Best Vacuum Cleaner 2024: Cordless, Corded, Smart and More

The Capsule X is the independently made follow-up to the excellent Halo Capsule and it’s unlike any other cordless on the market. It’s an exceptionally light (2.6kg) bagged vacuum cleaner that uses biodegradable dust pouches to capture dust and dirt, so you don’t have to deal with it. It has a 2-litre dustin, which means you won’t have to empty it often either.

It has a running time of up to 60 minutes and its battery recharges from flat to full in two hours.

The Capsule X has a host of great new features and accessories, including swappable batteries, headlights and motorised cleaning tools for carpets, hard flooring and upholstery – it’s great on all surfaces. Our one quibble with the design is that the way it’s weighed makes it tougher to use holding overhead, although you can use the hose attachment to get around that.

To get all the tools and the extra battery, you’ll need to go for the Ultimate Accessories bundle. But there is another option. As it’s a completely modular vacuum, you can buy any accessories or parts separately (and all parts are reasonably priced). If a part fails or is damaged later on, you can easily replace it. This makes it a sustainable choice as well as a sensible option for anyone who wants to buy a vacuum once and keep it for years.

Sadly, it’s not available in the US.

There are two problems with this cordless cleaner: the price and its weight. But everything else is pretty close to vacuum cleaner perfection.

We were blown away when testing it. It’s hugely powerful – with 262AW of suction versus the V15’s 230 – something that’s evident when you’re testing it.

It has all of the features of the V15 Detect, including the green laser and piezo sensor – and some new clever bits of design. One of the best is the crevice tool built into the top of the wand for instant handheld cleaning. But you’ll also get all the other accessories you’ll need, including the hair screw tool and the jointed low reach adapter that lets the Gen5 lie flat to get under sofas.

But all this tech means that it is Dyson’s heaviest cordless yet at 3.5kg/7.7lbs. And then there’s the matter of its extraordinary price. But we think if you can afford it, you won’t be disappointed.

If you’d like a Dyson, but don’t know which one to choose, you can see how we rate all the brand’s cordless cleaners in our round-up of the best Dyson vacuums.

If you’ve had your fill of stick vacuums and need something with more power, this is our recommendation. The Stratos Pet Pro Anti Hair Wrap Plus Anti-Odour Upright Vacuum NZ860UKT (to give it its full, and very long, name), can tackle just about anything from muddy floors to dusty carpets to fur-covered pet beds.

It has a host of excellent features as well, including headlights, impressive anti-hair wrap tech, and anti-odour technology that leaves a pleasant fragrance behind.

For a very reasonable price, you’ll get a highly versatile cleaner with astonishing levels of performance. The only downsides are that it’s heavy at 6.7kg, not hugely manoeuvrable and not the most attractive vacuum around. But if you have a busy household, it’s well worth the trade-off.

If you have a cluttered home, or lots of awkward spots that need cleaning and you’re tired of shifting furniture around, Hoover’s HFX could well be the vacuum you’re looking for. It’s a modular cordless vacuum, with three cleaning modes: as a regular carpet or hard flooring cleaner, with an anti-tangle brush bar and LED headlights; as a handheld, with either a combi brush or crevice tool; and as a full-size vacuum optimised for corners, edges and difficult bits.

This last mode – the Corner Genie – is really the reason to buy it. Just use the foot pedal to remove the main cleaning head and you can whip it around to deal with difficult spots like down the side of the fridge or behind the sofa, without having to stoop or shift furniture.

Other advantages of its design are its display, which shows the minutes left in each cleaning mode, its headlights and its large, 1.2-litre dustbin. But it has its downsides as well. With the main cleaning head attached, it’s heavier than the Gen5detect at a hefty 3.65kg/8lbs. You’ll also only get 30 minutes of running time in normal mode, although its charging time is a fairly speedy 3.5 hours.

The Bespoke Jet builds on all the features that made the Jet 90 a really effective cleaner: it’s powerful, modular, comes with well-designed cleaning accessories, has a swappable battery, digital display and washable filter. It’ll give you 50 minutes of cleaning time on its lowest setting and will charge in 3.5 hours.

And now that the price has come down, it is well worth considering.

But the real selling point of the Bespoke is the fact that you won’t need to find a dark corner to store it. The completely redesigned dock is slim and attractive, and it not only charges the cleaner but will empty it via suction as well.

Our only issue with the vacuum itself is that it feels heavier than its 6lbs (2.72lbs with its main cleaning head), something that’s compounded by its uncomfortable grip.

But we do have to take issue with Samsung’s definition of Bespoke: in the UK, you can’t just choose the colour option you’d like from Woody Green, Midnight Blue and Misty White – each of the three colour options is a different model with a different price point and accessories.

In the UK, it’s called the Bissell SpotClean Cordless. In the US, it’s the Little Green Cordless. The difference between the two is that the UK model comes with a two-in-one sliding crevice tool, as well as the the Tough Stain tool and the HydroRinse tool (for self-cleaning) that both models have. Wherever you buy it, it’s a handy cordless portable vacuum that’ll help you to wet clean carpets, sofas, car interiors and more.

The chief problem of spot cleaners is that they can be heavy and bulky, especially when they’re filled with water. But this one weighs just 7.2lbs/3.4kg and is compact as well, which means it’s easy to take out to the car or use on stairs.