit but you can position the two blades vertically, horizontally or in between, and you can rotate them independently up to 180 degrees to push air in two opposite directions at once. The rotating blades are a little stiff but not awkwardly so. The blade adjustments are manual but the fan itself can oscillate automatically, delivering horizontal oscillation of 30, 60 or 90 degrees.

Design: 4/5

Dimplex FlexBlade fan review: performance

• Oscillation and adjustable vents
• Quieter than similar rivals
• Best experienced reasonably close

The Dimplex promises airflow in excess of 6m/s with a 20-meter range and 90-degree sweep, but at full power with both blades pointed directly at me from three meters away it felt like a very mild breeze. At that distance and with the blades arranged vertically the remote control was very hit and miss.

The Dimplex is a bit quieter than the Shark – Dimplex's figures say it's 36dB at its lowest setting and 58dB at full pelt, compared to the Shark's 40dB to 66dB – but it still gets loud at higher fan speeds with the telltale whoosh we've come to expect from bladeless fans. It's not Dyson hand dryer loud at full power, though; it's more like a hair dryer on a very low setting.

I compared the Dimplex's airflow to two other room fans: a Dyson Pure Hot + Cool and a Meaco Sefte 10-inch air circulator. Both the Dimplex and the Dyson are bladeless and moved air a similar distance with similar noise levels, although the Dyson's wider diffusion mode made its output quieter at the expense of focused air. But the Meaco was quieter than both and delivered significantly stronger airflow across a large living room.

Performance: 3/5

Dimplex FlexBlade fan review: should you buy it?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Dimplex FlexBlade fan review: also consider

Dimplex FlexBlade fan review: how we tested

I tested the FlexBlade for a week at my home in Scotland during July 2026's UK heatwave. Scotland escaped the worst, because while England boiled the temperatures here were milder, peaking at 27ºC / 80.6ºF. That's hot enough to need a powerful fan but not so hot that I was crawling into my freezer or taking cold showers fully clothed.

I work from home in a long downstairs room that gets sunshine from both directions during the day, and that means it's often warmer inside than out – especially in the evening, as UK homes are typically made to retain heat rather than reflect it. I tested the FlexBlade as a daytime fan in my living room/office and as a bedroom fan overnight to see if it could keep me cool during the day, cool my family in the evening and help me sleep better at night.

First tested July 2026

Laifen T1 Pro: two-minute review

On first impressions, the Laifen T1 Pro wows. Open the box and you're greeted with Apple-inspired packaging, while the shaver itself immediately looks the part. Its CNC-machined unibody aluminium body looks and feels genuinely premium and, if you're used to cheaper shavers like the Philips OneBlade – my usual razor – it's impossible not to grin at the magnetically attached shaving head, which somehow manages to feel genuinely futuristic.

Modern conveniences like USB-C charging, an aeroplane mode to stop the power button being pressed in your bag while travelling and IPX7 waterproofing all add to the premium feel. Based on the spec sheet and those first impressions, you'd be forgiven for thinking the Laifen T1 Pro was one of the best electric shavers on the market.

The problem is that, with a shaver, the only thing that really matters is the shave itself, and that's where the Laifen T1 Po disappoints. I shave twice a week and have fairly coarse stubble, and despite repeated attempts the T1 Pro simply couldn't deliver a comfortable shave and often snagged on my hairs, which was painful and left me with patchy stubble. You have to limit your expectations a bit with single-blade razors, but I've been getting an effective shave with my Philips OneBlade for years, and often I found myself reaching for it to finish up and get the hairs that survived the T1 Pro's efforts.

This leaves the Laifen T1 Pro in an awkward position. It's beautifully designed and genuinely pleasant to use in every respect until it comes to shaving, but if I have to reach for a second razor to finish the job, the premium build and thoughtful features become little more than a nice distraction. I'd love to see Laifen revisit the shaving head in a future model because the engineering elsewhere is genuinely impressive, but as it stands I can't recommend the T1 Pro.

Laifen T1 Pro: price and availability

• List price: $149 / £149 / AU$246
• Launched: September 2025

The Laifen T1 Pro launched in September 2025. Listing prices vary but are consistent with other premium shavers. In the US it's currently selling for around $129, in the UK it's £149 and in Australia it's $239. However, it doesn't come with a case, cleaning materials or anything else so it may feel steep in comparison

• Value score: 2/5

Laifen T1 Pro: design

• CNC-machined aluminum feels premium
• Magnetic head feels futuristic and makes cleaning a breeze
• USB-C means you're just taking one cable away with you

The Laifen T1 Pro makes an excellent first impression. Unlike the plastic-bodied shavers that dominate the market, the T1 Pro is built around a CNC-machined unibody aluminium chassis that immediately feels more like a premium gadget than a bathroom appliance. The fit and finish are excellent, while the magnetically-attached shaving head snaps satisfyingly into place and makes cleaning refreshingly simple.

Laifen has also packed in plenty of thoughtful features. USB-C charging means one less proprietary cable to keep track of, an airplane mode prevents the power button from being accidentally pressed in your luggage, and the IPX7 waterproof rating means you can use the shaver wet or dry before simply rinsing it under the tap to clean it up.

The compact dimensions work in the T1 Pro's favour. It's comfortable to hold despite the lack of any rubberized grip, and the aluminum body never felt slippery during my testing, even during a heatwave when I was, perhaps a little sweatier than I'd like to admit. Its low weight, just 3.3oz / 93g, makes it easy to use precise movements in the tricky areas like the jawline and around the mouth — areas that can be difficult with larger, clunkier, shavers.

It's a minor thing, but I found myself squeaking with joy each time I opened the little cap at the bottom of the razor to reveal the USB-C charging port. It's a small thing, but the cap fits so neatly in and comes away so delicately it sparks joy every time I charged it.

In many ways, the T1 Pro feels like the product of a company obsessed with industrial design. From the premium materials to the magnetic shaving head and clean, minimalist aesthetic, there's very little to criticize about the hardware itself.

• Design score: 4/5

Laifen T1 Pro: performance

• Foil snags on coarse hair, which is painful
• The shave is patchy and inconsistent
• Long-lasting battery means you'll only need to charge occasionally

Ultimately, the Laifen T1 Pro lives or dies by the quality of its shave, and that's where it struggles. I have fairly coarse facial hair and typically shave twice a week, which proved to be a challenge the T1 Pro never really overcame.

Rather than cutting cleanly through my stubble, the shaver frequently pulled at beard hairs, making each shave less comfortable than it should have been. It also struggled to achieve an even finish. Even after several passes, I was often left with patches of missed stubble that required further attention. The trimmer head was more prone to this snagging, but the shaver head didn't eliminate the problem and also left my skin irritated.

The T1 Pro's light weight makes it easier to use, but its small size means covering your face takes longer than with a larger foil shaver. As a result, multiple passes quickly became the norm, and each additional pass increased the likelihood of the shaver snagging on thicker patches of hair.

I repeatedly found myself reaching for another razor to finish the job. Not only did it clean up the areas the T1 Pro had missed, but it also did so more comfortably. That's difficult to overlook given the T1 Pro's premium price.

The 120-minute battery life is excellent and should last most people several weeks between charges.

Unfortunately, The Laifen T1 Pro looks and feels like a premium electric shaver, but in my experience it simply doesn't deliver the shave the design promises, which makes it impossible to travel with because I also have to toss a second razor into my bag.

• Performance score: 1/5

Should you buy the Laifen T1 Pro?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Laifen T1 Pro: also consider

First reviewed July 2026

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan: two minute review

Dimplex makes lots of floor, table and pedestal fans, and the Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan is designed to address one of their weaknesses: they can only go where your plug sockets or extension cables can go. This affordable fan works as wired one via its USB-C port but also includes a rechargeable battery delivering up to 15 hours of air, or around four hours at full speed. That means you you can take it into the garden on a hot evening or take it to your bedroom and run it overnight.

The Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan doesn't oscillate but you can tilt it vertically up to 90 degrees, and it folds down almost flat so it's easy to keep in a drawer or toss into a bag. There are four speed settings here but the high speed one is not recommended while charging, as it depletes the battery faster than the USB-C connection charges it.

The fan works well and is fairly quiet, but it does make a noticeable drone at all speed settings; on a hot day, running the fan at high was very distracting. Of course all fans make some noise, but as this is a small fan with a 6.7 inch / 17cm diameter and 5.1 inch 13cm blades, you need to have it close to you to feel the benefit. In my home office the Dimplex on quiet setting at half a meter distance was noticeably louder than a much larger air circulator running at 50% speed one meter from me. If noise annoys, this may not be the fan for you.

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: price and availability

• Launched July 2025
• UK only
• £34.99 (about $50 / AU$70)

The Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan, model DXRCFN, launched in the UK in July 2025. It has a recommended retail price of £34.99 (about $50 / AU$70), making it the most affordable model in the current range of Dimplex cooling fans and about £10 more expensive than a similarly sized wired desktop fan. It isn't currently available in Australia, and Dimplex doesn't sell its home cooling products in the US.

This fan has been cheaper – it was £25.45 during Prime Day 2026 – but I wouldn't expect to see any price cuts during the summer months in the UK.

Value for money: 4/5

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: design

• Supremely portable
• Finger-friendly grille
• USB-C charging

The design of the fan is rather clever. It's been made for maximum portability, folding in on itself to resemble a small squashed football for travel or storage. It charges via USB-C and takes about four hours to charge fully. Because it's USB you can charge it with a phone charger or power bank, which makes it a good option for travelling. The battery is sealed inside and is not user-replaceable.

In addition to its internal bladed fan there's a circular louvred grille on the front that rotates and enhances the airflow. Although it spins quickly, the front grille is finger-friendly and won't hurt you or a child if you or they touch it (although you can lock it in place if you don't want it to spin).

The Dimplex fan doesn't oscillate, but you can adjust its vertical tilt by up to 90 degrees by moving the fan section up or down. It stays put without having to be screwed in place. Controls are simple, with just two buttons: power and speed. There's no remote control and no smartphone/smart home features.

Design: 4/5

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: performance

• Decent airflow for its size
• Four speed settings
• Distracting sound

There are four fan speeds — quiet, low, medium and high — and I found that for my home office desk the quiet setting delivered a nice breeze without making me feel like I was in a wind tunnel. High speed was a bit intense up close but worked well from a little further away. Dimplex recommends only using High when you're on battery power as it can still deplete the battery when you're recharging it; at its lowest, quiet setting I managed 14+ hours from a single charge.

The Dimplex moves a decent amount of air for its size and it's fairly quiet in terms of its overall volume, which ranges from 36dB to 43dB. However, it does make a noticeable and constant droning sound that rises in pitch as you increase the speed. All bladed fans make some motor noise, of course, but desk fans are designed to sit very close to you, which means any noise is much more noticeable. For me it was too distracting at any speed when I sat it on my work desk, although in the bedroom at its lowest setting it didn't keep me awake.

Performance: 3/5

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: should you buy it?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: also consider

Dimplex Rechargeable Cordless Desk Fan review: how we tested

I tested this Dimplex fan for a week during summery weather as both a desktop fan in my home office, and as a bedroom fan overnight. Both locations are in my house, where indoor temperatures were around 69.8°F to 75.2°F / 21ºC to 24ºC during the daytime and around 66.2°F to 68.0°F / 19ºC to 20ºC at night.

First tested July 2026

Blink Outdoor 2K+: two-minute review

Blink has become the brand you recommend to people who don't really want a security camera. Cheap, painless, owned by Amazon, and a forgiving field of view. The catch was that previous 1080p pictures turned to mush the moment anything moved, or the sun went down.

The Outdoor 2K+ fixes this by capturing would-be crims at 2560 x 1440 in its top "Best" setting. There's 4x zoom for closer inspections, noise-cancelling two-way audio making doorstep conversations less of a shouting match, and an improved low-light sensor that holds color as the light fades before switching to infrared black-and-white. Drop to 1080p 'Standard' or 720p 'Saver', and you'll claw back a bit of battery life.

Blink quotes up to two years from a pair of AA lithium cells, and while I can't fast-forward through two summers to prove it, a fortnight’s daily use barely dented the gauge. There's a USB-C port if you'd rather wire it to the mains with Blink's separately sold weather-resistant adapter, an IP65 rating shrugs off wet weather, and it’s compatible with the existing Outdoor 4 accessory range, so floodlight mounts and battery packs carry over.

Setup should be the usual Blink doddle. Scan the code, follow the app, pair the Sync Module, done in under 10 minutes with no cabling and no electrician. For a first-time buyer, it's about as low-friction as home security gets, although we did encounter some teething problems connecting the kit to a home Wi-Fi network.

Then you discover the real kicker. The Outdoor 2K+ ships with a new Sync Module Core rather than the old Sync Module 2 we were supplied with, and the Core has had its USB port removed. That port was the whole point for subscription-averse buyers: plug in a flash drive, store clips locally, pay Amazon nothing.

Without it, the free experience reduces to live view and motion alerts, while saved recordings, person and vehicle detection and the smarter notifications all sit behind a Blink subscription that starts at £2.50 (about $3.50 / AU$5) a month and rises to £8 (about $10 / AU$20) for unlimited cameras. An older Sync Module 2 still works if you own one, but most people buying this won't.

It leaves the 2K+ in an odd spot. As a camera, it's the best budget outdoor option Blink has made. As a package, it's less optimal. Judge it on the camera and battery life alone, and it's a comfortable recommendation. Judge it on the small print, and you’ve got a new monthly bill the old model didn’t demand.

Blink Outdoor 2K+: price and availability

• List price: £89.99 / $99.99 / AU$119
• Launched October 2025
• Available in the US, UK and Australia

Pitched at the affordable end as ever, the Outdoor 2K+ slots in alongside the cheaper Mini 2K+ and the Blink Arc — a mount that pairs two Mini 2K+ cameras for a panoramic view — as part of the brand's 2K refresh. The one-camera kit includes the Sync Module Core, two AA lithium batteries, and a mount, so nothing essential to buy on day one — unless you want your footage saved anywhere, at which point the maths changes.

That's the rub. The headline price buys you a very capable camera and a deliberately hamstrung storage situation. Anyone who bought the Outdoor 4 specifically to dodge a subscription should know the goalposts have moved, because the bundled module no longer takes a USB stick. Frequent discounting means the camera itself rarely costs full RRP for long, which softens the blow, but the ongoing cost is the number to watch.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Blink Outdoor 2K+: subscription costs

Blink has two subscription tiers to choose from, both offering unlimited cloud storage for recordings for up to 60 days (up to 30 days in the EU and UK). Monthly or yearly billing is available.

• Blink Basic: $3.99p/m | £2.50p/m | AU$4.95p/m
• Blink Plus: $11.99p/m | £8p/m | AU$15p/m

Blink Basic includes support for one device, motion-event recording, live-view recording, instant video access, video sharing, person detection, and photo capture. Blink Plus includes all Basic features, along with unlimited device inclusion, moments capture, notification snoozing and 10% off Blink devices.

Blink Outdoor 2K+: specifications

Blink Outdoor 2K+: design

• Compact and easy to place
• IP65 weatherproofing
• Sync Module Core changes rules

There's nothing here to frighten the neighbours. The 2K+ keeps Blink's small, squared-off black housing, the kind of camera that disappears into a porch corner or sits on a windowsill without announcing itself. It's light, the bundled mount screws to a wall, and you can equally stand it on a flat surface and forget about it.

The IP65 rating earned its keep through sporadic summer showers and wind with no fogging or dropouts. Power comes from two AA batteries hidden behind a sealed cover, or bypass them with USB-C and an optional weather-resistant power adapter, if you'd rather not think about batteries at all.

Like the Sync Module 2, Blink’s bundled Sync Module Core is a similarly small puck minus a USB connection.

• Design score: 4/5

Blink Outdoor 2K+ performance

• 2K is a visible upgrade
• Color night vision is useful
• Smart features cost extra

The Blink Outdoor’s 2K output greatly enhances the chances of identifying strangers. I set it to watch a back garden, and it did an able job of capturing my faux break-in attempts. The 4x zoom is digital, so it softens as you push in, but it's enough to pick up distinguishing features or marks.

