During my years as a TechRadar Homes Editor, I tested an awful lot of vacuums. But the one that's been my constant companion throughout has been the Dyson V15 Detect. It's not a review sample — my partner bought it, and it's the vacuum we've been using at home for the past 21-plus months. It's been used to clean hard tile floors, carpets, lots of stairs, and a whole heap of dog hair.

The V15 is not the newest Dyson vacuum. It came out in 2021 and there are now two newer flagship models: the Gen5detect (launched 2022) and the V16 Piston Animal (2025). However, despite not being the latest-and-greatest, it's still the model that sits atop our best Dyson vacuum guide.

So after nearly two years of regular cleaning with the V15, would I still recommend it? How does it match up against the rest of the best cordless vacuums on the market — and specifically, the newest models from Dyson's great competitor, Shark? Here's my long-term review.

Smooth mover

Let's start with what I love about our Dyson dust-sucker. The suction is excellent, and the Auto mode (where the suction will increase or decrease depending on how much dirt is detected on the floor) is a very welcome addition. I use this mode almost exclusively, and it can be relied upon to do a thorough job of clearing whatever debris has gathered on the floor. I haven't noticed a drop in cleaning performance over our two years of use.

The V15 is also extremely easy to maneuver. Our home has lots of stairs, and plenty of nooks and crannies where dust and hair like to collect and lurk, and the V15 Detect does a great job of getting into all of them. I love how easily and smoothly the head pivots, and the fact it can lie completely flat to the ground for cleaning under beds.

Many of the newest Shark vacuums have a hinge on the vacuum wand, which enables it to bend forwards for cleaning under furniture. It works well, but adds bulk to the wand, and the whole thing is slightly unwieldy in its folded state. For my home, the Dyson setup works perfectly well, but if you're lacking in maneuvering room, perhaps Shark's 'MultiFlex' / 'Flexology' solution would be a better fit.

I'm also a huge fan of the Dyson V15's secret crevice tool. It's hidden in the wand, so I'm never without it. Our house is tall and thin, with four floors, and this built-in tool means that if I spot a dusty corner at the top of the house, I don't have to traipse all the way down to the utility room to fetch a detail tool to deal with it. As far as I'm aware, this feature is exclusive to Dyson at the moment.

Having tested a number of vacuums from Dyson and various other brands, I'm always struck by how consistently high quality and well-built the Dyson vacs feel. There's a strong attention to detail in the design, and they feel sturdy and reliable. That's still true of the V15 after nearly two years of use.

Lasers and data

Now on to a couple of features that have divided opinion within my household. The V15 comes with a couple of different floorheads: the Digital motorbar head, which has bristles and is designed for use on any floor type, and the Fluffy optic head, which is entirely soft and built for use on hard flooring. The latter is equipped with a green light to illuminate dust.

I'm very on board with the Fluffy floorhead. I love that it feels gentle on our tiled kitchen floor (and doesn't clatter over it as most vacuum cleaner heads will), and I appreciate the way the light draws attention to dust and hair lurking in dingy corners. I find it very satisfying to then whisk that dust away, and always feel I'm getting a far more thorough clean than I would without this feature.

However, my partner is not so enamored with the Fluffy floorhead. He feels the Digital motorbar floorhead works perfectly well on hard floors, and it's not worth the hassle of swapping the heads over.

Then there are the real-time dust reports on the screen. I find these endlessly fascinating, and I enjoy seeing the dust hotspots causing the bar graphs to spike. However, when I asked my partner for his thoughts, it became clear that not only was he not paying them any attention, but he didn't really know what they were. Is is possible the general public is just not as invested in the intricacies of vacuum cleaning as I am? Maybe.

Bulking up

Moving on to the down-sides of the V15. The most significant complaint I have with it is that V15 Detect is that it's pretty heavy. Further to that, the weight is concentrated in the main motor section, which itself is rather elongated in shape. That makes it rather unwieldy, and especially when used in handheld mode.

All of Dyson's newer vacuums (I'd say from this model onwards — so the V15, the Gen5detect and the V16 Piston Animal) suffer from this weight distribution issue.

Looking to Shark's range, the fancier models, such as the PowerDetect Cordless, are actually heavier overall. However, the motor/handle section is more squat in shape, and there's more weight through the wand and into the floorhead. That means more even weight distribution, which can make for a more comfortable vacuuming experience.

A triggering issue

Another big complaint I have with the V15 is that it's trigger-operated, with no option to lock it for continual running. I find that irritating when I'm using the vacuum for long periods, or trying to get into awkward corners while keeping the trigger compressed.

I prefer the setup on Dyson's newer models, where there's a one-press power button. However, that's still not perfect — it requires you to have a hand free to turn the machine on and off, because the power button is not reachable from your holding hand.

Most modern Shark models use button operation, and just like the Dyson designs, you can't reach the button from your holding hand. My ideal design is one where the vacuum is trigger-operated but with a lock for continual running. No Dyson vacuum has this setup, and neither do any of Shark's newest stick vacs, although that brand's range is so sprawling you might find a trigger-plus-lock design somewhere.

One comment that I hear sometimes about Dyson stick vacuums is that they don't always last as long as customers expect. Our V15 is still going strong after just under two years (which is actually at the lower end of how long cordless vacuums are meant to last, although most people would probably hope for longer).

Prior to that, my partner had a Dyson Cyclone V10, which lasted over five years. At that point the battery conked out, and replacing it only fixed the issue for a few months. I think that's a decent lifespan for a vacuum, but your mileage may vary.

Is it worth it?

After two years using my Dyson V15, I'd still recommend it. Its cleaning powers are excellent with no signs of fading, its special features genuinely useful, and I love how maneuverable it is.

I personally also prefer it to Shark's newest models. I cover my main thoughts on this in my Shark vs Dyson article, but as a short overview, it's special features feel superior — Dyson's laser lights are far more effective than Shark's headlamps, and its Auto mode feels more precise. The Dyson also pivots more smoothly and the overall design feels sleeker and more high-end.

However, it's not a clear-cut decision. The Shark PowerDetect Cordless offers the best outright cleaning performance of any vacuum I've used, including all the Dyson models. Shark's models also arguably deliver better value for money — although its higher-spec models still sit in the premium price tier.

The bottom line? After using the V15 for a couple of years, and testing multiple other vacs from different brands including Shark, I'm still something of a Dyson fan-girl. When our at-home vac finally bites the dust, we'll probably end up buying another Dyson, although I will still be checking out what Shark has to offer...

Air stylers are very much the hot hair tool of the moment. When Dyson's first Airwrap hit the shelves in 2018, it felt like we were immediately hooked. We watched, entranced, as this wand-shaped styler grabbed a limp piece of hair, span it around, and left a perfect curl in its wake. And all without any extreme heat? It felt too good to be true.

And maybe it was. When I spoke to Dr Julie Chung, co-founder of major haircare brand T3, she advised that we take a much more cautious approach to the air styler phenomenon than we're used to hearing.

"This device is not for all hair types," she tells me. "And for any company to say, 'Oh, this is for all hair kind', 'this is for every single woman', it's simply not true."

She talks about how cool air-styler tools look on social media, but how, after the initial curl-creation magic has been captured, many women will find the styles just don't last on their hair.

"The more that I would watch women use this device on social, the more I saw women being very, very upset that they spent $600 on a device that created a curl for maybe a minute. They'd be in the mirror, it looks great, then they turn away for two seconds, look back and the curls have fallen," she recalls of the early days of air stylers.

One size does not fit all

Dr Chung is clear that even T3's own air styler — the Aire 360 — isn't for everyone. "Curls in general… it depends on the woman's hair type," she explains. "Some women can use a Dyson Airwrap with no product and be able to curl their hair and it'll stay. But that's because these are women whose hair tends to hold a curl really, really well.

"A woman with fine hair, for example, will dm me and say, the Shark didn't work. The Dyson didn't work. Should I get the Aire 360? And I would tell her, no. Just like Brandy Melvilles [a fashion brand that's been criticized for only offering clothing in one, small size] one size does not fit all. I can't even get the shorts over one leg."

So you might have hair that will naturally hold an air styler curl with no further effort required. Or you might need to add product, and take time to cool and set the air-styler curl.

Alternatively, a curling iron might give you much better and longer-lasting results (Dr Chung is also of the belief that 'heat has been demonized incorrectly — but that's a different subject), or you might need to use a curling iron to create ribbon curls. Dr Chung mentions T3's CEO, whose hair won't even hold a curling iron curl, and who needs a hot-roller set.

Your needs will be shaped not just by your hair texture, Dr Chung explains, but all manner of other aspects, from your lifestyle to the kind of climate you're living in, to your hair cut, and whether it's been colored, and the products you're using on it. There's a full spectrum of needs, and a full spectrum of tools.

She adds: "I've always said this to both consumers and editors alike: I can help you find the tool that will work for you, but that one tool that you're looking at, that some companies say it's for everybody. It's not for you. "I'm not going to sell you something that you'll come back and say it didn't work because I knew it wasn't going to work. I don't think that's some mind-blowing concept."

Whether it’s a vacuum cleaner, a hand dryer, an air purifier, or a fan, Dyson products rarely look like anything else on the market — and that’s particularly apparent at the company’s campus in Malmesbury, southwest England, where images of recent launches decorate the walls like modern art. The sprawling complex, in a particularly beautiful patch of Wiltshire countryside, is home to Dyson’s global Research, Design and Development (RDD) center, and the Dyson Institute, where students from around the world study while working alongside engineers on live projects. I visited the center to meet the company’s Chief Engineer Jake Dyson — son of founder Sir James Dyson — and learn more about the company’s approach to design.

Jake Dyson didn’t join his father’s business immediately; instead he set up a workshop and made a name for himself in the world of industrial lighting. Sitting in his office, I asked whether his experience in that sector had contributed to his work at Dyson today.

“Yes, it comes down to identifying problems and solving them,” he explained. “When LEDs first entered the market, I realized people weren’t cooling them properly. The promise of LEDs is that they should last a lifetime, but in reality they were being treated like disposable lightbulbs. I visited Osram in Asia, and they explained that if you keep the diode temperature below about 50C [120F, you can maintain brightness, color quality, and lifespan. That became my goal.

“I looked at how satellites manage heat. In space, temperatures swing from extremely hot to extremely cold, so they need precise thermal control. I applied similar thinking by designing systems that passively dissipate heat. For example, the heat moves away from the chip and is cooled by airflow, maintaining a stable temperature even at high power. That process, spotting a problem and solving it, is what drives everything.”

That problem-solving approach has always been the driving force behind the Dyson brand, and explains its unusual portfolio of products; its engineers have never been afraid to venture into new areas when there’s a problem to be solved.

“Sometimes it comes from frustration," said Jake Dyson. "'This product is rubbish, how can we make it better?’ Other times it’s curiosity: ‘Why does this work the way it does?’”

Problem-first design

James Dyson’s book Invention: A Life of Learning Through Failure, describes how the problem-first process led to the creation of many of the company’s most iconic and recognizable products — starting with a humble wheelbarrow. Dyson and his wife Deidre were renovating a house in Gloucestershire, England, and wanted to create a garden, but the traditional tools proved frustrating.

“I used a navy barrow in anger and its limitations became increasingly clear,” writes Dyson. “Cement slopped out of it. Its tubular legs sunk into the ground. It was hard to steer. Its sharp edges damaged doorframes. The more I used it, the more I realized that nobody had really thought about these problems or bothered to fix them.”

After much experimentation with shapes, materials, and manufacturing processes, the result was the Ballbarrow: a molded plastic bucket on a steel frame, with the conventional wheel replaced by a pneumatic ball made from EVA (ethylene-vinyl acetate). This spread the weight of the load more evenly on soft ground, and was easier to maneuver than a wheel — and in bright orange, it looked unlike anything else at the time.

The product itself was a success, but due to a series of poor business decisions, Dyson senior eventually lost control of the company he had founded around it, Kirk-Dyson, and was ultimately kicked out by the other shareholders.

“I had lost five years of work by not valuing my creation,” he wrote. “I had failed to protect the one thing that was most valuable to me.”

It was a painful experience, but one he learned from as he pressed on with identifying and solving problems — starting with the creation of the first cyclonic vacuum cleaner, which he designed after realizing that dust bags don’t just serve to collect dust — they also act as filters that block airflow, drastically reducing suction power.

“I remembered the same clogging problem on the calico cloth with the powder coating in the Ballbarrow factory and the giant cyclone we had made to solve it,” he wrote. “What if I could develop a much smaller version and replace the clogging bag in a vacuum cleaner?”

Thousands of prototypes later (5,127 to be precise), he had the world’s first bagless vacuum — and a vast collection of patents to protect it.

Dyson’s understanding of airflow and cyclonic technology has informed almost all of the company’s subsequent products; but like the vacuum, each one started with a problem. The Dyson Airblade hand dryer was created to reduce waste paper towels; the Airmultiplier fan solved the issue of ‘choppy’ air from conventional fan blades; the Pure Hot+Cool purifier was made to tackle indoor air pollution; and the Supersonic hairdryer solved the problem of heavy and uncomfortable hairdryers with weighty motors.

In every case, the form of the finished product was dictated by the problem it was designed to solve — even if the result looked totally unlike established versions of the device.

“That’s why Dyson products often look unusual; they’re built around their function,” said Jake Dyson in his Malmesbury office. “They’re also beautiful. A hair dryer has a hole through it because of how the airflow works. Fans and other products expose their engineering principles through the way they look — we’re not hiding how things work, we’re expressing it.”

Creative color

Those unusual designs are often set off by equally unusual color schemes, which tend to highlight buttons, switches, removable canisters, and other functional parts.

“We have a team here, CMF, which is colors, materials and finishes, that look into the appearance but also materials of our products," said Jake Dyson.

The CMF team doesn’t just draw on experience from successful projects, but also failed ones like the cancelled Dyson electric car, which provided finish and material ideas for many of the company’s health and beauty devices.

Most recently, CMF lent its expertise to Dyson's first hand-held fan — the Dyson HushHet Mini Cool — which launched just in time for a series of heatwaves in the UK. It sold out almost immediately, and after testing it myself, I can see why; it’s compact, much more powerful than its closest rival, the Shark ChillPill, and more affordable to boot.

“We’ve seen strong demand [for the HushHet Mini Cool], and it’s one of those products where people don’t initially realize they need it but once they try it, they understand the value,” said Jake Dyson. “It’s designed to be reusable, not disposable like cheaper alternatives. I've seen people with the cheap plastic fans that break very [easily], but we wanted ours to be well engineered, durable, quiet and efficient.

“We’re working on scaling production, but demand has been very strong, so availability can sometimes be limited. That said, it is coming back to market.”

So what does the future hold? The company is investigating ways to use AI where it will actually add value, helping machines interpret data and make better decisions, and Jake Dyson says that "vision systems and new product directions" are the most exciting areas for him.

"We’ve historically been very strong in mechanical engineering motors, airflow, performance. But now, adding cameras and vision systems allows machines to detect what they’re looking at, understand it and act accordingly.

"That opens up entirely new categories of products and capabilities, so we’re moving from purely mechanical devices to machines that can see, think, and respond, and that’s where the next wave of innovation is coming from."

It'll be fascinating to see which problems the company will be looking to solve with those new technologies, and there's no way of knowing what the next generation of Dyson products will look like as the company expands into new areas. We'll just have to wait and see — but it's definitely not going to be boring.

Following the launch of Dyson's first ever compact hair dryer, the Supersonic Travel, I spent four weeks putting it through its paces, including during a trip to San Francisco — you can read about this in depth in my Dyson Supersonic Travel review.

What I kept coming back to was how similar it seemed to Dyson's Supersonic Nural, despite there being a $150 / £150 / AU$300 gap between the two. Both use the same motor and the same intelligent heat control technology. Both use the same magnetic attachment system, meaning any nozzle or diffuser from either machine works on both. And both deliver the same smooth, frizz-free finish that Dyson has become known for.

I've tested many of the best hair dryers on the market, and Dyson consistently sits near the top. So if the technology is this similar, what exactly are you paying the extra cash for — and is the Nural worth it? I tested the two side by side. Here's what you need to know.

Dyson Supersonic Travel vs Supersonic Nural dryer: efficiency

On sheer drying power, the Nural wins. It's a full-size dryer with full airflow, and on my fine, mid-length hair it dried in around two and a half minutes on high heat. The Travel took around four minutes in the same conditions.

Four minutes is fast for a travel dryer — faster than every hotel dryer I've used and faster than some standard home dryers too. The finish was smooth and shiny every time, which is the more important result. But the gap is significant, and if you have thick or long hair that already takes 15 or 20 minutes at home, you'll feel it a lot more than I did.

Both have a 110,000 RPM motor, and both use a built-in thermistor sensor that continuously monitors air temperature to prevent heat damage and protect your hair's shine.

Interestingly, the cheaper Travel measures temperature more frequently than the pricier Nural — over 100 times per second versus 40. However, where the Travel uses it as a protective measure, the Nural uses it in more advanced ways for its Scalp Protect Mode. This mode uses a network of Nural sensors and an infrared beam to measure the distance between the dryer and your scalp in real time, automatically reducing heat and airflow as it gets closer to maintain a consistent 131 F / 55 C at the roots.

Winner: Dyson Supersonic Nural

Dyson Supersonic Travel vs Supersonic Nural dryer: design & comfort

Both the Nural and Travel look unmistakably like Dyson products. They have the same cylindrical head, narrow handle, and magnetic barrel as the entire Supersonic range. I tested the Travel in Ceramic Pink/Rose Gold and the Nural in Red Velvet/Gold, and both have a stylish soft matte finish.

The biggest and most obvious design difference is in size.

The Nural weighs 1.5lbs / 684g and measures 3.8 x 3 x 11.3 inches / 9.8 x 7.7 x 28 cm. The Travel is 32% smaller — at 2.7 x 2.8 x 8.7 inches / 6.8 x 7.1 x 22.2 cm — and almost half the weight. This makes it small and light enough to drop into a handbag without rearranging everything around it and I carried the Travel to San Francisco in a tote bag alongside my laptop and it barely registered.

Both put airflow and temperature buttons on the rear of the barrel, with LEDs above each button showing your current setting. On the Nural, these LEDs change color as you cycle through settings to make it easier to see, at a glance, what setting you're on. The Travel's stay white, making it harder.

Beyond this, the Nural offers four heat settings plus three airflow speeds. The Travel has three heat settings and two airflow speeds. On the Travel, its cool shot requires sliding the power button upward past its 'on' position. This will be familiar if you own a Dyson Airwrap i.d but if you don't, this feature won't feel obvious the first time you use the Travel.

The Nural gives you meaningfully more control over both heat and airflow, which matters if you have multiple hair types or needs in your household, or if you regularly switch between drying and styling with different attachments.

Cord length is 9.2ft / 2.8m on the Nural and 6.6ft / 2m on the Travel, and neither folds. The Travel's cord is longer than I'd like for a machine sold primarily on portability but this longer length does make it easier to use in a hotel room when the plug socket aren't always in the most useful places.

Winner: Draw – even though the Nural has some standout design benefits compared to the Travel, they fit different needs: the Nural is better designed for home, while the Travel is better for everywhere else.

Dyson Supersonic Travel vs Supersonic Nural dryer: special features

The Travel's standout feature is auto-voltage. It adapts automatically to any supply between 100V and 240V without the need for a converter or a switch. I used it in San Francisco with a standard plug adapter and there was no drop in power, change in noise or overheating.

The Nural counters with Scalp Protect Mode, which uses proprietary sensors to detect proximity to your scalp and automatically drops the air temperature. When you pull the dryer away, it returns to your selected setting. This setting works in the background, and over months of daily use I haven't once scorched my roots on a high heat setting. For anyone with a sensitive scalp, fine hair, or hair growth concerns, it's a functional benefit rather than a convenience feature.

The Nural also has Attachment Learning, which recognises which nozzle is fitted via RFID chips and remembers your preferred settings.

For example, if you swap to the diffuser, the Nural will automatically drop to your usual diffuser heat and speed. The Pause Detect feature then cuts the airflow when the dryer is put down and resumes when you pick it back up.

The Travel has neither of those features but it is compatible with the entire Supersonic and Supersonic Nural attachment range. If you already own the Nural, you can pack your existing nozzles and diffuser and use them on the Travel.

Winner: Dyson Nural – the Travel's auto-voltage is the most widely practical feature across the two dryers but the Nural is a much more advanced choice.

Dyson Supersonic Travel vs Supersonic Nural dryer: specs

Should I buy the Dyson Supersonic Travel or Supersonic Nural dryer?

Buy the Dyson Supersonic Travel if...

✅ You travel frequently and your hair matters to you: Hotel dryers are a lottery. The Travel gives you consistent Dyson-quality results wherever you are.

✅ You already own a Dyson Supersonic or Nural: The attachment compatibility means you're not buying a second set of nozzles – just a travel body for your existing routine.

✅ You have fine or mid-length hair: The reduced airflow won't be an issue for finer hair types. Four minutes is still fast, and the intelligent heat control means the finish is just as good as you'd get from a full-size dryer.

Buy the Dyson Supersonic Nural if...

✅ You want the best Dyson for home use: Full airflow, smarter controls, color-coded LEDs and five attachments make this the more complete package for everyday drying.

✅ You have a sensitive scalp or fine hair at the roots: Scalp Protect Mode works in the background and over months of daily use, the difference in root and hair health is noticeable.

✅ You dry your hair every day: The Nural's Attachment Learning and Pause Detect are small features that add up to an easier daily routine.

2026 is almost over — well, not quite, but given we're already halfway through the year, it won't be long before those year-end awards are in sight again. And with the 2026 progress bar hitting 50% this week, we decided it was a good time to look back on the last six months and pick out the early 'gadget of the year' contenders from everything we've tested since January.

And we've been testing a lot — 639 products, to be precise, have passed through our labs and the real, unvarnished lives of our experienced testers this year. Those hundreds of gadgets span everything from coffee machines and smartphones to life-boosting accessories like portable DACs, fans and smart Lego.

So if you've just woken up from a six-month nap (we don't blame you) or are looking for some gadget inspiration, the list below will make for some fascinating reading. It doesn't contain every five-star product we've tested this year (check out our separate five-star review roundup for those), but it is a temperature check of all the products our reviewers haven't been able to stop talking about over the past six months...

21. Fitbit Air

• The fitness tracker of 2026 so far

The Google Fitbit Air is the highest-profile, most exciting fitness release of 2026 so far, and it’s generated plenty of buzz online. A screenless Whoop-style band weighing just 12 grams (including strap!) and with up to a week of battery life, the Fitbit Air is the most exciting thing we’ve seen from Fitbit since Google brought the brand.

The hardware is excellent, proving to record heart rate accurately in our comparison tests, and it’s eminently comfortable to wear. I had no problems wearing it virtually 24/7 during my testing period, including to shower and sleep in. It looked great, was super-light, felt comfortable and delivered accurate, insightful metrics.

The app is another story. While its AI-powered premium functionality is good, not everyone’s going to jive with the chatbot format of the AI Coach, and existing Fitbit users are irked that their community features and historic badges were deleted, replaced by an AI Coach to help you ‘celebrate your achievements’ in a different way. The app is uniformly recognized as being messy and cluttered, too. But away from the app’s design, the tracker is still the boldest, most interesting release in the fitness tech world this year.

Matt Evans, Senior Editor, Fitness, Wellness & Wearables

• Read our in-depth Fitbit Air review

20. Maxell Wireless Cassette Player

• Our favorite blast from the gadget past

Look me in the eye and tell me you have no cassette tapes hiding anywhere in your home. Right, there’s a shoebox somewhere. But where to play them? That’s where the Maxell Wireless Cassette Player comes in.

Not only is it brand new gear to play these old tapes, but it works with your favorite Bluetooth headphones; I found it the perfect blend of nostalgia and modern audio pleasure. Even its imperfect functionality, like flaky Bluetooth support, was somehow charming.

I wish it had recording like my old portable cassette player, but it was still kind of wonderful to get to hear old mixtapes, recordings, and even classic releases from 1980s music icons (The Traveling Wilburys!) again.

Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large

• Read our in-depth Maxell Wireless Cassette Player review

19. MacBook Neo

• Still a winner, despite its recent price hike

Up until a month ago, the MacBook Neo was my favorite laptop of 2026, and I didn’t think there’d be any other new laptop this year that could beat it. With a launch price of $599 / £599 / AU$899, it was the cheapest MacBook you could get, and despite its budget price, it offered the kind of build quality, design, screen and performance that you just didn’t expect from laptops and Chromebooks around that price point.

It certainly made a big impact. Running on the A18 Pro chip, it could run pretty much any macOS app that more expensive Macs could, offered excellent battery life and a bright and vibrant display (something a lot of budget laptop makers often neglected to keep prices down). It sold like hot cakes, and gave a kick up the bum to rivals. Since its launch, both Acer and Dell have announced laptops (the new Acer Swift Air and Dell XPS 13) that the companies are very open about how they’ve been designed to take on the MacBook Neo.

However, last month Apple announced a raft of price increases for some of its products, including a $100 / £100 increase in price for the MacBook Neo. While not a massive increase (unlike what the MacBook Air and Pro got), it’s enough to make the MacBook Neo less of an instant recommendation, and some of its compromises, such as slow USB-C ports and no backlit keyboard, are suddenly harder to forgive.

Matt Hanson, Managing Editor, Core Tech

• Read our in-depth MacBook Neo review

18. Lego Smart Brick

• The opinion-splitter that won us over

The toy brand introduced a new technology-fueled piece in its iconic build block system this year at CES 2026 — and while some reactions have been mixed online we here at TechRadar have fallen in love with the system. If you’re a kid who loves playing with your sets and not just admiring them it hits the mark (almost) perfectly.

Out the gate it featured in a handful of Star Wars themed builds adding iconic starship noises, blaster fire effects, and flashing lights as the model moves and its play features are used. It does this thanks to motion and color sensors in the brick which perform different effects based on the special NFC tiles the smart brick is placed onto — the tile effectively programs the smart brick’s lights and speakers while they touch.

Admittedly it wasn’t perfect at launch, but Lego has already started to solve some of our issues with the builds and the brick’s interactiveness in its upcoming Pokémon Smart Play sets — helping to cement the smart brick as one of the best gadgets of the year, and we’re confident it’ll only get better.

Hamish Hector, Senior Staff Writer, News

• Read our hands-on Lego Smart Brick review

17. iFi Go Link 2

• A huge audio upgrade for your phone or laptop

Some hi-res products require careful tinkering and compatibility testing. This isn't one of those. Instead it's a no-fuss, super-small headphone DAC (which stands for digital-analog-converter) to effectively take the job away from the small and likely pretty basic DAC and amp stage in your smartphone or laptop, do the conversion job a lot better, and deliver the improved audio to your wired earbuds or headphones (and thus, to your shell-likes) of choice.

Did I mention it's also super-cheap? This thing costs just $59 / £59 and it essentially turns your source device's sound into something you'd get from hi-res player — and those can cost thousands.