Low-light performance is the other win. An improved sensor holds color as daytime fades, while garden lights and street lamps keep footage useful. Let the light go entirely, and it reverts to black-and-white. For genuine color after dark, you can add Blink's separate Outdoor Floodlight Mount.

Motion detection was razor-sharp, even if the default settings felt overzealous. Definitely adjust sensitivity and activity zones in the app to avoid being swamped with notifications about plump pigeons and swaying flora… unless you’re aiming for Springwatch in forensic form.

This is also where the subscription cost bites again: person and vehicle detection — the features that stop your phone buzzing every time a fox crosses the lawn — only switch on with a Blink plan.

Run it free, with the Core module, and you're left with motion alerts and a live view, which is a thinner experience for a 2K camera. As ever, there's no way to view footage on a computer or browser; it's the phone app or nothing.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Blink Outdoor 2K+?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Blink Outdoor 2K+: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Blink Outdoor 2K+ is the right home security camera for you, here are two others to keep in mind.

How I tested the Blink Outdoor 2K+

• Tested at a domestic property
• Mounted outdoor
• Assessed video, night vision, audio, and battery

I lived with the Blink Outdoor 2K+ as a normal household would, mounting it to watch the back garden. I ran it through all three resolution modes, checked color night vision against lit and unlit spaces, and held two-way conversations to judge the audio. The two-year battery claim is, by definition, untestable in weeks, so I've reported Blink's figure and my short-term experience rather than pretending otherwise.

For more details, see how we test, rate, and review products at TechRadar.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): two-minute review

A video doorbell is a parcel monitor, a deterrent, and a low-key surveillance node pointed at your own front step, and Ring has spent the better part of a decade making that proposition feel normal.

The second-generation Battery Doorbell Plus is the company sharpening its best idea: taking the head-to-toe doorbell and giving it the resolution it always deserved.

Where ordinary doorbells frame a visitor's torso and chin and little else, the Plus shows a tall, square 1:1 field of view — 140 degrees in both directions — that takes in the person, the doorstep and whatever's been left on it.

This generation shoots in 2K Retinal resolution (1920 x 1920) with HDR, so you can identify a courier, read a label and confirm whether the parcel is on your step or your neighbour's — and a 6x Enhanced Zoom lets you pinch in without the image collapsing. It's the spec that separates a useful doorbell from a novelty, and the upgrade that justifies picking the Plus over Ring's cheaper Battery Doorbell.

Night performance has been rethought, too. Rather than dropping straight to grey mush after dark, the Plus uses true-color low-light sight to hold onto colour in dim conditions, only switching to adaptive black-and-white night vision once it's dark.

Two-way talk with noise cancellation does the doorstep-conversation job cleanly. The other quality-of-life change is the Quick Release Battery Pack: instead of unmounting the whole unit to charge, you pop out the battery, recharge it and slot it back.

Installation takes under 30 minutes, connecting to Wi-Fi through the app and mounting with the supplied tools, then lining it up so the head-to-toe view actually reaches the floor. No hub required. If there's a grumble, it's a small one: in 2026, a $179.99 / £149.99 / AU$249 doorbell still charges over Micro-USB rather than USB-C, so you'll be hunting for the right cable.

On the upside, it runs dual-band Wi-Fi 6, so a 2K stream holds up better than Ring's older 2.4GHz-only doorbells, with Ring recommending a 10Mbps upload to keep it smooth.

Then there's the Ring tax, in two senses. Financially, person alerts, package alerts and saved recordings all live behind a Ring subscription; without one, the doorbell is reduced to real-time alerts and live view, which rather undersells a 2K camera.

Philosophically, buying Ring means accepting its history of police-data partnerships and the broader unease about Amazon-owned cameras pointed at public pavements. None of that is new, and none of it stops the hardware being good, but a review that ignored it wouldn't be doing its job.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): price & availability

• List price: $179.99 / £149.99 / AU$249
• Announced March 2026
• Available in the UK, US, and Australia

Sitting in the upper-middle of Ring's range of video doorbells, the Plus costs more than the $99.99 / £79.99 / $149 standard Battery Doorbell and less than the $249.99 / £219.99 / AU$399 Battery Doorbell Pro, which steps up to Retinal 4K and 3D motion detection.

With a list price of $179.99 / £149.99 / AU$249, the Battery Video Doorbell Plus isn't an impulse buy, but Ring discounts aggressively and its doorbells routinely sell well under list, so few people pay full price for long.

You should also factor the subscription into the lifetime cost. Plans start affordably for a single device and climb for multi-device households. Although the doorbell functions without a subscription, the experience is hollow: you'll be notified that something happened without being able to review what. Treat the subscription as part of the purchase, not an optional extra, and the value equation looks honest.

• Value score: 4/5

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): subscription plans

Features such as instant notifications, Live View and Two-Way Talk are available out of the box and for free on all Ring devices. A Ring subscription (branded Ring Protect) allows you to review, save and share your videos.

With a Ring subscription, starting from $4.99 / £4.99 / AU$4.95 per month per device, you can store unlimited Ring footage in the cloud for up to 180 days, to rewatch, download to your own device or share with friends and family. Person and package alerts also require a subscription.

You get a 30-day trial subscription when you first set up your Ring device. Video storage defaults to 30 days, with the option to extend it to up to 180 days.

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): specs

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): design

• Well-built
• Quick-release battery
• Hub-free wireless install

I’ve never been the biggest fan of Ring’s bulky designs, but the second-gen Plus is a bit more suitably restrained: a slim, rounded slab that won't embarrass a period porch or a new-build alike.

Build quality is reassuring, and the button has a satisfying press, though for UK and Australian customers it only comes in a single Nickel Silver finish, so there's no matching it to your door furniture the way some rivals allow.

The most practical design feature is the Quick Release Battery Pack. On older Ring doorbells, recharging meant unscrewing and removing the whole device — exactly the sort of faff that leads to a flat battery and a fortnight of excuses. Here you release the battery alone, charge it and reinsert it, with the doorbell staying put.

Buy a spare — the standard pack or the new Quick Release Ultra Battery Pack — and downtime drops to seconds. If a permanent supply suits you better, it hardwires to existing doorbell wiring for continuous trickle charging.

Setup follows Ring's well-worn path through the app, and crucially needs no separate hub or bridge. The only thing to get right is the angle: head-to-toe view only delivers its full benefit if you mount the doorbell so the frame reaches the doorstep, so it's worth spending a minute on placement rather than slapping it up at eye level out of habit.

• Design score: 4/5

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): performance

• 2K Retinal head-to-toe view
• True-colour low-light
• Subscription gates smartest features

Fitted to a typical front door, the Plus does the important things well, and the move to 2K makes the difference obvious. The higher resolution and tall, square frame capture a visitor from hairline to doormat, so you see the face and the parcel in one shot.

The 6x Enhanced Zoom lets you crop in on a label or a face without the picture completely falling apart. Motion alerts arrived promptly during testing, live view loaded quickly, and two-way talk was clear enough to hold a proper exchange with a courier rather than barking over each other.

It might split opinion, but Ring uses AI-powered features to identify and announce who is at your door. Instead of generic motion alerts, I received AI prompts such as “A person is walking in the room with a vacuum cleaner”. I loved it, my cleaner hated it, and well, I guess that’s the point.

After dark, true-color low-light sight holds onto color under external lighting, so a late-night clip is worth reviewing; only in near-total darkness does it fall back to adaptive black-and-white.

It’s worth noting that I tested this sample on an internal front door, but one with intermittent infrared communal lighting at night, so the low-light functionality became incredibly useful when the lights cut out. Being battery-powered and available with Ring’s additional adhesive stick-on mounting kit makes it suitable for rental properties, too.

Connectivity is more of a quiet improvement: dual-band Wi-Fi 6 gives the 2K stream more headroom than Ring's older 2.4GHz-only doorbells, with Ring recommending a 10Mbps upload speed to keep things smooth.

The performance ceiling, though, is set by the subscription. Person and package alerts — the difference between 'motion detected' and 'a parcel has arrived' — require a Ring plan, as does the ability to go back and watch what you missed, with recordings held up to 180 days.

Without a plan, the doorbell still rings and still streams live, but it stops short of the intelligence its hardware is clearly capable of. As a generational upgrade, it's a real one: 2K Retinal, HDR, sharper zoom and better low-light all land, so first-gen Plus owners have a genuine reason to look, even if a working 1536p unit is still perfectly serviceable.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen)

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen): also consider

If you're not sure whether the new Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus is the right option for you, here are two other doorbells to think about.

How I tested the Ring Battery Video Doorbell Plus (2nd Gen)

• Tested at a domestic front door
• Assessed video, head-to-toe framing, zoom, night vision and audio
• Trialled the subscription experience

I used the doorbell outside to assess image quality, but mainly mounted the doorbell on an internal front door and used it as my main entry camera, paying particular attention to whether the head-to-toe view and the new 2K sensor delivered on the promise of capturing parcels and people together.

I checked live-view responsiveness, pushed the 6x zoom on faces and labels, held two-way conversations with visitors, and reviewed low-light and night clips after dark.

I've reported on Ring's privacy considerations because they're a material part of the buying decision, not a footnote.

For more details, see how we test, rate, and review products at TechRadar.

First reviewed June 2026

Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite: two-minute review

Smart locks in Britain have always been the awkward cousin of the smart home. American buyers get deadbolts and endless choice; we get multipoint mechanisms, lift-to-lock handles and a nagging sense that retrofitting anything to the front door will either void the insurance or fall off.

Yale's answer with the Linus L2 Lite is to keep things small, cheap and reversible — and, crucially, to build in Matter over Thread so the lock works with whatever smart home system you already rock.

The L2 Lite is a compact, round-knob unit that mounts on the inside of your door over the existing thumb-turn. Your key still works from the outside, which matters both for emergencies and for landlords.

Inside the Yale Home app, you get the modern smart-lock toolkit: digital keys and PIN codes you can share and revoke, an activity feed of who came and went, Auto-Unlock that opens the door as you approach with your phone in your pocket, and KeySense — a button on the knob for a quick press-to-lock or a long-press delayed lock as you leave.

Because it supports Matter over Thread alongside Bluetooth 5.4, the L2 Lite joins Apple Home, Google Home, Amazon Alexa or Samsung SmartThings locally and responds fast, no Yale-specific bridge required — provided you already own a device that acts as a Thread border router, such as a recent Apple HomePod or Amazon Echo.

If you don't live in a Matter ecosystem and still want to lock the door from the pub, you'll need Yale's optional ConnectX Wi-Fi Bridge, sold separately. There's no Wi-Fi baked in, unlike the pricier Linus L2.

Living with it, the L2 Lite is reassuringly unremarkable in the best way. Installation took 15 minutes, it disappears against the door, and KeySense quickly becomes muscle memory.

It runs on three CR123A batteries — not the sort of cell you keep in a kitchen drawer. There's no USB-C top-up, and it lacks DoorSense, so it knows whether it's locked but not whether the door is actually shut.

There's no Apple Home Key tap-to-enter either, which makes sense for an interior-only design but will disappoint iPhone devotees.

Get past the spec-sheet gaps, and the bigger question is door compatibility, because this is where UK smart locks live or die, and the L2 Lite is fussier than its friendly styling suggests.

Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite: price & availability

• List price £129.98 (about $170 / AU$250) compared to £220 (about $290 / AU$420) for the regular Linus L2
• Launched December 2025
• Available in black or silver

With a list price of £129.98 (about $170 / AU$250), the Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite undercuts the standard Linus L2 by a meaningful margin while keeping most of the day-to-day features. That makes it one of the cheapest routes to a Matter-over-Thread smart lock in the UK, though at the time of writing it's not available worldwide.

Pleasingly, there are no subscription fees to concern yourself with, but there are some other cost caveats.

CR123A batteries are included, and Yale rates them for up to six months, but replacing them is more expensive and less convenient than AAs. Second, if you're not in a Matter household, the ConnectX Wi-Fi Bridge is effectively mandatory for remote control, setting you back another £70.

Reassuringly, pairing the lock with a Yale Platinum Three Star cylinder brings a £3,000 Total Trust Guarantee if it's ever breached. That compares to £5,000 offered by smart lock rival Ultion Nuki. Its base model, the Ultion Nuki Go, costs £239 with Wi-Fi built in.

• Value score: 4/5

Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite: specs

Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite: design and installation

• Compact design
• Reversible install
• Door compatibility tricky

For something doing a serious security job, the L2 Lite is endearingly low-key. It's a small round knob in black or silver that sits on the inside of the door over your existing thumb-turn, and from the outside, there's no sign anything has changed.

The casing is plastic, which sounds cheap but feels solid enough in the hand. Installation lives up to the drill-free promise. In my case, I was carrying over an Ultion cylinder left in the door from a previous smart-lock install, and the supplied two-piece thumb-turn adapter eventually made the swap painless.

Fix the mounting plate around the cylinder, clip the adapter over the thumb-turn, attach the lock and calibrate it in the app. Because nothing is drilled and the cylinder isn't replaced, it comes off just as cleanly if you're renting or wary of committing.

The catch is what counts as a compatible door. The L2 Lite works only with lift-to-lock mechanisms; your cylinder needs to protrude at least 3mm on the inside, and it explicitly won't work with split spindles or auto-engage multipoint locks.

Plenty of UK front doors are lift-to-lock multipoint and will be fine; a meaningful number aren't. Use Yale's online compatibility checker before you buy, and note that if your current cylinder doesn't fit the bill, Yale's Linus Adjustable Cylinder is designed to solve exactly that.

• Design and installation score: 4/5

Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite: performance

• Fast operation
• KeySense and Auto-Unlock useful
• Battery and DoorSense omissions niggle

Day to day, the L2 Lite locks and unlocks reliably, on command, without fuss. Paired into a Matter home, it responded quickly to app and voice commands, and Auto-Unlock greeted me at the door as advertised, sensing my approach over Bluetooth.

KeySense, the press-to-operate button on the knob, turns out to be the feature I used most: a quick press to lock behind me, a long press for a delayed lock as I gathered bags and left. One practical wrinkle on lift-to-lock doors: you still need to lift the handle as you leave, or KeySense has nothing to throw the bolts into.

Matter over Thread is always appealing, and it works. Through Apple Home, the lock appeared as a native tile, automations fired, and there was no bridge-dependent lag.

Sharing access is painless — digital keys and PIN codes go out to family or a cleaner and can be revoked from the app, with an activity feed confirming who came and went.

Want a code or fingerprint on the door rather than a phone? It pairs with the additional Yale Smart Keypad 2 or the Yale Dot.

The motor isn't silent, throwing a businesslike whir as it turns the cylinder, though it's no louder than rivals. The omissions are what stop a higher score. The lack of DoorSense means it reports whether it's locked, but has no idea whether the door is actually closed, which undermines the 'Is the house secure?' peace of mind.

The CR123A batteries are a recurring irritation rather than a dealbreaker, and the absence of Apple Home Key means no tap-to-enter with an iPhone or Apple Watch from outside. None of it spoils the core experience; it merely reaffirms this isn’t the flagship.

• Performance score: 4/5

Should you buy the Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 is the right smart lock for your home, here are two others to bear in mind.

How I tested the Yale Linus Smart Lock L2 Lite

• Installed on a domestic door
• Tested via Matter, Bluetooth and the Yale Home app
• Assessed installation, daily reliability, KeySense, and Auto-Unlock

I fitted the L2 Lite myself to gauge how true the drill-free claim is, swapping it onto an Ultion cylinder already in the door via the supplied two-piece thumb-turn adapter. I lived with it as a daily lock, locking and unlocking by app, voice and the KeySense button.

I paired it with Matter to test hub-free operation and response times, and used Auto-Unlock on repeated approaches. I shared and revoked digital access, checked the activity feed, and paid particular attention to the consequences of the missing DoorSense and the CR123A battery choice. Battery longevity can't be verified in weeks, so I've reported Yale's six-month figure alongside my shorter-term experience rather than guessing. For more details, see how we test, rate, and review products at TechRadar.

First reviewed June 2026

Dyson Supersonic Travel: two-minute review

As the name suggests, the Dyson Supersonic Travel is a scaled-down, travel-friendly version of Dyson's now-iconic Supersonic dryer, redesigned to fit in your luggage. It's 32% smaller and 25% lighter than the original, weighing just 0.7lbs / 330g, and it automatically adapts to any voltage between 100 and 240V without any fiddly switches or converters.

It offers the same 110,000rpm motor and intelligent heat control technology as seen on the full-size Nural, measuring air temperature over 100 times a second to avoid extreme heat damage. You get three heat settings and two airflow speeds, controlled via buttons on the cylindrical head and LEDs show you which setting you're on, at a glance.

The Travel ships with a magnetic smoothing nozzle in the box but is also compatible with any and all existing Supersonic Nural attachments, which is a useful detail if you already own the Nural or if you need a range of alternative nozzles.

In testing, drying was noticeably faster than a typical hotel dryer, and faster than some cheaper, regular hair dryers. It took around four minutes on my fine, mid-length, curly hair and the results were smooth. Dyson is upfront that airflow isn't quite as powerful as its full-size range and it is noticeable, but not a dealbreaker for my hair type. I imagine it will soon frustrate anyone with thicker or longer hair, though.

The price is where things get complicated. At $299.99 / £249.99 / AU$449, the Supersonic Travel sits at the very top of the travel dryer market. The ghd Flight+ does the same basic job, albeit it with some more fiddly controls, for $129 / £79. The most like-for-like is the Dreame Pocket Pro and even that only pushes the price to $159.99 / £149.

By almost any normal dryer standards, the Supersonic Travel is a well-designed, well-built and powerful contender in the hunt for the best hair dryers. It more than holds its own and there are very few sacrifices to make. This performance goes a long way towards justifying the higher cost, but even then it's still a tough price pill to swallow unless you're a frequent traveler.

Dyson Supersonic Travel: price & availability

• List price: $299.99 / £249.99 / AU$449
• Availability: US, UK, Australia

The Supersonic Travel sits at the top end of the travel dryer market – and then some. It's almost three times the price of the GHD Flight+ and twice the price of the Dreame Pocket Pro. In fact, it's not too far off the price of the original Supersonic, which still retails for $399.99 / £279.99 (although is often on sale for less).

It is, however, notably cheaper than its siblings and Dyson's flagship models, the $449.99 / £399.99 / AU$749 Supersonic Nural and the Supersonic r that retails for $549.99 / £449.99 / AU$799.

The Supersonic Travel is available from Dyson, as well as Amazon, Boots and Cult Beauty in the UK; Amazon and Best Buy in the US; and JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman in Australia.

The most obvious budget alternative is the ghd Flight+ at £79 / $129 / AU$159 – a foldable travel dryer with dual voltage, albeit without auto-adapting voltage (you need to use a coin to switch modes) and no wider attachment compatibility.

The Dreame Pocket Pro ($159.99 / £149) is a more interesting comparison: it's lighter (at 300g), similarly auto-adapts to global voltage, and comes with a more generous attachments bundle. It's also foldable, whereas the Dyson model isn't.

Neither the GHD or Dreame models match the Dyson for brand heritage or the intelligence of the heat control system, but both are meaningfully cheaper.

• Value for money score: 3 out of 5

Dyson Travel Supersonic specs

Dyson Supersonic Travel: design

• Classic Dyson-style cylindrical head design
• 32% smaller, 25% lighter than Supersonic
• Three heat settings, two airflow speeds, controlled via buttons on head
• Universal voltage auto-adapts from 100–240V
• Reviewed in Ceramic Pink / Rose Gold with styling concentrator

The Supersonic Travel is unmistakably a Dyson device, from the pink and rose gold accents to the same circular head above a narrow handle.

The biggest difference, visually, is in size. The Travel is 32% smaller (2.7 x 2.8 x 8.7in / 6.8 x 7.1 x 22.2cm) and and 25% lighter (0.7lbs / 330g) than the original Supersonic, but doesn't lose any of the essence. I'd be as bold to say it's the best-looking travel dryer I've ever tested.

Despite the size difference, the dryer still feels well-balanced. It doesn't fold in half like the GHD Flight+ or Dreame Pocket Pro, to name two rivals, but the whole design is sleek and compact enough to drop into a handbag or carry-on regardless. The only thing that really gets in the way is the chunky 6.6ft / 2m cord.

There's no travel case in the box, which at this price feels like a miss, particularly when the ghd Flight+ includes one at a fraction of the cost. Even a bag as standard, to protect what is far from a cheap dryer, would suffice but instead you have to pay an additional $39.99 / £45 for the privilege of a travel pouch.

To account for the lack of handle space on the Travel, versus the larger Dyson models, the controls are more concentrated on the head.

On the back of this cylindrical head, the airflow button sits on the left with the temperature button on the right. Each button has a row of LEDs above it – two lights for high speed or heat, one for the gentler settings. These LEDs also flash white if the filter needs cleaning, and red if there's a fault. The power button is then a slider on the back of the handle and this slider is used to control the cool shot.

If you've ever used a Dyson, these split controls will be familiar but they do take a little getting used to compared to other, standard dryers. To enable the cold air, give the slider a nudge upwards from its 'on' position. It isn't clear or obvious that you need to do this, unless you have an Airwrap and are familiar with how Dyson maximizes the use of its switches, and ended up being one of the only features on the Dyson Travel that didn't feel natural. Also the LEDs are great on paper, because you can see which setting is selected at a glance but given that they're on the rear of the head, it's not as intuitive as it sounds either.

The removable filter cage sits at the base of the handle and pulls down onto the cord for cleaning. You can remove the entire filter and wash it with water and this is a small but welcomed touch. It also means the Travel should last longer, which at this price is a blessing.

In the box is a magnetic smoothing nozzle, and thanks to Dyson's heat shield technology, the surface of this nozzle stays cool to the touch even during use. It's not exactly a wide default attachment range, especially at this price and the fact the Dreame Pocket Pro ships with five attachments.

However, you're unlikely to want to take lots of attachments when travelling, and the Supersonic Travel is compatible with the full Supersonic and Supersonic Nural attachment range, which is super useful if you already own either machine, and semi-useful if you can afford to buy any of them separately.

One thing to note, even though the Supersonic Travel automatically adjusts its voltage based on the country you're in, Dyson recommends using an adapter rated to 1,300W across the full voltage range rather than a universal adapter. It's not a dealbreaker but will help preserve the life of the Travel for longer.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Dyson Supersonic Travel: performance

• Dries faster than a hotel dryer; notably quick for a compact machine
• Intelligent heat control measures air temperature 100 times per second
• Noise level: [XdB] in testing

The Supersonic Travel was tested daily over four weeks, including a trip to San Francisco where the universal voltage got its first real workout.

It's not the fastest dryer I've tested, but it was notably, and surprisingly, powerful for such a compact device. Drying time on my fine, mid-length curly hair ran to around 4 minutes on high heat and high airflow – faster than I expected from a machine this size. If you have thick or long hair, expect to be there for longer but even then, I can promise it will be faster than a hotel dryer and with more heat protection.

Speaking of protection, Dyson's intelligent heat control is one of the reasons the results hold up so well. With temperature measured more than 100 times per second, there's no scorching or uneven heat distribution – just consistent, controlled drying. The finish was always smooth with minimal frizz and enough volume to feel close to an at-home result. Over the review period my hair also felt softer.

The styling nozzle helps further with this. It guides the airflow for precise smoothing and shaping and clicks on magnetically. You can rotate it during styling, which is a bonus if you're trying to get different angles in a cramped hotel bathroom, but it never came loose. It's a delicate balance of movement and security that Dyson is great at across the Supersonic range.

One of the more compelling arguments for the Supersonic Travel's price is the attachment compatibility. Any attachment from the Supersonic or Supersonic Nural range clicks straight onto the Travel's magnetic barrel. This means if you already own either machine at home, you can simply pack whichever attachments you need rather than adapting your routine around whatever comes in the box.

I tested the Travel with the Gentle Air attachment alongside the Nural's Styling Concentrator. The Gentle Air attachment diffuses the airflow slightly for a cooler, softer result. This is useful for fine hair that doesn't need aggressive heat, and is particularly good for a second-day refresh, but I found I didn't have much of a need for it given the Travel's already lower, more gentle airflow.

My favorite attachment to use with the Travel (and any Dyson Supersonic model for that matter) is the Flyaway Smoother. It uses Coanda airflow to attract and flatten stray hairs on a finished style, and it works incredibly well. Especially on fine, naturally curly hair; the difference between a finished blow-dry with, and without it is noticeable. My only complaint is that it's a large attachment which doesn't lend itself well for travelling.

Despite these attachments originally being designed for the larger Supersonic models, the magnetic connection felt as secure on the Travel as they do on the Nural; clicking on with the same snap as on the full-size machine, and rotating smoothly during styling without any loosening mid-use.

Plugged in at my hotel in San Francisco with a country adapter, the Supersonic Travel performed exactly as it did at home. There was no perceptible difference in power or overheating. You can often tell when a dryer isn't performing at full strength when abroad by a drop in noise but this also wasn't noticeable with the Dyson Supersonic Travel. Another pleasant surprise.

Speaking of noise, the loudest the Travel got during my tests was 87dB on high speed, and the lowest was 83dB on low speed. The machine is certainly not silent, but it's comparable to – and in many cases quieter than – the sort of dryer you'd find mounted to a hotel room wall. It also carries over the slightly softer-pitched sound found on the wider Dyson range (of vacuums and hairdryers) which is less jarring on the ears than the decibel rating may suggest.

Elsewhere, maintenance is minimal. The filter cage requires periodic cleaning when the LEDs flash white, which involves removing it, washing it under a tap, and leaving it to dry naturally before reinserting. It's a six-step process that Dyson details clearly in the manual and it's not difficult at all.

• Performance score: 4.5 out of 5

How I tested the Dyson Supersonic Travel

I tested the Dyson Supersonic Travel hair dryer over four weeks on my fine, mid-length naturally curly hair.

I used it as my only dryer at home and took it on a trip to San Francisco. Testing included daily use across all heat and speed settings, use with the styling concentrator on wet and damp hair, and real-world travel use with a country adapter in a US hotel room.

I measured noise levels using the DecibelX app and compared drying times against my usual full-size dryer.

• First reviewed May 2026

Dreame AirStyle Era: two-minute review

The Dreame AirStyle Era is an eight-in-one multi-styler that works as a dryer and creates smooth, curly, bouncy, or straightened styles from a single device.

On paper, it looks like one for TechRadar's best hair styler roundup, and it's the follow-up to the seven-in-one AirStyle Pro, addressing some of that model's most obvious gaps. Namely, adding a diffuser for the first time, and replacing the Pro's flyaway attachment with a U-shaped straightening nozzle.

The auto-wrap curl barrels remain the headline act. The 360-degree airflow draws hair in automatically and produces bouncy, natural-looking curls without the need to manually wind sections around a barrel.

For fine to medium hair, the results are impressive, and at $349.99 / £349 / AU$699 the Era undercuts the Dyson Airwrap by $250 / £130 / AU$150 while producing comparable curl results as an Airwrap alternative. The smoothing brushes perform well too, and the diffuser is a welcome addition for anyone with naturally curly or wavy hair.

The issues are harder to ignore, though. The maximum temperature of 176F / 80C — unchanged from the AirStyle Pro — will be a limiting factor for anyone with thicker or longer hair. You could rope in one of the best hair dryers for that first stage, but that rather defeats the point of an all-in-one tool. The straightening nozzle is also more fiddly than expected, not to mention time consuming.

None of these are dealbreakers on their own, but together they add up to a tool that falls slightly short of its potential. The Era is still the most complete multi-styler Dreame has produced, and the most attractive multi-styler I've tested, and at this price it's a worthy Airwrap dupe, but it needs to be better than it is in a few key areas to make a truly compelling case.

That's the two-minute version; read on for my full Dreame AirStyle Era review.

Dreame AirStyle Era review: price & availability

• List price: $349.99 / £349 / AU$699
• Available: US, Australia and UK
• Launched: May 2026

The Dreame AirStyle Era costs $349.99 / £349 / AU$699 and is available directly from Dreame and Amazon in the US, Dreame in the UK, and from Dreame Australia as well as from several third-party retailers.

It sits closer in price to the $279.99 Shark FlexStyle in the US (which costs AU$499 in Australia), but is more akin in terms of features and attachments to the $599.99 / AU$849 Dyson Airwrap. It's the follow-up to Dreame's seven-in-one AirStyle Pro, which had a higher list price of $399.99 in the US but was rarely sold at that, while the latter's list price is lower in Australia at AU$599.

(There are also other, cheaper Dyson Airwrap dupes, but few come with the auto-wrap curl barrels of these four stylers.)

In comparison to its predecessor, the AirStyle Era swaps the Flyaway Attachment of the Pro for a U-shaped straightening nozzle and adds a diffuser for the first time, addressing one of the glaring gaps in the original's feature set.

It's also had a meaningful upgrade under the hood — the NTC temperature sensor now checks 1,000 times per second compared to 300 on the AirStyle Pro, which in practice means more consistent heat distribution and less risk of spikes that could cause damage.

• Value for money score: 3.5 out of 5

Dreame AirStyle Era specs

The UK listing features different specifications than the US page – 28°C/55°C/80°C for temperatures and 50m/s, 57m/s, 65m/s for wind speeds. We tested the US model so use the US figures throughout.

Dreame AirStyle Era review: design

• Pink and bronze colorway with pebbled leather-texture grip
• Eight attachments covering drying, curling, straightening, smoothing and diffusing
• Twist-on mechanism same as the AirStyle Pro but more secure
• Comes with a storage box and bag

The Dreame AirStyle Era follows the same basic design as its predecessor (and all other multi-stylers for that matter) – a tube-shaped dryer onto which you twist different styling heads.

It comes in a single pink colorway, not too dissimilar to the pink Dyson Airwrap i.d, with bronze accents at either end, and a soft pebbled leather-texture grip running the length of the handle.

It feels and looks solid and luxurious, and at 0.64lbs without the cord, it's light enough that your arm doesn't start aching even when working through a full set of curls.

The controls consist of two buttons with LEDs that let you cycle through the two heat settings. and three wind speeds. The cool shot is built into the top of the on/off slider rather than given its own dedicated button, and you enable and disable it by sliding up once for on, and sliding up again for off.

These controls sit at a natural thumb position on the handle and toe a delicate line between being easy to control mid-style and difficult to press accidentally. This is much rarer on stylers than it should be.

At the base of the handle is a removable dual intake filter— an inner stainless steel mesh that keeps fine hair and particles out of the motor, and an outer mesh that prevents tangling.

A small cleaning brush is included for maintenance, and the filter is straightforward to remove and reattach. Attached to this filter is the cord that runs to 9.2ft / 2.8m with a 360-degree anti-tangle swivel at the handle end.

Each of the eight attachments twist on using the same mechanism as the AirStyle Pro, but unlike the heads on the older model, the Era's attachments securely lock into place because they're also magnetic. This was a major complaint in our AirStyle Pro review and I'm glad it's been resolved.

In terms of the attachments, the line-up is as follows:

• Fast dryer: A concentrated nozzle for quick drying
• Straightening nozzle: U-shaped head with dual airflow channels that direct air downward to smooth and straighten without heating plates
• Diffuser: Bowl diffuser with prongs for dry curls without disrupting them
• 32mm auto-wrap barrels (x2): One for left curls, one for right; 360-degree airflow draws hair in to create curls without manually winding sections
• Soft smoothing brush: Spherical teeth designed for fine, fragile, or chemically treated hair
• Hard smoothing brush: Conical teeth for coarser, thicker, or heavily product-styled hair
• Round volumizing brush: Wider tooth spacing to reduce tangling, with perforations to diffuse airflow and create lift at the roots

The two additions — the straightening nozzle and diffuser — address the most obvious gaps in the original AirStyle Pro's feature set.