It's smaller and lighter than the iFi options that came before it too. The Go Link 2 will happily slip into your pocket or bag along with your smartphone without issue, and if you're looking to get in on the wired trend (hey, lots of people are) it's a very good way to add wired headphone support to devices that have long since dropped the 3.5mm headphone jack.

OK, its amp stage won't be enough to drive high impedance planar magnetic cans (and those would probably come toting a 4.4mm jack anyway, which this doesn't have) but provided you're just looking to level up with closed-back dynamic solutions, this is little money, well-spent.

Becky Scarrott, Audio Editor

• Read our full iFi Go Link 2 review

16. RayNeo Air 4 Pro

• A lightweight personal cinema for travelers

Android XR and Meta might be stealing the smart glasses spotlight in 2026 with their announcements, but here at TechRadar we think the best new pair to launch so far this year is something a little different: the RayNeo Air 4 Pro.

The biggest difference between the RayNeo and those other specs is they don’t bother with AI — instead they’re effectively a portable display for your compatible phone, tablet, laptop, console, essentially anything that can output video and audio via USB-C.

The Air 4 Pro don't reinvent the wheel but add important new tools like being the first specs of their kind to support HDR10 — leading to more accurate and vibrant colors from their micro-OLED displays. Couple that with solid sound, a comfy fit, and optional Batman/Joker stylings for DC mega fans (plainer designs are available) and you have something incredible.

Hamish Hector, Senior Staff Writer, News

• Read our in-depth RayNeo Air 4 Pro review

15. MacBook Air M5

• The best ultraportable we've ever used

The MacBook Air is, in some ways, the portable most other laptops aspire to; it’s thin, light, surprisingly powerful, and has simply outstanding battery life.

At the time of review, Apple had doubled that storage space (far more important than you might think), finally upgraded connectivity to the future (Wi-Fi 7 and BLE 6) and, of course, slipped in the new M5 silicon.

The price rose a bit, and some wished for more colors (heck, maybe they'll think about Citrus for the next Air), but none of this really detracted from the MacBook Air’s sizable qualities, including a fantastic keyboard, huge ForceTouch trackpad, and Thunderbolt 4 ports. MacBook Air was the laptop that lured me away from Windows, and the M5 model is what’s keeping me here.

Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large

• Read our in-depth Apple MacBook Air 13-inch (M5) 

14. Oppo Find X9 Ultra

• The new camera phone king

If you're in any doubt about whether the Oppo Find X9 Ultra is the best camera phone on the market right now, just look at the devices we've compared it to. In our Oppo Find X9 Ultra vs Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra comparison, the Chinese flagship came out on top in almost every category, and in our Oppo Find X9 Ultra vs Lumix TZ300 vs Nikon Z8 comparison, we found that its telephoto capabilities "render most travel zoom compact cameras redundant." High praise indeed.

So, yes, the Find X9 Ultra — which is the first Ultra-branded Oppo phone to ship outside of China (albeit not in the US) — is the new camera phone king. But it comes with plenty of other flagship bells and whistles, too. There's the Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chipset, the 12GB of RAM, the 6.8-inch OLED display, and the enormous 7,050mAh battery. And Oppo's software has also come on leaps and bounds in recent years.

If we're talking 'the best phones of 2026 so far', the Find X9 Ultra is a must-include.

Axel Metz, Phones Editor

• Read our in-depth Oppo Find X9 Ultra review

13. Audeze Maxwell 2

• The best-sounding gaming headset I've ever tested

The Audeze Maxwell 2 isn't the gaming headset that's received the highest score from our team of reviewers so far this year on TechRadar Gaming, but it's still one of the absolute best to release this year. And it gets that mantle on sound quality alone.

The 90mm planar magnetic drivers produce the finest gaming audio I've ever experienced, and I can't imagine using anything else now (unless I have to for pesky work reasons). Audeze's patented SLAM tech means the bottom end is even better than ever, and so the whole soundscape is much more rounded and fulsome, while being exceptionally detailed and immersive.

It's a chunky headset, yes, but it has all the modern features you realistically need to get the most out of a headset for single-player immersion and gaining edges in multiplayer games: a robust mic, reliable connectivity, good design and build, all supporting that brilliant audio quality.

After nearly a decade of testing and reviewing gaming headsets of all stripes, I have not been treated to audio this good. It's proven so good that I disagree with our own review (sorry, Phil) and have written about how, after a few months of living with the Maxwell 2, I think it's a five-star gaming headset. If you want to consider any new gaming headset of 2026 thus far to upgrade your audio game, then this has to be it.

(Rob Dwiar, Managing Editor, TechRadar Gaming and Streaming)

• Read our in-depth Audeze Maxwell 2 review and my op-ed on why I would have scored the Maxwell 2 higher

12. Dyson PencilVax FluffyCones

• The most streamlined vacuum we've ever used

It's been a long time since I saw a vacuum that truly made me do a double-take, but that was the case with the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones. Instead of the chunky dust cup / battery / filter configuration usually found at the top of a stick vacuum, the PencilVac has... nothing. There's just a broom-shaped handle. In fact, this handle houses all those components, except they've been shrunk down to an almost impossibly small size, and hidden away. That makes the PencilVac incredibly light, nimble, and easy to wield.

The floorhead is equally unique, with its two pairs of cone-shaped, fluffy rollers, rotating in opposite directions to whisk away dust from hard floors and clear hair without tangling. This head pivots ultra-smoothly, can be used either way around, and enhances the incredible maneuverability on offer here. A truly innovative design from Dyson, and a useful one at that.

Ruth Hamilton, Collections Editor

• Read our full Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones review

11. Dali Sonik 1

• Small, passive stereo speakers that sound twice their size

It's not just because the Dali Sonik 1 are clearly the cat's miaow — although that never hurts!

The Dali Sonik 1 are the smallest in the Danish brand's ever-expanding new line of passive stereo speakers, but while this February 2026 proposition might be bijou, they sound easily twice their size. And for this money, that's a huge win.

We love them for their clear-mindedness, sparkling vocal reproduction, textured transients and remarkably deep, thumping robustness. They’re also low-distortion, with a sonic profile that never falls foul of overstating itself, apart from a very occasionally overzealous bass reflex (but that's largely down to placement).

You might be thinking you've seen this all before: small passive stereo speakers, they must all basically be the same, no? The Dali Sonik 1 are better than that — in fact we think they're currently the absolute best in their size and price category. It could well be the Sonik 1’s use of Dali’s trademarked Clarity Cone technology (taken from the Kore range before it), or the “SMC” (Soft Magnetic Composite)-assisted magnet systems that constitute the driver.

However it has been achieved, collectively this in-house wizardry has created a fulsome yet supremely natural-sounding set of standmount speakers. And they'll easily fit into your home (for a refreshingly palatable fee).

Becky Scarrott, Audio Editor

• Red our fully star-rated Dali Sonik 1 review

Our top 10 of 2026 (so far)

10. Apple AirPods Max 2

• The best noise-cancelling iPhone headphones on the planet

At first glance, Apple's March-issue second-generation flagship headphones probably didn't receive too many hugely excited whoops and cheers from the Cupertino giant's noted fanbase. Why? Because they arrived looking exactly the same as the first pair.

And they still come out on top in any mid-year headphones roundup. The ANC is just that good. We may sometimes be harsh at TechRadar, but we're always fair…

Put them on your head, engage the ANC and get them playing music. Suddenly it's impossible to knock them. There's a new H2 chip in each ear cup (plus a new amplification module) and that combination is a bona-fide game-changer.

OK, so you can use the Digital Crown as a remote and yes, you can now use Live Translation, nod or shake your head to control call-handling, or pipe up and the headphones now adjust playback accordingly. But none of these under-the-hood improvements is what seals the deal for me.

No, it's all about the sound, underpinned by the noise cancellation performance that is 1.5 times better — and anyone who owns the inaugural set will know how big a deal that is. Also, the overall sonic profile is punchier, more vibrant and with an extra ounce dynamic nuance across the frequencies.

The only reason I couldn't give them the full five stars? The stamina, at only 20 hours with ANC deployed. The thing is, when the cocoon of silence is this good, I'll take a hit on battery life.

Becky Scarrott, Audio Editor

• Read my full and in-depth Apple AirPods Max 2 review

9. Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra

• The new king of Android

It can be hard to mess with near perfection, but that was the task facing Samsung when it built the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra. It’s a follow-up to the best Android flagship I'd ever used and, thankfully, the S26 Ultra did not disappoint.

The excellent, solid design (despite losing titanium) is a perfect showcase for Samsung’s vast OneUI 8 and all that AI. Plus it has a built-in S Pen that’s endlessly useful and new privacy screen feature that's so cool I wonder when Apple will copy it.

The just-short-of-perfection is mostly because it wasn't a full redesign some wished for and the frustrating lack of any kind of MagSafe charging capabilities. Those were, obviously, minor niggles in what is otherwise a powerful, big-screen handset that should be on everyone’s Android shortlist.

Lance Ulanoff, Editor at Large

• Read our in-depth Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra review

8. EcoFlow Stream Ultra X

• A game-changing home battery for renters

It's no surprise that in a year of spiraling energy costs one of the big trends has been home batteries that can cut chunks out of your electricity bills — and this powerful, balcony-friendly unit is the most complete we've tested so far.

The EcoFlow Stream Ultra X isn't cheap and, at the time of writing, isn't available in the US (although its lower-capacity Stream Ultra X sibling is). But with its 3.84 kWH capacity and AI-powered energy management, it is a glimpse of a smart home genre that will soon become mainstream.

In short, this lithium iron phosphate battery charges from the sun via solar panels or from cheap grid power during the day, then powers your home at night. In our tests, we estimated that it could easily pay for itself in three years — and that's without connecting it to solar panels.

On its own, the Stream Ultra X isn't powerful enough to power your whole home during a power cut — it's more like the first rung on a ladder that can take you to solar or a bigger home energy system. But you can connect five more Stream series units to hit 23 kWh of power, and its versatility makes it one of the best examples so far of what the Germans call 'Balkonkraftwerke' (or 'balcony power plants').

Mark Wilson, Managing Editor, News (UK)

• Read our in-depth EcoFlow Stream Ultra X review

7. Sony InZone H6 Air

• Sony’s first open-back gaming headset is the best

This year Sony debuted its first open-back gaming headset with the Inzone H6 Air, and it’s the best such model that we’ve tested, blowing strong competitors like the Turtle Beach Atlas Air out of the water.

Underpinned by the same studio quality drivers found in the audio giant’s ever-reliable MDR-MV1 studio monitor headphones, now reworked for additional bass, it delivers crystal-clear, well-balanced sound that’s perfect for both gaming and music listening.

That open-back design lends itself to a wonderfully wide soundstage that adds depth to your favorite games — the detailed weapon sound effects of Battlefield 6 have never seemed so real, while we found that more narrative driven titles like The Last of Us Part 2 or Assassin’s Creed Shadows benefit from a whole new level of aural immersion.

They’re incredibly light and comfortable, coming in at 7oz / 199g, but that doesn’t mean that they feel cheap. The premium aluminum earcup shells are hardwearing and we’re certain that the durable fabric headband will last us for many years to come.

Dashiell Wood, Gaming Editor

• Read our in-depth Sony InZone H6 Air review

6. DJI Avata 360

• Our new favorite all-seeing drone

The big new trend for drones in 2026 is 360 models. A bit like flying versions of cameras like the Insta360 X5, these all-seeing aerial gadgets let you reframe your aerial videos and photos after you've landed, so you don't need to be so precise or decisive up in the sky.

The DJI Avata 360 isn't the first 360 drone we've seen — that was the Antigravity A1 — but it is our new favorite thanks to its unrivaled versatility. Yes, you can shoot 360 videos thanks to its dual 1-inch sensors, then edit that footage using DJI Fly mobile app or the DJI Studio desktop software.

But switch to the drone's single-lens mode, and you effectively have a DJI Avata 2, an FPV drone that can perform aerial acrobatics and get some very different footage. Because you get to choose between using FPV goggles and a standard RC2 two-stick controller, you also don't always need to bring along a spotter friend to fly it legally either.

Mark Wilson, Managing Editor, News (UK)

• Read our in-depth DJI Avata 360 review

5. Dyson HushJet Mini Cool

• A surprisingly powerful heat wave savior

Heatwaves have been another big theme of 2026 — and if you've been baking under a 'heat dome' in the past few months, you might well be interested in the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool, a tiny fan whose performance is as good as its name.

Dyson’s first portable fan excels for two main reasons. Firstly, the fan’s powerful motor reaches a staggering 65,000rpm, and the shape of the HushJet nozzle concentrates the airflow so it’s all directed right at you. Even on the lowest setting you can really feel it, but dial it up to maximum and you’d think you’re using a hairdryer.

You also don’t just have to use it as a hand-held fan — you can wear it around your neck, attach it to clothing or a bag strap, or stand upright on your desk, so it’s pretty versatile to boot. But we know what you’re thinking; it's a Dyson, so isn’t it going to be ridiculously expensive? Fortunately not, so that's why we awarded it a rare five stars.

Rowan Davies, Editorial Associate

• Read our in-depth Dyson HushJet Mini Cool review

4. JBL Go 5

• The best tiny Bluetooth speaker, now even better

When I fired the JBL Go 5 up for the first time, it genuinely blew me away. See, its predecessor was already a very solid-sounding speaker given its minuscule size, and it had great build quality and features to match.

But JBL really outdid itself with this sequel. The Go 5 has even more open and expressive sound than what came before, with clean and agile bass, enhanced detail and clarity in the mid-range, as well as articulate and controlled treble. Pair that with new, customizable edge lighting, improved IP68 dust and waterproofing, and options like USB-C lossless audio, and the Go 5 is easily one of the best small speakers on the market.

It’s also drop-proof, comes in a range of funky colors, and has personalizable EQ, enabling you to find the perfect sound for any occasion. At less than $55 / £40, it’s also sensational value for money, and it couldn’t be more deserving of its five-star rating.

Harry Padoan, Senior Writer, Reviews

• Read our in-depth JBL Go 5 review

3. Philips Baristina

• Bean-to-cup that's great value and a doddle to use

As far as entry-level coffee makers go, the Philips Baristina is simple, stylish, and just as easy to use as any pod coffee machine. Basically, it’s the best affordable bean-to-cup espresso machine we’ve tested.

Like a manual espresso machine, the Baristina uses a portafilter handle. All you need to do is push the empty handle into place, select your drink, and the Baristina will grind the right dose of coffee into the filter basket, so you don’t even need to weigh the coffee beans before brewing.

Using a simple set of three buttons — one for single espresso, one for a lungo, and one to boost the intensity by increasing the dose of ground coffee — it’s incredible value for money. While it doesn’t come with a steaming wand for milk and is very much espresso-first, the Baristina remains an excellent beginner-friendly espresso machine that's perfect if you're new to fresh beans.

Rowan Davies, Editorial Associate

• Read our in-depth Philips Baristina review

2. Sony A7R VI

• Sony just perfected mirrorless cameras

I've tested just about every major camera release spanning the last 15 years, and I don’t use the word 'perfect' lightly — but that's what the Sony A7R VI is. For me, it’s the winning combination of raw quality and speed — thanks to a stacked 66.8MP full-frame sensor with ludicrous dynamic range, lightning-fast burst-shooting and reliable autofocus performance. I really pushed the A7R VI, shooting everything from landscape photography to wildlife and portraits, and it didn’t skip a beat.

The A7R VI is also a seriously well-designed professional mirrorless camera, with an immersive high-resolution EVF and multi-angle touchscreen, plus it packs an all-new higher-capacity battery that bags more shots. Sure it costs a lot, but considering it’s capable of 95% of what the A1 II can do, with more resolution, for a much lower price, I think it’s decent value.

I've never owned a Sony Alpha mirrorless camera, but the A7R VI has me seriously tempted, especially since Sony has made my favorite lenses over the last 18 months. If I could keep a hold of a single new camera from 2026, the A7R VI would be it, and that’s why it’s my top pick.

Timothy Coleman, Cameras Editor

• Read our in-depth Sony A7R VI review

1. LG C6

• The OLED TV that somehow improves on its near-perfect predecessor

The LG C6 is the best TV I’ve tested this year so far. Impressively, it makes huge improvements over its predecessor, the LG C5. Thanks to its new, flagship-level processor, the C6 delivers brilliant, vibrant colors, powerful contrast and crisp detail, delivering better picture quality over the C5: which is no mean feat. When I tested the C6 next to the C5, the C6 proved to be more accurate too, eliminating a green tint that was noticeable on the C5.

The C6 is a gaming powerhouse, continuing the LG C-series’ legacy as one of the very best gaming TVs on the market. With four HDMI 2.1 ports, 4K 165Hz, full VRR including FreeSync and G-Sync, Dolby Vision and ALLM all supported, plus an ultra-low, measured 9.2ms input lag time, gaming is fantastic on the C6.

The C6 covers all the bases, offering solid built-in sound, an intuitive smart TV system that gets better each year and it’s generally the most competitively priced OLED as well. The C6 will take some beating in 2026.

James Davidson, TV Hardware Staff Writer

• Read our in-depth LG C6 review

Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool review

The Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool PC3 is the latest tower fan from the British brand, and it offers up not only excellent cooling with owl-like oscillation, but also air purification.

That makes the Find+Follow Purifier Cool particularly helpful for those with asthma or allergies when they don't want dust, pollen and other particulars floating round their home.

But the party trick here is in the ‘Find+Follow’ name, and it’s what sets it apart from its predecessor, the Purifier Cool PC1, while also kicking the Purifier Cool Formaldehyde TP09 to the curb.

This particular cooling and air purifying fan features a small camera that can identify people in its field of view, and then follow them round a room, ensuring the breeze is always directed where it’s needed.

It’s a good looking fan, but all this comes at a steep cost — $849.99 / £549.99 to be exact. With many of the best fans coming in at a lower price point, Dyson has its work cut out to justify the premium cost of its latest offering.

Things get off to a positive start with the fan arriving in suitably protective packaging that’s almost all cardboard — the main piece of plastic is a large bag over the fan itself. It’s easy to unpack, and setup via the free My Dyson app is straightforward.

You’ll need both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled on your phone, allowing you to get the fan connected to your device, as well as your home network. I liked the ‘Getting started’ video in the How To section of the app: it’s just under two minutes long and walks you through the core functions of the fan.

Controls in the app are nicely laid out, with easy access to on/off, fan speed, and oscillation. There’s also auto and night modes, a timer setting to turn off the fan after a set duration, and the ability to switch from fan to diffuser mode, if you want to purify the air in your home without the main fan being active.

Shifting focus back to the fan itself, it stands tall with its large, oval bladeless design sitting atop a gold pedestal that hides the air purifying tech and HEPA H13-grade and K-Carbon filters. Dyson claims the filter “captures 99.95% of particles such as viruses and bacteria, as well as pollen, pet dander and mould spores”.

It not only cleans the air, but the K-carbon filter can remove smells and gases, handy if you’ve been over-enthusiastic in the kitchen and want to get rid of that burning smell. I found it did a pretty good job of getting rid of the burnt toast smell in the morning quicker than leaving it to dissipate on its own.

There’s a power button just above the circular display on the base of the fan, but Dyson doesn’t provide any further controls on the device itself. Instead you need to use the remote, which magnetically clings to the top of the fan for simple storage, or the app to adjust settings.

You can also link the PC3 to your smart home, allowing you to use Google’s Gemini or Amazon’s Alexa voice assistants to control the fan. Linking it to my smart home setup also allowed me to control the Find+Follow Purifier Cool from the Google Home app as well as the My Dyson app.

The display on the fan is subtle, and from a distance it can be difficult to read due to its small size, but you can get all the info displayed here in the My Dyson app.

You can adjust the information the display shows by clicking the ‘i’ button on the remote, allowing you to cycle through visuals for various data including; indoor air quality, indoor humidity, indoor temperature, and remaining filter life. It’s useful stuff, but it’s better viewed in the app.

I was particularly impressed with the range of oscillation on offer, with the ability to rotate 45, 90, 180, and 350 degrees. Pop the Find+Follow Purifier Cool in the middle of a room and it’ll reach almost every area.

This was particularly useful when it came to placing the fan in a bigger room, as the huge angle of coverage provides far more flexibility. In my large, open-plan living space I could position it towards the center and have it reach most areas — although there was one small shortcoming: the length of the power cord.

At 1.8m it’s similar to many other rival fans, but as there are 350 degrees of movement, this is a fan you might be more inclined to position further away from a wall outlet to get maximum benefit. I was able to plug it into my kitchen island, allowing it to stand well away from a wall, without the cord or an extension cable draped across the floor — but your home’s setup will be different, so it’s worth considering where you’ll be plugging it in.

Once on, Dyson’s clever bladeless design delivers smooth air flow that feels like a natural breeze moving through your home, rather than the harsh buffeting you get from some other propeller and tower fans.

Coupled with its quiet operation — especially at lower fan speeds — you might find yourself forgetting it’s even on. My partner questioned whether I’d left the back door open as she felt a breeze, but it was simply the Dyson’s caress of the air is so gentle that it didn't feel artificially generated.

In our open-plan living space, I needed a fan speed between eight and 10 to really feel the effect during the warm weather, when sitting around four to five meters from the fan. In my small office (16m²), a fan speed of three was enough to keep me feeling cooler, with the Find+Follow Purifier Cool positioned a couple of meters away.

At its highest speed setting of 10, the Find+Follow Purifier Cool was still relatively quiet at 40-60dB, allowing you to comfortably have a conversation without the need to shout over the noise. Halving the speed sees the sound generated dropped to 20dB (similar to a mosquito), while at its lowest speed I got a reading of around 15dB, just slightly louder than normal breathing (10dB). If you’re looking for a quiet fan, the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool is a strong contender, but the Duux Whisper Flex 2 has it beat, just.

The quiet operation meant I was able to keep the fan on overnight in our bedroom, with the low level hum not loud enough to disturb my sleep. My partner is a lighter sleeper, and after an initial adjustment, they were able to sleep with it on as well.

And then there’s the Dyson's Find+Follow party-trick. Enable this mode by pressing the button on the remote or in the app, and the fan will scan the room looking for people. Once it’s detected a person, it’ll direct air flow towards them. Get up and move around the room, and the purifying fan will oscillate to maintain air flow in your direction. It doesn’t rotate particularly quickly, but it’ll keep moving until it picks you up again.

If you leave the room briefly, the Find+Follow Purifier Cool will wait patiently in a ‘dormant’ state for your return. The fan will continue, but movement will only resume when you re-enter the room and it picks you back up.

When there’s clear sightlines in an uncluttered room, the Find+Follow AI does a reasonably good job of tracking movement, delicately rotating as you move about. However, I found if I passed too closely and too quickly, it wouldn’t always continue tracking me, even though I was still within its range of movement. This feature works best in large, open-plan spaces where you don’t need to pass too closely to the fan itself. In smaller rooms, the AI tracking can struggle a little more.

In cases where you leave the room for more than an hour, the system will switch to Auto mode, where the fan’s sensors will adjust the settings to reach the target air quality for the room.

For those concerned about the privacy implications of this technology, Dyson says the: “AI vision system never identifies anyone and only detects presence. Images are processed instantly within the machine, deleted and never leave the device.” And you can turn off the follow mode at any point using the remote, app, or smart home voice assistant.

When it comes to maintenance, Dyson’s bladeless design makes things super simple, with the wipe of a damp, lint-free cloth all that’s required. You do need to keep an eye on the air intake holes on the base though, as I found pet hair from my two cats would build up over the course of a few days. Dyson suggests using a soft brush to remove this debris.

The Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool is a highly accomplished purifying fan with useful modes, impressive features, and a fun — if slightly creepy — follow mode that a subset of users will find beneficial. Though I wouldn’t say the addition of this tracking camera does enough to fully justify Dyson’s asking price.

I’ve no problem saying that if you have the money, and are looking for a true flagship purifying fan, the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool absolutely delivers. It’s supremely easy to set up and use, while the performance matches other high-end multi-purpose rivals. But if you’re bulking at the list price, there are plenty of reasonably priced fans — and Dyson purifying fans without Find+Follow — that provide similar levels of performance for less.

Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool review: Price & release date

• Premium price tag of $849.99 / £549.99
• Costs considerably more than its closest rivals
• Available in the UK and US from June 2026; not on sale in Australia

The Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool has been on sale since May 2026 in the UK, and went on sale in early June 2026 in the US but it's unfortunately not currently available in Australia. You can buy it via Dyson directly and a number of major third-party retailers.

The Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool costs $849.99 / £549.99, making it one of the more expensive fan and purifier combos on the market. It’s not Dyson’s most premium purifier (that’s the Dyson Purifier Big+Quiet Formaldehyde), but it is the firm’s most expensive fan, nudging out the $499.99 / £399.99 Hot + Cool HF1.

While the Find+Follow comes with its eponymous following camera tech, that has added $300 / £100 to the retail price of the Purifier Cool PC1 it replaces. The PC1 is still available though and is generally discounted too, if you want similar cooling and purifying results without the person-tracking tech.

If you’re not fussed about the heating or air purifying features, Dyson’s cheapest comparable fan is the Cool AM07 tower at $399.99 / £349.99, although this older model is sometimes discounted.

Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool review: Specs

Should I buy the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool?

Buy it if…

Don’t buy it if…

Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool review: Also consider

How I tested the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool

• Used the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool for a week
• Used it in the bedroom, office and main living space
• Tested various modes, including Find+Follow and Sleep

I used the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool at home in the UK during a week of very warm May weather (28-31C / 82-88F). I set it up in my open-plan living space, master bedroom, and small home office, to experience how effective it was in different locations.

I tested the range of modes the fan has to offer, including auto, sleep, and Find+Follow. I operated it with the remote, via the My Dyson and Google Home apps, and I even asked Gemini via the smart speakers in my home to adjust fan speed and turn the unit on and off.

• Read TechRadar’s reviews guarantee
• 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

Dyson is making big strides in the world of robot vacuums, and its latest robovac — the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai — uses a camera combined with artificial intelligence to tackle tough stains that other robot vacuums tend to miss, and get your floors as clean as possible. But why did Dyson choose to tackle that particular problem, and what does the future hold when it comes to household robots?

I visited Dyson's UK Innovation Campus in Wiltshire, where many of the company's advanced engineering teams work on new products and technologies, using rapid prototyping to develop and test ideas. The campus is also the home of the Dyson Institute, where undergraduate students from around the world come to learn, and work on real-life projects.

There, I sat down with Jake Dyson, the company's Chief Engineer, to learn more about his own experience, and Dyson's approach to AI and robotics.

Despite being the son of founder James Dyson, Jake hasn't always worked for the company. After a brief spell at Dyson at the age of 22, he left to pursue an independent career in industrial design. He built his own workshop and began to specialize in lighting, separately from the family business, before returning, bringing that experience with him. I asked him how that early work translated into his current endeavors.

"It comes down to identifying problems and solving them," he explained. "When LEDs first entered the market, I realized people weren’t cooling them properly. The promise of LEDs is that they should last a lifetime, but in reality they were being treated like disposable lightbulbs. I visited Osram in Asia, and they explained that if you keep the diode temperature below about 50C, you can maintain brightness, color quality, and lifespan. That became my goal."