If you wanted smooth, straight hair or defined natural curls from the Pro, you needed separate tools entirely. The Era fixes that, and the result is a kit that not only covers the full range of everyday styling needs, but it makes it the only styler that can truly rival the Dyson Airwrap in terms of scope and scale.

Elsewhere, everything ships in a leather-textured storage box that keeps the attachments organized and easy to find, plus you get a travel bag if you need something more portable.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Dreame AirStyle Era review: performance

• Fast dryer attachment works well on fine to medium hair; may struggle with thicker, longer hair
• Auto-wrap curling barrels produce good results but swapping between directions is fiddly
• Straightening nozzle is less effective than the flyaway attachment it replaces

I started, as Dreame recommends, by removing most of the water in my hair with the fast dryer attachment. Like all multi-stylers of this type, you need to get hair to around 80% dry before switching to any of the styling attachments for best results, and the fast dryer handled that first stage well enough on my fine, shoulder-length hair.

It's not the hottest of stylers though, and anyone with thicker or longer hair may find themselves reaching for a standalone dryer to get there faster. This was a complaint with the original Pro and hasn't been fixed, it seems.

The auto-wrap curling barrels are where the Era earns its keep. The 360-degree airflow draws hair in and wraps it around the barrel automatically, producing bouncy, defined curls without the need to manually wind sections. The results hold well, and the curls have a natural quality that can be hard to achieve with traditional tongs. The catch is that if you want the curls to go in different directions, you need to physically swap between the left and right attachment. This isn't just tricky, because the attached barrel is hot, but it interrupts your rhythm. The Dyson Airwrap handles this on a single, multi-directional barrel, and once you've used that system it's hard not to notice the difference here.

The straightening nozzle is the most interesting new addition on paper — a U-shaped head that uses dual airflow channels to smooth and straighten without heating plates. It's more intuitive than the flyaway attachment it replaced, while producing a very similar finish, but I found it more fiddly than I'd hoped. You can only smooth small sections at a time and this takes a while, which feels like a step backwards for anyone who relied on the flyaway attachment for quick touch-ups and frizz control.

The diffuser does what it should. For naturally curly or wavy hair, it distributes airflow evenly without disturbing the curl pattern, and the results are noticeably better than using the fast dryer attachment on the same hair type. It's not doing anything the category hasn't seen before, but its absence from the AirStyle Pro was a gap, and it's good to have it here.

Finally, the brushes. The soft and hard smoothing brushes both perform well. The soft brush is gentle on fine or fragile hair, with the airflow automatically redirecting downward when attached to leave your hair feeling smooth. The hard brush handles coarser or more tangled hair well, and separates knots without pulling.

In testing, my favorite brush is the round volumizing brush. It's great for lifting roots and adding shape at the ends and it can even create loose curls.

In terms of noise levels, Dreame claims it produces 76dB, and in testing I recorded 79dB on the highest speed setting. That's slightly louder than the spec sheet suggests although not unreasonable for a tool of this type and it's quiet enough to hear music or have a conversation.

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Dreame AirStyle Era?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Dreame AirStyle Era: also consider

How I tested the Dreame Airstyle Era

I used the AirStyle Era as my main styling tool for a week. During this time I used it to dry my hair, and tested all the different attachments, paying particular attention to the auto-wrap curlers.

I compared the styling results to what I managed to achieve with other similar stylers I've tested – including the Dyson Airwrap i.d. and Shark FlexStyle. I also assessed how easy the styler was to use and the effectiveness of its design and features.

Read more about how we test

• First reviewed May 2026

Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender: one-minute review

American manufacturer Cuisinart is known for its range of high-quality kitchen appliances at affordable prices. The Power Blend Immersion Blender follows suit, offering versatility and convenience for less than $70 / £50 / AU$90.

his powerful four-in-one stick blender comes with several convenient accessories and attachments, including a food processor (with a mixing/chopping blade and reversible shredding/slicing disc), a chef’s whisk, a blending shaft, and a prep-and-store cup that makes prepping and storing foods like whipped cream and omelette mix a breeze. It’s even got an ergonomic handle design to make use and maneuvering more comfortable.

The results are impressive, with the Power Blend’s pressure-controlled speed giving you more control over its use and quickly whisking eggs, blending soups, and grating cheese.

However, it’s not without its flaws. This appliance may leave some food unprocessed or blended, and the blenders' pressure controls may not be suited to those with restricted hand or wrist movement (especially when turning it on). These may or may not be dealbreakers for you, depending on your individual needs, but they’re enough to hold the Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender back from a position among our top blender picks.

• £49.99 (about $70 / AU$90) direct from Cuisinart
• Available at third-party retailers, such as Amazon and Costco
• Regularly discounted to £42.99
• Not available in the U.S. or Australia

The Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender is priced at £49.99 (about $70 / AU$90), making it more affordable than competitors such as the Ninja Power Duo Immersion Blender ($79.99, roughly £60 / AU$110) and the Bosch ErgoMaster Series 6 (£99.99, or about $140 / AU$210), which is one of the best blenders on the market. Unfortunately, this product isn’t available in the US or Australia.

Considering the versatility and power of the Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender, it offers fantastic value for money. What’s more, third-party retailers like Amazon and Costco tend to offer a discount, bringing the price down to £42.99 – offering more bang for your buck.

• Value score: 5/5

Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender: specifications

Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender: design

• Comfortable ergonomic handle
• Dishwasher-friendly parts
• Pressure-controlled speed…
• …that can be tricky to use with the unlock button
• Motor can become warm

The Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender has a silver base that houses its motor and an ergonomic handle design that makes it comfortable to use and maneuver – especially if you have restricted mobility in your hand or wrist. Near the top of the handle is a variable, pressure-controlled speed button (with an LED light at the very top indicating the speed) and an unlock/on button.

At the bottom of the base is an attachment release button, with attachments able to be inserted and locked in with ease. This versatile immersion blender comes with three main attachments: a blending shaft, a 950ml food processor, and a chef’s whisk. In addition, the appliance comes with a canvas storage bag to keep all the bits in and a convenient 700ml prep-and-store cup and lid – though the cup lid did come unstuck a few times for us.

The blending shaft comes with a protective blade guard, allowing it to be used in glass, enamel, and non-stick vessels, while minimising splashing, which we found very effective. It also comes with a blade storage cover to allow the shaft to be safely stored. The full-sized chef’s whisk is attached to the base with a detachable gearbox and works a treat, especially when combined with the prep-and-store cup.

The food processor features a lid with a decent-sized feed chute (that could fit a large carrot vertically) and pusher, with a reversible slicing/shredding disc and mixing/chopping blade included and easily inserted into the work bowl.

To turn the appliance on, you need to press the unlock button while pressing the speed control button, before releasing the unlock, a bit like the mechanism seen on some lawnmowers. While this is a great child-safe feature, it took us a few tries to start the blender initially. Even when we’d worked out the system, holding both buttons simultaneously was uncomfortable, especially as you need to be mindful of the pressure you’re applying to the speed control.

While testing the chef whisk feature with some eggs in the prep-and-store cup. While trying to apply enough pressure to turn the blender on, we accidentally applied too much, resulting in our raw eggs splattering all over the kitchen.

This brings us nicely on to cleaning. Certain parts of the Power Blend are dishwasher safe: the food processor bowl, pusher, chopping/mixing blade, slicing/shredding disc, and prep-and-store cup and lid. However, the blending shaft and food processor lid need to be hand-washed, and the base should be wiped down. While the blending shaft and base are fairly easy to clean, the food processor lid is less so; it can't be immersed in water, so cleaning inside the feed chute is somewhat challenging.

Another issue we found with this stick blender was the heat the motor emitted when blending soup. We used the appliance for about two minutes, occasionally stopping and starting, and the handle was warm to the touch, suggesting the motor may be overheating. As such, we recommend not using this immersion blender continuously for too long or taking breaks if the handle begins to get quite warm.

• Design score: 4/5

Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender: performance

• Quickly blends chunky soups
• Convenient mini food processor attachment
• Impressive whisking
• Uneven cutting and some food left unprocessed

The first thing we tested was the Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender’s blending shaft attachment. After boiling a chunky 1L of homemade vegetable soup (with carrots, onions, cauliflower, potatoes, and a leek) until the veg was soft, we let it cool before blending on a medium-to-high pressure.

After around two minutes of blending, the soup was pretty smooth, but a few rebel chunks of cauliflower remained. As mentioned previously, at this point, the handle began to heat up, so we didn’t want to push it any more.

Next, we tested the chef’s whisk attachment. While the whisk seems quite flimsy, it’s pretty impressive. After cleaning up our prior disaster – and becoming more mindful of how sensitive the pressure controls are – we applied minimum pressure to our remaining eggs (mixed with milk and herbs) and had perfectly whisked eggs in a matter of seconds. It was so quick, we didn’t have time to whip out our phone and time it.

The food processor was equally impressive, though it isn’t without its flaws. We tested the mixing/chopping blade first, adding all the ingredients for a saag paste (including garlic, wilted spinach, veggie oil, spices, and coriander). It took around 30 seconds to make the paste, but it was loud: around 88 to 90 decibels. While most of the paste was mixed well, there were some less mixed parts at the bottom, under the blades, though it wasn’t enough to be a dealbreaker.

We also tested chopping a red onion with this blade, chopped into large chunks. It only took three or four short, one-second pulses of high-speed power to chop the onion. However, this was also loud – between 90 and 94 decibels – the cuts were largely uneven. We were impressed that the results weren’t overly wet, as we’ve seen when chopping onions with other powerful food processors.

Next, we tested the shredding/slicing disc, beginning with shredding (or grating) 50g of mature cheddar cut into rectangular blocks to fit the feed chute. While the cheese was grated in under 10 seconds, there was a lot of unshredded cheese on top of the disc.

We also experienced this using the slicing disc with a large carrot. While it took less than five seconds to slice the carrot, the slices were uneven, and there were some unsliced carrot remnants on top of the disc afterwards.

Overall, the Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender performs well, offering a lot of versatility and largely impressive results – but it does come with a few quirks that may irk some more than others.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender: also consider

If you're not sure whether this is the right blender for you, here are two other options to add to your shortlist.

How I tested the Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender

I tested the Cuisinart Power Blend Immersion Blender by preparing a wide variety of foods, including eggs, curry paste, and vegetable soup. I also used its food processor attachment to shred cheese, and chop various vegetables, and compared the results with those from a dedicated food processor. I cleaned the blender thoroughly after use, following the manufacturer's instructions. For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar.

First reviewed June 2026.

Blueair Mini Restful air purifier: two-minute review

The Blueair Mini Restful Sunrise Clock Air Purifier is a three-in-one device — technically a four-in-one if you include the built-in USB charger — that combines an air purifier, a sunrise alarm clock and a wake-up light in a single unit. It launched as part of Blueair's Sleep collection with a clear USP: rather than cluttering your nightstand with separate devices, one appliance handles the air quality, the light and the alarm. If you've been browsing the best compact air purifiers for a bedroom, the Mini Restful sits in a category of its own.

The purification uses Blueair's HEPASilent technology, which captures 99.97% of particles down to 0.1 microns — finer than a standard HEPA filter — and my hayfever symptoms were noticeably more manageable on mornings after I'd had the Mini Restful running.

It runs across three fan speeds plus a Night mode, covers rooms up to 33m² / 355 sq ft, and is QuietMark certified. The brand claims noise levels of 21dB on its lowest setting whereas my own tests averaged 32dB, much of which was ambient.

In reality, it's whisper quiet and I could easily run it through the night without disturbing my sleep. I even forgot to switch it off a lot of the time because it's so quiet, I didn't realize it was still running.

What makes it stand out most from other purifiers I've tested is the wake-up light: a circular ring below the touchscreen display that brightens gradually over 15–30 minutes before your alarm time. This is designed to mimic natural sunrise, and you can also choose from multiple alarm sounds via the app, including birdsong, soft tones, and rainfall.

This wake-up light is impressively bright for its size and the whole appliance's design is attractive enough for you to actually want on your bedside table. I tested the Blueair Mini Restful in summer so while it helped rouse me gently, it's hard to judge exactly how effective it would be in the depths of winter, say, when a more gentle wake-up is most needed.

At 11.8in / 30cm tall and just 2.36lbs / 1.07kg, it sits comfortably on a standard nightstand, and the USB-C port at the back means it can charge your phone too, saving you even more space by eliminating the need for a separate charger.

My biggest complaint about the Mini Restful is the Blueair app, which doesn't quite live up to the rest of the device's performance. When it works, it's great — intuitive and clean. Yet there's no way to track air quality levels, and during my review period there was often a lag between adjusting settings and the device responding. This became frustrating quickly. The connectivity dropped completely three times during the four weeks of tests and I had to fully reconnect to my Wi-Fi and phone.

For anyone who suffers from allergies and has been meaning to try a sunrise alarm, the Mini Restful makes a compelling case that one device can do all of it well. But even if you already own one of the best air purifiers on the market and a separate sunrise alarm, the Mini Restful makes a strong argument for consolidating. It will definitely feel like an upgrade.

Blueair Mini Restful air purifier review: price and availability

• List price: $199.99 / £169
• Available in the US and UK

The Blueair Mini Restful is available directly from Blueair US and Blueair UK, as well as from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Walmart and John Lewis. It has a list price of $199.99 / £169, which converts to about AU$280, but at the time of writing it's not available in Australia.

On purification alone, it's easy to find cheaper options. Blueair's own £79 Blue Pure Mini Max, the £59.99 GoveeLife Smart Air Purifier Lite and the £149.99 Levoit Core 300S are all strong compact options that cost less and if all you want is cleaner air in a bedroom, any of those will do the job well. However, none of them has a sunrise alarm or wake-up light. Nor do they charge your phone.

In fact, there is no direct equivalent on the market — no other purifier currently combines HEPASilent filtration with a built-in sunrise alarm and wake-up light in a single bedside device. This means the real question isn't how it compares to other purifiers, but whether it's cheaper and better than buying two separate devices.

On that measure, it mostly wins. The Hatch Restore 3 ($169.99 / £220) is widely considered the best standalone sunrise alarm clock you can buy, while a compact bedroom purifier like the Levoit Core 300S adds another $99 / £90 on top. That's $260 / £240 for two devices that take up more space, require two separate apps and two separate power outlets. The Mini Restful does both jobs for $199.99 / £169 in a single unit that sits comfortably on a bedside table.

The trade-off is that neither function quite matches what a dedicated device delivers. The sunrise graduation isn't as smooth as the Hatch Restore 3, and the purification coverage is limited to spaces up to 33m² / 355 sq ft. If you need serious room coverage or a flawless sunrise simulation, you'd be better served buying separately. But for a standard bedroom and anyone who wants to simplify their nightstand, the value case is very strong.

Replacement filters cost $29.99 / £24 and need changing every nine months — a running cost worth budgeting for, even though it's in line with most other comparable purifiers.

• Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Blueair Mini Restful air purifier specs

Blueair Mini Restful air purifier review: design

• Compact and attractive enough to earn its place on a nightstand
• Soft woven fabric exterior
• Touchscreen display doubles as clock face
• Controls can feel awkward at table height

The Mini Restful is one of the better-looking air purifiers I've had in my bedroom, which matters more than it might sound.

Most purifiers are designed for corners and shelves where nobody has to look at them. They're functional, but they largely earn their keep by blending in. The Mini Restful is instead designed to stand out, and Blueair has clearly put effort into the aesthetic. The woven fabric exterior, which is available in Coastal Beige or Midnight and can be removed and cleaned, feels closer to an Alexa speaker than a home appliance. For comparison, the Levoit Core 300S — a purifier I rate highly for performance — is a plain white cylinder that would look out of place on my nightstand.

At 11.8 inches / 30cm tall and 6.7 inches / 17cm across, it has a similar footprint to a bedside lamp, albeit slightly more imposing. It's taller than I had expected for something described as a bedside device and it's not as compact as I'd like (the Blueair Blue Pure Mini Max, for instance, is shorter and lighter) but it does fit comfortably. I could fit the purifier and my phone charger on my nightstand without it feeling cluttered.

At 2.36lbs / 1.07kg, it's also light enough to pick up and move without any effort. The cord runs neatly through the base and plugs into a standard outlet, and at the back there's a USB-C port for charging your phone overnight. This is easy to reach without having to move the unit, and it's one of those small additions that makes a real difference to how the product fits into a bedside routine.

All of the controls sit on the top of the device, arranged around a circular touchscreen display. The display shows the time, current fan speed and filter status at a glance, and is the main interface for adjusting settings manually. It's responsive and readable in low light and the icons are intuitive — power, fan speed, display lock and purification mode are all clearly differentiated. I found I could adjust settings without turning the main light on after the first few days of use. The display can also be locked via the app if you want to prevent accidental changes overnight.

Just below the display is the light ring — a circular band that serves as both the wake-up light and a soft night light. It's a smaller lit area than you'd find on a dedicated sunrise alarm like the Hatch Restore 3, which uses its entire face as a light source, and I was skeptical that such a narrow ring could produce enough light to actually wake me. It did, and it looked elegant doing so.

Setup is straightforward. The Mini Restful arrives in a simple box with the device, a cord and a plug — thread the cord through the base, attach the plug, remove the plastic cover from the filter inside and you're done, in under two minutes.

From there you download the free Blueair app, create an account, and connect the device to your home Wi-Fi. The whole process took me around five minutes, and the app walks you through each step clearly. It's here that you'll set your alarm times, choose your wake sounds, adjust the sunrise duration, and create purification schedules.

The one ergonomic issue I found is that having everything on top means you need to lean over to adjust anything manually when the unit is at table height. It's a minor inconvenience rather than a dealbreaker, and in practice I used the app for most adjustments after the first week, but it's not ideal. Overall, this is a product that has been designed with the bedroom specifically in mind, and it shows in almost every decision Blueair has made.

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Blueair Mini Restful air purifier review: performance

• Powerful purification even on lowest settings
• Near-silent on Night mode and speed 1
• Wake-up light impressively bright for its size
• Sunrise graduation can be abrupt

The Mini Restful has two jobs to do — clean the air and wake you up gently — and it approaches both with more conviction than I expected from a device of this size.

I tested it over four weeks as my primary bedroom purifier and alarm clock, running it every night and monitoring air quality via the Blueair app each morning. I also measured noise levels at each fan speed using a decibel meter, and ran the sunrise alarm as my sole alarm throughout the review period rather than keeping a backup.

Starting with the purification. The HEPASilent filtration captures 99.97% of airborne particles down to 0.1 microns, which is finer than a standard HEPA filter, and covers dust, pollen, pet dander and most common allergens with ease. I suffer from hayfever and the review period coincided with peak pollen season, which gave me a useful real-world test. On mornings after running the Mini Restful through the night on speed 1 or 2, I noticed a genuine difference: less of the throat tightness and eye irritation I'd normally get.

To test the purification speed specifically, I sprayed deodorant directly at the unit for five seconds on both the lowest and highest settings, then timed how long it took for the air quality reading in the app to return to normal. On the lowest setting it took around 45 minutes to fully clear. On the highest setting it took just 12 minutes — a significant difference. The app's air quality history chart, which shows readings over the past 24 hours and 30 days, is useful for tracking these changes and gave me a clear picture of how conditions shifted.

On noise, the Mini Restful is super quiet. Blueair claims 21dB on the lowest speed; my measurements put it at around 32dB. This sounds like a huge difference but the purifier is almost inaudible, even in a quiet room. Speed 2 registers around 35dB, which produces a gentle white noise that actually helped me sleep rather than disturbing me. Speed 3 is noticeably louder at around 48dB — not unpleasant, but enough that I wouldn't choose to run it while trying to fall asleep. The Night mode handles the transition well though, stepping the fan down to its quietest setting automatically, and I left it on this mode for the majority of the review period.

Blueair says the Mini Restful works best in rooms between 14–33m² / 151–355 sq ft, which will cover most standard bedrooms. I tested it in a medium-sized room and found it kept up well, with the air quality sensor registering improvements within 20–30 minutes of switching on after a day with the windows open. It won't cope with large open-plan spaces — for that you'd need something with considerably more power, like the Dyson HushJet Compact — but for a bedroom it's more than adequate.

The wake-up light is the more interesting part of the performance story. The light ring is small relative to a dedicated sunrise alarm but on its highest brightness setting it lit the room enough to wake me without the alarm sound triggering at all on several mornings. The three manual brightness levels via the touchscreen are useful, and the app's slider control allows finer adjustment if you want to dial it in precisely.

The issue is with the graduation. The light is supposed to brighten gradually over 15–30 minutes before your alarm time, mimicking a natural sunrise. For the most part it does, and on the mornings it worked as intended the experience was gentler than waking to a conventional alarm. But on several occasions — I counted at least six across the four-week review period — the light jumped to full brightness abruptly rather than easing up to it, which is jarring. It doesn't ruin the experience entirely but it stops the Mini Restful from matching the consistently smooth graduation of a dedicated wake-up light. If the sunrise simulation is the primary reason you're considering this, that inconsistency is worth noting.

Elsewhere, the alarm sounds themselves are pleasant and varied — birdsong, soft tones, rainfall — and the volume is adjustable via the app.

• Performance score: 4.5 out of 5

Blueair Mini Restful air purifier review: app

• Required for full setup and alarm customization
• Doesn't show air quality levels
• Clean, well-organized interface
• Lag between app and device is frustrating
• No HomeKit, Alexa or Google Home support

Despite a small number of flaws, I can barely fault the hardware of the Blueair Mini Restful. The same can't be said for the app though, sadly.

Firstly, the Blueair app isn't optional. You can use the touchscreen to turn the device on and off and cycle through fan speeds, but doing anything of note, such as setting alarms, choosing wake sounds, adjusting the sunrise duration, creating purification schedules and checking air quality history, all require the app.

This is great when it works. The interface is clean and logically laid out, with the device status and filter life all visible without having to dig through menus. Setting a sunrise alarm takes seconds: you pick a time, choose a sound, set the brightness duration between and you're done.

The filter replacement reminder is useful; the display lock feature is a sensible addition for overnight use; and the scheduling tools are flexible enough to set different purification levels for different times of day.

However, knowing how to view live air quality readings isn't obvious, and I ended up having to Google for help. Even then, you can only see the current outdoor air reading (via the Outdoor air section on the homepage) and not a live, room-by-room chart.

Then there's the problem with lag. There was a consistent, frustrating delay between adjusting a setting in the app and the device responding throughout almost the entire review period. This could be anything from a few seconds to almost 30 seconds on occasion. Switching fan speeds via the app often took longer than just tapping the top of the unit, which defeats part of the point of having remote control in the first place.

What's more, during my four-week review period the connection dropped completely three times, requiring a full reconnection through the app each time. I'd find myself checking the app before bed to make sure the alarm was still set and the connection was still live, which is exactly the kind of friction a product like this should be eliminating.

The absence of any smart home integration is also a real gap. There's no HomeKit support, Alexa skill or Google Home compatibility, which means the Mini Restful exists entirely within its own ecosystem. For anyone who controls their bedroom environment through a smart home setup — lights, heating, other devices — the Mini Restful sits outside all of that. It's not a dealbreaker, but it's a limitation that feels out of step with both the price and what other, similar connected bedroom devices offer.

Blueair has clearly invested in the app's design and the range of features it offers, and the bones are good but the execution needs a lot of work.

• App score: 3 out of 5

Should you buy the Blueair Mini Restful air purifier?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Blueair Mini Restful air purifier: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Blueair Mini Restful is the right air purifier for you, here are two other options to consider:

How I tested the Blueair Mini Restful air purifier

• Tested over four weeks as purifier and alarm clock
• Used the sunrise alarm as my sole morning alarm
• Measured noise levels at each fan speed with a decibel meter
• Tested purification speed by spraying deodorant at the unit and timing air clearance
• Monitored air quality data via the Blueair app

I used the Blueair Mini Restful as my main bedroom purifier and alarm clock for four weeks, running it every night and monitoring the air quality readings in the app each morning.

To test purification speed, I sprayed deodorant directly at the unit for five seconds on both the lowest and highest fan settings, then timed how long it took for the air quality reading in the app to return to normal.

I measured noise levels at each fan speed using a mobile phone decibel meter and ran the sunrise alarm as my sole morning alarm throughout the review. I also tested the app's scheduling tools, the USB-C charging port and the manual touchscreen controls.

Read more about how we test.

First reviewed May 2026

Dyson HushJet Mini Cool: review

Dyson’s engineers are experts in airflow — whether in vacuum cleaners, fans, or hair dryers — and the HushJet Mini Cool puts that power right in your hand. It’s a portable cooling fan that you can hold, wear around your neck, attach to clothing or a bag strap (if you buy one of the optional clip accessories) or stand upright on your desk — and it really works.

Shortly before testing the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool, I got my hands on the Shark ChillPill — a rival handheld fan that was released at approximately the same time. I was impressed by the ChillPill’s cooling ability, which is supplemented by a misting attachment and a metal cooling plate — but in terms of sheer power, the Dyson absolutely blows it away.

Watch the video version of this review below...

This mainly comes down to two factors: the fan’s powerful motor, which can reach up to 65,000rpm (compared to just 25,000rpm for the ChillPill), and the shape of the HushJet nozzle, which concentrates the airflow so it’s all directed right at you. Even on the lowest setting, you can really feel it; dial it up to maximum and it’s as powerful as some hairdryers I’ve used.

The sound is not unlike a miniature vacuum cleaner, but the HushJet shape works to eliminate the annoying higher frequencies that might irritate colleagues if you use it in the office, or fellow passengers on a busy commuter train. There’s even a hint of Dyson’s signature ‘bounce’ sound when you turn it off.

Accessories like a clamp (so you can attach it to gym equipment) are available to buy separately, but you get a neck strap included with the fan as standard. Slide this onto the fan (it has notches that allow it to slip past the control buttons), adjust the cord to a suitable length, rotate the fan’s head so it’s pointing towards you, and you’ll enjoy a cooling jet of air on your chest, neck and face, hands-free. Extremely handy if you’re taking stuffy public transport.

Dyson claims that the HushJet Mini Cool can run for up to six hours on its lowest power setting, but during my tests it significantly outperformed that figure, lasting almost exactly six and a half hours on a full charge.

It’s hard to fault the HushJet Mini, but a couple of things stood out during testing. Firstly, it’s easy to accidentally cover part of the air intake grille with your hand when holding the fan, which I’m sure affects its performance.

Secondly — and this is only my personal opinion — the Stone/Blush colorway makes the fan look like an exfoliating facial brush at first glance (not unlike the Braun Facespa Pro) which is a strange thing to wear around your neck and might raise a few eyebrows.

Dyson HushJet Mini Cool: specifications

Dyson HushJet Mini Cool: price and availability

• Launched May 2026
• Available globally
• List price $99 / £99.99 / AU$169

Dyson announced the HushJet Mini Cool on April 9, 2026, and it was available to buy globally a few weeks later. It has a list price of $99 / £99.99 / AU$169, which is very reasonable for a powerful personal fan. For comparison, the Shark ChillPill, which went on sale just a few weeks earlier for $149.99 in the US, or £129.99 in the UK (which converts to about AU$210, though at the time of writing the ChillPill isn’t yet available in Australia).

The Dyson HushJet Mini Cool has been in high demand since its launch, and at the time of writing (June 2026) it’s often sold out in Dyson’s official online stores. The Stone/Blush colorway is sometimes the only one available.

If you’re not planning to use your fan on the move, and want one specifically for your desk, take a look at the Dyson Cool CF1 Desk Fan, which is just as quiet but can move a larger volume of air, oscillates and has a remote control, making it a better choice if you’re sitting still (possibly working from home). It has a list price of £249.99 (about $340 / AU$470).

Dyson HushJet Mini Cool: Design

• Unique shape for a portable fan
• Nozzle focuses airflow and reduces noise
• Neck strap and charging base included

Dyson devices often look slightly unusual, taking the most practical shape for their function regardless of how vacuum cleaners, hair dryers, or, in this case, fans have traditionally looked. The HushJet Mini Cool is no exception — with its slim, tubular body and angled nozzle (which is the same shape as that of the Dyson HushJet Compact Purifier), it looks nothing like other personal cooling devices, but it’s a shape that works. The body of the fan is comfortable to hold, and the nozzle can be turned to direct the airflow exactly where it’s needed.

The HushJet Mini Cool is bladeless (like Dyson’s larger fans), ensuring the airflow is smooth rather than choppy, and its honeycomb-like mesh keeps dirt and debris out of the mechanism — though it's also supplied with a soft velvet carry case to protect it on the move.

The HushJet Mini Cool comes in three colorways: Ink/Cobalt (dark blue), Stone/Blush (soft pink, as shown here), and Carnelian/Sky (red and pale blue). Personally I prefer the latter option, which is the most striking, and it seems I’m not alone — at the time of writing all colors are selling out rapidly, but Carnelian/Sky seems to be the one disappearing from the virtual shelves quickest, followed by Ink/Cobalt.

The tubular shape, with a flat end, means that you can easily stand the HushJet Mini Cool on your desk while you work. If you’re planning to use it all day, it comes with a charging base, which provides extra stability regardless of whether the USB cable is plugged in or not.

Whichever color you choose, the fan’s case has a satin finish that feels pleasantly smooth and cool in the hand and is resistant to fingerprints, with contrasting colors for the nozzle and buttons. Dyson’s car never took off, but the company’s designers took the knowledge they gained about finishes and materials, and applied it to beauty products — which explains why they look so smart.

A row of five small white LEDs show the current power setting, and represent the battery level when the fan is charging..

Should you buy the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if

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Dyson HushJet Mini Cool: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool is the right fan to keep you cool, here are two other alternatives to consider.

How we tested the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool

• Tested for a week
• Used on trains, in the office, and at the gym
• Tested battery on lowest power mode
• Measured volume with decibel meter app

I spent a week testing the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool in various locations, including trains to work, at the office, and in the gym. I compared its performance directly against that of the Shark ChillPill.

I measured its noise level with a decibel meter app on my phone, and tested its battery life by fully charging it, then allowing it to run on the lowest power setting until it switched off. For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar.

First reviewed June 2026.

IMOU AOV PT: two-minute review

Founded in 2015 as a spin-off from the Chinese surveillance giant Dahua Technology, Hangzhou-based IMOU has quickly become a major player in the value segment of the smart home market. A few months ago, I looked at the IMOU Cell 3C, another budget outdoor security camera. I liked the model, but it was a lot more basic than this model (and much cheaper, too).

For starters, the AOV PT features a separate, rather than the integrated solar panel found on the Cell 3C. For many set-ups this is an important distinction because often the best place for a camera, such as under an eve or in a porch, is the worst place for a solar panel. Having a separate panel means it can be located up to four metres away in a sun-drenched spot using the long USB-C cable provided.

Whereas most battery cameras stay in a deep sleep until a PIR is triggered, this latest IMOU features the company’s Always-On Video (AOV) technology — hence the AOV moniker. It’s like a sort of low-power mode where the camera records a frame every two seconds continuously, creating a low-frame rate timelapse of the entire day. Then, when the AI detects a human or vehicle, it ramps up to full-speed 3K (5MP) recording. Particularly clever is the smart tracking option which means once the pan-and-tilt camera detects movement it will follow the ‘target’ as it moves around. It’s all a bit Big Brother-y maybe, but useful if you want to track certain individuals or vehicles.