"I looked at how satellites manage heat. In space, temperatures swing from extremely hot to extremely cold, so they need precise thermal control. I applied similar thinking by designing systems that passively dissipate heat. For example, the heat moves away from the chip and is cooled by airflow, maintaining a stable temperature even at high power.

"That process, spotting a problem and solving it, is what drives everything."

Stairs and arms

Dyson's latest robot vacuum has been designed to tackle the specific problem of tricky stains on hard floors, which other wet-and-dry cleaners fail to tackle. The Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai uses a high-definition camera and an LLM that includes over 190 different household objects and stains.

I asked Jake why Dyson had chosen to tackle such a (literally) ground-level problem when other companies are debuting robot vacuums that can climb stairs and lift objects with mechanical arms. He explained that Dyson has been tackling those more advanced problems for about 10 years already, but the solutions aren't yet genuinely useful and reliable.

Having seen some other companies' ambitious robots, I can see what he means. The Roborock Saros Z70, for example, has a pincer arm that can lift lightweight objects out of the way, but in our tests it failed to identify and move them independently, instead relying on you to control the pincer remotely. It also has a lower success rate on carpet due to what Roborock calls a "hardware limitation".

Stairs are also a major challenge. My colleague Ruth Hamilton saw two stair-climbing robovacs in action at last year's IFA tech show, but explained that the legs/treads used to navigate stairs aren't actually attached to the robots themselves (they are more like a cradle that holds the bot), which means they can't clean the stairs as they go. Only one robot managed to tackle the first step with confidence as well. According to Ruth, the other "approached this initial challenge at the speed of a geriatric turtle".

They're interesting concepts, but neither looked ready for the mainstream — and as Jake explains, they're attempting to solve a very difficult problem.

"Every staircase is different height, spacing, materials and then you add in pets, children, and people moving around. It becomes a very complex and potentially unsafe problem," he said. "Something going up and down stairs autonomously needs to be extremely reliable. It’s actually more complex than autonomous driving in some respects."

"So while it’s an interesting challenge, and being able to clean an entire home, including all floors, with one machine would be ideal, it has to meet a very high bar for safety and usefulness. Until it does, we focus on delivering products that work reliably in real homes today."

Safer decision-making

Dyson has never been shy about dropping products that don't work out (such as the CR01 Contrarotator washing machine and the Dyson car), but its work on cordless vacuums continues apace. We recently reviewed the super-compact Dyson Pencilvac Fluffycones, and just a few weeks ago the company debuted its first self-emptying cordless vacuum. I asked Jake whether he thinks robots will eventually handle all your cleaning tasks, or whether there will always be a place for stick vacuums.

"No, I don’t see that happening, at least not completely," he said. "Right now, robot vacuums are very good at regular maintenance, keeping floors tidy day-to-day. But people still want a to clean with a cordless vacuum when they do a deeper clean, as well as being able to clean surfaces other than the floor."

However, he added that the world of robotics is advancing incredibly quickly, especially when it comes to AI.

"Previously, robots could see and navigate, but they struggled when they encountered something unfamiliar. Now, with reasoning, they can make safer, more informed decisions.

"We’re also seeing rapid development globally, the US is leading in AI and ‘brains’, and China is producing robots at scale and more affordably.

"In the future robots will learn from each other via the cloud,; one robot’s experience will instantly improve others, and one robot will be able to repair a fault on another robot. That will massively accelerate development.

"However, regulation and safety will slow adoption. These technologies may be ready soon, but it could take around 10 years before they’re widely allowed in homes. Elon Musk said he thinks humanoid robots will be in many homes in three years, and I agree with him. Though they use up a lot of energy to walk for example, so a robot vacuum cleaner is much more energy efficient than a humanoid [robot] using a vacuum cleaner.

"So yes, robots will become more capable, but I think traditional tools will still exist alongside them."

Although you might like the idea of handing over all your household chores to a robot, it seems cordless and handheld vacuums will be around for a while yet — and you'll still need to climb the stairs and pick up socks yourself for now.

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

Don't buy it if

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.

• The purifier has intelligent sensors to track where you are in the room
• There are no privacy worries — everything is processed on the device
• It's priced at $850 / £550 (about AU$1,190)

Dyson has launched what may be its smartest air purifier yet, the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool. As the name suggests, it's a purifier that knows where you are and follows your movement, directing air to where you are and optionally turning itself off when you leave the room.

It doesn't just work for solo users. It can detect multiple people in the same room, automatically adjusting its oscillation to share the cooling "efficiently and evenly". By directing the air at people rather than just into the room, the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool should be more energy efficient than less intelligent devices.

Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool: key details and pricing

It's worth noting that like similar Dysons, this is a fan rather than an air conditioner so it doesn't refrigerate the air; it just moves it around very well. If you're looking for a portable air conditioner we've rounded up the best in-stock options right here.

In addition to the people detection the Dyson Find+Follow Purifier Cool has a typically high specification. Its K-Carbon + HEPA filtration captures 99.97% of ultra-fine particles as small as 0.3 microns and promises to capture 50% more NO₂ than rival purifiers. It's fully sealed to HEPA H13 standard and has automatic sensing of PM2.5, PM10, VOCs, NO₂, and formaldehyde.

As ever with Dyson, the device is very impressive but the price is pretty high, especially in the US – although it's a little more affordable than first announced. The press release listed the price as $894.99, but it's currently available from Dyson.com for a slightly less frightening $849.99 / £549.99. That works out at about AU$1,190, but it's not currently listed on Dyson's Australian website.

• The Dyson Supersonic Travel is a lightweight, compact hair dryer
• It's compatible with the same attachments as full-size Supersonic dryers
• It adapts automatically to suit the voltage in the country you're visiting

Dyson has launched a new travel-size hair dryer that's small enough to pack in your hand luggage and safe to use anywhere in the world. The Dyson Supersonic Travel is 32% lighter and 25% smaller than the original Dyson Supersonic (released in 2016), but still offers intelligent heat control to prevent damage

If you already have a Dyson Supersonic or Supersonic Nural hair dryer, you'll be pleased to know that the new travel-size model is compatible with all the same attachments, so you don't need to struggle without your favorite diffuser, wide-tooth comb, or smoothing nozzle.

The attachments are held in place with magnets so you can snap them on and off, and your Supersonic dryer will recognize which one is currently in place. When we tested the original Supersonic, we were particularly impressed by the Flyaway attachment, which tames stray hairs with the same technology as the Dyson Airwrap.

Voltage can be an issue when you're travelling with electrical appliances, but the Dyson Supersonic Travel automatically adapts to the country you're visiting, so you can take it around the world without worrying about damaging the motor or experiencing poor performance.

During styling, the Dyson Supersonic Travel measures airflow temperature 100 times per second to ensure your hair isn't overheated, which can cause damage over time — a welcome change from hotel hair dryers, which tend to either wheeze warm air onto your hair, or blast it with heat.

The Dyson Supersonic Travel is available to buy now direct from Dyson for £249.99 in the UK or from Dyson Australia for AU$449 (about $340 in the US). The company has yet to announce dates for its international launch.

Dyson PencilWash: one-minute review

The Dyson PencilWash is a wet floor cleaner that’s a counterpart to the PencilVac launched last year. Unlike the PencilVac, the PencilWash isn't a vacuum. Instead, it’s essentially an electric mop with a soft roller that spins as water is dispensed onto it along eight points, and a squeegee that forces dirty water out of the roller into a storage tank.

It’s extremely slim and lightweight, with a long, slim handle and a full-size floorhead that’s almost identical to the one found on one of Dyson’s best wet-dry floor cleaners. It can soak up wet spills, wash away dried-on dirt, and pick up dust and dry debris in one sweep.

The PencilWash’s simple controls, lightweight and highly articulated head make it extremely easy to use, and almost effortless to maneuver around even tight corners, though its roller can’t reach right to the very edge of your baseboards.

It’s very effective when used with plain water, collecting an impressive amount of dirt from surfaces that looked reasonably clean at first glance, though you can also use it with a cleaning fluid to help break down more stubborn and sticky stains.

It can be messy to empty because the dirty water tank doesn’t have a spout for clean pouring, and any debris that has accumulated on the squeegee and roller will need to be rinsed off or removed by hand. I found that the roller takes a long time to dry - even when I left it in a room with a dehumidifier running, it wasn’t completely dry for over a day.

For me, the PencilWash’s biggest drawback is the price; the PencilWash only does wet cleaning, but costs almost as much as a good quality wet-and-dry vacuum cleaner like the Shark HydroVac Cordless WD201 / WD210 or the Bissell Crosswave HydroScrub. It does its job very well, but it’s tough to justify the expense for what is essentially a motorized mop unless you have no carpets or rugs to clean at all.

Dyson PencilWash: specs

Dyson PencilWash: price and availability

• Available globally
• List price: $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549

The Dyson PencilWash is available globally for $349.99 / £299.99 / AU$549, which is rather expensive for a wet floor cleaner without a vacuum. For comparison, the Bissell Crosswave HydroScrub wet/dry floor cleaner is $369.99 (about £280 / AU$540), while the Shark HydroVac Cordless WD201 / WD210 is $359.99 / £329.99 / AU$399.99.

It’s the most affordable Dyson floor cleaner you can buy right now, and you’re getting a great quality appliance that’s compact but powerful, so it’s a question of whether you have enough hard flooring in your home to justify the cost, or whether you’d be better served by a two-in-one cleaner.

• Value score: 3.5/5

Dyson PencilWash: design

• Super slim and lightweight
• Full-size, fully articulated floorhead
• Easy to operate

The PencilWash is a partner to Dyson’s super-slim vacuum cleaner, the PencilVac, with a similarly lean build. It consists of a slender copper-colored pole (which contains the rechargeable battery, controls, and a small LED display) and a full-size floorhead. This appears to be the same as the Submarine Wet Roller Head, which you'll also find on the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine.

The floorhead contains a large, fluffy microfiber roller, a refillable water tank, a ‘squeegee’ that forces dirty water out of the roller, and a tray that collects it. It’s easy to disassemble and slot back together, with all removable components colored red to make things as simple as possible. Unlike the PencilVac, however, the PencilWash has no LEDs to illuminate dirt on your floors.

The head is fully articulated and moves freely. It can be flattened to almost 180 degrees for cleaning under low pieces of furniture, and swivels smoothly to reach into awkward areas like behind furniture legs.

The PencilWash weighs 4.85lbs / 2.2kg without water, and feels nicely balanced with just 13.4oz / 380g in the hand. The water tank is in the floorhead, keeping the center of mass close to the ground.

The controls are simple and intuitive, too, with a power button and two boost options that dispense extra water for a certain period of time (five seconds or 30 seconds) if you need to tackle a particularly grimy area. The screen shows the current cleaning mode and power status.

The PencilWash comes with a charging stand, which holds the pole, and a tray to hold the floorhead when it’s not in use. Both are discrete and take up the bare minimum of space in small homes.

• Design score: 4.5/5

Dyson PencilWash: performance

• Cleans wet and dry dirt with ease
• Can reach under low furniture and into tight spaces
• Dirty water tank must be emptied with care

I tested the Dyson PencilWash in my apartment, which has black laminate flooring throughout the kitchen, hallway, and bathroom, which shows every water mark, crumb, and speck of dust.

Preparing the Pencilwash for use is simple; just remove the water tank and roller from the floorhead, fill the tank to the maximum line and twist it back into place, then dampen the roller with clean water and slide it onto its mount.

When switched on, the PencilWash’s roller propels it forward, and the highly articulated head and lightweight handle make it effortless to push across your floors. Because the water tank is in the floorhead, most of the weight is kept close to the ground, keeping it stable and leaving the handle light and comfortable.

During my tests, I found that the PencilWash made light work of spills and dried-on dirt, such as spilled juice in the kitchen, and footprints in the hallway. Although you can use the PencilWash with a floor cleaner (such as Dyson’s own 02 Probiotic hard floor cleaning solution), I was impressed by how well it cleaned using nothing but plain water and agitation from the spinning roller, which is ideal if you have allergies that are exacerbated by cleaning products.

Although the clean water tank appears small (it has a capacity of just 10.6oz / 300ml), the PencilWash is frugal with its use of water. A little goes a long way, and I was able to clean all my hard floors with the tank still mostly full at the end. If you’re cleaning a large home with hard flooring throughout, you’ll need to refill it partway through, but I was surprised by just how little water was required for thorough cleaning.

The floorhead’s articulation made it possible to clean even around the legs of my bathroom cabinet, which are particularly awkward. The head isn’t small, so I was surprised it was able to reach into such tight nooks and crannies. It’s a shame that the roller doesn’t get right up to the edge of baseboards, though. There’s a gap of around half an inch that goes unmopped, which is unfortunate since this area can be quite dusty.

I was also surprised by how well the microfiber roller picks up hair, dust, crumbs, and other dry debris, so you don’t need to vacuum before mopping. The downside is that dirt can accumulate on the roller and squeegee, and will have to be cleaned off by hand when you disassemble the head to empty the dirty water tray.

You need to be very careful when emptying out the dirty water, which involves disassembling the floor head and gently pouring the waste away. The tray isn't enclosed, so it's quite easy to accidentally spill.

All the wet components can be cleaned with a mild antibacterial cleaner, after which you must leave them to dry out. I found that the roller took a particularly long time to dry, and even in a room with a dehumidifier running, it took over a day to dry out completely.

Overall, the PencilWash is very easy, and even fun to use — which is a surprising thing to say about a mop. It’s great for quickly refreshing hard floors mid-week, and for more thorough cleaning when necessary, thanks to its boost mode. If it could reach all the way up to my baseboards and was a little less messy to empty, it would have earned an extra half star.

• Performance score: 4.5/5

Dyson PencilWash: should you buy it?

Buy it if

Don't buy it if

Dyson PencilWash: also consider

If you're not sure whether the Dyson PencilWash is the right floor cleaner for you, here are two other options to consider:

How I tested the Dyson PencilWash

I tested the Dyson PencilWash for a week on laminate flooring, using the regular and boost modes. I tested it on ordinary everyday dust and dirt, as well as muddy footprints, dried-on juice, and milk. I cleaned it after each use, following Dyson's instructions, and allowed it to dry fully. For more details, see how we test, review, and rate products at TechRadar.

First reviewed April 2026.

• Dyson has launched a new personal fan to use at home or on the move
• The Dyson HushJet Mini Cool Fan has a bladeless design with five speeds
• It will be available direct from Dyson later this month for $99 / £99.99 (AU pricing TBC)

Dyson has just launched a new personal fan that you can place on your desk while you work, carry on public transport, or even wear around your neck. The Dyson HushJet Mini Cool Fan has a compact bladeless design and five airflow modes — plus a boost button when you need relief from the heat fast.

It can run for up to six hours on a single charge, and weighs 7oz/212g. It comes supplied with a Neck Dock for moments when you want to stay cool hands-free, as well as a charging stand, travel pouch, and USB-C charging cable. Other accessories available to buy separately include a Universal Mount for securing the fan to objects like pushchairs or gym equipment, and a Clip Grip for fastening it on bag straps or jackets (particularly helpful for commuting).

The HushJet Mini Cool Fan comes in three colorways: Ink/Cobalt, Carnelian/Sky, and Stone/Blush, so you can pick one that will suit your wardrobe.

The new fan looks striking, but it should sound discreet thanks to the HushJet nozzle, which lowers frequencies so you're not distracted by annoying high-pitched whirring and whining.

This looks set to be a particularly cool summer, because the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool Fan has arrived just a few weeks after the Shark ChillPill — another compact fan with a rechargable battery that's designed to be used indoors or on the move, but which also features a misting attachment that sprays you with quick-drying water vapor, plus a cooling plate that you can apply to pulse points for fast relief on hot days.

The HushJet Mini Cool Fan lacks these two extra features, but it's both lighter and more affordable. The Shark ChillPill is $149.99 / £129.99, whereas the Dyson HushJet Mini Cool Fan is $99 / £99.99.

The HushJet Mini Cool Fan will be available to buy later this month, direct from Dyson's website and from Dyson demo stores in the UK and US. Aussies will have to wait a little to find out local pricing and availability, although it's confirmed to be coming Down Under — you can head to the Dyson Australia website to be notified as soon as it drops.

I'll be putting it to the test soon to see how it compares to the ChillPill in terms of cooling power, noise, and convenience, and I'll bring you a full review once I've put it through its paces.

Dyson just announced the PencilWash, a motorized wet floor cleaner that's roughly the same size as a regular, manual mop. This isn't the first time Dyson has shrunk down a traditionally bulky appliance: the PencilWash is a sister product to the Dyson PencilVac FluffyCones, an almost impossibly compact cordless vacuum.

The downsizing trend began life in a less immediately eye-catching way, in Dyson's haircare department. The brand had already shaken up the haircare market with its original Supersonic hair dryer, but for its professional-only Supersonic r it redesigned its inner workings to be far more streamlined and 'power-dense'.

That meant all the mechanics could be fitted into a tubular design that looks odd, but turned out to be excellent for extended, meticulous hair styling. Dyson recognized that it was onto a good thing, and in March last year it made the Supersonic r available to consumers, too.

Dyson then decided that if it could make a hair dryer that was 1.5 inches / 3.8cm in diameter, it could surely make a vacuum that was 1.5 inches / 3.8cm in diameter, too. Unbelievably, it was successful: all the inner workings of the PencilVac have been squeezed into a handle that's the same width as the Supersonic r. To make it happen, the brand had to engineer a Hyperdymium 140k motor that's a minuscule 1.1 inches / 2.8cm wide.

The same tech powers the PencilWash. And who knows where it'll come in next — Dyson is clearly on a shrinking spree, and it would be silly to stop there.

“We’re keen on making machines smaller and lighter while dramatically improving performance," says Dyson CTO John Churchill. "The PencilWash… brings the simplicity of a broom together with the precision and power from Dyson engineering.”

Small size; big win

The benefits of downsizing a floorcare appliance are obvious. It makes it more maneuverable, more comfortable to use for longer periods, and able to get into tighter spaces. However, some may quibble with the "improved performance" claim, because there are knock-on effects that can't entirely be glossed over.

One is battery life. The PencilVac can only manage 30 minutes of cleaning per charge, whereas the best Dyson vacuums of the flagship line can run for over an hour before needing to juice up.

Another is outright power. Here, there's an even bigger gulf between the PencilVac and the rest of the lineup: even the decade-old V8 has twice the suction power of the PencilVac (115AW versus 55AW).

Finally, there's the unavoidable lack of space. The PencilVac has to have a tiny dust cup that needs emptying regularly, and the PencilWash has to have small clean and dirty water tanks.

For me, though, to focus on these things is to miss the point. The PencilVac and PencilWash aren't meant to be the perfect choice for everyone, but they will be the perfect choice for some people. Plus, they offer something that you currently can't really find anywhere else.

For example, the cordless vacuum market is awash with vacuums that offer massive amounts of power and ever-longer runtimes, but which are heavy and bulky as a result. If you have mostly hard flooring, a small home, and awkward corners to get into, super-suction and a never-ending battery isn't going to be of any benefit to you. What you need is a small, nimble, compact vacuum with just enough power to whip the dust off your floor. The PencilVac provides just that.

Similarly, the PencilWash won't guzzle up massive spillages like a suction-based wet-and-dry vacuum, but there are many homeowners that rarely have to deal with that kind of mess, and just want something that will get their hard floors mopped in an efficient and hygienic way.

What Dyson is doing is broadening out the market to cater to a wider range of customers — and I'm excited to see what will get the shrinking treatment next.

Dyson is still the king of vacuums, but recently it has been busy growing its range of wet-floor cleaners. For a long time, we had just the WashG1, but now there's also the Clean+Wash Hygiene, and Dyson has just announced a third addition to the lineup: the Dyson PencilWash. That's not to mention the recently expanded fleet of 2-in-1 Submarine vacuums.

If you're wondering which of Dyson's wet cleaners to invest in, I'm here to help. I've tested both the WashG1 and Clean+Wash Hygiene, and crunched the specs for the new model, too, to figure out the key differences between them. Below, you can learn which Dyson mop I'd recommend for a range of priorities.

However, note that right now the WashG1 is attracting some major discounts in both the US and the UK, taking it down to around half price. That alone makes it a very compelling proposition – I think it's a little overpriced at list price, but with that kind of discount you're getting a lot of bang for your buck.

If your priority is maneuverability...

The PencilWash looks like the clear winner in this category. It's specifically built to be ultra-maneuverable, with the motor and battery reduced in size to fit in the handle, and compact water tanks tucked into the floorhead.

It's a sister model to the Dyson PencilVac, which is very similar but swaps the mopping floorhead for a vacuuming one. I've used the PencilVac, and it pivots and maneuvers like a dream, which bodes well for the PencilWash.

Where the Clean+Wash Hygiene might have the edge is in the fact it can lie completely flat to the ground – there's even a mini wheel on the rear of the handle that lets you guide it smoothly along the floor. In this mode it's 4.44 inches / 11.3cm tall, and perfect for cleaning under low furniture. The PencilWash can also get pretty close to the ground, dropping to 170 degrees and a height of 5.9in / 15cm, but it won't go as low as the Clean+Wash.

Don't write off the WashG1, though, because as wet cleaners go, I found this one super nimble and easy to maneuver. Due to the positioning of the water tanks, the handle here is more bulky, while the floorhead is more streamlined. In use, I found it pivoted more smoothly than the Clean+Wash Hygiene.

If your priority is minimal maintenance...

Both the WashG1 and Clean+Wash Hygiene have a self-clean cycle that can be activated when the machine is docked. It runs clean water through the system to flush out any lingering dirt and freshen up the roller.

Where the Clean+Wash has the edge is that it also has a self-dry mode, where the dock will blast the roller with hot air to ensure it's dry. In contrast, it's probably best to remove the WashG1's rollers and pop them out to dry somewhere, or they'll start to smell musty pretty quickly.

The PencilWash doesn't have any kind of self-clean cycle, so you'll need to rinse and dry the roller after every mopping session.

What about longer-term maintenance? Well, Dyson asserts that one of the biggest problems with wet-dry vacuums is that they suck solid and liquid waste through small tubes to reach a waste water tank mounted on the handle. As a result, the tubes are prone to becoming clogged, which leads to bad smells.

All three of Dyson's hard-floor cleaners seek to offer a solution to this issue, but in different ways. With the WashG1, solid waste is filtered and stored in a tray in the floorhead, so it's only the dirty liquid that travels through the pipes.

In the Clean+Wash Hygiene, too, any solids are filtered out, but all the waste is contained within the floorhead, so nothing has to travel anywhere. In the PencilWash, everything again remains in the floorhead, but solids and liquids aren't separated.

You'll need to decide for yourself how concerned you are about potentially gunky pipes. The one thing that stood out to me during testing was that the WashG1's waste tank proved really easy to clean. It's wide enough to get your hand inside, and there are no crevices in which grime can collect. In contrast, the tanks on the Clean+Wash are impossible to get into, and the PencilWash looks the same.

If your priority is price...

At list price, the WashG1 costs $769.99 / £599.99 / AU$999, the Clean+Wash Hygiene comes in at £429.99 (not yet available in the US or Australia), and the PencilWash will have a list price of $349 / £299.99 (no AU pricing yet).

However, where things get interesting is that the WashG1 is very heavily discounted in both the US and UK. In fact, it's easy to pick up for around half price in both territories – you'll find the best current deals below. While the following is just speculation, I'd associate those kinds of discounts with a product that's about to be discontinued.

In the case of the PencilWash, you're paying a premium for the compact form factor. If you live in a smaller home and need something super-nimble, it might be reason enough to make it worth the spend. However, if you want maximum bang for your buck, at current prices I think the WashG1 is your best option, in the US and UK at least.

If your priority is more versatility...

In the pantheon of hard-floor cleaners, none of Dyson's models are especially feature-rich. Both the WashG1 and Clean+Wash Hygiene have three hydration modes and a Boost mode for extra water, whereas the PencilWash is simpler, with just two hydration options and no Boost. If you're seeking advanced modes such as steam-cleaning or automatic adjustment, as well as suction, my guide to the best wet-and-dry vacuums has plenty more complex options to explore.

Of course, if you want the most versatility in a single Dyson machine, an argument could be made for choosing the Submarine model over all of them. These take one of Dyson's flagship vacuums and bundle in a mopping floorhead (this bit looks a lot like the bottom of the PencilWash to me). You can then swap them over to turn the appliance into a mop or vacuum as required.

Another thing to consider is the size of the water tank. The PencilWash's tanks are super-small, which rules that model out for homes with lots of floors in need of mopping. For bigger areas, a WashG1 or Clean+Wash Hygiene are better. Dyson suggests that due to better water control, the latter will actually deliver more cleaning per tank, despite said tanks being smaller than those of the WashG1.

Specs compared

The Dyson PencilWash is a wet cleaner designed specifically for use on hard flooring, and it differs from most of today's best wet-and-dry vacuums in a couple of significant ways. First, it's ridiculously compact and lightweight — the motor and battery have been shrunk down and fitted into the handle, and the water tanks tuck inside the floorhead. Second, it doesn't use suction, but instead harnesses a combination of hydration and agitation to buff away dirt, soak up spills, and generally get your hard floors sparkling.

It has only just been announced, and is a sister product to the Dyson PencilVac, which is also relatively new to the party. The PencilWash joins the WashG1 and Clean+Wash Hygiene in Dyson's lineup of wet cleaners. So what do we know so far about the Dyson PencilWash? Let's take a look...

Dyson PencilWash: price & availability

The Dyson PencilWash was announced on 19 February 2026. It will go on sale in the UK on 23 February and in the US on 17 March in the US. At list price, it will cost $349 / £299.99. If you're in Australia, it will be available from 5 March for AU$549.

Dyson PencilWash: design

Let's break the design down into three parts: the handle, the floorhead, and the dock. The handle is 1.5in / 38mm in diameter and contains a shrunk-down motor. The top section of the broom handle is the battery, and it's removable and swappable. On the front of the handle you'll find the control buttons, plus a screen to show you which of the two modes you're in and how much battery you have left.

Moving on to the floorhead. This contains two small water tanks — one for clean water, one for dirty — and a microfiber roller that's densely packed with 64,000 filaments per square centimeter. You can use the PencilWash with just water, or mix in some Dyson's-own, non-foaming 02 Probiotic hard floor cleaning solution.

The roller spins at speed, and is fed evenly with fresh water from eight inlets. The waste water is directed straight into the dirty tank — there's apparently no filter here. (Although Dyson did say that about the Clean+Wash Hygiene and it turned out there was one — just the kind built for chunky rather than fine debris.)

Finally, the dock. This is just for charging the machine, and looks like a little cone. To dock, you remove the mopping floorhead and slot it into the top. There's a drip tray provided to pop the damp floorhead on.