Usually, where security cameras manufacturers make their money is in selling you a monthly subscription to store your video footage in the cloud. Not only is this a potential cybersecurity risk, it can also get very expensive (I’m looking at you Ring). Even the average price of a subscription is £5 (about $7 / AU$10) a month, which I think is a bit excessive for basically storing your video clips.

With the IMOU AOV PT not only is a MicroSD card slot provided for storage, but IMOU has even thrown in a 32GB MicroSD card gratis — it’s a really nice touch, especially if you're always scrabbling around for a card to record onto! If you want more storage, though, the device can support up to 512GB. Alternatively, it is possible to sign-up to one of IMOU’s subscription plans (see details below).

Usefully, in addition to a MicroSD card, the IMOU also comes with a 4G SIM. This enables you to control the camera via the IMOU Life app without it having to be hooked up to the home’s Wi-Fi. IMOU provides a modest 100Mb of data (with a trial offer for a 6GB plan). However, for those monitoring properties where Wi-Fi connectivity is either non-existent, or at best patchy, it’s a potential game changer.

On the downside, though, the camera only supports the 2.4GHz Wi-Fi frequency rather than the higher 5GHz Wi-Fi frequency which is better for faster data transfer.

Designed to be mounted permanently outdoors, the IMOU boasts an IP-66 weatherproof rating for heavy-duty waterproof protection. It also comes with two reasonably powerful spotlights, a built-in microphone and speaker for two-way communication and a siren for warding off intruders (though this isn’t the loudest). There’s also a clever smart night vision feature so that when the camera detects an object, the spotlight is automatically activated, and recordings are displayed in color.

IMOU AOV PT: subscription options

Basic Plan: Covers seven days of event history and basic AI detection, between £2.59-£3.50 ($4-$5 / AU$5-AU$7) per month or approximately £30 ($40 / AU$70) a year.

Plus Plan: Offers 30 days of event history, enhanced AI detection, and sharing with up to 20 users. Costs around £5.99 ($9 / AU$12) per month or £60 ($80 / AU$110) per year.

See https://www.imou.com/uk/imou-protect for more details

IMOU AOV PT: price and availability

How much does it cost? IMOU AOV PT, $170 / £129 / AU$260

When is it available? Since December 2025

Where is it available? UK / US / Australia

Chinese firm IMOU is known for its competitively priced home security products. This one is no exception. OK, it’s quite a bit more expensive than the IMOU Cell 3C we reviewed which also comes with a solar panel. But then the AOV PT offers so much more and is still under £150.

In fact, when you consider the package includes a separate 5W solar panel, a pre-installed 32GB MicroSD card, and a 4G SIM card, the IMOU AOV PT is actually really very good value for money. That’s not to mention other useful features such as 360-degree field of view thanks to the pan-and-tilt camera and smart tracking so you can monitor the movements of intruders!

Compared to 4G rivals from Arlo or Reolink, which often require separate purchases for solar panels or storage, the IMOU really is a cost-effective, all-in-one solution for those needing off-grid security. Best of all is that you don’t need to pay for a monthly subscription — although that option is available from around £3 a month if you want it. Instead, you can store video clips on the MicroSD card provided or upgrade to one holding 512GB (these are now widely available for under £50/$50).

• Value score: 5/5

IMOU AOV PT: design

• Pan-and-tilt design
• Separate solar panel
• IP66 waterproofing

It’s fair to say that the IMOU AOV PT won’t win any security camera beauty competitions. Built for utility rather than stealth, it comprises a not particularly attractive black pan-and-tilt camera inside a large white plastic housing, plus a separate lightweight solar panel designed to tilt up to 45 degrees for maximum solar gain.

Installation isn’t the easiest either. Because of its weight and the way it protrudes from the wall, it requires a very secure mount. It’s not a camera you can casually stick up with a couple of small screws. Instead, you’ll need the full four-screw bracket provided (plus wall plugs if drilling into brick) to prevent it from vibrating in the wind or feeling flimsy.

For added protection/security the camera snaps firmly into the mount and can only be released by pressing a button underneath the unit. Here you will also find a rubber flap covering the power on and the USB-C input for connecting to the solar panel and for recharging the camera (it comes with an integrated 1000mAh lithium-ion battery).

For our set-up we installed the camera on a wooden summer house/home office with the solar panel located nearby and angled towards the sun (the app tells you when it is receiving power from the panel). However, 4m of cable is provided if you need to locate the solar panel a bit further away to capture the sun’s rays. Thankfully, the solar panel is much simpler to install than the camera but the two units together do take up quite a lot of space, compared to other designs.

Finally, one slightly odd aspect of the design is the panel for the MicroSD card and 4G SIM card slots. Located at the back of the camera lens, this can only be accessed with a Phillips screwdriver. Perhaps it’s to deter casual thieves from easily stealing the MicroSD/SIM cards, or maybe to provide further protection from the elements?

• Design score: 4/5

IMOU AOV PT: performance

• 360-degree field of view
• 3K resolution
• Color night vision

When it comes to performance, the IMOU AV PT is one of the best I’ve reviewed — especially at this price level. When it comes to functionality, it’s difficult to imagine any other cameras matching it. However, what’s impressive is that it combines this functionality with very good performance too. For example, the 3K image quality is crisp enough to identify faces at a distance, and the full-color night vision is excellent, using two bright spotlights to illuminate intruders.

What I particularly like is the pan-and-tilt camera which effectively gives the camera a full 360-degree view, much wider than most cameras which are limited to a maximum of around 150 degrees. Either you can move it around using the left/right, up/down keys on the app or you can use the ‘smart tracking’ option in the menus so that it tracks movement automatically.

During testing it was great fun, picking up neighbours on balconies, even family members walking close to the patio doors inside the kitchen. However, I could see it would have a serious function too if ever I was burgled, capturing the culprit as they approached the house and closing in on their physical details.

Any criticisms? Well, a few, but they are minor. Firstly, it is worth bearing in mind that the ‘smart tracking’ option really does drain the 10,000mAh battery. During a day of heavy testing, it dropped 11% in just 24 hours, even with some additional solar power from the panel. For long term use it’s probably best to switch it off completely or limit the use of the camera to certain hours of the day.

Using the app, recording times can be set for each day (so the camera only records footage at night) or you can quickly put it into ‘privacy mode’ where the lens turns around completely so you can’t record. It’s also possible to set areas where you don’t want to record, such as a neighbor’s garden or a busy main road using the ‘activity zone’ option.

As with many security cameras, one small bugbear is that the IMOU AV PT is a little too sensitive, creating a few false alarms. Not only can this get a little bit annoying after a while (getting an alert every time a bird flies past), it can further drain the battery. Finally, while the siren works effectively enough, it’s certainly not the loudest we’ve ever heard.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the IMOU AOV PT?

Buy it if

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IMOU AOV PT: also consider

If you're not sure whether the IMOU AOV PT is the right camera for you, here's how it stacks up against two of its rivals.

How I tested the IMOU AOV PT

• I used the camera outdoors for seven days
• I set it up myself using the fittings provided by the manufacturer
• The security camera and solar panel was installed on the outside of my summer house/office

I am forever climbing up and down step ladders changing over outdoor security cameras on my summer house, so much so that the neighbours must think I’m paranoid about getting burgled. This is the latest in a long line of solar panel cameras I’ve looked at recently and I think one of the best so far.

I really enjoyed the smart tracking feature, watching the camera following the movement of family members and my dog Poppy, as well as the occasional glimpse of neighbours standing on a balcony. If I had the device for a long time I would probably switch this off as it is a major drain on the battery as well as being overly intrusive (although less so than using the pan-and-tilt camera in the house).

I can also see the benefits of the 4G SIM. While my Wi-Fi is generally OK in the garden, thanks to a Wi-Fi repeater near the back door, there are many homes especially in rural areas where this option could be a game-changer.

First reviewed May 2026

Shark PowerDetect Speed: one-minute review

The Shark PowerDetect Speed is a very capable cordless stick vacuum with a great auto empty base, but like other high-powered cordless vacuums a lack of battery life means it can’t replace a main vacuum.

It did a great job picking up fine dust and larger debris in our tests on carpet and hard floors, has good edge cleaning, and can easily be moved around the house making it an ideal occasional cleaner.

It's a premium product from an established vacuum brand, but when compared with Dyson it's significantly more affordable, making it a good choice if you want top, reliable performance without the high price.

Battery life is a major concern though, as it didn’t last 11 minutes on the highest power setting and took over five hours to recharge the battery, limiting its practicality.

Shark PowerDetect Speed: price and availability

The PowerDetect Speed launched in the US and UK in April 2026 costing US$499.99 and £499.99 for the Clean & Empty version that comes with an auto empty charging dock (although it is worth noting the US version comes with an extra Pet Multi tool that the UK version doesn’t). It was released in Australia in early June 2026 for a retail price of AU$799.

This places it at the premium end of the scale for vacuums, although it is significantly cheaper than the Dyson Gen5detect models it is competing with, making it feel very good value for money when comparing spec with spec.

The build quality is good, it feels capable of handling the rough and tumble of everyday cleaning and it has a good set of features you would expect of a top of the line vacuum including floor and dirt detection. The addition of a dock that empties and charges the vacuum is a godsend and real standout at this price point.

The PowerDetect Speed is also available without the auto empty dock for $429.99 or £429.99, which come with an extra upholstery tool in the US or pet tool in the UK. This version hasn't been released to Australia at the time of writing.

• Value score: 4/5

Shark PowerDetect Speed: specs

Shark PowerDetect Speed: design

• Simple, functional design
• Place to store accessories
• Dirt detect feature not shown on the floorhead

While a vacuum cleaner is very much a practical product rather than a statement piece it is nice for it to look at least smart in a subtle way if you do have to have it visible and Shark has done a decent job with the PowerDetect Speed. The grey and blue metallic finish feels mostly focused on blending into the background and any out-there accents have thankfully been limited to the orange roller in the floorhead.

The auto empty dock is also unfussy but does include one of my favorite features of this entire product in the shape of two small notches at the back of the dock for storing the included accessories. This is such a small thing, but after years of trying to find where in the house the kids have hidden the crevice tool this time, it is hugely appreciated.

The body of the vacuum is similar to the older PowerDetect model but it is slightly smaller, lighter and they have swapped the trigger button for a second button on the back of body. This is a definite improvement as it was easy to accidentally change modes with the trigger button, especially if vacuuming at different heights such as cleaning the stairs.

The PowerDetect Speed does lose 0.5kg on the previous version and comes in under Dyson’s Gen5 Detect by around 300g, but that said, this is still a bit of a chunky vacuum cleaner and may feel like a bit of a workout to push around for some, Rivals like the Dreame R20 weigh in almost a whole kilo lighter so if lightweight is top of your priority list it may be worth looking elsewhere.

It's controlled using two buttons on the back of the body, which also has a screen to show you what mode you are in, how much battery you have left and whether the vacuum is currently detecting dirt where you are cleaning. This is done through a color coded arc around the top of the screen with a dark purple color indicating it is picking up a lot of dirt which then progressively goes paler until it goes white indicating the floor is now clean.

I will go into more detail about the PowerDetect feature later but I do have a gripe about how this is presented. In the previous PowerDetect model this color-coding was also shown in lights at the back of the floorhead so you could see cleaning performance as you cleaned without taking your eyes off where you were moving the floorhead. With it only on the back of the body of the vacuum you now have to keep moving your eyes from one to the other which is definitely a step backwards.

The floorhead uses one roller with anti-wrap elements and a light that switches from regular white light on carpet to a blue UV light on hard floors for highlighting dirt. This works well although I’m not sure the UV light really provides a significant improvement over a regular light.

Depending where you are you will get different accessories with US customers getting a crevice tool and pet multi tool and those in the UK only getting a crevice tool, but the slightly better version that includes a sliding duster to it. The pet multi tool did OK at picking up cat hair, although no better than the regular floorhead and generally just caught them in the bristles rather than picking them up directly. Where it was most useful was as a wider cleaning path than the crevice tool when vacuuming a car.

• Design score: 4/5

Shark PowerDetect Speed: performance

• Dirt Detect works well
• Excellent fine detail and debris pick up
• Handles pet and long hair well without tangling

It is straightforward to use with only the two buttons for one and off or to change mode — which unless you are trying to maximize battery runtime, you shouldn’t need. The attachments are easy to snap into place or detach using the large buttons and the whole vacuum can fold in half for storage away from the charging dock.

It maneuvers well and while it might not be quite as smooth as the Dyson equivalent or as light as some other rivals it is easy to steer around furniture. It also is able to bend the wand so you can run the cleaner under low furniture reaching hard to clean spots. This is a nice bonus and may be ideal for some homes but I personally didn’t find myself using it day to day.

Emptying the vacuum is one area where it really stands out, you simply pop it back on top of the charging dock when you are done — or more likely when it has run out of battery but more on that later — and the base sucks all the dust out into its own larger two-liter bin. This obviously will need emptying itself, but the shape (and the fact you will have to do it less often) makes it much easier to do this without making a mess.

The detect part of PowerDetect comes from the four ways it adjusts suction power to optimize cleaning by detecting the floor type, amount of dirt being sucked up, whether it is close to the edge of a room and what direction it is traveling. This means all you need to do is move the vacuum around and it will change its cleaning modes, with the dirt detection also letting you know whether certain sections are worth some more attention through the color coding display on the handle.

When I first used this dirt detection I was a bit skeptical that it was still picking up debris where it claimed it was but the dust bin would time and again prove me wrong. At first this felt like an amazing feature, but later when combined with the battery life, having to go back and forth over the same bits of floor made me start to wonder if ignorance was bliss.

In the cleaning tests the Speed struggled a bit in low suction mode with one pass leaving quite a bit of fine dust and larger debris on both carpet and hard floors. Moving it up to full suction did much better with it picking up almost all the fine dust on the hard floor and, aside from some scattering of the rice, most of the debris on the next pass.

Edge cleaning was a similar story at both low and high power, with it doing very well on high for hard floors. It still needed the crevice tool to get the finest material but it did as well as I have seen from a stick vacuum.

Hair pickup was also excellent handling long and pet hair well without any sign of tangling on the floorhead brush.

It’s not quiet but at around 70-75 dbs (somewhere between traffic and a busy restaurant) on maximum power it's not the loudest either. The auto empty base creates a similar level of noise as it flushes the dust from the cleaner, but this is a pretty quick process.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Shark PowerDetect Speed: battery life

• Less than 11 minutes on boost mode
• Long recharge time
• Spare batteries not yet available

My sticking point with the PowerDetect Speed is the battery life as, when testing on full power, it only managed a paltry 10 minutes and 38 seconds. While the variable speed in dirt detect mode will allow you to get a bit more cleaning out of a charge, I often found it would last less than half an hour. Couple this with a recharge time of 5 hours and 19 minutes and it severely limits its practicality as a main vacuum for anything but a small apartment.

This is a common problem for high powered stick vacuums as they try to keep the weight of the batteries down, but it is one of the shortest run times and longest charge times I have tested making it a bit of a challenge even thoroughly vacuuming the car on a single charge.

While you can switch out the battery, I wasn’t able to find a way of buying a spare battery online with the cordless vacuum battery available through Shark’s website only compatible with older models. If one is made available expect this to come with a hefty price tag, the older model batteries cost an additional $87.99 in the US.

• Battery life score: 3/5

Should you buy the Shark Poweretect Speed?

The answer is going to depend heavily on the size of your home and how you plan to use the cleaner. If this is going to be your only vacuum it’s barely going to get through a studio apartment before it needs a recharge. If you are looking for a convenient cleaner for spot cleaning it is superb both in terms of performance and ease of emptying, all while being a step cheaper than the Dyson equivalent.

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

How I tested the Shark PowerDetect Speed

I tested the PowerDetect Speed for over a week in day-to-day use as well as specific tests picking up fine dust (tea) and larger debris (rice) on hard floors, carpet and around room edges. Battery life was tested on the highest power setting and lowest, as well as checking the time it took to fully charge from empty.