Dyson PencilWash specs

Dyson PencilWash: usability

I haven't had any hands-on time with PencilWash yet, so you'll need to sit tight for my full performance review. What I do know is that this cleaner is designed to be very easy to maneuver, and able to glide smoothly into tight spots and around awkward corners. It can lie near-flat to 170 degrees, and in this mode it's just 15cm high.

It's really very lightweight in general, coming in at 4.9lbs / 2.2kg. Even more notable is that most of the weight is in the floorhead. Dyson says the weight 'in hand', with the PencilVac resting on the floor, will be around 0.8lbs / 0.38kg.

Dyson says the machine will pivot by just twisting the handle. That's certainly true of the Dyson PencilVac, which is the nimblest vacuum I've ever tested, by some margin. I expect this model to be slightly more cumbersome because the floorhead is (necessarily) chunkier and heavier, but I still have high hopes on the maneuverability front.

The water tanks are really rather small, so it likely won't be well suited to big homes. A 30-minute runtime is on the shorter side for an appliance like this, but should still allow for a decent amount of cleaning per charge.

It's very simple in terms of modes and features: there are two moisture modes, and that's about it. Other wet cleaners offer a wider range of modes, and even things like automatic setting adjustment and steam or foam modes — as well as suction, for pulling up solid messes with more oomph. Another common feature that's missing here is a self-clean mode, which would take care of some of the maintenance for you.

The real USP here, and the reason to choose the PencilWash over competitors' models, is the ultra-compact size. There are some streamlined wet-dry vacuums on the market — the Tineco FLOOR ONE i7 Fold is a recent example — but as far as I'm aware, there's nothing quite as shrunk-down as the PencilWash available from any other brand.

• Dyson has unveiled the PencilWash wet floor cleaner
• Uses the same ultra-slim, light build as the PencilVac vacuum
• It has two hydration modes, with water tanks hidden in the floorhead

Dyson has announced a new wet floor cleaner that's incredibly compact and lightweight. In fact, the new PencilWash is about the size and shape of an old-school, manual mop. All the mechanics have been shrunk down and squeezed into the handle, while the water tanks are tucked into the floorhead.

Announcing the PencilWash, John Churchill, Dyson's Chief Technology Officer, said: "We’re keen on making machines smaller and lighter while dramatically improving performance. PencilWash applies that thinking to wet cleaning: our slimmest, ultra‑light format that glides effortlessly and reaches where others can’t. It brings the simplicity of a broom together with the precision and power from Dyson engineering."

The handle itself is 1.5 inches / 38mm in diameter — just a little wider than a regular broom handle. It's designed so you can steer the whole thing effortlessly, simply by twisting the handle.

The PencilWash weighs 4.9lbs / 2.2kg, but most of that (minimal) weight is concentrated in the floorhead, so Dyson says the weight in your hand will be more like 0.8lbs / 0.38kg. It's designed to be able to sneak under furniture — it lies flat to 170 degrees, and in this mode it's just 15cm tall. It's built for use on hard floors, and can handle wet and dry spills.

The 300ml clean-water tank is apparently capable of cleaning up to 100m² of flooring. The cordless design has a maximum 30-minute runtime, and you can pick up a backup battery to swap in if you want to extend that.

As is the case with the whole Dyson wet-cleaner range, there's no suction — instead, the PencilWash uses hydration and agitation to get your floors clean. The roller is covered with densely-packed microfiber, to absorb liquid spills and buff off dirt. It's continuously fed with clean water as it rolls around, while the dirty stuff is extracted, so you're not just smearing the dirt around your floors. You can choose from two hydration modes.

Unusually, there's no filter. The press release suggests filters simply "trap dirt, breed bacteria, emit odors, and [are] difficult and unpleasant to clean" whereas this filter-free design "removes the risk of sludge, blockages, or drop in performance". I won't quibble with the idea that filters are nasty to clean, and if this design can avoid blockages and grime buildup without one, that's excellent news.

Where does it sit in the wider range?

I haven't had any hands-on time with this new cleaner yet, but I have been testing the PencilVac, which is the sister model, unveiled in June 2025. It has a similar, broom-shaped build, but swaps the mopping floorhead for a vacuuming one. That cleaner is supremely maneuverable and incredibly nimble — I'm hopeful Dyson has recreated that same magic with the PencilWash.

The PencilWash is the third dedicated wet cleaner in Dyson's range, sitting alongside the WashG1 (which went on sale August 2024) and the Clean+Wash Hygiene (just launched at time of writing). However, in some ways the design is more similar to the Submarine floorhead on the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine, with the tanks all contained within the floorhead.

The Dyson PencilWash goes on sale on 17 March in the US, and 23 February in the UK and 5 March in Australia, at a list price of $349 / £299.99 / AU$549.

Today marks the turn of the Lunar New Year for 2026, and the start of the Year of the Horse – or more specifically, the Fire Horse, which is said to symbolise action, speed and momentum.

As is almost always the case over LNY, plenty of big stores in Singapore are slashing prices to celebrate, and Dyson Singapore has certainly wasted no time in launching attractive deals across a wide range of products, with over SG$800 in savings up for grabs.

The biggest discounts apply to product bundles – Dyson SG is offering a pair of its Big+Quiet air purifiers together in one package with replacement carbon filters for SG$1,688 (down from SG$2,514) – and you can save a further SG$188 using the code CNY188 when you spend SG$1,588 or more. Dyson SG is also offering SG$88 off any purchase of SG$888 or more with the code CNY88.

Elsewhere there are discounts on recently launched products, including the Spot+Scrub robot vacuum cleaner, a range of Supersonic hair dryer models and even the Solarcycle Morph desk lamp.

I’ve picked out some of my favourite Dyson SG deals below, but be sure to head to the Dyson SG website to shop all the available discounts.

• Dyson has launched the PencilVac Fluffy, following the Fluffycones version
• It features a parallel roller rather than cone-shaped, otherwise the same ultra-compact vacuum design
• Currently available in the US only, it's significantly cheaper than the original

Recently, Dyson launched an almost impossibly compact new vacuum: the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones. It looks nothing like a regular cordless vacuum, because all of the main components have been shrunk right down and hidden within the handle, which itself is about the size of a broom handle.

I tested one out and declared it a true feat of engineering and innovation. In fact, I was completely sold on this new design... save for one niggling issue. Dyson has used cone-shaped rollers on the floorhead, rather than standard parallel ones. The plastic casing then follows the shape of the cones, which means the floorhead comes to a slight point at the front.

The knock-on effect is that the PencilVac Fluffycones can't sit flush to a wall, unless you approach side-on, which isn't always possible. It makes vacuuming the edges of rooms unnecessarily tricky, and tasks like cleaning the stairs – which this lightweight, nimble vacuum would otherwise be perfect for – become a major hassle. It's a problem I also had with the Dyson V16 Piston Animal, which has a similar cone-based floorhead.

Imagine my joy when I spotted an alternative on the dyson.com website, launched without any fuss or fanfare: the Dyson Fluffy. It looks to be exactly the same as the PencilVac Fluffycones, except for the floorhead. The cone-based head has been swapped for one with a parallel roller.

The new floorhead looks similar to the Fluffy / Fluffy Optic floorhead that is bundled in with the Dyson V15 Detect and Gen5detect vacuums, but is possibly slightly more streamlined, as implied by the name: the Micro Fluffy cleaner head. Just like the Fluffycones head, the roller is entirely covered in soft, dense fibers that are designed to get right up close to your hard floors, sweeping away dust and buffing the surface clean, without risking any scratches.

Potential down-sides

For me, the Micro Fluffy cleaner head looks like a clear winner of the two floorhead options. It solves the room edges problem, and based on the specs it's lighter too.

The only thing I'm slightly sad about is that there doesn't appear to be any laser headlamps on this new version – in contrast, the FluffyCones has two, one mounted to the front and another to the back. These help illuminate lingering dust on hard surfaces, to ensure you don't miss any. They also make cleaning that much more satisfying.

The original idea behind using cones is that any long hair the vacuum encounters will make its way down to the small ends of the cones, to be easily sucked up. This works well, but then again I've never had issues with hair-wrap on the standard Fluffy floorhead on my V15 or Gen5detect, either. If you have Rapunzel-like locks, it might still be worth considering the FluffyCones version, but otherwise I'd say you'll be fine with the Micro Fluffy option.

The Dyson PencilVac Fluffy is currently available to buy in the US direct from Dyson, but it's not yet an option on the UK or Australian sites. It costs $449.99 – significantly cheaper than the Fluffycones version, which is listed at $599.99.

Dyson recently launched three new home appliances: a wet floor cleaner, the Clean+Wash Hygiene, a robot vacuum, the Spot+Scrub Ai, and a regular vacuum, the PencilVac Fluffycones. Of the three, the manual vacuum stands head-and-shoulders above the others.

It makes sense: Dyson has long been considered the vacuum king. There are decades of expertise to draw on there. The other products? Not so much.

It's further convinced me of something I've been thinking about for some time: that brands should lean into what they're good at, rather than trying to be everything to everyone. I don't mean just making one type of product, but I do mean focusing on the expertise you have in your business and looking to maximize it.

Getting experimental

On the surface of it, branching from vacuum to robot vacuum seems pretty logical. Except it's not. Suction – which Dyson does know about – is only a tiny piece of it. Arguably, the software side is much more important. A great cleaning algorithm and reliable navigation are crucial, and none of Dyson's handful of robot vacuum attempts have shone in these areas.

Dyson has also ported in manual vacuum features. I'm not sure whether this is an attempt to connect it to the rest of its products or because it thinks these features make sense in a robot vacuum, but to me, they're not a good fit. Dirt-illuminating laser LEDs are unnecessary here, and the transparent dock dust cup is unwanted.

The Clean+Wash Hygiene is similarly slightly underwhelming. There's no suction (which is fine, although again, it feels like it's not playing to Dyson's strengths), but instead uses a well-designed roller and even water flow to remove solid and/or liquid dirt from your hard floors.

It works fine, but in terms of features, it's notably behind the folks that have been doing wet cleaners for a while – Tineco and Bissell, to name a few. Unfortunately, Dyson's pricing doesn't reflect the short featurelist.

Pencil me in

Then we come to the PencilVac Fluffycones. This is Dyson's area of expertise, and boy does it show. We don't just have a passably good product; we have one that outshines all the competition and introduces something genuinely new to the market.

For the PencilVac, Dyson shrunk all the component parts of a vacuum cleaner down and stuck them in a broom-shaped handle. The result is a machine that's ultra-streamlined, lightweight, and a dream to use. I think it might truly change the vacuum market.

Another area where Dyson has successfully transferred its expertise is haircare. Although on the surface, it seemed like quite the pivot when the brand first announced its Supersonic dryer, it actually makes a lot of sense.

Dyson is skilled at moving air – it's what makes it so prevalent in the vacuum cleaner and fan/purifier spaces – so it follows that it could make a great hair dryer.

Staying in your lane

Dyson isn't the only brand interested in expanding its horizons. At the start of the year, Dreame announced it its entry into... well, just about every home category I can think of. I expressed my concerns that it'd be able to maintain the high standards I've seen so far in its robot vacuums and hair stylers.

I'm all for pushing boundaries, but I also think it's worth playing to your strengths. Not all home brands can offer everything under one roof, and that's fine.

Dyson is known for its vacuum cleaners, but recently it has been getting more into wet hard-floor cleaners. Its first attempt launched in August 2024, and you can read all about it in my Dyson WashG1 review. Now there's a new model on the block: the Dyson Clean+Wash Hygiene.

Unlike the best wet-and-dry vacuums on the market, neither use suction, but instead harness a combination of hydration, agitation and separation to clean your hard floors. To put it another way, they add water, dislodge dirt using cleverly designed rollers, and then separate solid and liquid waste for easy disposal.

Beyond that, though, there are a couple of key differences between the Dyson WashG1 and Clean+Wash Hygiene. The first is that the dock will dry the roller with hot air once it's finished its self-washing cycle. This is a solid improvement; no notes.

The second is that the Clean+Wash stores all the waste water in its floorhead, rather than on a tank mounted to the handle. The idea behind this is that because the liquid's not traveling anywhere, there are no tubes to get gunked up. This design shift makes sense in theory, but has several knock-on effects I'm not such a fan of. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that in making this one change, Dyson has sacrificed most of the WashG1's best features.

Here's why I actually prefer the older Dyson WashG1 over the new and shiny Clean+Wash Hygiene...

1. It's fiddly and messy to empty

The WashG1 has its dirty-water tank mounted to its handle, and this is easy to remove and empty. The solid waste tray slots into the floorhead, and is slightly more complex to fit, but still fairly straightforward.

In contrast, the Clean+Wash Hygiene has its dirty-water tank mounted into the top of the floorhead, with a two-part solid waste tray integrated in. Separating the three components is fiddly, and putting it back together again even more so – and I say this as someone who's pretty good at jigsaws.

The knock-on effect of having a more complicated floorhead, with lots of connecting components, is that it's a lot leakier than the nice, simple WashG1. Now, all the wet floor cleaners I've used are a little bit drippy – it feels like an unavoidable problem – but the Clean+Wash Hygiene seems especially bad. It felt like every time I went to empty the dirty-water tank something would dribble out onto me or the floor.

2. There's only one roller

The WashG1's floorhead has two large microfiber rollers and a bristled roller for solid messes, and delivers efficient cleaning. In contrast, the Clean+Wash Hygiene only has space for one roller on its more complicated floorhead.

I will say I do prefer the microfiber roller design on the Clean+Wash. The scrubbing action is slightly improved, thanks to the addition of wiry, longer fibers that extend a bit from the roller. My ideal scenario? The upgraded microfiber roller design, mounted in the old floorhead.

3. The water tanks are too small

The WashG1 has a 1L clean-water tank, and a 0.8L dirty tank, whereas the Clean+Wash Hygiene equivalents are 0.75L and 0.52L respectively, and the difference was noticeable on test; not so much during the actual mopping – Dyson has tweaked the water delivery so there's only a fine sheen of liquid applied to floors, eking out the clean water as much as possible – but during the self-clean cycle.

Each self-clean cycle uses more than half a tank of clean water, which means for the first few times I ran one of these I had to stop twice per cycle: once to refill the clean water tank and again to empty the dirty tank. Eventually I learned to do this before each self-clean cycle to avoid annoying interruptions.

The benefit of smaller tanks is a more streamlined and lighter machine, so I can see why Dyson was keen to keep things compact here – you'll need to decide your priorities when making your choice.

4. Cleaning the dirty-water tank is tricky

One of the things I liked about the design of the dirty-water tank on the WashG1 – and something Dyson highlighted as a big benefit when I was first shown that machine – was that the waste water tank was designed to be easy to clean.

It's wide enough that you can get your hand in and wipe everything out, and there are no awkward corners where grime can collect. I've tested a number of wet-dry vacuums now, and I've never seen anything like it – dirty water tanks are always too small to get your hand in, and always have sharp edges that get grubby almost instantly.

The setup on the Clean+Wash is especially bad, though. It opens with a screw cap, and there's no access to the inside at all. It's not the worst thing for a dirty water tank to be dirty, but this feels like an oversight in terms of long-term maintenance.

Dyson WashG1 vs Clean+Wash Hygiene: specs compared

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai: two-minute review

The Spot+Scrub Ai is a shot at robot vacuum redemption for Dyson, since it follows in the wake of two uninspiring attempts to take the fight to rivals like Eufy, Roborock and Dreame. During two months of testing, I found the Spot+Scrub Ai works well when tasked with a little-and-often approach to cleaning. It vacuums well, mostly avoids all manner of obstacles, mops to an acceptable level, and does a great job of cleaning itself – so much so, that after two months' use the mop still looked brand new.

This is all good news, and while the app is a little unintuitive at first – especially with regard to map creation and editing – it eventually makes sense, and its lack of adjustability is a welcome change compared to many rivals obsessed with pages of settings menus.

Up to 18,000 Pa of suction power is very acceptable if not market-leading, and the Dyson performed very well in my hard floor tests, smartly slowing its side brushes to avoid flicking food debris all over the kitchen.

But it wasn't perfect. It seemed to get lost during the setup process, frequently struggled to drive up the ramp into its dock, and once failed to properly empty its bin, causing an overflow and spillage. I also encountered an issue where the target cleaning function was repeatedly ignored, and I'd rather the dust bin of the docking station wasn't transparent, since it gives a constant view of dust, hair and crumbs to everyone in sight.

I anticipate that some of these issues can be fixed with software updates – and, if you create a daily or even twice-weekly schedule, I have no doubt the Dyson will diligently keep your house clean. But it falls short when tasked with deeper, targeted cleans, and while decent for a robot, the mop will always be beaten by a wet wipe and a bit of elbow grease.

That's the short version; read on for my full Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review.

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review: price & availability

• List price: £1,049.99 / AU$1,999 / US TBC
• Available: UK / AU – US to follow
• Launched: February 2026

Dyson's latest attempt to crack the robotic vacuum market was announced in 2025 and went on sale at the end of January 2026. The UK price at launch is £1,049.99, but the US price hadn't been revealed at the time of writing. Given the way our currencies work these days, it'd be safe to assume a very similar figure, around the $1,100 mark. It launched in Australia in early February, with a list price of AU$1,999.

For that you get the robot itself, plus a docking station that houses a bagless dust bin, tanks for clean and dirty water, and a charger. A bottle of detergent is not included, which feels a bit mean given the instructions mention it during the setup process. You'll need to spend £19.99 / AU$38 on 500ml of Dyson's own, or source an alternative.

Four-figure price tags have quickly become the norm among high-end robotic vacuums and mops. So, while it might seem expensive if you're new to these products, the Spot+Scrub Ai doesn't punch your credit card with as much Dyson tax as the company's stick vacuums do.

Rival robots like the Narwal Flow and Eufy Omni S1 Pro cost more, at least at launch. Given the Dyson name, bagless design – meaning no spending on replacement bags – mopping features and AI smarts, it seems fairly priced. No word yet on how much replacement parts will cost.

• Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai specs

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review: design

• Bagless docking station, but bin is transparent
• Rotating roller mop with hot water mopping
• Both robot and dock on the larger side

Dyson products are as much about design as they are performance. The iconic clear plastic dustbins, bright colors, red highlights and a hint of the extraterrestrial give Dyson products a design language all of their own. Take the logo off, and its products are still instantly recognizable.

This is still broadly true of the Spot+Scrub Ai, but I can't help thinking Dyson's design team has phoned it in. The handy bagless design is here, which is genuinely useful since it means you'll never have to buy replacement bags for the docking station. There's also a nice bit of sci-fi going on with the bin lid, plus splashes of blue and red on the mopping unit and side brushes.

But that's it. The rest of the product is all rather generic, with little of the wow-factor Dyson loads into its other products with unbridled confidence. Aesthetics shouldn't matter too much, but Dyson products are supposed to be visually exciting and this just isn't.

There are practical issues here too. Clear plastic works well with a handheld stick vacuum, making it easy to see when the bin is full. The same logic applies here, but whereas stick vacuums tend to live in closets, under stairs and generally out of the way, the Spot+Scrub Ai will likely be on full display in your kitchen. I don't want to see the inside of a bin while eating breakfast, and would much rather other parts of the docking station were transparent instead.

It also isn't obvious at a glance which tank is the clean water and which is dirty. Does a filled-in purple circle on top mean clean, or is it the empty circle?

My last concern is its size. Many modern robotic vacuums are rather cumbersome, especially when paired with a dock with water tanks, but the Dyson is especially bulky. The dock measures 45.5cm high, 44cm wide and 50.8cm deep, while the robot is 11cm tall, 37cm long and 37.3cm wide. It's a little taller than some rivals, so you'll want to check the height against any furniture you want it to clean under before buying.

Thankfully, the rest of the Dyson's design is good. It feels well-made and is easy to set up and use. The robot itself has the usual pair of spinning side brushes for reaching into corners, and a roller brush underneath, plus a large mop that rotates and slides outwards by 1.57 in / 4cm to the side, helping it clean right up against the wall.

The roller mop uses water warmed to 140F / 60C and self-cleans as it goes, then gets cleaned again (and dried) when back at the base station. It's a comprehensive approach to mopping that promises to perform well.

The robot's own bin has a generous 3-liter capacity, and although Dyson doesn't say, the onboard water tank looks to be around 1.5 liters, and gets replenished from the base station during longer mopping tasks.

• Design score: 4 out of 5

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review: performance

• Clever automatic vacuuming adjustment but self-emptying can fail
• Thorough (if noisy) mop self-cleaning
• Good obstacle avoidance but some navigation problems

I used the Spot+Scrub Ai for a couple of months before writing this review, including over a busy holiday period with frequent cleans of the kitchen and lounge after hosting family, and vacuuming up Christmas tree needles. I wrote more about my initial impressions here, and while the Dyson failed to impress on day one, I grew to like it over the weeks to come.

It only once got stuck, having become caught on the power cable of some Christmas lights. This was an oversight on my behalf, and although the Dyson spent all day – literally hours while I was out, until its battery died – trying to break free, no damage was done to the lighting or the robot. Every other cleaning mission was completed successfully, and it also created a second map and cleaned the upstairs without any problem.

As ever with these robots, there's a concern that it'll get confused and start mopping the carpet, but thankfully it's smart enough not to do this. You can manually put restrictions in with the app, telling it not to mop or vacuum certain areas – although, unlike many premium bots with flat mop pads, the Spot+Scrub Ai can't lift its roller when traversing carpet after mopping, nor can it drop it off in the dock when it's not required.

Moving to TechRadar's specific robovac tests, and the Dyson didn't start well. Tasked with vacuuming a flour and crumb mix from a section of carpet, it drove to the target area and cleaned, but somehow entirely missed the debris. The path it drove covered barely half of the target area, for no apparent reason.

I tried twice more, and again it completely failed to clean up the crumb mix. Bafflingly, it appeared to actively avoid the dirt, driving around it as if it were an obstacle.

Exasperated, I tasked the Dyson with vacuuming the entire room instead. This worked fine, suggesting a fault with the target cleaning mode. The Quick and Quiet modes (recorded by a microphone at 61 dB and 63 dB, respectively) both did an okay job, but you're best either using Boost (71 dB) or Auto, where the robot works it all out for itself. This Dyson is among the loudest robovacs I've tested, with its drive motors noisier than others and even the Quiet mode being audible from a room or two away. Self-emptying into the dock is especially loud, at 81 dB.

The Spot+Scrub Ai's obstacle avoidance skills are decent, with it successfully avoiding items like sockets, slippers and USB cables placed in its way. It nudged my slipper a couple of times, and once got very close to the cable, but managed to avoid everything, clean around them, and return safely to base.

Performance was similar when I swapped the crumb mix for a scattering of dry oats, and on carpet the Dyson performed best when asked to clean the whole room in Auto mode. It mostly did a good job of picking up the oats from where I'd scattered them, but spilled some when turning around and driving over a door threshold. I don't mind a few dropped oats, but the Dyson performed poorly here, spreading the debris around far more than I'd hoped it would.

I later realized its internal bin was overflowing, and had failed to empty into the bagless bin of the dock, despite it being programmed to do so every 15 minutes. That 81 dB of suction sound after each clean didn't seem to have done much at all. I emptied the bin myself and found no cause for the blockage – just dust, oats and Christmas tree needles.

The robot also had a sizable amount of hair wrapped around its central roller brush, which needed removing with scissors. Other robovacs have anti-tangle designs to better prevent this, and it's worth mentioning this is a two-person household with no pets. Once cleaned up and properly emptied, it was back to top performance, using Auto mode to vacuum up almost all of the oats from my carpet.

I next switched to a hard kitchen floor. Here, the Spot+Scrub Ai seemed to spot where debris was and ramp up the suction over that area, clearing a section of the crumb mix with ease (with one pass of Auto mode). A few crumbs were flicked across the room, but the quality of clean was otherwise very impressive, and it adhered to the target cleaning zone this time. If only it had performed so well during the carpet cleaning earlier.

The oat test on hard floor was similarly successful, with the Dyson slowing down, diving carefully over the debris, upping its suction power and even slowing its rotating brushes right down to prevent oats being flicked all over the room – something many rivals are frequently guilty of.

It wasn't quite a perfect clean, since a few oats were still pushed outside of the target zone. But it did relatively well on what is often a tough test. As ever, setting the robot to vacuum a whole room delivers the best results.

Mopping

Finally, mopping. For this I smeared some ketchup on a wooden floor and let it dry for a couple of hours. The Dyson spends a few minutes preparing to mop – filling its water tank, washing the roller mop, warming up the water – and it's a pretty loud process, at about 71 dB.

The actual mopping process is quieter, between about 62 dB and 67 dB. The Dyson's mop reaches outwards to scrub right up against the walls, and it drives methodically over the target area. As per the 'Spot+Scrub' part of the name, one of this bot's USPs is that it's meant to detect spills on hard flooring and go back-and-forth over them until they're clear. I didn't notice it doing anything like this in my tests.

After my zone clean, some ketchup remained, so I cranked the settings up to maximum: water level three and two passes of the target zone. This removed more, but not all, of the ketchup. Ultimately, for a stain like this you're best off tackling it yourself with a damp cloth or wet wipe.

Afterwards, the robot drains its water tank and cleans the mop, which is also rather loud at 70 dB and lasts around five minutes before the mop is dried (44 dB). It's worth shouting out the effectiveness of this setup – even after two months of regular use, the mop still looked brand new.

As with all robotic vacuums and mops, the Dyson is best used for a little-and-often cleaning strategy. For weeks, it did a good job of keeping my house visibly clean. But when tasked with specific chores, it didn't perform as well as I'd hoped from the Dyson brand.

Lastly for performance, the Spot+Scrub Ai frequently struggled to drive back into its dock. I've no idea why, but it would sometimes try for a while, fail, then turn around a few times, try again, and eventually succeed. It's as if it can't quite manage the slope up to the dock, despite being on a perfectly flat floor.

• Performance score: 3.5 out of 5

Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai review: app

• Refreshing lack of adjustability
• Dyson product ads
• Could be more intuitive for map creation and edition

The app was one of my primary concerns during my initial test of the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai, but once I'd spent a few days with it I found it works well. It's still not the most intuitive menu system I've seen, especially with regard to map creation and editing, but I like that there aren't pages and pages of adjustable settings, as with some other robovacs.

There's a sense that Dyson trusts its robot to just get on with the job, and therefore doesn't ask if you'd like to adjust every parameter of how it functions. That said, I'd like more detail about spotted obstacles; these only appear as an orange cone on the map, but I'd prefer a better description of what the object is, or even a photograph. Dyson says the robot can identify 200 objects, so this could surely be possible.

Multiple maps can be created (one for each floor of your home), and you can tell the robot to avoid certain areas, or tell it to never mop or vacuum certain areas. Mostly, you'll want to leave it in Auto and have it clean entire rooms, or even floors, at a time.

I got into the habit of using the robot to clean our kitchen every evening, and vacuum the lounge and hallway at the weekend. This is where robovacs work at their best. Or, better yet, create a schedule and have the Dyson clean every day while you're out.