I tested the Speed in different cleaning scenarios including vacuuming stairs, a car and a variety of floor types.

First reviewed May 2026

Dyson HushJet Compact Air Purifier: two-minute review

The Dyson HushJet Compact Air Purifier is Dyson's first dedicated small-format air purifier, and it's a notable departure from what's come before. Unlike the imposing, bulky tower fan-purifiers of old, the HushJet has been engineered to better fit into your home — or at least, that's the idea.

Yes, it's smaller than Dyson's current range, but it's far from tiny. It fits on a desk and kitchen countertop, but not comfortably or subtly, and its design makes it stand out rather than blend in. The black and blue colorway I tested looks out of place wherever you put it, while the star-shaped HushJet nozzle, which is inspired by jet engine aerodynamics, looks as industrial as its name suggests.

There are few controls on the device itself and Dyson is relying on people using the MyDyson app to monitor air quality and adjust settings. Thankfully this isn't a chore because the app is super intuitive and simple. Plus you also have the option to control everything with you voice, via Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri, if you'd rather not pick up your phone.

Also, in day-to-day use, the Auto mode does most of the heavy lifting anyway. Intelligent sensors monitor air quality in real time and ramp the fan speed up or down as needed, which in practice means the HushJet spends most of its time running almost silently in the background, only surging when something pollutes the air.

Inside the purifier, the electrostatic filter captures 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns. This includes dust, pollen, pet dander, and mold spores. The activated carbon filter then takes care of gases and odors, including cooking smells and NO2 from gas hobs. Both filters come pre-installed, which makes setup refreshingly painless, and they have long shelf lives. The electrostatic filter lasts up to five years, while the carbon filter should only need to be replaced once a year, keeping the running costs down.

The jet engine design isn't just an aesthetic choice, it means that the HushJet can channel purified air into a "focused, high-velocity stream" that covers rooms up to 100m2 / 1,076 sq ft. Most homes won't need this, but it's reassuring to know that you can place this purifier anywhere in your home and it's got you covered. These numbers would be impressive for any air purifier, let alone one this size.

At $349.99 / £349.99 / AU$549 the HushJet is a significant investment, especially when you consider that it's a purifier only, with no fan or heating function to justify the spend. However, if clean air is a priority and you want the best compact air purifier on the market right now, it's hard to argue with what Dyson has built here. It sits at the top of its category, and in my tests it earned its place, but if that's beyond your budget check out our guide to the best air purifiers.

Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier review: price and availability

• List price: $349.99 / £349.99 / AU$549
• Available in the US and UK

Dyson's HushJet is available in the US, UK and Australia direct from Dyson, as well as Best Buy and Walmart in the US, AO and Very in the UK, and JB Hi-Fi and The Good Guys in Australia.

At $349.99 / £349.99 / AU$549, this is an expensive purifier by any measure. To put that into context, the Blueair Blue Max 3250i – our pick for best air purifier overall – is less than half the price, at $169 / £169. Even the Dyson Purifier Cool PC1, a larger purifier-fan combo from Dyson's own range, is only $100 / £100 more, and it adds fan functionality on top.

What you're paying for with the HushJet is essentially the miniaturisation of Dyson's purification technology, combined with the new HushJet nozzle and its impressively quiet operation. I believe its performance justifies a large part of this premium but there are very capable, significantly cheaper rivals that tick just as many boxes.

• Value for money score: 3 out of 5

Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier specs

Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier review: design

• Smaller than previous Dyson purifiers, but not truly compact
• Minimal on-device controls
• Industrial aesthetic

Dyson has become famous for its distinctive, often divisive, design choices, and the HushJet is no exception. Like most Dyson products, it's sleek, cylindrical and well-built, but also striking and bold — especially its star-shaped HushJet nozzle top, which is inspired by the aerodynamic principles of jet engines, and doesn't look like anything I've ever tested.

Whether that's a good thing will depend on your taste. In my house, it divided opinion: my partner loved the look of the black and teal colors, but I didn't. I found it too much for an appliance that's supposed to sit quietly in the background.

That tension between form and function runs through the whole design. Dyson calls this purifier 'compact', and relative to the brand's own range – which includes the towering TP09 or the enormous Big+Quiet – it is. But in absolute terms, at 18.5in / 47cm tall with a 9in / 23cm diameter, it's larger than the name implies. I tried it on my desk, on a bedside table and on my kitchen counter, and it felt imposing on all three. It ended up on the floor in most rooms, which undermines the compact pitch somewhat. For context, the Levoit Core 300S is half the height and is more subtle.

I typically like to move my purifier into different rooms, depending on my needs (for example, I put it in the kitchen when I'm cooking steak, or I put it in my son's room at night when the pollen count is high) and while the HushJet is technically portable, its missing carry handle makes moving it a little awkward.

On-device controls are minimal by design. There's a small LCD screen that shows air quality data — using a color-coded line graph — and current settings above a row of three physical buttons. These buttons cover most of the day-to-day changes you'll need:

• The fan button on the left lets you cycle between Night mode, the three on-board fan speeds, and Auto mode.
• The power button in the center turns the purifier on and off.
• The information button on the right cycles through the current PM2.5 levels, current PM10 levels, the state of the on-board filters, and the Wi-Fi details.

If you want to set schedules, change Auto mode's target particulate level, access the seven other fans speed, or access any other more detailed settings, you'll need to download the MyDyson app. You can also control the purifier using your voice and the HushJet works with Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri.

This is also where you can learn what each of the air quality colors mean:

• Good (green): very low level of microscopic particles
• Fair (yellow): moderate level of microscopic particles
• Poor (orange): high level of microscopic particles
• Very poor (red): very high level of microscopic particles
• Extremely poor (pink): extremely high level of microscopic particles
• Severe (purple): severe level of microscopic particles

Setup across the board with the HushJet is painless. Both filters come pre-installed, and connecting to the MyDyson app took me less than 30 seconds. It's one of the easier Dyson products I've set up, and it starts purifying the air immediately.

• Design score: 3 out of 5

Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier review: performance

• Auto mode reaction times are unmatched
• Whisper-quiet on lower settings
• Limited app granularity
• Less impressive on smoke than VOCs

Given its price, and the fact it only covers purifying, the HushJet's performance needed to blow me away (excuse the pun) and thankfully it did.

I have a large open-plan kitchen-diner, as well as a substantial loft room, and even when the HushJet was placed on the opposite side of the room to where I was cooking, or spraying deodorant, its fans captured and cleared the particulates with ease.

During my aerosol tests, in which I sprayed deodorant at the purifier for five seconds while it was in different purification modes, the fan consistently took the air quality from as high as Severe to Good in less than a minute and a half. The low fan setting, unsurprisingly, took the longest at 1 minute 23 seconds (on average); the medium fan setting handled the particulates in 1 minute 2 seconds; and the high fan cleared the air in just 50 seconds. These speeds are unheard of in all my years of testing.

I also lit a match and let it burn out directly in front of the unit. Within three seconds, the HushJet had detected the drop in air quality and increased its fan speed. The app showed levels spike to purple before the purifier cleared the air entirely in four minutes. For comparison, the Blueair Blue Max 3250i, our top-rated overall pick, took 20 seconds to register the same drop, although it cleared the air slightly faster at two and a half minutes. Both are fast; the HushJet's sensing is simply quicker.

The one test where the HushJet was less convincing was dust. Emptying a vacuum cleaner's dust canister next to the unit hardly moved the dial at all. Granted, the vacuum in question was the Dyson Cyclone V10, which has its own filtration system, which may have captured most of the harmful particles before they reached the HushJet's sensors. But it was a less emphatic result than the smoke and VOC tests.

In terms of noise, Dyson advertises the HushJet at ranging between 24dB and 42dB. During my own tests using the DecibelX app, the lowest I recorded was 29dB on Night mode, with 55dB at the top end, on high. This is still whisper-quiet at the lower end, while the higher end is roughly the volume of a light conversation. What's more, the sound is soft rather than sharp ,which makes the HushJet sound even quieter in real-world use. So much so, I could have the HushJet on in the bedroom at night, with Night mode enabled or without.

Other good news is that the Auto mode's quick reaction times mean the unit rarely stays at full power for more than a few minutes.

When it comes to air purification, the HushJet uses a two-filter system: a 360-degree Electrostatic filter that captures 99.97% of particles as small as 0.3 microns, and an Activated Carbon filter for gases and odors including cooking smells, pet odors and NO2 from gas appliances.

I suffer from hayfever and during my review period I noticed a difference in my symptoms on days when I had the HushJet running. I can't say it got rid of them entirely, but on days when the pollen count was high and the HushJet had been running in my bedroom overnight, I woke up feeling better than I'd expected.

I didn't run the HushJet constantly during my review period. My typical pattern was to run it overnight in the bedroom on Auto mode, and then move it to the living room during the day when the pollen count was high or when I was doing anything likely to kick up dust. Over the course of testing, the electrostatic filter didn't register any degradation. Even after four weeks, it's still showing 100%.

The activated carbon filter, which promises a one-year lifespan, dropped to 96% so this will need replacing much sooner. A replacement electrostatic filter costs $64.99 / £50 while the carbon filter costs $44.99 / £35. This is worth factoring in but you won't need to spend extra for a while after purchase.

Overall, the HushJet does exactly what it promises. Its Auto mode is smart, its filtration is fast and its the quietest purifier I've ever tested. It's not perfect but in terms of performance, it comes incredibly close.

• Performance score: 5 out of 5

Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier review: voice control

• Easy to set up
• Works with Alexa, Google Assistant and Siri

Once the purifier is connected to your home Wi-Fi, it can connect to any Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple Siri device on the same network at the press of a button through the MyDyson app. This app doesn't give you voice command prompts to get you started – like the Dreo app does – instead you'll need to go to the dedicated assistant app to learn how to speak to the HushJet.

That said, as soon as I got the hang of it, voice control quickly became my preferred way to control the HushJet day-to-day. I have an Amazon Echo in my bedroom and being able to ask Alexa to turn the purifier on or off, adjust the fan speed or check the air quality without reaching for my phone made a difference to how often I interacted with it.

On mornings when the purifier was downstairs, I could ask Alexa to kick the purifier up a level to remove the smell of my son cooking toast even while I was in the loft. Elsewhere, you can ask Google, Alexa or Siri to turn the purifier on and off, ask for a specific speed, set the purifier to a certain mode and check levels.

Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier review: app

• Offers a range of control options
• Color-coded design is intuitive and simple to use
• Near-live air quality data

The MyDyson app is one of my favorite things about the HushJet, and is one of the better companion apps I've used for home appliances. It's clean, well-labelled and easy to navigate from the first time you open it.

The home screen shows an image of your HushJet above the main menu, which includes Controls, Data and Insights, How To, and Product Settings.

Below the image are the quick-access controls for Auto mode and fan speed, plus an on/off toggle, a Night mode that dims the LCD screen on the device and quietens the fan, and a Timer option.

Your current air quality reading displayed in Dyson's color-coded system sit below this panel, followed by the Schedule option. This scheduling function lets you set the HushJet to run at specific times. I set it to run on Auto every morning before I got up, so the bedroom air was already clean by the time I woke up.

In the Data and Insights section you can see the air quality graphs broken down by PM2.5 and PM10 readings, all presented in the same color-coded scale. The current reading updates every 30 seconds, but the graph only shows average readings in 15-minute intervals. You can swipe back to see historical data but it doesn't reveal very much and lacks the granularity I'd like.

Elsewhere, the app doubles as a support hub, with how-to videos, filter life tracking, and the option to buy replacement filters directly. It's a small touch but a useful one, and you're unlikely to forget to replace the filters when the app is actively telling you when it's due. In Product Settings, you can connect the purifier to Alexa, Google Assistant or Siri, set the time, data and location data and manage the Wi-Fi connection. There's also the option to enable/disable continuous monitoring which is what's needed for the Auto mode to work effectively.

If there's one criticism, it's that the app is essentially non-optional. Anyone who prefers physical controls may find the HushJet frustrating to live with but for those comfortable with app-based control — and I'd argue that's most people buying a £350 / $350 / AU$549 smart purifier — it's an excellent companion.

• App score: 5 out of 5

Should you buy the Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier

• I used the Dyson HushJet Compact air purifier and its partner app for four weeks
• I stress-tested it using different substances
• I experimented with different speeds, modes, and settings

I tested the Dyson HushJet Compact in my home over four weeks, during peak hayfever season. I used it primarily in my bedroom overnight on Auto mode, and moved it to the living room and kitchen during the day to test its response to different real-world air quality changes.

To test purification, I carried out a range of specific tests: lighting a match to create smoke, spraying deodorant to introduce VOCs, cooking on a gas hob to generate cooking fumes and PM10 particles, and emptying a vacuum cleaner dust canister to test dust response. For each, I monitored the HushJet's reaction time – how quickly it detected the change in air quality – and its clearance time – how long it took to return readings to normal. I tracked all air quality data via the MyDyson app.

Noise levels were measured using the DecibelX app across all fan settings. I also tested the voice controls by connecting the HushJet to an Amazon Echo while using with the MyDyson app daily.

Read more about how we test.

First reviewed May 2026

Hoover HF3 DynamicClean: one-minute review

DynamicClean is Hoover’s latest crack at the mid-range tier of cordless stick vacuum cleaners, and for the most part it's a great effort.

Weighing in at just 5.6lbs / 2.54kg, it's one of the lightest cordless sticks you can buy, which makes it pretty easy to push around and carry between floors. The 150 AW motor delivers good suction across carpet and hard floors, and Hoover's Anti-Twist brushbar technology keeps hair from wrapping itself around the roller, which means easier maintenance in the long run.

You also get HEPA filtration built in, which is a top selling point for anyone with allergies or pets, alongside LED headlights on the floorhead, three power modes, and a wall-mounted charging dock. It's a well-featured package for the money, and on carpet in particular it delivers surprisingly good cleaning results for the money.

Where the HF3 shows its mid-range roots is in the build quality and the battery. The whole thing feels a bit cheap in places, the bin is narrow enough to make getting your hand inside a challenge, and the headline 60-minute runtime only applies if you stick exclusively to Eco mode. Switch to standard or turbo and that number drops fast. It’s worth being aware this probably won't cover a whole house in one charge for most people.

Still, at its current price, the HF3 DynamicClean offers a lot of vacuum for not a lot of money, and the cleaning performance itself is hard to fault at this level.

Hoover HF3 DynamicClean: price and availability

• List price £179.99 (about $250 / AU$340) from Hoover Direct
• Currently on sale at around £129 from Hoover Direct and Argos
• Pet variant available with mini turbo brush

The HF3 DynamicClean is available now across UK retailers, though at the time of writing it's not sold in the US or Australia. Its list price sits at £179.99 (about $250 / AU$340), but you'll almost certainly find it cheaper. At the time of writing, both Hoover Direct and Argos had it listed in the sale for £149.99, which is a really good deal for what you're getting.

That's significantly cheaper than a comparable Shark cordless, which will typically set you back £200 or more for similar features, and it's a fraction of what you'd pay for a Dyson. If the anti-hair wrap tech is the thing that appeals, the Shark equivalent costs nearly double.

The Pet variant, which adds a mini turbo tool for upholstery, is also available for a bit more (£199.99) if you have furry housemates.

• Value score: 4.5/5

Hoover HF3 DynamicClean: Design

• Extremely lightweight and easy to handle
• Inoffensive colorway that blends in
• Feels a bit cheap and has nowhere to store attachments

The HF3 is a slim, upright stick vacuum that's harmless looking but doesn't exactly scream style. It's got a slightly boxy, utilitarian look, but the minimal light grey and black colourway should at least go with any house deco style. Sure, it's not the sleekest-looking machine out there, but at least it doesn't take up much room. And while it's not that premium feeling, it's perfectly fine looking and won't embarrass you if it's wall-mounted in plain sight.

At 2.54kg, this vacuum is feather-light in the hand. Pushing it around open floor space takes virtually no effort, and carrying it upstairs is a one-handed job. That weight is a plus if you've got multiple levels to cover or if you're buying for someone who finds heavier vacuums a struggle.