The app is also full of helpful videos to explain how everything works and how to clean, service and replace consumable parts. I like how the app shows the approximate life remaining of each part as a percentage, and how Dyson is transparent with the costs of every component. It'll let you buy replacements for just about everything, even including the docking station. Slightly annoying is how the app serves as an ad to show off unrelated Dyson products, like headphones and hair dryers.

• App score: 4 out of 5

Should you buy the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

How I tested the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai

I set up the Dyson and used it as my only vacuum and mop for a couple of months. The test began by setting up the robot and having it create maps of both floors of my house, then using it to keep all carpets and hard floors clean.

I used the robot every couple of days across the Christmas period, then set about conducting TechRadar's standardized robovac tests to assess the performance of its vacuuming, mopping, navigation and self-cleaning abilities.

Read more about how we test robot vacuum cleaners

• First reviewed December 2025

Dyson PencilVac: two-minute review

The Dyson PencilVac looks nothing like any vacuum I've seen before. All the mechanisms – the motor, filters, battery, and even the dust cup – are hidden within the handle, which measures just 1.5 inches / 3.8cm in diameter. That isn't the only unique thing about the PencilVac: the floorhead is also very quirky, with its four, fluffy, conical rollers rotating in opposite directions to lift dirt and buff your floors clean.

In use, it's the most nimble vacuum I've tested. The head appears to hover across the floor; it can be used forwards or backwards, and lie completely flat to the ground. With a bit of practice, you can make the floorhead do figure eights.

Those fluffy rollers are specifically meant for use on hard flooring – there's nothing to agitate carpet fibers to release trapped dirt. The suction power is in line with what I'd expect for a hard floor-specific vacuum, too: a relatively low 55AW of power, when most of the best Dyson vacuums have at least double that.

That power proved plenty to whisk away dog hair and dust from my hard floors, however. I could see it was doing a good job, because lasers installed in the front and back of the floorhead do a stellar job of illuminating any lingering dirt.

There are a couple more compromises for that ultra-streamlined, super-light build. The battery life is rather limited, topping out at 30 minutes per charge. The dust bin is small, too, although air compression helps maximize the amount you can fit into the physical space.

The only issue I think is a genuine mistake on Dyson's part is that the floorhead comes to a slight point, which means it can't sit flush to a wall. This makes it really tricky to get a thorough edge clean. It's extra-annoying here given the emphasis on maneuverability and thoroughness of coverage. This shape is dictated by the tapering rollers, which are designed to prevent hair wrap, but I've found Dyson's Motorbar and Fluffy floorheads do this perfectly well without the need for a tapering roller.

It's a relatively minor complaint in what is a genuinely impressive feat of engineering – and a useful one at that. If you have mostly hard floors and want a nimble, lightweight vacuum that will and highlight hidden dust as you clean, you'll struggle to find something better than this. Read on for my full Dyson PencilVac review.

Dyson PencilVac review: price & availability

• List price: US TBC / £429.99 / AU$949
• Available: US TBC / UK 10 Dec / Australia August 2025
• Launched: Summer 2025

The PencilVac was announced in June 2025 and went on sale in Australia in August. A UK launch followed in December 2025. At time of writing, it isn't yet available in the US. At the list price it costs £429.99 / AU$949 (discounted to AU$798 at time of writing). That's equivalent to around $590 in the US, although actual pricing is unknown.

That puts the PencilVac in the premium price bracket for vacuums. You're paying extra for the unique design here (and a little bit for the Dyson name). In terms of specs such as suction power, runtime, and even special features and accessories, it doesn't compare favorably to other models on the market. However, if you want something ultra-light and maneuverable, there's nothing else like it (for now, at least...). The build quality is excellent, as I'd expect from Dyson.

• Value for money score: 3.5 out of 5

Dyson PencilVac specs

Dyson PencilVac review: design

• Lightweight, compact build, with all mechanisms hidden in handle
• Extremely maneuverable, can be used either way around
• Small dust cup, but uses air compression to maximize space

The design here is unique. There's no visible battery, motor, filter, or dust cup section. Instead, all that is packed within the wand, which measures 1.5 inches / 3.8cm in diameter. To achieve that, Dyson has had to re-engineer its motor to one that's incredibly compact – the Hyperdymium 140k motor is just 1.1 inches / 2.8cm wide, and hidden entirely within the handle.

The PencilVac in general is very lightweight, at 4lbs / 1.8kg (by comparison, the V8 is 5.5 lbs / 2.5kg with wand and floorhead attached), and extremely nimble.

The battery forms the top section of the wand, and can be removed and swapped. Moving down you'll find the controls – there are just two buttons: an On/Off, and a second button to switch modes (Eco, Med and Boost; there's no auto-adjustment here). A small screen displays the mode you're using and how much time you have left on the clock.

Move down further and you'll find the dust cup behind a transparent casing; this allows you a view as it fills up. Rather unusually, the dust collects at the top of the bin section. Not surprisingly, the capacity is rather limited, at 0.08L (most of Dyson's stick vacuums have a 0.8L bin). However, the PencilVac apparently uses air to squish down the particles, so that they take up as little room as possible. As such, Dyson says that this cup will hold up to five times its physical volume.

To empty the bin, you remove the floorhead and slide the whole casing down. The dust and dirt then shoots out of the bottom. This process is straightforward and works well, although I did find particles got stuck in and around the bin casing.

At the end of the wand you'll find the new Fluffycones floorhead – another unique part of the PencilVac. This a kind of hybrid between the All Floors Cones Sense floorhead introduced with the Dyson V16 Piston Animal, and the Fluffy cleaner head that made its debut with the Dyson V15 Detect.

Instead of having one or two tube-shaped rollers, the Fluffycones head has four conical ones. The tapering shape is designed specifically as a way to deal with long hair: rather than becoming tangled around the brush roll, the strands should make their way down to the small end of the cone where they drop off in a clump, and can be vacuumed up in a single pass. It's an idea that Dyson first used in its Hair screw tool.

However, unlike the All Floors Cones Sense head, the rollers here are entirely covered with soft, fluffy fabric. This is perfect for use on hard floors, where it can get right up close to the flat surface without risking scratches. It isn't well-suited to carpet, though, because there's nothing to agitate the fibers and release embedded dirt.

Dyson has also added a green laser to both the front and back of the Fluffycones floorhead. This is designed to highlight specks of dirt that might otherwise be missed.

The cones extend a little way past the hard plastic casing, and rotate in opposite directions, which means the PencilVac can pick up debris when pushed forwards and when pulled backwards. In fact, because it's basically symmetrical, you can use it either way around.

Since the "wand" contains all the inner mechanisms, the PencilVac isn't quite as versatile as a traditional stick vacuum. You can't remove the wand part and use it like a hand vacuum. However, you can swap out the floorhead for a detail tool. There was one included with my review model: a "Rotating combi-crevice tool" that can be used like a traditional Crevice tool, or with the brush section engaged to sweep up dirt (NB: it doesn't actually rotate).

• Design score: 4.5 out of 5

Dyson PencilVac review: performance

• Excellent and very efficient pickup on hard floor, even in Eco mode
• Not designed for use on carpet, and not sucky enough for ingrained dirt
• Laser light is effective and useful

So how does the Dyson PencilVac perform in practice? The first thing to emphasize is how comfortable it is to use. Although it takes a moment to get used to the different grip – you hold this cleaner like a broom, rather than like a traditional stick vacuum – it's very light in the hand and maneuvers incredibly well. You can use it forwards or backwards, and the floorhead pivots with ease. With the detail tool attached, it's also super easy to clean up high or in tight spaces.

Unfortunately, the design of the floorhead isn't quite as impressive. Since it comes to a slight point at the front, it can't sit flush to a wall. This was one of my main complaints with the similarly shaped All Floors Cones Sense floorhead, and it's no less annoying here. If you can't approach an edge side-on, it's tricky to achieve a thorough clean. This kind of vacuum should be perfect for the stairs, say... except the reality is that using the PencilVac to clean along all those straight edges is a nightmare.

This isn't the most powerful Dyson vacuum – you're getting a maximum 55AW of suction, where most Dyson stick vacs have double that. Also, the design of the floorhead doesn't lend itself to being ultra-sucky, either. Usually, the casing around the edges would descend to the floor around all four edges, creating a "vacuum" (in the original sense of the word) underneath. That isn't the case here. And because the rollers are soft all over, there's nothing to agitate embedded dust.

None of that is an issue if you're just using the PencilVac on hard flooring, which is its intended use. You don't need a ton of suction to clean hard floors, because all the dust and dirt is sat right there on the surface. But if you're seeking something for carpet, or even a vacuum that will pull the dirt from the cracks and crevices in your floorboards, this isn't it.

To get a more objective view of how well the PencilVac cleans, I ran a series of tests using dry, loose tea (to represent fine particles) and a dry couscous/oat mix (to represent chunky debris) on the large tiles of my kitchen floor. The results were very impressive: the vacuum picked up everything in a single pass, even on the lowest Eco mode. There was minimal pinging of large particles, and the fact that the head cleans from both sides meant I could clear the spillage in half the time.

In general use, the PencilVac was a dream to use in my kitchen. The Fluffycones head seemed to hover across floors, moving smoothly and with minimal effort on my part, whisking away dirt and pet hair as it went. The lasers did a great job of illuminating dust in dingy areas, and I could easily direct the vacuum into tight corners – down the side of a sofa, for example. The only annoyance was that awkwardly angled floorhead.

Although this vacuum isn't really built for carpets, I still ran my standard carpet tests to see how it would cope. It pulled up a decent amount of chunky debris in a single forward pass in Medium mode, although it did flick other bits about.

Medium mode wasn't enough to pull many of the flecks of fine dry tea from my mid-pile carpet, and even after several passes I could still see a shadow where the tea had been sprinkled.

I also decided to try the PencilVac on the canvas-style mat in my kitchen. It pulled up a good amount of debris, and there was less pinging than there had been on the carpet. It's certainly capable of pulling surface dirt from this kind of flooring, and perfectly fine for everyday cleaning.

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Dyson PencilVac review: battery life

• Promises 30 mins in Eco, 20 in Medium, and 5 in Boost
• 2 hours recharge time
• Battery removable and swappable

The main compromise you're making for the lightweight, compact build is a smaller battery. Larger, heavier Dyson vacuums last over an hour in their lowest-powered mode, but the runtimes on the PencilVac are much shorter. Dyson promises 30 minutes in Eco mode, 20 in Medium and 5 in the most powerful Boost mode. The battery recharges in a relatively speedy 2 hours.

Medium mode is the one I'd typically default to, and it lasted for 18 minutes at the power (less than Dyson's listed specs). That's really quite short for a middle mode, although it did give me enough time to clean three bathrooms, a large kitchen and utility room, so maybe it isn't too much of an issue. I'd also say that for hard flooring, Eco mode will actually usually be sucky enough for most situations.

I've been testing vacuums for a while now, and with the PencilVac I missed having a dirt-detecting Auto mode, although I can see why it wasn't included here. I'm pleased to see that despite the battery taking a different format, it's still removable and replaceable, which should help with the longevity of the PencilVac overall.

• Battery life score: 3.5 out of 5

Should you buy the Dyson PencilVac?

How I tested the Dyson PencilVac

I used the Dyson PencilVac regularly for a couple of months, to get a general feel for its performance and usefulness. I also ran specific cleaning tests including chunky particles (dry couscous/oat mix) and fine particles (dry, loose tea) on my hard floor, thin mats and carpet. I compared my findings with other vacuums I've tested, and assessed if it offered strong value for money.

Read more about how we test vacuum cleaners

• First reviewed November 2025

I've been writing about vacuums for a long time now, and every new cordless vacuum that comes out seems to offer more suction and longer runtimes. Dyson has bucked that trend with its new launch. The Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones has suction and runtime specs that, if I was being polite, I'd describe as 'underwhelming'. Despite that, it's one of the best cordless vacuums I've tested in a long time, and I truly think it's going to shake up the vacuum market.

In its PencilVac, Dyson has embraced a completely new form factor. It looks more like a broom than a cordless vacuum, with all the main mechanical components (motor, filter, dust cup, battery) shrunk down and hidden within the handle. It's incredibly streamlined and impressively lightweight.

It's designed for use on hard floors, and for that it's absolutely perfect. I've been testing it out for several weeks (read my full Dyson PencilVac review) and it has no trouble clearing every last speck of dust from my tiled kitchen floor. I can see how much of a good job it's doing, because there are lasers mounted to the front and back of the floorhead that light up the tiniest specks of dirt like a beacon.

The reason the lasers are on the front and the back is because this cleaner works from both directions, which cuts cleaning times in half. It's ultra-nimble and incredibly low-effort to use – I loved flinging it around my kitchen and watching the laser-illuminated dust disappearing before my very eyes.

A forgotten market

This kind of vacuum will be perfect for anyone who struggles with lifting or maneuvering a traditional stick vacuum. It's a chunk of the market that has been somewhat forgotten about lately. Generally, in their quest for ever-more suction and ever-longer battery life, brands have been compromising on weight. Dyson is particularly guilty of this. Its newest models, the V16 Piston Animal and Gen5detect vacuum, both weigh a hefty 7.5 lbs / 3.4kg. The PencilVac, in contrast, weighs 4 lbs / 1.8kg.

This kind of compact, easily maneuverable vacuum will also suit anyone with awkward corners to clean. What's more, the lightweight build is perfect for cleaning up high, with the detail tool attached.

Sure, it won't suit everyone. The design is specifically for hard floors and perhaps the occasional canvas-style rug – the floorhead design and suction level won't work for carpet. That's fine; those with carpets to clean have plenty of alternatives to choose from.

The relatively short runtimes (you'll get around 30 minutes' cleaning in Eco mode and 20 in Med, whereas most modern vacuums offer an hour or more in the lowest mode) aren't going to be a problem for everyone either. I found that a. Eco mode was sucky enough to clean my hard floors efficiently, and b. 30 minutes was plenty of time to clean my large kitchen and three bathrooms, partly thanks to the efficient design and smooth maneuvering.

The Dyson PencilVac is proof that there's space for different kinds of vacuum cleaners on the market. By (to some extent) ignoring suction power and battery life, Dyson has freed the PencilVac up to shine in different areas. I've already seen my first dupe, and I'm confident it won't be the last.

Dyson is one of the most respected appliance brands around, and has a reputation for invention. In my role as a TechRadar Homes Editor, I've had a chance to try out almost all of this brand's gadgets and appliances (as well as plenty of competitor products, for added context). I'm consistently impressed with Dyson's creativity and innovation... but not all of its inventions are quite as good as others.

Below, I've listed Dyson's big innovations, ranked from best to worst. To narrow things down a bit, I've focused on the brand's vacuum cleaners and haircare gadgets, though, of course, it also has significant stakes in the air purifier and fan markets. Read on for the Dyson features that truly blew me away, and those that turned out to be downgrades in disguise.

#1. A teeny tiny motor

Any handheld gadget typically benefits from being as compact and light as possible. For its Supersonic r hair dryer, Dyson shrunk the motor right down and put it in an incredibly compact shell. It looks weird, but it's a dream to use, with the pipe-like shape directing air with precision – plus, it blasts out air with serious force for such a small gadget.

Perhaps even more impressive is the new Dyson PencilVac. This is a cordless stick vacuum, except all the internal mechanics have been shrunk down and tucked into the handle, which is 1.5 inches / under 4cm in diameter.

It looks like a broom handle, except inside there's a tiny little motor, alongside filters, a battery, and even a dust cup. It almost defies belief. I've been busy testing this gadget at home, and it's ultra-nimble and light.

#2. Lasers on vacuums

Want to be disgusted by exactly how dusty your floors are? Now you can! Dyson was the brand that first put dirt-illuminating laser headlamps on its vacuum floorheads. They're ultra-bright and positioned at precisely the right angle to cast big shadows on the tiniest particles and finest hairs on your hard flooring.

They're genuinely useful in making sure you get every last speck of dust cleared away. They're also just generally really satisfying to use and helpful in highlighting (literally) the dirt-hotspots that are getting neglected.

These were first introduced on the Dyson V15 Detect, but appear on most of Dyson's newest vacuums, including the Dyson Gen5detect and V16 Piston Animal. Lots of brands have copycat versions these days. I've tested plenty of headlamp-equipped vacuums from different brands, but very few come close to Dyson's version in terms of effectiveness.

#3. Curl automation

Dyson deserves credit for pioneering a new way of curling hair with its OG Airwrap. Now my bathroom is full of Airwrap dupes, and the auto-wrapping, air-powered curling feels like old news, but Dyson has managed to capture my attention once again with a major upgrade to its iconic multi-styler.

The newest models – the Airwrap i.d. and Airwrap Co-anda 2x – have a little spring-loaded switch on the front that automates the curl sequence for you. Flick it upwards, and it kicks off a wrap – curl – cool shot process, so all you need to do is hold the styler in place while it works its magic.

The timings of each part are specific to your hair and determined by a quiz you complete in the companion app. Normally, I'm pretty opposed to apps for things that shouldn't really need one, but here, Dyson gets a pass.

Now, this upgrade isn't essential. I could achieve the same results on my own with some focus and clock-watching. It's just that it makes styling so effortless. And because I invariably get bored or distracted when trying to curl without the automated sequence, the results on me always look more polished and last longer when the machine times it all out for me.

#4. Ultra-precise dust detection

Dyson's newer flagship vacuums (from the V15 onwards) have the ability to detect exactly the size and number of particles they're sucking up at any time, and report back on a screen mounted above the handle. They do this in real-time, via a colorful, moving bar graph, and a summary is provided at the end of the cleaning session. The vacuums also use the information to adjust suction to clean away the particles efficiently.

Let's be clear: I do really like this feature. The reason it's further down my list is that I'm not convinced all of it is strictly necessary. The particle detection and automatic suction adjustment is super-useful. I also enjoy watching the bars shift as I clean, and to some extent, it helps me do a more thorough job, as I can see where the floor is especially dirty.

However, the real-time reports are limited in their practical usefulness, and there's certainly no need for them to be broken up by particle size. I have a sneaking suspicion the bar graph is mainly there for the gratification of the engineers who really, really wanted us to know what was going on under the hood and how much work it took to make it.

#5. Submarine floorheads

Another innovation I'm on the fence about is Submarine floorheads – mopping heads that can be swapped onto certain vacuums to enable them to wet-clean as well as vacuum. In fact, it might be more accurate to say I'm not sure Dyson has really found its way when it comes to wet cleaners in general.

I haven't been blown away by any of the mopping gadgets I've tested from Dyson so far. The V15s Detect Submarine suffered from a poorly designed Submarine head that had an unfortunate tendency to leak dirty water when disconnected from the machine for emptying. And while the Dyson WashG1 is a very good cleaner, it doesn't do enough to justify its sky-high price tag. There are similarly priced (and cheaper) models in my best wet-and-dry vacuum roundup that do more, and better.

I have a new Clean+Wash Hygiene on its way for testing, so Dyson may still redeem itself on the mopping front.

#6. Conical floorheads

My final entry in this list is one that I genuinely think is a downgrade. On its latest flagship – the V16 Piston Animal – Dyson decided to shake things up on the floorhead front. Instead of having one parallel brushroll, the new-look head has two cone-shaped rollers connected in the center. The idea is that any long strands of hair will make their way to the narrow end of the cone and away into the bin, rather than staying tangled around the roller.

The knock-on effect is that the front of the floorhead becomes slightly pointed. This is a major pain when it comes to cleaning the edges of rooms, because the head won't sit flush to the wall. Getting the perimeter of a room clean now requires a load of awkward maneuvering, whereas before it was straightforward as anything.

What's more, there's a barrier in the center of the floorhead where the two rollers connect, and below which nothing gets sucked up.

While the new design does work on an anti-hair tangle front, here's the thing: I never had any real issues with hair wrap on Dyson's previous (parallel) floorhead, either. It might make a noticeable difference if you have Rapunzel-like locks, but for most households, the issues it creates will far outweigh any benefits.

A mere eight months ago, Dyson announced an ultra-innovative new vacuum cleaner. It was called the PencilVac, and the USP was that all of its major components, from its motor to its battery to its dust cup, had been shrunk down to fit into its broom-shaped handle.

The design was – I was informed – the result of much meticulous work from the Dyson, and required the engineers to create a teeny-tiny new motor just 1.1 inches / 2.8cm in diameter. It would be worth it though: there was nothing else remotely like it.

Except now, there is. The PencilVac went on sale in the UK in December 2025 (it launched a little earlier in Australia and is yet to become available in the US), and in January 2026 I saw my first PencilVac dupe at CES. It's just at prototype stage at the moment, but there are a number of features that could be causing Dyson some concern.

As you'll learn in my Dyson PencilVac review, I'm a big fan of the Dyson version. Now, Narwal's version is clearly not finalized yet – it doesn't yet have a name, there's very minimal information available, and I was only able to look at the prototype, but not touch it.

Let's take a look at what we know so far about Narwal's upcoming PencilVac dupe, and whether it poses a real threat to Dyson...

Double take

In terms of the design, the two look unmistakably similar – it's clear what Narwal based its design on. There's the same streamlined build, with mechanics squeezed into the handle; Narwal's handle is oblong rather than round, but otherwise it looks pretty much the same, with a Power switch, small info screen, battery at the top and dust cup at the bottom.

I wasn't able to pick it up, so I couldn't comment on the maneuverability or weight, but I will say the PencilVac excels in these areas, based on my tests so far. The Narwal version is described as having '360-degree swivel', and a brand rep told me its version would be lighter than the PencilVac, although no specs were supplied, so I'm hesitant to take that as given.

Dyson's PencilVac has an unusual floorhead, with soft, cone-shaped rollers designed to prevent hair wrap. Narwal's prototype version is more standard – the roller is still soft (which suggests this model, like Dyson's, is meant for hard floors rather than carpet) but it has just one parallel roller. Dyson has mounted dirt-illuminating lasers on both sides of its floorhead, and Narwal also mentions "a dirt-detection headlight" on its feature list.

Dyson deviations

One big area where Narwal has deviated from Dyson's design is in the inclusion of an auto-empty dock. This is essentially a base that houses a larger dust cup/bag, into which the vacuum's smaller onboard bin automatically empties when the vacuum is docked. These are becoming increasingly common on regular stick vacuums, and are even scheduled to be added to Dyson's lineup. However, there isn't one on the PencilVac.

An auto-empty dock is a logical addition, because the whole concept of this type of vacuum means there's not much room for a large dust cup. Dyson has included air-powered compression on its PencilVac dust cup to maximize the space, but there's still only 0.8L available – I have a shedding pet, and I find the dust cup fills up with hair rather quickly. An auto-empty dock, which takes the mess and effort out of emptying the bin, makes a lot of sense.

Other things that might well be causing Dyson some headaches are the listed specs for battery life and suction power. Narwal promises 140AW of suction on its dupe, compared to 55AW for the PencilVac. And while the PencilVac can manage up to 30 minutes of cleaning per charge, Narwal says its version will last either 50 minutes (as per the press release) or 45 (as per the specs displayed at CES). That's a significant difference in both cases.

Of course, the big caveat here is that the Narwal vacuum is still at prototype stage, so I won't be taking any of those specs as a given just yet – the inconsistency in runtime information is telling. While Narwal has brought out some very good robot vacuums, its report card is a little patchier than Dyson's, and for me it's not up there in terms of quality or reliability either.

That said, I'll still be watching with interest to see what happens when this interloper makes its way to market.

I'm a big fan of Dyson vacuum cleaners. They're nimble, powerful, and they consistently push boundaries when it comes to innovation. However, the one area where they consistently seem to fall down is comfort.

The most recent flagship vacuums are some of the heaviest cordless stick models on the market. And while the older and less tech-packed Dyson options might be lighter, there's nothing in the way of shaping or padding around the handle, which might boost user comfort.

I had a chance to sit down with Dyson engineer Steph Parker to pick her brains about how the company designs its vacuums – and I started by asking about the weight issue of its flagship models.

Steph explains that when designing the new flagship, the V16 Piston Animal, keeping the weight down was "a key focus" – and, specifically, it was "a target not to go any more weighty than a [previous flagship] Gen5".

"One way we did it was by switching the motor around, which allowed us to compress the overall size of the product. And that's allowed us to reduce its weight," she says. "We've also done some fine-tuning [adjustments] of materials, running it through kind of simulations. For example, 'If we drop wall thicknesses, we can save weight there.'"

At the end of this process, Dyson appears to have been successful – the V16 is 7.5lbs / 3.4kg with its wand and main floorhead attached, and the Gen5detect is almost exactly the same weight. Plus, if you take the wands and floorheads off, the newer option is lighter (and more streamlined in shape) than the older model.

Unfortunately, though, Dyson's models remain significantly heavier in the context of the wider market. This is one reason that it's the model down from the Gen5 – the V15 Detect, at 6.8lbs / 3kg – that holds top spot in my ranking of the best Dyson vacuums.

To Dyson's credit, on both the Gen5detect and the V16 Piston Animal, the company has added a pad above the handle, to bring some cushioning to that area. "It's designed so that it's comforting the top of your hand, because that's where the most of the weight is going," explains Steph. Ideally, I'd like to see similar padding on the cheaper models, too, because while they might be lighter, I still tend to find they rub awkwardly on my thumb joint when used for long periods.

Getting in shape

The other comfort issue I've found with Dyson vacuums is that all their handles are straight-edged, whereas other brands mould theirs to make them more ergonomic. A shaped handle would be especially welcome on Dyson's heavier, flagship vacuums – the elongated configuration of the top section means they can be especially unwieldy when used in handheld mode, with users benefitting from being able to achieve a more secure grip. Steph says this isn't on the cards, however.

"We fine-tune the sizes of that handle depending on our 95 percentile [so 95 per cent of hand sizes can hold the handle comfortably]. We'd go through multiple testing with user trials, just to make sure it is as comfortable as possible," she assures me. "But in terms of molding it, that's basically as far as we'd go to try to make it as comfortable as we can.

I ask if it's a style choice – after all, Dyson has a distinctive and established design aesthetic, one that leans heavily towards clean lines. However, Steph clarifies that it's more to do with ensuring the handle is nice and sturdy.

"I think it's probably mostly focused on structural [aspects] and just making sure the products are as robust as they can be while being comfortable to most of our users," she continues. "It will go through vigorous testing, so it needs to be structurally sound. And we don't want a visual kind of design [decision] compromising that at all."

It looks like, for now at least, if you want the flashiest Dyson in town, comfort might have to be a sacrifice you'll have to make.

Dyson's latest flagship vacuum was a big disappointment for me. You can read all about why in my Dyson V16 Piston Animal review, but essentially it boils down to a new floorhead that's not fit for purpose, and generally rather weak cleaning. It won't be troubling my best Dyson vacuum ranking any time soon.

However, alongside the changes that didn't work were a couple that really, really did. The first is the dust compression lever on the bin, and the second is the easy-swap attachment connectors. Both made their debut in the V16, but neither could make up for the failings elsewhere.

Squish it down

I'll start with the dust compression, because that's my favorite of the two features. A lever has been added to the bin section, and you press it down to squish together dust and dirt inside the cup to clear the way for more to make its way in. That allows for longer cleaning spells without having to traipse to the trash.

It also means the dust cup can be physically smaller while still being able to hold the same amount of debris. Keeping weight and size down is a priority for comfort and flexibility, but the best cordless vacuums must find ways to do this without compromising in other areas, and offering a decent dust capacity is part of that.

When I was first shown the V16, Dyson had a display that showed the dust capacity compressed and uncompressed, and the difference is massive. It was also noticeable in use – cleaning with the V16, I was able to cover more ground than I could with other vacuums, and I found dog hair seemed to compress especially satisfyingly.

The same lever has a couple of other knock-on benefits. It's designed to wipe fine dust off the inside of the bin casing when pushed down, making it less likely these micro-particles will find their way into the mechanisms, where they can cause issues in the longer term. And it can also be used to shoot dust out of the bin when it does come to emptying, so you don't have to go in with your fingers.

All in all, an uncharacteristically lo-tech and straightforward innovation for Dyson, but extremely helpful in a number of different ways. Full marks.

Change it up

To create its easy-swap attachments, Dyson has made two adjustments. First, at the top of the wand is a new red cuff. You press down on this and it releases the connected floorhead or Hair screw tool on the end. The docking sections on these attachments then automatically stay in an angle that's just off upright, enabling you to slot a different one on, all without ever having to bend down. It's another clever bit of engineering and one that works really well in practice.

It's a shame that this particular upgrade was introduced on a vacuum that only has one floorhead – the previous flagships, the Gen5detect and V15 Detect, had an any-floor head and a soft head for hard flooring, and in swapping between the two, this mechanism would have really come into its own. As it is, it's only really the small Hair screw tool that you could swap on, and I'm not sure how many people are regularly using that on the end of the wand.

Another unfortunate consequence of changing up the connection mechanism is that it means none of Dyson's old tools are compatible with the V16, and vice versa. So you couldn't, for instance, take the older and better Digital Motorbar floorhead and use that in place of the new All Floors Cones Sense floorhead.

While I can't recommend the Dyson V16 Piston Animal outright, I am impressed with both of these new additions. Here's hoping they both get their chance to shine in the next flagship to join the lineup.

Shark has been trying to make auto-empty docks happen since at least 2023, but I think 2026 might be the year they finally take off. If you're in the dark about what exactly I mean by an 'auto-empty dock', it's just what it sounds like: a base that houses a large dust bag or bin, into which the contents of the vacuum's small onboard bin will automatically eject when it's docked.

Auto-empty docks are already commonplace in the robot vacuum market, where they feel like a natural fit – onboard bins are necessarily tiny, the bot needs to dock itself to charge anyway, and the main selling point of the whole thing is that it's a hands-off solution.

They're less common with manual vacuums, where an auto-empty dock feels more luxury than essential. But still, there are plenty of benefits of auto-empty docks for stick vacuums – less effort required from users, the potential for smaller and lighter onboard bins, and minimal chance you'll end up in a cloud of your own just-vacuumed dust as a result of a misjudged dirt ejection.

I'm seeing more and more examples of manual vacuums with auto-empty docks hitting the market. As the author of TechRadar's best cordless vacuum guide, I keep an eye on all the major new releases, and it feels like now more of these have auto-empty docks than don't.

Who started it?

As far as I can tell, the brand that released the hand-break on the auto-empty bandwagon was Samsung. The Samsung Bespoke Jet launched in 2022, and was the first of many self-empty Bespoke Jet vacuums with ever-longer names and ever-loftier price-tags (the most recent being the Samsung Bespoke AI Jet Ultra).

However, Samsung is still quite a peripheral brand in the vacuum market, so I think it's Shark's efforts that have been more instrumental in pushing the trend forward, with popular models like the Detect Pro and PowerDetect Cordless available in 'Clean & Empty System' (US) / 'Auto-empty system' (UK) versions. Most recently, Shark has come out with several cheaper, more basic auto-empty options that seem to be aimed at cementing this as an option for everyone, rather than a premium choice.

This year also saw Roborock attempting to establish itself in the manual vacuum space with a range that includes several auto-empty docks (I tested the Roborock H60 Hub Ultra). But the thing that really convinced me they were here to stay was Dyson's announcement that it would be launching compatible docking stations for its newest vacuums.

I say 'announcement' – it was a single line, tucked away in a much larger press release detailing the brand's many September 2025 launches. No images, no prices, no fanfare. For that reason, I'm maintaining a healthy level of wariness about when (and possibly if) these docks will actually arrive on the market. If they do, though, then it could be major.

Shark and Dyson are arguably the two biggest names in the manual vacuum market right now, and if both of those brands are going hard on auto-empty docks, you can assume they're going to be kind of a big deal.

Of all the reviews I've tackled in 2025, Dyson's new robotic vacuum cleaner arrived with the greatest air of excitement. No, really. I love my Dyson stick vacuum, was disappointed to discover how poorly Dyson's last robovac reviewed, and I'm a sucker for a good old-fashioned redemption story.

It's called, rather clumsily, the Spot+Scrub Ai. This is Dyson's attempt to redeem itself in the robovac world, by sprinkling a bit of the bagless, semi-transparent, cyclone tech magic that's made the British-Singaporean firm so successful in the posh vacuum space.

You'll have to hold tight for my full review, but my first impressions of the new bot are good. The disappointing 360 Vis Nav of 2023 failed to trouble TechRadar's best robot vacuum ranking. Despite possessing a sky-high price tag, it was purely a vacuum, with no mopping function and no self-emptying capabilities.

The Spot+Scrub Ai comes out firing on all cylinders with both of those functions present and correct. It's got a clever, roller-style mop that's fed by an onboard water tank, and a base station that charges the battery, cleans and dries the mop, and uses Dyson's cyclone technology to empty the robot's dust bin.

Pleasingly, the base station is bagless – something that's surprisingly rare in the robovac space. Instead of buying new bags every few months, and trying to work out what sort and size of bag the robot needs, you simply lift the dust collector out and empty it into a bin, as you would any other Dyson stick vac.

I'd rather the contents of the bin weren't visible through a clear plastic window, as if to display to visitors just how dirty my carpets were before they arrived, but I accept it's a design trait that echoes the rest of the Dyson aesthetic. I'd also like Dyson to include some mopping detergent in the box. Adding some to the water tank is one of the first instructions, yet it's sold separately for £19.99. For a £1,050 vacuum (US and AU price TBC) that feels a bit mean.

A bit of a dis-app-ointment

The setup process is simple enough, and especially so if you've used any other robotic vacuum cleaner. However, so far I've found the app a little disappointing – for a premium, tech-first firm like Dyson I'd expected better. It isn't unstable, nor is it full of the poorly translated English seen in rival vacuum apps, but it isn't particularly logical either, and I had issues editing my map after the bot failed to identify some doorways on its initial mapping run.

For a robovac that apparently possesses artificial intelligence smart enough to identify over 190 objects and substances – best not to dwell on the latter – failing to spot a doorway, even when there's a threshold and a change from wood flooring to carpet, is disappointing. Perhaps I'm being picky, but anyone spending four figures on a robovac has every right to be. And in any case, rival vacuums I've tested do a much better job of mapping doorways and even labeling rooms based on their contents.

A couple of other app issues, I'm afraid. The robot adds orange traffic cone icons to the map after a clean, but they're not labeled and tapping them does nothing. Has it spotted a sock, a stray USB cable or a mouse? I'll never know. Rivals at least try to guess, and some even attach a photo, though they often resemble evidence from a Netflix crime documentary.

Also, despite spending time labeling the map – lounge, kitchen, hallway, toilet, etc – these tags are frustratingly missing on the screen for telling the robot where to clean, and are instead assigned a number. My kitchen and living room have the same icon, for some reason, and since I live in a predictably symmetrical newbuild house, it isn't immediately obvious which is which. Always best to double-check, or I'll worry that the Dyson will try to mop the lounge carpet instead of the kitchen.

My first impressions of the app aren't great, but I'll overlook these if the rest of the robot lives up to expectations – and, after a couple of cleans, the Dyson Spot+Scrub Ai seems pretty smart. It navigates well – something its predecessor struggled with – and I think it looks good, as far as these things go. I also like the bagless design and I'm particularly keen to see how well it mops. Given its roller design, ability to reach into corners, and use of warm water to clean itself, I have high hopes – plus it claims to use AI to spot dirt and scrub at those bits more aggressively, which will be interesting to test over the holiday period.

Cleaning thick carpet isn't easy. There needs to be just enough suction to pull up particles that have settled deep within those long, luxurious fibers, without making the floorhead impossible to push. Too much suction and you'll get stuck; too little and there won't be much cleaning happening.

I recently ran a big group test to find the best cordless vacuum on the market, and as part of that I ran several suction tests on thick carpet. The model that scored the highest marks for cleaning deep-pile carpet was the Shark PowerDetect Cordless.

Read on for a closer look at the tests I ran, how this vacuum performed, and what makes it such a strong choice for deep-pile carpet (plus the runners up, if it's not quite right for you).

How did I test?

To test how well each vacuum performed on deep-pile carpet, I sprinkled dry tea (representing fine particles), a dry rice and lentil mix (representing chunky particles), and dog hair clippings (representing, well, dog hair) onto a large sample of thick carpet, rubbing each mixture into the fibers. I then vacuumed over the mess with the various models, using Auto mode if the vacuum had one, or the medium suction setting if it didn't.

I assessed how effectively the vacuum cleared each spillage – both at surface level and deeper down in the carpet fibers. I also assessed how easy it was to push the vacuum over the carpet, and the extent to which the floorhead pinged or pooled the particles about, rather than sucking them up.

The PowerDetect Cordless scored a perfect 5/5 in my chunky particle test, clearing everything in a single forward pass in Auto mode. It was equally effective with pet hair (in fact, this is the best vacuum for pet hair that I've tested, in general).

For fine particles the score was a little lower (4/5), because I could still see a fine dusting of tea within the carpet fibers after a forward pass. However, that was the equal-highest score that any vacuum in my group test achieved here – the reality is that it's just super tricky to effectively clean fine particles from deep-pile carpet.

Why is this vacuum so good for thick carpet?

In my opinion, the success of the PowerDetect cordless is down to a combination of outright power, an Auto mode that copes superbly when clearing mess off thick carpet, and a well-designed floorhead. The vacuum clearly comes packing plenty of suction – the PowerDetect came top or joint-top in all my cleaning tests, which covered mid-pile carpet, hard flooring, and further pet-hair trials.

The suction level of this model is designed to amp up and down depending on the floor type and how dirty it is, and I could hear the power shifting as I moved the floorhead over any mess. No matter the level of power it was exerting, the vacuum remained easy enough to push in Auto mode, never getting stuck down as a result of the suction.

Shark has also added a flap to the back edge that makes it more effective at sucking up particles when the floorhead is pulled backwards over them. While this feature really shines on hard flooring, it also seemed to help when cleaning thick carpet – there was some pooling (as you can see in the video above), but nowhere close to the levels that some competitor models created. I also found that the wheels appeared to help agitate the carpet fibers.

The runners up...

If the Shark PowerDetect doesn't look quite right for you, these were there runners up in my deep-pile carpet tests.

• Dyson Clean+Wash Hygiene is a new wet floor cleaner, joining the WashG1
• It's one of the most lightweight wet cleaners on the market
• There are no filters or dirty water pipes, and it's self-drying for minimal maintenance

Wet floor cleaners are a major effort-saver when it comes to the mopping part, but sometimes the appliance maintenance is demanding and disgusting enough to barely make it worthwhile – and Dyson is addressing the issue with its new wet cleaner.

The Clean+Wash Hygiene is an upgraded sister model to the Dyson WashG1, and it improves on that gadget in three main ways, two of which tackle the maintenance side of things so there's less messy hands-on time required from you. Let's take a closer look...

1. There's no filter or tubing to clean

For the Clean+Wash Hygiene, the dirty water tank is integrated completely into the floorhead itself. There's no filter, nor any tubing for the gunky water to slowly clog up. Keeping the internal mechanisms clean and free-flowing is one of the most significant and fiddliest upkeep jobs associated with wet-dry vacuums, and Dyson has basically completely removed them here.

The design of the WashG1 does address this issue: integrated into the floorhead is a filter to collect solid debris, so it doesn't need to make its way through any tubing, and the dirty water tank is large and smooth on the inside, making it easy to get your hand in and clean it properly as required. But this new setup looks more hands-off still – there's no filter to clean at all.

Within the Dyson lineup, the setup looks more similar to the self-contained mopping floorhead included with the Dyson V15s Detect Submarine. (I just hope it doesn't have the same spillage issue we found with that design.)

2. It's ultra-lightweight

Some of the best wet and dry vacuums on the market are so heavy and unwieldy that using them is a major workout. The WashG1 was relatively lightweight, but the Clean+Wash Hygiene is even more so – in fact, Dyson says it's the lightest option on the market (using data from the top three dedicated floor washer models from each of the top five brands globally), coming in at just 8.42lbs / 3.82kg.

Part of the weight saving is likely because this new model – like the WashG1 – doesn't have any suction. Instead, it just uses water and agitation to clear dirt and spillages.

The Clean+Wash Hygiene can also lie completely flat to the ground, for cleaning under low furniture. In this mode, it's just 4.44 inches / 11.3cm tall.

3. It cleans and dries it own roller

The WashG1 came with a self-wash mode that ran clean water through the system and over the roller. The Clean+Wash Hygiene can do that too, but can also dry the roller with hot air, saving you from having to detach it and place it out somewhere after each clean.

This feature puts it more in line with the wider market – although in truth it's still a little behind the competition. I'm increasingly seeing self-clean modes that use hot water to cut through grease. However, the Clean+Wash Hygiene system will take on the hard work out of the mop maintenance for you.

What else is new?

There are other, smaller improvements that also look promising. As with the WashG1, the roller is fed with fresh water as it makes its way around, while the dirty stuff is continually siphoned off. The roller here has been upgraded, though – it's more densely packed with fibers to make it more absorbent, and Dyson has added nylon bristles for extra scrubbing power.

Again you've got three hydration settings plus a Boost mode that delivers extra water. However, Dyson has tweaked the delivery to enable the Clean+Wash Hygiene to clean a 20% larger space than its predecessor, despite having a smaller clean water tank (750ml versus 1L).

Plus, it can now be used with Dyson's on cleaning fluid, whereas previously the recommendation was water only. The new 'Dyson 02 Probiotic' is a non-foaming, non-toxic hard floor cleaning solution that's specially formulated to work with the Dyson Clean+Wash Hygiene.

Price & availability

The Dyson Clean+Wash Hygiene is already on sale in the UK at a list price of £429.99. It's due to go on sale in the US and in Australia in 2026, but I don't have any specifics or pricing yet. I have one on its way to me, and will update you with my thoughts when the full review embargo lifts in early February.

It was first unveiled amid a flurry of product announcements in September 2025. I've already reviewed the Dyson V16 Piston Animal flagship vacuum and the Dyson V8 Cyclone affordable stick vacuum, and I have the Dyson PencilVac in my reviewing pile alongside the Spot+Scrub AI robot vacuum, Dyson's surprise new robot vacuum.

Most of Dyson's vacuums look pretty much the same, so figuring out what the differences are – and crucially, if those differences will translate to cleaner floors and a less demanding housework session for you – can be tricky. To help you out, I ran side-by-side tests with some of Dyson's newest vacuums, comparing everything from suction to battery life to design, features and price, to make it clear how the different options compare.

In this test, I used four vacuums from across the range. I started with the brand's two most recent flagship models: the Dyson V16 Piston Animal (released in September 2025 and the best Dyson vacuum based on specs) and the Dyson Gen5detect (released 2022). Those are both ultra-premium options, so for a bit of balance I also included the Dyson V11, which is one of the oldest models in the current range (released 2019). Finally, I tested the Dyson V8 Cyclone, a refreshed-for-2025 version of the classic V8, one of the cheapest and most basic Dyson vacs (not yet available in the US).

This comparison was part of a larger group test including models from various other brands – you can see how these models stacked up against competitor efforts in my guide to the best cordless vacuums on the market. Alternatively, read on for my main takeaways from this Dyson vacuum showdown, plus the scorecards from my tests.

#1. The cleaning is stellar...

With one glaring exception (which I will cover in my next point), all the Dyson vacuums I tested offered excellent cleaning. Even the cheapest model (the V8 Cyclone), and the oldest (the V11 Advanced) sailed though my cleaning tests. I've included a score breakdown below, if you're interested.

Mid-pile carpet cleaning performance was uniformly great, with the V8 Cyclone, V11 and Gen5detect all delivering near-perfect pickup in Auto or Med mode, on everything from fine dust to chunky particles to pet hair. It's notable that I didn't see better performance on the models that had automatic suction adjustment, compared to the ones that did not.

That holds true for my deep-pile carpet tests, too: these three vacuums all have ample suction to pull dust from within thick carpet fibers. A bigger reason for docking of points in my deep carpet tests was a lack of air intake slider on the floorhead. If a vacuum has a lot of suction but no way to allow more air in, it becomes almost impossible to push on deep pile. This was an issue on both the V8 Cylcone and V11 Advanced.

Hard flooring is less of a challenge for vacuums because all the dust is sat right there on the surface. Again, scores were generally great. The reason for the not-quite-perfect scores was generally due to the design of the floorhead causing debris to ping around a bit, or pool up when reversed over the particles (the only vacuum I've used that doesn't have the latter issue is the Shark PowerDetect Cordless). If you have delicate hard floors, opt for the Gen5detect, which comes with a soft floorhead specifically for this situation.

#2. ... with one glaring exception

As you may have spied in the table above, the V16 Piston Animal earned far lower scores in my cleaning tests. It's a little baffling, because this is the newest flagship model and based on specs it should be the most powerful. I'm not sure if something is going wrong elsewhere too, but what's obvious to me is that the redesigned floorhead is not helping matters.

For this model, Dyson has swapped the already-excellent Motorbar floorhead for a new All Floors Cones Sense floorhead, whose impressively unmemorable name is but the first in a long list of disappointments. The two cone-shaped rollers are joined in the center by a big chunk of plastic that blocks anything beneath it from being sucked up, and the front edge of the floorhead comes to a slight point, which means it can't get flush to walls.

If you want to get more into the V16's cleaning powers, watch my full video review below, or head to this article where I filmed side-by-side cleaning tests using the three newest Dyson flagship vacuums.

#3. The newest flagships are very user-friendly

So the cleaning might be much of a muchness, but where the pricier Dyson vacuums really stand out is user-friendliness. The addition of an info screen makes the biggest difference here – it's present on all but the V8 Cyclone.

This screen not only spells out (in words) which mode you're using, so there can be no doubt, but it also tells you exactly how much cleaning time you have left in your current mode with your currently attached tool. And if anything gets blocked or needs attention, it'll clue you in on that, too.

Switching down to the screen-less V8 Cyclone, I was struck by how much information I was missing. The suction mode is indicated by a colored LED ("Is that blue or green?", "Hold on, what does blue stand for anyway?") and battery levels are largely up to you to guess – the only indications of charge occur when the machine is about to run flat, or when it's fully juiced-up.

The most advanced options (the Gen5detect and V16) offer up automatic suction adjustment based on dirt detected. Their screens also display a moving bar graph of the size and volume of particles being sucked up as you clean, which is a neat way to highlight dirt hotspots and flag when there's still dirt on the floor, so you know a few more passes are needed.

In fact, the V16 has further advancements that aid with user-friendliness. There's a dust compactor on the bin, to help you fit more in without having to traipse to the trash. The main cleaner heads also have a quick-release mechanism that means you can swap them over without having to bend down.

My only real usability complaint is that Dyson hasn't really nailed the control setup yet on any of its vacuums. The Gen5detect, V16 and V8 Cyclone all switch on and off with a one-press button, but said button isn't reachable from the hand grip, so you'll have to keep your other hand free at all times.

The V11 uses a trigger, and while that's better for quick cleanups, having to keep it compressed is awkward and uncomfortable when using the vacuum for long periods. The ideal would be a trigger, with a lock for continual running, but no Dyson vacuum has this setup.

#4. Dyson needs to work on improving comfort

One area where Dyson consistently disappoints me is in its concessions to comfort. None of the vacuums here (or in Dyson's wider range) have any shaping on the handle to make it more ergonomic.

That's a particular issue with the fanciest models (the Gen5detect and V16), which are both amongst the heaviest cordless stick vacuums I've used. The top section is also rather elongated, which makes it especially unwieldy when used as a handheld. Shaping the handle might help deliver a more secure grip. To its credit, Dyson has added a padded section above the handle, to cushion this area a bit.

That padding is absent, however, on the lighter V11 and the V8 Cyclone. In both cases, I could have done with it, because I found the edge of the filter casing on the could rub on my thumb joint.

None of the Dyson models in my group test really shone in the comfort section – the Gen5detect earned the lowest average score and the V8 Cyclone the highest, but that was mainly determined by each vacuum's weight.

#5. For best value, shop middle of the range

None of these vacuums are especially cheap, so which one delivers the most bang for your buck? If excellent cleaning is your priority, I'd go for the V11. This vacuum earned the second-highest marks overall in this Dyson showdown, with especially strong scores on cleaning performance (pid-pile carpet and pet hair in particular) and battery life.

It didn't score below a 3/5 in any area, so it's a strong all-rounder. Because it's getting a little longer in the tooth now, excellent deals are relatively easy to find, and especially around sales events.

If you'd prefer something more hi-tech, you could stump up for the Gen5detect, which earned the highest overall score of the four vacuums, but is a decent jump up in price from the V11. Again, the cleaning scores were very impressive, and this model also earned marks for its various special features – most notably, Automatic suction adjustment.

(A quick side note: it wasn't part of this side-by-side test but for something similar but I'd recommend the Dyson V15 Detect – it has pretty much all the same features as the Gen5, the cleaning is still excellent, and it comes in slightly cheaper. See exactly how the two compare in my Dyson Gen5detect vs V15 Detect article.)

For those on an even tighter budget, the V8 Cyclone also earned strong overall scores, especially with regards to cleaning, although it lost points for shorter runtimes and a more basic design (specifically, the lack of screen is a hindrance). In short, avoid the V16 Piston Animal and you really can't go wrong.

If you have hairy pets that like to hang out on your sofas, you will know how quickly the fuzz builds up on the fabric and the pain of trying to clear it. Thankfully, many modern stick vacuums come with motorized upholstery attachments designed specifically for this purpose.

I recently ran a group test of a load of different cordless vacuums to see how they compare across a range of cleaning challenges and ultimately find the best cordless vacuum on the market. As part of that test, I tested all the mini upholstery tools to see how efficiently they could remove pet hair – kindly gifted by my local dog groomer – from a velvet cushion. The aim was to see which brand has the most effective pet hair tool.

Results: the short version

Unfortunately, it quickly became clear that while the design of the mini head plays a big part in the effectiveness of the cleaning, the vacuum that's attached to it also has a rather big impact. For that reason, it's difficult to give a definitive result as to which brand has the best mini pet hair tool.

However, the TL;DR version is that the top performers were the Shark PowerDetect cordless with its Motorized hand tool, the Dyson Gen5detect with its Hair screw tool, and the Dreame R20 with its unnamed mini tool. That's overall, not per brand – I tested multiple options from Shark and Dyson, and not all performed as effectively.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at each brand individually...

Shark – Motorized hand tool

The Shark PowerDetect Cordless I tested came with a Motorized hand tool, which was outstanding at clearing dog hair – it pulled all visible strands out in a single pass. This vacuum also performed best in my carpet tests using the main floorhead, earning it the overall best vacuum for pet hair crown.

Be aware that this tool doesn't seem to be included as standard with every version of the PowerDetect Cordless, so double-check before you buy. It is available to buy separately direct from Shark, and costs $87.99 in the US or a significantly more affordable £14.99 in the UK.

My group test included a second Shark vacuum: the Shark Detect Pro. This vacuum didn't come with a Motorized hand tool, so I tested its regular Duster crevice tool, and it got a bit of the hair up, but not much.

That's likely due to a combination of relatively weak power (this vacuum was one of the least efficient cleaners in my wider tests) and a tool that's not up to the job.

Dyson

Dyson has a few different styles of upholstery tools. The most common these days is the Hair screw tool, which has a tapering shape designed to prevent long hair from getting tangled up. With the newest flagship – the V16 Piston Animal – Dyson has upgraded this tool by adding a grippy strip along the front edge, to help lift up hair so it can be suctioned away.

The Dyson V8 Cyclone – a new, more basic option – has a Mini motorized tool that's parallel in design rather than tapering, similar to the one Dyson offered before the Hair screw tool was introduced.

So, on to the cleaning results. Dyson Gen5detect with its original Hair screw tool was the top performer here. It cleared all visible hair from the pillow in a single swipe, in Auto mode.

An unexpected runner-up amongst the Dyson contenders was the V11. This didn't come with a motorized mini tool, so I used the standard Combi tool, and it was just as effective as the Gen5/Hair screw option, despite not having a motorized roller.

A downside is that this tool is narrower than the motorized option. It's great for things like cushions, but if you were going to use it to clean a whole sofa or flight of stairs, it might take a while.

Coming in third was the V16 Piston Animal. Despite having an upgraded Hair screw tool, it wasn't as effective as either the Gen5detect or the V11 at removing hair.

It wasn't awful, but it took a few passes to get everything. I wonder if this is down to a flaw in the design rather than the changed tool – this vacuum performed poorly in my general cleaning tests.

Dyson V8 Cyclone, with its Mini motorized tool, was the least effective at tackling hair. Again, it took a few passes to clear the hair with the detail tool, despite this vacuum performing well in my other cleaning tests.

Dreame

The Dreame R20 was the surprise hit of the mini tool competition. This was the only Dreame vacuum included in my trials, and the mini motorized tool (which doesn't have a specific name) cleared my velvet cushion of hair just as efficiently as Dyson and Shark's best efforts.

That's especially notable because in my general cleaning tests this model sat in the middle of the pack, earning perfectly acceptable scores but not excelling as the Dyson Gen5detect and Shark PowerDetect did. If you have a hairy pet and mainly hard floors with some rugs or mid-pile carpet, this would be a top, budget-friendly choice.

Roborock

Finally, I tested out the Roborock H60 Hub Ultra with its mini motorized tool. This did a decent job of clearing pet hair from my velvet cushion, but it took a few passes to get everything clear, and I had to crank up the vacuum to Max mode, too.

For more advice, here's what the experts recommend you look for in a vacuum for pet hair. Or if you want something to take care of day to day cleaning for you, my guide to the best robot vacuums for pet hair has plenty of recommendations (although, of course, you'll still have to handle vacuuming the couch yourself).

As one of TechRadar's Homes Editors, I get to test all the newest vacuum cleaners that come onto the market. These days, almost every vacuum that makes it into my flat has some kind of fancy feature included – many can sense floor type (and dirt levels) and adjust suction in response, but others might have an unusual-looking floorhead designed to banish hair wrap, or the ability to tell when they're approaching the edge of a room.