That said, while it's nimble enough on open stretches, I found it can feel a bit stiff when you're trying to get into trickier spots, like around chair legs or into the gap between the sofa and the wall. It doesn't have the same fluid manoeuvrability as some pricier cordless sticks I've used.

Despite not being quite as nimble as the likes of a cordless Dyson or Shark, the floorhead steers around reasonably well, and the double-edge cleaning design means it can pick up dust along both its left and right sides, so it cleans along skirting boards and wall edges regardless of which direction you're pushing it.

There are also LED headlights on the front to light up dust under furniture, and the self-standing feature lets you park it upright mid-clean without it toppling over, though I did see some online reviews mention the head can lock into position when using it at odd angles on stairs, triggering an auto-shutoff. I didn't experience this myself, but it's probably something you should be aware of.

Where the budget price of this device really shows is in the build quality. I'll be honest, it feels a bit cheap in hand. The integrated dusting brush and crevice tool have that thin, hollow plastic quality that doesn't inspire long-term confidence, and there's nowhere on the unit to store the latter either. It just has to live in a drawer somewhere until you need it, which is minor but still annoying.

As for the bin, its 0.7-litre volume is a decent enough size, but the opening is narrow, so getting your hand in to clean around the central filter cone can be a fiddle if you don't have particularly small fingers.

• Design score: 3/5

Hoover HF3 DynamicClean: features and performance

• Strong suction, though not quite Dyson-level
• Anti-Twist tech delivers on its promise
• Battery life and noise are the weak spots

The HF3's brushless motor does an all-round good job for a vacuum at this price. On carpet, it pulls up dust, crumbs and fine debris with a good level of suction. Hard floors are handled well too, with the floorhead transitioning smoothly between surfaces without needing you to manually adjust anything.

I must add that while the suction is great for the price, it isn't quite on the level of some cordless Dyson vacuums I've used. It does leave the odd bit behind here and there, particularly on higher-pile rugs, where a Dyson would have performed much better. For the price difference, that's expected, and the HF3 is still perfectly good for everyday cleaning. Just don't expect it to compete with something two or three times the price.

Hoover's Anti-Twist technology is the headline feature here, and it works well. Over my testing period, I didn't find a single strand of hair wrapped around the brushbar, which — if you've ever owned a vacuum without this — is worth the entry price alone. The brushbar itself also pops out easily for cleaning, keeping maintenance to a minimum

The HF3’s three power modes (Eco, Standard and Turbo) give you some flexibility in how you use the battery. Eco mode is gentle but best for lighter cleaning and will get you closest to that 60-minute runtime claim. Standard mode, which is what you'll likely use most of the time, is rated for around 30 minutes and delivers a decent clean.

As for Turbo mode, this cranks things up a notch, being ideal for stubborn patches. However, this mode burns through the battery fast, offering around 15 minutes of use at best, in my experience. This is the HF3's biggest limitation. That 60-minute figure Hoover promises is only really achievable in Eco mode with the handheld configuration, which isn't how most people are going to use a stick vacuum day to day. On Standard mode with the floorhead attached, you're realistically looking at 25 to 30 minutes, which probably won't cover a whole house in one go unless you live in a one or two bedroom flat.

Another niggle is the vacuum’s noise. For something this compact and lightweight, the HF3 is surprisingly loud. It's not unbearable, but it's noticeably louder than I was expecting — you certainly won't be using it while someone's on a call in the next room. Nevertheless, there are plenty of other positives to help negate this.

The HF3’s LED display on the handle, for example, works well – showing you the current battery percentage and which mode you're in at a glance. It's not a touchscreen, just a simple readout, but it's handy for knowing exactly how much juice you've got left.

The HEPA filtration is another of the vacuum’s strong point. Hoover claims it captures 99.9% of dust and allergens, and while I can't exactly verify that figure in my kitchen, it's a reassuring spec for anyone with allergies or asthma. The filter is washable too, which should save you money on replacements over time.

• Features and performance score: 3.5 / 5

Should you buy the Hoover HF3 DynamicClean?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Hoover HF3 DynamicClean: also consider

How I tested the Hoover HF3 DynamicClean

I used the Hoover HF3 DynamicClean as my main vacuum cleaner for several weeks across carpet, rugs and hard floors. I tested all three power modes, used the handheld conversion for stairs and upholstery, and assessed the build quality, bin emptying, wall dock, battery life and day-to-day usability throughout.

First reviewed: April 2026

Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night: two-minute review

The Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night is the company’s most advanced rotary shaver, and in this Ryan Gosling-friendly Project Hail Mary edition, it arrives wrapped in a layer of space-age storytelling about aerospace-grade engineering, longevity and precision.

Underneath the launch theatrics, though, this is a serious flagship shaver. Philips’ Triple Action Lift & Cut system trims hair down to a Sphynx cat-like 0.08mm, while NanoTech Dual Precision blades and 360-degree flexing heads are designed to stay close to the skin across awkward contours like the jaw, chin and neck.

An LED pressure-feedback ring around the shaving head changes colour as you shave, showing whether you’re applying too much or too little pressure. It sounds like a gimmick until you realise it’s training you out of bad habits.

That matters because most electric shaver irritation comes not from the blades, but from you mashing the thing into your face like you’re trying to sand a table. The light ring gives immediate feedback, while the GroomTribe app adds more detailed pressure and motion guidance if you want to get forensic about your morning shave.

Performance is excellent for a rotary model. It’s close, smooth and particularly good across contours, with enough flexibility to handle difficult areas without repeated punishment passes. Foil shavers may still edge it for absolute closeness, but few feel this forgiving.

Battery life offers 60 minutes of runtime, good enough for a fortnight of taming facial follicles, with a one-hour full charge and a five-minute quick charge for emergencies.

The wider bundle also includes a UV Power Charger, Quick Clean Pod, precision trimmer and three-in-one DeepClean Massager, so this feels more like a grooming system than a single shaver.

The Project Hail Mary collaboration is mostly cosmetic. You get themed packaging and a theatrical unboxing, but the shaving experience itself is unchanged from the standard i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night model.

Still, if you’re buying fresh and want one of the most capable rotary shavers available, this is an impressively polished option.

Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night: price and availability

• List price: from $499.99 (without movie tie-in)
• Launched March 2026
• Available in the US and UK

The Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night sits firmly at the premium end of the electric shaver market.

Availability varies by region and retailer, but it’s widely sold online through major electronics and grooming outlets, with discounts often available. This Project Hail Mary variant (XP9406/93) appears as a limited-edition bundle, though the core device is shared with other i9000 Prestige Ultra models, and the Night & Day edition without the sci-fi tie-in retails at $499.99 (about £370 / AU$690)

Philips attempts to justify the cost with a considerable accessories bundle, including a three-in-one deep clean attachment for cleaning, massaging, and priming the skin for moisturising.

That said, ongoing costs are worth factoring in. Replacement shaving heads and cleaning cartridges aren’t cheap, and the included cleaning system nudges you toward regular refills.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night: specs

Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night: design

• Premium, reassuring build
• LED pressure ring gives real-time feedback
• UV Power Charger makes the bundle feel flagship

Philips knows how to make a top-end shaver feel expensive, and the i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night doesn’t disappoint. The handle feels solid, balanced and nicely weighted, with an ergonomic grip that makes it easy to control even when shaving wet.

The triple rotary head design, made from aerospace industry steel, is familiar Philips territory, but the smaller, flexible heads help the shaver maintain contact around the jawline, neck and under the nose. It looks technical without tipping into medical device territory.

The standout design feature is the LED ring around the shaving head. It changes colour as you shave to indicate pressure, and it’s much more useful than a light-up grooming gadget has any right to be.

Press too hard and it tells you. Ease off too much, and it tells you. Hit the sweet spot, and it effectively rewards you for shaving like an adult. Even Barbie movie Ryan Gosling could get to grips with it.

There’s also a colour LCD on the handle, showing battery status, travel lock and app connection. It’s clear and useful, though the pressure ring is the display you’ll actually pay attention to while shaving.

The accessories are substantial. The UV Power Charger sanitizes the shaver head while charging, while the Quick Clean Pod handles cleaning and lubrication. The 3-in-1 DeepClean Massager feels more lifestyle than essential, but it does broaden the package into skincare territory.

As for the movie tie-in, it’s mostly in the packaging and presentation. The sci-fi styling and engineered unboxing experience are fun, but once the shaver is on your bathroom shelf, the movie connection fades into the background.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night: performance

• Comfortable rotary shave
• LED pressure guidance improves technique
• Strong across awkward contours

The i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night is excellent to use, with multiple shaving modes prioritising speed, comfort or a more thorough pass — and the LED pressure ring is central to that.

A lot of premium shavers promise smarter shaving, but this is one of the few where the smart feature is visible and useful immediately. The colour-changing ring helps you maintain the right pressure in real time, which is particularly helpful around the neck, where it’s easy to overcompensate and cause irritation.

It also makes the learning curve shorter. Rotary shaving requires a different technique from foil shaving or wet shaving, and the i9000 gently nags you into better habits.

The LED ring uses a simple color system: green means you’re spot on, orange means ease off, and blue/purple means stop being so timid. It sounds basic, but it quickly trains you into better habits. After a few shaves, you stop thinking about it, which is usually a sign that a feature is doing its job.

Closeness is impressive, and while I can’t verify the 0.08mm figure with lab equipment, the results are consistently close and clean. It’s especially good at following face contours, where cheaper shavers often leave patches that require repeated passes, and subsequently irritation.

The NanoTech Dual Precision blades cope well with mixed growth direction, and Philips says the system is designed for one, three or seven-day beards. In practice, it’s at its best on daily or every-other-day growth, but it still handles longer stubble better than most rotary rivals.

Comfort is the bigger story. The Hydro SkinGlide coating helps the heads move smoothly over the skin, while the pressure ring discourages the sort of heavy-handed shaving that usually causes redness. Used properly, it feels controlled rather than aggressive.

The GroomTribe app won’t be for everyone. Not everyone wants to Bluetooth-pair a shaver before breakfast. But its pressure and motion insights do make sense here, because they support the same behaviour the LED ring is encouraging on the device itself.

Wet shaving with foam or gel works well, and the shaver is fully washable, so cleaning under the tap is simple. The Quick Clean Pod is more convenient, though, especially if this is going to be your main shaver.

Foil rivals such as the Panasonic Arc6 and Braun Series 9 Pro may still win for absolute closeness on short, straight stubble. But the Philips counters with comfort, flexibility and a more forgiving feel around awkward facial geography.

Unlike foil shavers, where multiple brands compete at the top end, the rotary market is effectively dominated by Philips — meaning the i9000 Prestige Ultra’s biggest competition comes from earlier Philips models rather than direct rivals.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Should you buy the Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night: also consider

How I tested the Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night

• Tested over two weeks
• Used for wet and dry shaving
• Tested with daily stubble and longer growth

I used the Philips Norelco i9000 Prestige Ultra Day & Night as my main shaver over two weeks, testing it on stubble, longer growth and more awkward areas around the jawline and neck.

I tested the LED pressure-feedback ring during normal shaving to see whether it made a meaningful difference to technique, and used the GroomTribe app to compare its guidance with the feedback on the shaver itself.

I also tested the UV Power Charger, Quick Clean Pod, precision trimmer and 3-in-1 DeepClean Massager to assess whether the wider bundle adds genuine value or simply makes the box look more expensive.

Find out more about how we test, rate, and review products at TechRadar.

IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp: two-minute review

IKEA's color-shifting Varmblixt smart lamp, with its donut-shaped frosted glass diffuser, makes a striking focal point. It's easy to operate using the switch included in the box, and it casts a soft glow whether you use it on a table or mounted on a wall.

The Varmblixt was designed by Dutch artist Sabine Marcelis and comes with a preset palette of pastel hues designed to complement its curves. Pressing the button on its remote once will turn it on, and double-pressing will switch to the next shade in the sequence.

This works well straight out of the box (and handing it to visitors so they can change the mood lighting during dinner is fun), but the Varmblixt really comes into its own when used with the IKEA Home Smart mobile app. This lets you choose from a much larger range of colors, adjust the lamp's brightness, and link it to other IKEA smart devices such as motion sensors and scroll wheel switches.

You can even incorporate it into a mix-and-match smart home setup using the Matter protocol. To do this, you'll need IKEA's Dirigera smart hub, so be prepared for that extra expense if you want to use the Varmblixt's smart capabilities.

Connecting the Varmblixt to the Home Smart app wasn't quite as straightforward as it should have been and involved some trial and error. You should be able to link any IKEA smart home device by scanning the QR code on the item or its packaging, but the app failed to connect to the Varmblixt (or the Bilresa switches I later used to control it).

I eventually found that I could get around the problem by waiting for the connection failure notification to appear in the app, then selecting the option to connect without Bluetooth. The lamp and switches were then linked to the app without a hitch.

Once your devices are linked, IKEA's app is extremely simple to use and is a good introduction to smart home tech. Unlike the Philips Hue app, which gives you granular control over every switch and light in your home, linking a device to IKEA Home Smart works immediately, with a limited but useful set of options.

Once you've linked the Varmblixt lamp, you'll find that you can pick from a much broader palette of colors, although the hues selected by Sabine Marcelis are highlighted so you can find them easily. Alternatively, you can use a color wheel to choose the shade you want.

The lamp doesn't offer as many colors as a Philips Hue White & Color Ambiance bulb, but its smooth shape and frosted diffuser mean it's effective at setting a mood with indirect lighting.

You can even set the Varmblixt to change colors on a schedule. The default 'adaptive' option changes the light temperature during the day, so it becomes cooler during working hours and warmer in the evening when you want to unwind, but it's also possible to create your own timed color changes.

When you connect a controller to the Varmblixt, there's no need to spend time configuring what each button should do; again, it works right away. When I linked it to a Bilresa dimmer switch, I found that the wheel was pre-programmed to control the light's brightness.

Overall, the IKEA Varmblixt lamp is a pleasure to use, and a real conversation-starter when you have guests. App setup can be a bit fiddly and requires IKEA's smart home hub, but it works very well with the remote alone.

• Performance score: 4/5

IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp: price and availability

IKEA first showed the Varmblixt smart lamp at the CES tech show in January 2026, and the donut-shaped light went on sale in the US and Europe in March of the same year. It's not available in Australia at the time of writing, but it might be released more widely later in 2026.

It's priced at $99 / £55 (about AU$140), which is about standard for a color-changing smart lamp without additional features like music or media synchronizing. For example, the Govee Table Lamp 2 is $69.99 / £69.99 (about AU$100).

However, if you want to use the smart functions and choose from a wider array of colors, you'll also need IKEA's Dirigera smart hub, which costs an additional $109 / £70 / AU$129, so you'll need to be sure that you want to invest in IKEA's wider smart home system first.

• Value score: 4/5

IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp: design

This is a new take on the original donut-shaped Varmblixt lamp, which was released in 2022. This lamp (also designed by Sabine Marcellis) had a glossy orange surface that cast warm light into the room. The 2026 Varmblixt replaces this with a white frosted glass diffuser and cycles through a palette of pastel colors selected by the designer.

The Varmblixt lamp has a flat base so you can use it on a table, and a hole in the backplate so you can mount it on a wall (though be aware that it's a wired lamp, so you'll need to place it near an electrical outlet).

The lamp is wired and is supplied with one of IKEA's standard Bilresa remote controls, which takes two AAA batteries (not included).

• Design score: 5/5

Should you buy the IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp: also consider

How I tested the IKEA Varmblixt LED lamp

I tested the Varmblixt lamp with the remote control included in the box, switching between all the preset colors, and then connected it to the IKEA Home Smart app using a Dirigera hub. I used all the color and scheduling options in the app, comparing it with a Philips Hue Wall Washer lamp. I also tried controlling the lamp using an IKEA Bilresa dimmer switch with a scroll wheel.

First tested April 2026