These kinds of features are so common that when the new Dyson V8 Cyclone landed on my doorstep, with its three suction suction levels and no special features to speak of, it seemed positively prehistoric. I was skeptical that this ultra-basic model would be able to compete with the other, tech-crammed stick vacuums in my cleaning cupboard.

But compete it did. So effectively that I've had to revise my priorities when it comes to what I look for in a stick vacuum.

In my recent group test to find the best cordless vacuum on the market, the V8 Cyclone more than held its own in the cleaning trials. It also earned much higher scores than both the Dyson V16 Piston Animal and Shark Detect Pro; two of the most hi-tech and innovative vacuums around.

The V8 Cyclone is an updated version of the Dyson V8 vacuum, which came out absolutely ages ago but remains a Dyson best-seller. The Cyclone version is not yet available in the US, but the other straightforward vacuum in the group test, the Dyson V11, earned almost exactly the same score as the V8 Cyclone.

These vacuums took spots #3 and #4 in my tests – the overall winner for cleaning was the Shark PowerDetect Cordless, followed by the Dyson Gen5detect. Both of those vacuums do have advanced features, but the gap in performance compared to the simple V8 Cyclone and V11 was minimal. Here are the scores:

My main takeaway from that group test is that while fancy features like auto-adjustment are nice to have, they aren't the final word in great cleaning. What's most important is strong suction and a well-designed floorhead.

The reason the V16 Piston Animal earned such low scores is because the floorhead has been over-engineered, to its detriment. For its All Floors Cones Sense head, Dyson has swapped a parallel roller for two cone-shaped rollers, with the aim of making it impossible for long hair to end up tangled in the floorhead. And sure, the hair doesn't wrap, but there's now a gap between the rollers where nothing's getting sucked up, and the front of the head comes to a slight point, so it won't sit flush to a wall.

The Detect Pro, meanwhile, offers all kinds of advanced automation features, but it lacks outright power. So while it can sense dirt, carpet and room edges, even the amped-up power isn't enough to deliver effective cleaning in those more challenging situations.

The V11 and V8 Cyclone both have the old-style Dyson Motorbar floorhead, which is far simpler than the newest offerings, but a much better cleaner than the new cone-based head. And while they lack automated suction adjustment, they make up for it in outright power. I know which one I'd rather have if I was trying to tackle a pet hair-strewn carpet, or dusty old rug.

At TechRadar, we've been testing the best vacuum cleaners for nine years — and as Homes Editor for floorcare, I've personally tested dozens of vacuums of all shapes and sizes. In this guide, I've rounded up the models that came out top in our tests, with options for a range of different customers.

For most people, I'd recommend the Shark PowerDetect Cordless. This cordless stick vacuum delivers outstanding cleaning, and comes with a range of useful special features including the option of an auto-empty dock. However, it's on the heavier and bulkier side for a stick vacuum, so if your cleaning needs aren't so great, then the lightweight Dreame R20 will be a better fit. You'll find both of these models, plus three more carefully chosen options in my list below.

All of these vacuums have been meticulously tested, either my myself or by one of my trusted, experienced reviewers. All bring something different to the table, and all are excellent cleaners in their own right.

All clear? Read on for the best vacuum cleaners on the market...

The best vacuum cleaners — tested and recommended by an expert

The best vacuum cleaner for most people

The Shark PowerDetect Cordless is my top recommendation for most people. It delivers outstanding cleaning power with the convenience of a cordless, is powerful enough to tackle pet hair with ease, and comes with an optional auto-empty base that means you don't need to deal with the mess and effort of manually emptying it.

Generally this vacuum sits at the pricier end of affordable (and you'll need to pay extra if you want the dock). However, deals do crop up fairly regularly.

Read TechRadar's full Shark PowerDetect Cordless review

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The best lightweight vacuum cleaner

The best lightweight vacuum I've tested is the Dreame R20. It's nimble and easy to drive, and punches well above its affordable price tag when it comes to features and accessories. In fact, in my group test to find the best cordless vacuums, this model earned the highest score overall. The cleaning is very decent, but it's nowhere near as powerful as the PowerDetect Cordless (#1).

Read more: Dreame R20 cordless vacuum review

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The best budget vacuum cleaner

Not everyone needs a cordless vacuum packed with sensors, automatic modes and a premium price tag. If your priority is simply getting your floors clean without spending a small fortune, the Bissell PowerClean FurFinder is well worth a look. It focuses on the fundamentals, combining strong cleaning performance with a practical set of tools and a wallet-friendly price.

It's best suited to smaller homes, where the shorter runtime and compact dustbin won't feel restrictive. While the name suggests it's built for pet owners, those with multiple shedding pets may wish it had a larger bin. For everyone else, it's an affordable, no-nonsense vacuum that delivers far more cleaning power than its price might suggest.

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The best upright vacuum cleaner

If you want the most power, opt for a corded upright. My top pick in this category is the Shark Stratos Upright. You'll sacrifice the maneuverability and freedom you'd get with a cordless stick vac, but the pay-off is more suction, a larger dust cup, and never having to pause to recharge. Shark has made buying confusing by releasing several similar vacuums with the same name, but the good news is that we've been impressed with all the Shark upright vacuums we've tested, so you can't really go wrong.

Pricing for this vacuum can vary as Shark loves a deal, but in general it's pretty affordable. Corded uprights are often cheaper than cordless vacuums, and tend to have a longer lifespan too, so it might be a better investment in the long run.

If you're looking for a slightly more fully-featured alternative, check out the Shark PowerDetect Upright, or head to my general best upright vacuum guide.

Read our full Shark Stratos Pet Pro Upright Vacuum review

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The best premium vacuum cleaner

If you have more cash to splash, I love the Dyson Gen5detect. This cordless vacuum is meticulously engineered and boasts a range of innovative features, executed in a user-friendly way. It also delivers excellent, low-effort cleaning.

As you might expect, the Dyson Gen5detect is firmly in 'investment pricing' territory, although deals do crop up semi-regularly. If it's still out of your budget, could also consider the V15 Detect – this is the model down, and has most of the same features but is slightly more affordable (my Gen5detect vs V15 Detect article runs down the differences).

Read my full Dyson Gen5detect review

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The best robot vacuum cleaner

Robot vacuums are perfect for regular, hands-off, light cleaning. The whole point is to run them little and often while you’re out, so the dust never really gets the chance to build up. For that kind of low-effort upkeep, the winner in this category is the Roborock Saros 20.

In our testing, it handled vacuuming and mopping very well, clearing everyday debris, pet hair, and general dirt without needing regular attention. Our floors came away properly clean rather than just “good enough,” and it also coped well with thicker rugs and uneven flooring, which is where many robot vacuums start to struggle. It's not perfect, and during testing, there were a couple of quirks, including a zone clean that wandered off route and the odd mop-only run starting without wet pads.

The biggest difference is how little needs to be done once it is running. The dock takes care of emptying, washing mop pads with hot water, drying them, and general upkeep. So, manual maintenance is really only reduced to occasional refills and emptying tanks.

It does sit at the expensive end of the market, so it won't suit every home, but for anyone wanting a low-effort way to stay on top of cleaning, it delivers one of the most complete setups available right now.

Read TechRadar's full Roborock Saros 20 review

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Specs comparison

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What kind of vacuum do I need?

There are a number of different types of vacuums on the market, to suit different needs. Here's a super-quick rundown of the main benefits and drawbacks of each type:

More vacuums we've tested (A-Z)

If none of the vacuums look quite right for you, here are some other models worth considering.

Frequently asked questions

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How we tested these vacuum cleaners

At TechRadar, we test dozens of vacuum cleaners each year. We cover a range of cleaner types – from cordless stick vacuums, to upright vacuums, to handheld vacs and robot vacuums – at a range of price points and from different brands. Each model included here has been put through its paces either by a member of the TechRadar Homes team or by one of our trusted freelance reviewers.

Our reviews are underpinned by a set of specific, standardized tests. Here's a quick rundown of our vacuum cleaner review process.

Suction tests

These are designed to test how well the vacuum can suck up different kinds of debris on different floors. For fine debris, we sprinkle a teabag's worth of loose, dry tea on a carpet or carpet-like rug, and see how many passes are needed to clear it. We'll start on the vacuum's lowest setting, then increase until there's no mess left.

To see how the vacuum handles chunkier debris, we run the same test using a handful of oats. We'll then repeat both tests on hard floor.

The final suction test is to see how well the vacuum handles hair – both human and pet. We'll see how effectively the main floorhead can pull hair from both carpet and hard flooring, and test any hair-specific detail tools on furniture too. We'll also check to see if it ends up tangled around the roller or is effectively diverted into the dust cup.

Battery tests

If the vacuum is cordless, we'll record how long it lasts on a single charge, on each available suction setting, plus how long it takes to recharge. For corded vacuums, we note how long the cable is and if it's generous enough not to be too much of a hindrance while cleaning.

General tests

To get a feel for how the vacuum performs in general use, we'll use it regularly over the course of a couple of weeks. We'll report back on how easy it is to maneuver, how usable it is, if there were any unexpected pain points in the design.

Read more on how we test vacuum cleaners.

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Choosing the best cordless vacuum isn't as simple as comparing suction power or battery life. Manufacturers all measure performance differently, and the features that matter most will depend on your home, whether you're tackling thick carpets, hard floors or constant pet hair.

That's why we rely on hands-on testing rather than spec sheets. Our reviewers test every cordless vacuum in their own homes, judging how well each one cleans different floor types, removes pet hair, handles larger debris, and performs in everyday use. We also score comfort, maneuverability, battery life, ease of maintenance and overall value.

The result is this carefully curated shortlist of the cordless vacuums we'd recommend today, whether you're looking for a budget-friendly cleaner, a lightweight model or a premium machine with all the latest features.

The best cordless vacuum overall

The Dreame R20 earned the highest overall score in my group test, and was the best all-rounder too – it didn't score below a 3/5 in any category. This vacuum was especially strong on battery life, and comfort and maneuverability. This is all the more impressive given it's the cheapest vacuum in my group test.

The best cordless vacuum for cleaning

The Shark PowerDetect Cordless offers the best outright cleaning performance, and is equally impressive on hard floors, medium- and deep-pile carpet, and when tackling pet hair. The compromise is that it's also the heaviest, bulkiest and least comfortable to use of the vacuums I tested.

The Shark PowerDetect came top in every single cleaning test, scoring a perfect 5/5 in every pet hair test and every medium-pile carpet test. Its excellent performance is down partly down to outright power, and partly to a clever floorhead design.

Shark has added a flap that lifts to enable the vacuum to suck up particles when it's pulled backwards over them, rather than causing them to pool up, as is the case with every other vacuum I tested here. This feature is especially useful on hard floors.

Now for the bad news. The Shark PowerDetect is the heaviest vacuum in my group test, and feels noticeably chunkier and less nimble than the rest of the bunch. The weight is more evenly distributed than it is on the Gen5detect – which is heavy and also top-heavy – making it a little easier to use in both handheld and floor-standing modes than that model.

To its credit, Shark has also made a big effort to improve comfort, by shaping the handle ergonomically and adding a rubberized grip and padding. Nothing digs in or sits awkwardly as you clean, which is more than can be said for a number of other models I tried here.

Shark has excelled at the special features, but dropped the ball when it comes to basic usability. The vacuum switches on with a one-press button (good for long sessions but annoying for quick cleanups, because the button isn't reachable from the handle, so you'll need to use your other hand) and it takes a second or so to kick into gear each time, rather than responding immediately, as all the other vacuums did.

When switched on, the screen cycles though various icons representing the suction modes – a leaf for Eco, a boost icon, a target representing the Auto mode, and a water droplet to represent... actually, I have no idea what this is for. I've scoured the product manual for clues, but it's not mentioned anywhere (it's notably absent under "Instructions for use" and "Error codes").

Initially, I couldn't find any way to manually switch between the modes, so I ended up stuck in Auto, which fortunately is the most useful mode. Eventually, I discovered there's a button for mode-switching where the trigger would usually sit – a setup that took some getting used to, and felt especially counter-intuitive as I was moving between the PowerDetect and other vacuums that are trigger-operated. There's a colored ring to indicate how much dirt has been detected, but it's not immediately clear which color means what.

Usability niggles aside, this vacuum has one of the most comprehensive feature lists of any vacuum I reviewed. It can auto-adjust suction based on floor type and dirt levels, but also boost suction on the relevant side of the floorhead when the vacuum approaches the edge of a room, and brighten the headlamps in particularly dark areas. There's also an optional auto-empty dock, complete with odor-neutralizing puck.

My battery-life tests were scuppered somewhat by the fact that I couldn't find any way to manually change to suction mode for this vacuum. However, Shark promises a maximum of 70 minutes cleaning per charge, which is a very solid runtime. The caveat, of course, is that that figure is for relatively clean, hard floors, and runtimes will decrease for anything more challenging.

The best premium cordless vacuum

The Gen5detect is the best premium option. It has the best design of all the vacuums I tested, offering advanced features paired with outstanding usability. It managed the joint-longest runtimes, and was a runner-up in all the cleaning tests. However, it's the priciest vacuum of the bunch, and also one of the heaviest.

The Gen5detect was a close second behind the Shark PowerDetect in all my cleaning tests. It suffered from being slightly too powerful in Auto mode on deep-pile carpet, but the suction was strong enough in Eco mode that it cleared spillages very effectively while being much easier to push.

Usefully, Dyson has added an air intake slider to the floorhead to help release some pressure as required (this was missing the Dyson V11 that I also tested, to its detriment). It also proved excellent at handling pet hair, both with its main floorhead and its mini motorized tool.

The best budget cordless vacuum

The Hoover HF3 DynamicClean is proof you don't need to spend Dyson money to get a capable cordless vacuum. It cleans well, weighs very little, and its Anti-Twist brushbar lives up to the hype by preventing hair from wrapping around the roller. The compromises are exactly where you'd expect for the price: battery life, build quality and a little extra noise, but none are deal-breakers if you're shopping on a budget.

The best lightweight cordless vacuum

The second-best premium cordless vacuum

The Dyson V11 Advanced may no longer be the newest Dyson in the lineup, but it's still one of the best cordless vacuums we've tested when it comes to outright cleaning performance. It excelled on carpets and pet hair during testing, while its clear LCD screen and excellent battery life make it easy to live with. The main drawback is that it lacks some of the smarter features now found on newer Dyson models, making it harder to justify at full price.

Also tested

Comparison charts

Testing methodology

Finding the best cordless vacuum isn't all about testing suction power – there are multiple factors that play into how well a vacuum performs. Here's a rundown of the key areas I focused on in my group test, why they're important, how I test the vacuums, and which models came out on top in each area.

Carpet cleaning performance

Carpet cleaning ability is of course a key factor in a cordless vacuum cleaner's performance. To efficiently clean carpet, a vacuum needs a good amount of suction, but there's more to it than that. If the suction is too strong a vacuum will be difficult to push, so an air intake slider on the floorhead can help here by reducing the suction pressure. A well-designed beater bar (the roller in the floorhead), with bristles to agitate the carpet fibers and release ground-in dirt, is also a must for efficient carpet cleaning.

How I tested

For the carpet cleaning test, I used dry tea to represent fine particles, and a dry rice and lentil mix to represent chunky particles. I sprinkled a set amount of each on the carpeted floor, then ran over it once with each vacuum on its 'medium' setting, or dropping to its low setting if that proved too difficult to push. I then assessed how much of the spillage had been picked up, and I continued cleaning until the spillage was clear. I ran these tests on medium-pile carpet and deep-pile carpet.

I made notes on each vacuum's performance in each test, and gave it a score out of five for its fine particle clearing ability and for its chunky-particle clearing ability. The average score for each floor type is the two scores divided by two.

Highest scorer: Shark PowerDetect

Runner up: Dyson Gen5detect

Hard floor cleaning performance

Cleaning a hard floor requires less suction than tackling carpet, because all the dust and debris is sat on top of the surface. Great hard floor head cleaning performance relies on a floorhead that doesn't cause particles to ping about or pool up. It may also be kitted out with headlamps that illuminate debris that might get missed, and/or a separate soft floorhead designed specifically to buff and clean hard floors without risking scratches.

How I tested

For the hard floor cleaning tests, I used fine particles (dry tea) and chunky particles (a mix of dry rice and lentils). I sprinkled a pile of each on my vinyl floor floor, then approached it forwards with each vacuum in its 'medium' setting to see how efficiently it cleared the mess and if there was any pinging or pooling. I also reversed the vacuum backwards over each spillage to see if it cleared it or simply pushed the particles about. I checked my findings on the studio's own wood laminate flooring.

I made notes on each vacuum's performance and awarded each a score out of 5 for each particle type. The overall score for hard floor cleaning is the two scores divided by two.

Highest scorer: Shark PowerDetect

Runner up: Dyson Gen5detect

Pet hair cleaning performance

Pet hair can be one of the trickiest substances to clean from carpet and upholstery. Great pet hair cleaning relies on strong suction and a floorhead that can effectively lift the hair from carpet fibers so it can be vacuumed up. I also look for a mini motorized tool that can effectively tackle pet hair on furniture.

How I tested

I took bags of dog clippings from a friendly local groomer, and rubbed the hairs into my deep-pile and medium-pile carpet samples. I then passed over it once with each vacuum on its 'medium' mode to see how much hair was removed. I adjusted the setting if required, and continued cleaning until the carpet was clear.

I made notes on performance, and I awarded each vacuum a score out of five for medium-pile carpet and for deep-pile carpet. The overall pet-hair score is an average of these two scores.

To test furniture-cleaning performance, I rubbed hair into a velvet cushion, and used each vacuum's mini motorized tool (if included) to clear it. I made notes on how efficiently it removed the hair, and I've used this information to influence my recommendations. However, I didn't score this element or include it in the overall average for pet hair because not every model I test came with a mini tool included, but most have a compatible tool that's included with some bundles.

Highest scorer: Shark PowerDetect

Runners-up: Dyson Gen5detect and V11 Advanced (tied)

Design and features

In this category I look at the basic design of the vacuum, plus any special features that have been added. I want a vacuum that boasts useful advanced features, but is still user-friendly and doesn't neglect the basics.

For usability, I'm looking at how the machine relays information like remaining battery life and charge level, blockages, which mode is in use, and (if relevant) how much dirt has been detected. I'll also consider the process for emptying the bin and switching attachments.

In terms of special features, I'll look for things like automatic adjustment capabilities (to account for factors like dirt levels, floor type, proximity to room edges, or light levels), a second soft floorhead for delicate hard flooring, a compatible auto-empty dock, and lasers or LED headlamps to light the way or illuminate dust.

How I tested

I scored each vacuum out of five for its interface design, with the highest scores going to machines that present plenty of information nice and clearly, and the lowest going to machines that show minimal information or are confusing in their presentation.

I then scored each vacuum based out of five based on how many special features it offers, and how well those features are executed. The total 'Design and features' score is an average of these two marks.

Highest scorer: Dyson Gen5detect

Runners-up: Dyson V16 Piston Animal, Shark Detect Pro, Shark PowerDetect (tied)

Comfort and maneuverability

One of the big benefits of going for a cordless stick vacuum over a bulky upright is that it's easy to maneuver. That benefit is undermined if the vacuum is too heavy, uncomfortable to hold, or won't maneuver smoothly.

Things that play into this section are the weight of the vacuum and how that weight is distributed, whether the handle is shaped or padded, how ergonomic the design of the handheld section is, and how easily the floorhead pivots. I'll also look at how the machine switches on and off, and if that's conducive to both quick cleanups and longer sessions.

How I tested

I weighed the handheld section of each vacuum (with no wand and no attachments) and then added the wand and primary floorhead to assess the weight in general upright use. I scored each model out of five based directly on these weights, with lower scores going to the heaviest models and higher scores going to lighter ones.

I then gave each vacuum a subjective score out of five for comfort and maneuverability. To gauge this I used each vacuum in floorstanding and handheld mode. The total score for this section is an average of those two marks.

Highest scorer: Shark Detect Pro Cordless

Runner up: Dreame R20

Battery life

The joy of going cable-free can quickly turn sour if your cordless vacuum doesn't have enough battery power for a whole-home clean without you having to stop to recharge. Battery life is a more complicated metric than you might first imagine, though. Many of the models I test these days have an Auto mode, where suction (and thus battery use) increases or decreases based on dirt levels or floor type, making it impossible to give a runtime for this mode.

It's important to consider how much power is tied to that runtime – an Eco mode might last 90 minutes, but if the suction is too weak to pick anything up, that's not useful to anyone. If you're dealing with really ground-in dirt, an ultra-powerful Boost mode that drains the battery quickly is arguably better than one that lasts longer but isn't powerful enough to pull the dirt up.

You'll also want to factor in that a vacuum's runtimes will likely deplete as time goes by. I'd prioritize a removable and swappable battery when choosing a cordless vacuum, as the battery is often the first thing to go – all the vacuums in this group test have a removable battery.

How I tested

I recorded the maximum runtime for each battery (i.e., in its lowest-powered mode). I also recorded how long each model lasted in its highest suction mode. I scored each vacuum out of five in each of those tests based on a set scale – so in Max mode, 3 for 10 mins or less, 4 for 11-15 mins, and 5 for 16+ mins. The overall Battery score is an average of the two scores.

Highest scorers: Dyson Gen5detect, Dyson V16 Piston Animal, Dyson V11 Advanced (tied)

Runners up: Dreame R20, Shark PowerDetect, Roborock H60 Ultra (tied)

Earlier this year Dyson launched the Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x. If you're wondering how exactly it differs from the regular Airwrap, and if it's worth buying, this article is here to help.

The Airwrap Co-anda 2x is based around the same principle as every other Airwrap: it uses a phenomenon called the coanda effect to cause strands of damp hair to wrap around a barrel, shaping them into curls as it finishes drying them. The process uses far less heat than a traditional curling tong, so is better for your hair in the long run.

Prior to the release of the Co-anda 2x, the latest version of the styler was the Dyson Airwrap i.d.. The big upgrade with that model was the addition of an i.d.curl switch that launches an automated wrap > curl > cold shot sequence that takes all the effort (and counting) out of styling your hair. Right now, I rate it the best hair styler on the market... but then I haven't had a chance to test out the new version yet.

The Airwrap Co-anda 2 doesn't just introduce a hyphen where a hyphen has never existed before, it also adds a more powerful motor, attachment memory, and a new attachment that enables you to straighten your hair from wet. All that in a styler that's also lighter and more compact than the Airwrap i.d.

Read on for more about the Dyson Co-anda 2x, and whether you should consider buying one or not.

Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x: price & availability

• List price: $749.99 / £579.99 / AU$999
• Launched: summer 2025

The Airwrap Co-anda 2x was unveiled in the US and UK at the start of July 2025 (in fact, it had already been on sale in Korea at that point, but news hadn't really travelled overseas). It went on sale in the US that same month, and hit the UK market in September. It's now widely available internationally, direct from Dyson as well as via select third party retailers.

At ticket price, the Airwrap Co-anda 2x costs $749.99 in the US, £579.99 in the UK, and AU$999 in Australia.

That's a decent price bump compared to the Airwrap i.d., which is $649.99 in the US, £479.99 in the UK, and AU$849 in Australia. That version remains available as part of the main Dyson lineup.

There are also a couple of older Airwraps, typically referred to as the Airwrap Origin. These occasionally pop up on the Dyson AU website, but are generally only available via third party retailers.

Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x specs

Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x: design

The Airwrap Co-anda 2x is smaller and lighter than its predecessor, but also more powerful. (Confusingly, the weight listed in the specs section of the products listings doesn't seem to support this claim – I'm not sure what's happened there.) To achieve this, the internal mechanics have been completely redesigned, with the Co-anda 2x packing a 'Hyperdymium 2' motor that can spin nine times faster than an F1 car engine. Dyson says it can deliver twice the air pressure and 30% more power than the Airwrap i.d., without being any noisier.

To save you from fiddling with settings as you style, Dyson has added attachment memory. The attachments have RFID sensors that enable the dryer to recognize which one is clipped on. It'll then switch automatically to the recommended (the first time) or your last-used (thereafter) temperature and windspeed settings with each attachment.

I've used this feature on the Dyson Supersonic Nural, and I found it really smoothed out the styling process. It's especially helpful if your routine involves switching between various attachments.

My favorite part of the Airwrap i.d. is the i.d.curl feature, which launches an automated curling sequence at the flick of a button. That feature is still present here, and it's had a small upgrade: the barrels can detect when hair is fully wrapped, and it's time to move on to the curling part of the sequence. That should save time if you have a lot of hair to style.

You've got an extra temperature setting for added control. The i.d. had two heat options plus a cool shot, whereas the Co-anda 2x has three. I'm slightly frustrated to see that the buttons that control these settings seem to have been shrunk down – rather than the i.d.'s chunky, easy-to-use buttons, the 2x has the same dinky switches that I found so annoying on the Dyson Supersonic r hair dryer.

Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x: attachments

With many haircare brands, the attachments seem to be something of an afterthought. Not so with Dyson, and I was pleased (but not surprised) to see the attachment selection has been revamped for the Co-anda 2x.

Perhaps the most notable addition is the AirSmooth, which essentially turns your Airwrap into a Dyson Airstrait. Two unheated plates clamp together and blast air at the strands of hair trapped between them, smoothing and straightening them as they dry. When you reach the bottom of your hair, the plates will automatically unclamp. This attachment helps reposition the Airwrap from primarily a curling tool, to a true multistyler.

There's a plethora of other attachments, too, including different sized curl barrels and round brushes to smooth or volumize. For curly or coily hair, there's a tension comb and two-part diffuser, and for naturally straight hair there's a flyaway smoother.

In the US and UK, Dyson sells two bundle options: one geared towards naturally straight or wavy hair, and the other towards curly or coily hair, with attachments to match. In Australia, there seems to only be one bundle option, although you should be able to purchase further accessories individually.

Should I buy a Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x?

Based on what I know about the Dyson Airwrap Co-anda 2x, here are the people I'd suggest should (and should not) consider buying one...

Buy it if...

Buy it if...

Dyson V8 Cyclone: two-minute review

The Dyson V8 Cyclone is a refreshed, upgraded version of the classic V8. That model was launched way back in 2019, but remains one of Dyson's bestsellers despite its underwhelming specs in the context of the modern market. For this updated version, Dyson has improved suction power, boosted battery life, and swapped the trigger operation for a one-press button, but kept the straightforward design and (crucially) the affordable pricing.

The V8 Cyclone is clearly an upgrade on its source model, but how does it compare to the rest of the best cordless vacuums on the market? I used one for two weeks at home, and ran side-by-side tests with seven other stick vacuums (including several pricier Dyson models) to see how the V8 Cyclone matches up.

In terms of design, this vacuum is nothing particularly special. It features three suction modes, which you select by pressing a button. There are none of the bells and whistles of the best Dyson vacuums – don't expect automatic suction adjustment or a screen to convey information like remaining battery life. While it is relatively lightweight and easy to maneuver, I feel that Dyson could have put more effort into making it comfortable to hold and use.

Where the V8 Cyclone really shines is its cleaning power, which is up there with those of far pricier vacuums. In my tests, it proved to be an excellent cleaner on carpet, clearing large and small particles with ease, and very effective on hard floor, too. It also tackled pet hair efficiently, although the Mini motorized tool was good but not great at removing hair from upholstery.

So, while there are flashier models out there, if you're looking for a simple, effective and relatively affordable vacuum, the V8 Cyclone is a solid choice. Read on for my full Dyson V8 Clone review, including an in-depth look at how it performed in all my tests.

Dyson V8 Cyclone review: price & availability

• List price: £349.99 / AU$649
• Launched: September 2025
• Available: UK, AU

The Dyson V8 Cyclone launched in September 2025, alongside a range of other products, including the V16 Piston Animal, Dyson's current flagship stick vacuum. It's currently available in several countries, including the UK and Australia. In time, it might end up on sale in the US, but there's no information on that as yet.

At list price, the V8 Cyclone costs £349.99 in the UK and AU$649 in Australia (equivalent to around $470 based on UK pricing, though there's no guarantee that's what it would actually cost if it went on sale in the US).

Based on TechRadar's wider vacuum cleaner price bands, the V8 Cyclone sits in the mid-range bracket. It's also one of the most affordable Dyson vacuums – most other models in the range cost two or even three times the price. It's probably the best cheap vacuum option in the brand's lineup right now.

For comparison, the older V8 Absolute is $589.99 / £329.99 / AU$999, although at time of writing, there was around 50% off in both the US and Australia. Keeping pricing low has clearly been a priority with this new launch – it's a step up in performance compared to the older V8, but not a step up in price.

I think the V8 Cyclone is decent value for money. Other brands have similarly-priced models with more advanced designs, and you pay a bit of a premium for the Dyson name, but this vacuum's cleaning powers do go some way to justifying its price tag. While it feels noticeably less premium than other Dysons, at half the price or less, that's to be expected.

• Value for money score: 4 out of 5

Dyson V8 Cyclone specs

Dyson V8 Cyclone review: design

• Basic stick vacuum with 3 suction modes and button operation
• Relatively lightweight but could be more comfortable to use
• Interface simple but effective – no screen for in-depth info

The V8 Cyclone is a cordless stick vacuum, an update to the V8 vacuum that launched in 2019 and remains one of Dyson's bestsellers. Both the motor and the battery have been improved, offering 30% more suction and 50% longer runtime, respectively, compared to the original.

It uses the older-style configuration, with the cyclones, motor and dust cup sitting at a right angle to the wand rather than all in a straight line (the latter configuration was introduced with the V11 to maximize suction efficiency).

This older arrangement has the benefit of making the weight more balanced in the user's hand. Indeed, this is one of Dyson's lightest vacuums, as well as being a relatively lightweight option in the wider market.

A departure from the older V8 design is a one-press button rather than a trigger to switch on the V8 Cyclone. This means you won't need to keep the trigger always compressed in use, but on the downside, you will need to keep a hand free to switch the machine on and off.

The large On/Off button is on the top of the main motor section, next to a second button that controls the modes. There are three options, and the selection is indicated by a colored LED in the center of the buttons: red for Max, blue for Medium and green for Low. This system won't be ideal for colorblind users.

The battery has a higher capacity than the original V8, delivering up to an hour of cleaning on a single charge, which is in line with most of the competition these days. Another welcome upgrade is the fact that the battery is now removable and swappable.

Overall, the power options and controls are relatively basic and lack features common to the best vacuums on the market. Many modern vacuums – including the newer Dyson models – have an Auto mode that can adjust suction and/or brushroll speed based on the floor type or how much dirt needs to be cleared. Here, you'll have to toggle settings manually. There's also no screen to indicate suction mode, flag any issues, or tell you how much battery life is left.

On that final point, there's no real indicator of charge levels at all. The LED in the mode button will blink when the battery is running low, and when the vacuum is plugged in, a second LED next to the battery will blink to show it's charging, or go solid when the battery is full. Anything in between 'full' and 'low' is anyone's guess.

The V8 Cyclone comes with the Dyson Motorbar floorhead, which is suitable for both hard floors and carpets. It has been optimized to prevent hair wrap, but there are no fancier additions, such as a laser lighter or sensors to monitor particles.

Like pretty much all stick vacuums, the V8 Cyclone can be reconfigured for use as a handheld. The version I tested came with a Crevice tool and a Mini motorized tool for cleaning stairs and upholstery.

Moving on to comfort and usability. The Dyson V8 Cyclone gets a medium score here. On the plus side, it's relatively lightweight, and the main motor section is compact and squat, meaning it's easier to wield than models that have an elongated shape.

However, Dyson hasn't put any effort into boosting comfort levels. There's no shaping on the handle, and no padding to speak of either. I found that the edge of the filter casing rubbed on my thumb joint as I cleaned. This model also uses shiny plastic, which can rub if your hand is a little sweaty.

The floorhead pivots well but can occasionally be a little hard to push – it's a shame that Dyson got rid of the usual air intake slider, which would have helped in this situation. I had no issues with the mechanism used to swap the tools over; everything clipped in and out with relative ease.

To empty the V8 Cyclone, you pull on a large, red handle, causing the whole top section to pull upwards as the bottom flap drops open. You then need to click down the top section before you can close the flap. The process isn't immediately intuitive, but it's extremely quick and smooth once you know what to expect. I also like that you don't have to remove the wand to empty the bin, as is the case with the newer Dyson vacuums.

• Design score: 3.5 out of 5

Dyson V8 Cyclone review: performance

• Excellent cleaning performance on carpet, especially medium-pile
• Solid pick up on hard floor but a little pooling of debris
• Floorhead tackles pet hair extremely well, but Mini tool not as impressive

During general use, I was very impressed with the V8 Cyclone's cleaning powers. I've used almost all of Dyson's vacuums, as well as numerous models from other brands, and there was no noticeable step down in performance compared to some far pricier models I've used. In fact, in my group test of eight vacuums, there were several instances where the V8 Cyclone was among the top scorers in my suction tests.

However, I did miss having an Auto mode that changes suction intelligently based on floor type and/or dirt levels. Here, you need to switch manually when making your way around the home.

Moving on to the results of the suction tests. For these, I used a mixture of dry rice and lentils to represent chunky debris, and dry tea to represent fine particles. I also used dog hair from a friendly local dog groomer. I tested all the particle types on medium-pile carpet, deep-pile carpet, and a linoleum floor.

Medium-pile carpet

I started by sprinkling both on medium-pile carpet. The V8 Cyclone performed extremely well, clearing almost all the chunky particles in one forward pass in Med mode, leaving only a few stragglers. There was no significant pooling of debris in front of the floorhead.

The fine particle performance was even more impressive – the V8 Cyclone cleared all but a few tiny specs with one forward pass in Med mode. In my side-by-side testing, it was more effective than some of the far pricier machines.

Deep-pile carpet

I repeated the same tests on deep-pile carpet. It was a little hard to push in Med mode, but fine in Low (unfortunately, there's no slider or the floorhead to adjust how much air can get in – this is very useful in situations like this).

In Low mode, the V8 Cyclone cleared most of the rice/lentil mix in one forward pass, although there was a tiny bit of pinging and pooling, and it spat a few particles out afterwards. The performance on fine particles was very solid, with only a dusting of tea leaves left after one forward pass. In this price bracket, the V8 Cyclone is one of the best vacuum cleaners for carpet.

Hard floor

Next, I moved on to hard floor. The V8 Cyclone's cleaning powers were very acceptable, but not quite as impressive as they were on carpet. In Medium mode, the vacuum cleared most fine particles in one forward pass, but caused them to pool behind the floorhead when pulled backwards. There was a similar situation with the chunky particles – they pooled a little in both directions. This is a common issue with stick vacuums, and by no means unique to the V8 Cyclone.

Hair

Finally, I tested the V8 Cyclone's performance on pet hair. It was very good at clearing hair from deep-pile carpet, leaving only a few hairs remaining after a single pass in Medium mode. The performance was even better on medium-pile carpet – I couldn't see any hairs left after a single pass in Medium mode. In its price bracket, this is one of the best vacuums for pet hair that I've tested.

I was a bit less impressed with the Mini motorized tool designed for use on upholstery. I used it to remove dog hair from a velvet cushion, and while it cleared a good amount, there were hairs left behind. It wasn't as efficient as other brands' detail tools I tried in my group test. However, the performance was still acceptable.

(It's worth noting that in my tests I found Dyson's Combo tool could actually be better when it came to removing hair, although the smaller suction path means it does take longer to cover the same area.)

• Performance score: 4 out of 5

Dyson V8 Cyclone review: battery life

• 60 mins in Min mode, 28 minutes in Med mode, 8 mins in Max
• Only one LED to indicate battery life; recharge 4 hours
• Battery removable and swappable

One of the big upgrades on the V8 Cyclone compared to the original V8 is its battery – Dyson now promises up to a full hour of cleaning per charge. That's a very strong runtime. Some models offer longer, but not many, and most of those are much more expensive (you also need to take into account the amount of suction being delivered).

As always, the maximum runtime is in the lowest suction mode, and you should expect runtimes to be much shorter in higher modes. I timed the Medium mode at 28 minutes and 21 seconds, using a mixture of the motorized floorhead and Mini motorized tool. That's decent but not amazing – I'd hope for 30 minutes in Medium mode.

The Max mode lasted 8 minutes, which is on the shorter side for a maximum suction mode. However, it's worth flagging that the Max mode here is very powerful – noticeably suckier than both the Dreame R20 and Shark Detect Pro, which I tested alongside it.

Whereas newer Dysons have a screen that spells out exactly how much time you have left on the clock before the battery dies, information here is much more limited. There's a single LED next to the battery that blinks to show the vacuum is charging and turns solid when the battery's full, and the LED within the mode button will flash when the battery is running low, but other than that, there's no indication of charge levels.

• Battery life score: 3.5 out of 5

Should you buy the Dyson V8 Cyclone?

Buy it if...

Don't buy it if...

Dyson V8 Cyclone: alternatives to consider

How I tested the Dyson V8 Cyclone

I used the Dyson V8 Cyclone as my main vacuum cleaner for two weeks in a four-story home with carpet, tile, and laminate wood flooring. During this time, I got a feel for how easy and comfortable it is to use and how well it performs on different floor types, as well as how effectively it handles hair (my own, mid-length hair, and that of my black Cocker spaniel).

To get a more objective view of this vacuum's cleaning powers, I ran a series of cleaning tests in our testing studio. I tested how well the V8 Cyclone picked up fine (loose dry tea) and chunky (dried rice and lentils) particles, on medium-pile carpet, deep-pile carpet and linoleum. I also tested how well the vacuum handled dog hair, sprinkling cuttings from the local groomers on the carpeted floor panels and vacuuming it up, as well as rubbing hair into a velvet cushion and seeing how efficiently the Mini motorized tool cleared it with the vacuum in handheld mode.

These tests formed part of a wider group test, where I compared various vacuums side by side. This group test included the Dyson V8 Cyclone, the Roborock H60 Ultra, the Dreame R20, the Dyson Gen5detect, Dyson V16 Piston Animal, Dyson V11 Advanced, Shark Detect Pro and Shark PowerDetect.

I assessed how effective the V8 Cyclone was at cleaning, how usable the design is, and if it's worth the asking price.

Read more about how we test vacuum cleaners

• First reviewed October 2025

The TechRadar team is delighted to present the winners of the TechRadar Choice Awards 2025! These are our biggest awards ever, honoring the best products of the last 12 months in the major tech areas, while bringing in hot new categories such as open earbuds, and making sure we still have price-conscious categories, to represent how people are really buying gadgets today.

As always, the TechRadar Choice Awards are chosen by a combination of our expert judges' verdicts based on their experience with the products, with votes from you, the TechRadar readers. The vast majority are awards are voted on by the public, to make sure that products that people really love in the real-word are represented.

Our first category is our Readers' Choice Award, which is the award chosen 100% by reader votes, then we have our Editors' Choice Awards, which are selected solely by our expert judges. After that, every winner was picked by a 50/50 combination of the votes of our readers with the scores from our judges.

Readers' Choice Award

Editor's Choice Awards

Phone of the Year

Camera of the Year

Laptop of the Year

Gaming device of the year

TV of the Year

Streaming Service of the Year

Headphones of the Year

Health and Fitness Device of the Year

Home Device of the Year

One to Watch

Brand of the Year

Phones category winners

Phones Brand of the Year

Best Value Phone

Best Mid-Range Phone

Best Folding Phone

Best Flip Phone

Best Camera Phone

Best Gaming Phone

Best Phone Accessory

Best Tablet

Best AI Phone

Best eReader

Best Writing Tablet

Cameras category winners

Camera Brand of the Year

Best Beginner Camera

Best Mid-Range Camera

Best Professional Camera

Best Video Camera

Best Instant Camera

Best Action Camera

Best Dash Cam

Best Camera Lens

Best Compact Camera

Best Camera Accessory

Best Drone

Computing category winners

Best computing brand

Best value laptop

Best Chromebook

Best AI laptop

Best gaming laptop

Best gaming PC

Best computing innovation

Best processor

Gaming category winners

Gaming brand of the year

Best mobile gaming accessory

Best PC Gaming Handheld

Best console accessory

Best gaming service

Best gaming controller

Best Gaming Keyboard

Best Gaming Mouse

Best Gaming Headset

Best Gaming Monitor

Best Gaming Chair

TV category winners

Home Entertainment Brand of the Year

Best Gaming TV

Best TV for Sound

Best OLED TV

Best Mini-LED TV

Best Mid-range TV

Best Value TV

Best Projector

Best Portable Projector

Best Ultra Short Throw Projector

Best Gaming Projector

Best Soundbar

Streaming category winners

Best Streaming Service for Movies

Best Streaming Service for Documentaries

Best Streaming Service for TV Series

Best Streaming Service for Value

Best Free Streaming Service

Best Live TV Streaming Service

Audio category winners

Audio Brand of the Year

Best Wireless Headphones

Best wireless earbuds

Best Open Earbuds

Best Value Headphones

Best Value Earbuds

Best Value Open Earbuds

Best Wired Headphones

Best Wired Earbuds

Best Bluetooth Speaker

Best Wireless Speaker

Best Portable Audio Player

Best Turntable

Health & fitness category winners

Health and Fitness Brand of the Year

Best Smartwatch

Best running watch

Best fitness tracker

Best smart ring

Best Fitness App

Best electric toothbrush

Best connected fitness tech

Best electric bike

Home tech category winners

Home Tech Brand of the Year

Best Smart Lights

Best Home Security Camera

Best Video Doorbell

Best Air Fryer

Best Blender

Best Coffee Machine

Best Robot Vacuum

Best Vacuum

Best Hair & Beauty Tech

Dyson was the brand that first introduced bladeless fans to the world. As one of TechRadar's Homes editors, I regularly find myself writing about the best fans on the market, but I'll be honest – I've never quite understood how these machines actually work. Where is that blast of air coming from?

On a recent visit to Dyson's campus in Malmesbury in the west of England, I got the chance to pick the brains of Sophie Harold, an acoustics and vibration engineer at Dyson. Here's what I learned…

The terms that Dyson employees use to refer to the brand's bladeless fans are 'Loops', 'Amps' (short for 'Air amplifiers'), or, occasionally, 'Race tracks'. This is the traditional Dyson aircare product format.

"They've got a gap in the middle [and] slots on the side, and they've got fast air out of the plastic outer loop," says Sophie. This, she explains, causes something called 'entrainment', where the loop pulls in air from elsewhere in the room, to create an effect the brand calls 'air multiplication'.

"It means that… say you put the new CF1 on the desk, the air that you feel at your face is even more air than the motor or the compressor itself is generating, because it's dragging in air from the room as well," Sophie continues.

Compact cones

The Loop is just one of the formats Dyson uses to wrangle air. It also makes many of the best air purifiers on the market. In fact, a number of its models act as fan-purifier combos, because the processes required are so similar.

Some of Dyson's more recent purifiers use a 'Cone' rather than a Loop. This looks a bit like a bowl, and appears on the likes of the Dyson Big+Quiet. Because there's no need for an empty space in the middle, these kinds of products can be a bit more compact in shape, and shorter. Or, they can cram an awful lot of power without being absolutely massive – as is the case with the Big+Quiet.

"They use Coanda, so that's causing [air]flow to adhere to a surface. That's the same tech that the Airwrap barrels use to cause the hair to swirl around and get that nice curl shape," says Sophie.

"What it does here is it uses the surface to direct the air so where you would have to oscillate a Loop fan, with a Cone, you can just vary the strength of the jet at the top and the bottom, and it moves the flow up and down. That's the primary thing that that shape can do."

Starry eyed

The newest air purifier in the Dyson lineup – the HushJet Purifier Compact – doesn't use a Loop or a Cone, it uses a 'Star' nozzle.

The new Star nozzle is interesting because it causes entrainment without having to have the big gap in the center (as Loops do), so it can have a more compact shape than an amp fan. The HushJet is Dyson's first compact air purifier.

"It drags air from the rest of the room with it, making a really powerful jet, and it does that by having that star shape," says Sophie. "By having the kind of bending edges, it's still encouraging air from the surrounding region to join in with the fast jet."

"It also means the air is quite fast," she continues. "Similar to the Air amps, which have very narrow slots, this has a contraction into the star shape, smaller than the motor is, which means the air can go really quickly, mix well and purify the room." I've heard it likened to a jet engine, or perhaps more relatably, the Concentrator nozzle on a hair dryer.

Fans and filters

As I said earlier, many of Dyson's fans can also function as air purifiers. However, not all models are pulling double duty. I asked Sophie how the designers' approach differs depending on what the appliance needs to do.

"[For a] purifier, you might focus on mixing the air in the room, rather than directing the air flow at your face. It's much more important to get good filters on the product," she explains.

"Whereas things like the CF1 [fan], they don't have filters on, and that's because it means you can run the motor more efficiently, get lower running costs, and just get the cool flow on your face, rather than focusing on really getting all the air through and purified."

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• Dyson is about to unveil auto-empty docks for its stick vacs – here's why it could be a game changer
• I tested Dyson's most expensive vacuums side-by-side and there was a clear winner – and it wasn't the one I expected
• Dyson's new flagship vacuum knows exactly what kind of floor it's on and adapts to save you battery – here's how it works

Are you trying to make a decision about whether to splash your cash on the Dyson V16 Piston Animal or the Dyson Gen5detect? I'm here to help. I tested both side by side, to determine which vacuum is the easiest to use, which offers the longest battery life – and, ultimately, which delivers the best cleaning performance.

The Gen5detect is the older of the two models; it launched in Australia in 2022, and hit the US and UK markets the following year. It can sense the number and size of particles being sucked up, and display that information on screen as you clean. Head to our Dyson Gen5detect review for the full low-down.

Based on specs, the V16 Piston Animal is the best Dyson vacuum you can buy. At the time of writing, it's Dyson's newest model (launched in September 2025) and does most of the things the Gen5detect does, with added extras including onboard dust compression and an unusual new floorhead. Read more in my Dyson V16 Piston Animal review.

Overall, I think the Gen5detect is the better choice, but that's almost entirely because I didn't get on well with the V16's new floorhead. Despite being less powerful technically, the older vacuum performed better in my suction tests, tackling both fine and large particles more effectively than the V16.

The V16's All Floors Cones Sense floorhead comes to a slight point at the front, which is frustrating for cleaning the edges of rooms – and especially when you can't approach from the side. It's worth noting that this design is meant to be better for clearing very long hair – I found both the V16 and Gen5detect's floorheads worked perfectly fine with my armpit-length hair. However, if you have very long locks then perhaps the V16 will be more worthy of your attention.

The V16's floorhead is a deal-breaker for me, which is a shame – because otherwise, it's probably the superior choice. The dust compression is genuinely useful, the vacuum is easier to empty than the Gen5detect, and it offers longer runtimes in Boost mode.

That's the short version. Read on for an in-depth look at how the Dyson Gen5detect and V16 Piston Animal compare, so you can figure out which is the best cordless vacuum for your needs.

Dyson V16 Piston Animal vs Gen5detect specs

Dyson V16 vs Gen5detect: price & value for money

• At list price, V16 costs from: US TBC / £749.99 / AU$1,349
• At list price, Gen5detect costs from: $1,049.99 / £769.99 / AU$1,549
• V16 cheaper at list price, but Gen5detect more likely to attract discounts

If buying direct from Dyson, the V16 Piston Animal is available at a list price of £749.99 / AU$1,349. Currently, it isn't available in the US – it's due to go on sale some time in 2026, at which point the list price will be released. The Gen5detect costs from $1,049.99 / £769.99 / AU$1,549.

The fact that Dyson's newest release costs less than its predecessor is unusual – with the caveat that US pricing is to be confirmed. The Gen5detect isn't fresh out of the oven works in its favor, though, because it's more likely to attract discounts. Dyson promo codes are rare, but Dyson deals crop up semi-regularly. For example, at the time of writing, the Gen5detect was available for £160 off in the UK and AU$454 off in Australia.

I won't pretend that either is a bargain, but Dyson goes some way to justifying those sky-high prices. Both vacuums are extremely well built, and boast features you won't find elsewhere. While the V16 perhaps looks and feels slightly more premium, based on cleaning performance, I'd splash my own cash on the Gen5detect.

Actually, if I'm being honest, I'd opt for the model that came before the Gen5detect – the Dyson V15 Detect. See exactly how that model compares in my Dyson V15 Detect vs Gen5detect article.

Dyson Gen5detect vs V15: design

• Both are premium vacuums with dust sensors and a screen for info
• V16 has onboard dust compression and quick-release tools
• Gen5 has a general floorhead and a Fluffy floorhead; V16 has one new-look floorhead

The V16 Piston Animal and Gen5detect look pretty similar, but the newer model packs a number of nifty upgrades.

My favorite is the lever on the dust cup, which compresses all of the air out of the dirt in there to make room for more. Dyson says the dust cup has a capacity of 1.3L, but that's definitely post-squish – because to look at it's clearly smaller than the Gen5detect's bin, which has a listed capacity of 0.77L.

You can also deploy the V16 lever to push all the dust out of the bin when emptying. This works a treat, and means minimal finger intervention is required. You might have spotted that the Gen5detect also has a lever, but don't be fooled – this is a far inferior lever. It's just part of the empty mechanism, and simply pushes the outer casing forwards to encourage the dirt out. It's good, but it's nowhere near as efficient as the V16 setup.

All of the insides have been rearranged on the newer model, to cram in more power: the V16 has 315AW compared to 280AW on the Gen5detect. (That doesn't necessarily translate to better cleaning power, though; I'll get into in a second.) In terms of weight, both models are similar: the body of the vacuum, with no wand or tool attached, weighs 4.93lbs / 2.24kg for the V16, and 4.75lbs / 2.16kg for the Gen5detect.

Moving on to the tool setup, and there are further differences. Dyson has added a red cuff onto the wand of the V16 Piston Animal, which you press down to release the tool at the end of the wand. The docking section of the main tools sits upright, so you can also click on a new one from a standing position. The joints all feel a little stiff, and the new setup does mean that the V16 isn't compatible with older Dyson tools, but it may still be helpful for those who struggle with bending down.

If you opt for the Gen5detect, you'll get two floorheads bundled in as standard: the Digital Motorbar head and the Digital Fluffy floorhead. The former is for any floor type, while the latter is designed specifically for hard floors and has a built-in laser to illuminate dirt that might otherwise be missed.

With the V16 you get just one floorhead – a new design that offers a combination of the two previous floorheads, while adding a few extra flourishes. It can be used on any floor type, and continues to include a laser – here it's in the middle, rather than off to one side. It also has conical rollers rather than regular tube-shaped ones, apparently to avoid hair tangling.

There are plenty of similarities between the Gen5detect and V16 Piston Animal, too. Both have buttons to switch suction on and off, and enable you to toggle between modes (Eco, Auto and Boost). Both have a nifty screen to display information, including mundane stats such as how much battery power you have left, and more exciting figures such as the number of particles of each size the vacuum has sucked up. The V16's screen is slightly more logically presented, with a traffic light system to indicate dirt levels.

Dyson Gen5detect vs V16 Piston Animal: performance

• V16 officially has more power, but Gen5detect performed better on test
• V16's dust compaction very effective, but floorhead poorly designed
• Similar Eco mode runtimes, but V16 lasts longer in Boost

Officially, the V16 Piston Animal is the more powerful of the two vacuums, but it was the Gen5detect that shone in my side-by-side cleaning tests. Below you can see how the two vacuums handled spillages of oats and tea in Auto mode.

(I've cropped to the section that shows the Gen5detect followed by the V16 Piston Animal. You can see the full video, including the results for the V15 Detect on the left, in this suction comparison.)

The Gen5detect proved better at sucking up large particles without pushing or pinging them around, and it was better at clearing fine particles, too – I think because the V16's floorhead has a section down the middle where nothing is sucked up.

It's worth pointing out that in the wider market, both are excellent cleaners. The V16 has a more advanced Auto mode, where it will adjust not only suction power but also brushroll speed to suit the cleaning situation.

Overall, I far prefer the Gen5detect's floorhead(s) to those of the V16. Not only is the Digital Motorbar floorhead a better cleaner (as evidenced above), it's also far better for tackling the edges of rooms. The V16's All Floors Cones Sense floorhead comes to a slight point on the front, which means you need to clean the edges of rooms from the side – and if you can't get in from the side, you're in for a world of pain.

The idea behind the conical rollers is that they're better at handling long hair. I didn't have any issues with my (armpit-length) hair tangling around the All Floors Cones Sense rollers, but neither did I have that issue with the Digital Motorbar floorhead. If you have extremely long hair and find most modern anti-tangle floorheads aren't up to scratch, the V16 might be worth a punt.

There are other areas where the V16 wins out. The dust compressor / dirt ejector lever makes emptying the canister easier and requires you to do so less frequently than when using the Gen5detect. The quick-release cuff makes it easy to swap tools without bending down, and the real-time dirt reports are more logically designed, with their traffic light-inspired color coding.

In terms of battery life, both promise 70 minutes in Eco mode. However, the V16 lasts significantly longer in Boost mode; I managed just under 17 minutes cleaning sofas and carpets, compared to just 8 minutes on carpet with the Gen5detect (to its credit, the Gen5 lasted longer when using Boost on a hard floor).

Should you buy the Dyson Gen5detect or V15?

Buy the Dyson V16 Piston Animal if...

Buy the Gen5detect if...

After a period of relative inactivity, Dyson has emerged blinking in the sunlight, and dumped a whole load of new products on us. Alongside an unexpected new robot vacuum and a desktop purifier inspired by a jet engine, there are two new manual stick vacuums – one ultra-pricey new flagship and one reimagining of a Dyson classic.

I've been knee-deep in Dyson news for a fortnight, so I've only just got round to reading the small print on the press releases on the stick vacuums, and it seems like there's an even more intriguing update heading our way.

Tucked at the bottom of the press release for the V8 Cyclone and the V16 Piston Animal, there's a line that says: "Looking ahead, owners will be able to purchase a compatible self-emptying docking station."