Best Vacuum Cleaner 2023: Cordless, Corded, Smart and More

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.

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. 

This is a great product, at a great price, particularly when compared to market-leading brands. Capsule is an independently designed and produced vacuum cleaner, the creation of an engineer with two decades of industry experience.

Cordless, manoeuvrable and very light at 2.6kg – thanks to its carbon-fibre shell – it has the power of an upright and some very nice design features that set it apart from competitors.

Its specifications are also an improvement on those of rival products. Capsule needs three hours to charge its lithium-ion batteries and after that will run for at least half an hour without a loss of suction. It also has a dust-collection capacity of 1.6 litres.

Replacement parts are easily available and Capsule’s makers encourage you to send it in for servicing, so it’s both environmentally friendly and budget friendly as well. 

There are no bells and whistles, just solid cleaning power. We’d highly recommended it for smaller homes, flats or as a versatile handheld.   

If you’re looking for a budget-friendly vacuum, the Airgility Max is a solid option. It would make a great runaround for an apartment with hard flooring and in spite of its low price point, you’ll get a lot for your money.

It’s very manoeuvrable and has a HEPA filter, headlights, a large 1.2 litre dustbin and a swappable battery, all of which are unexpectedly good features for what it costs. The battery takes 5.5 hours to charge, which is too long to be ideal – but additional batteries are much cheaper than those from rival brands, which goes some way to solving the problem. It also has a handy space-saving storage mode.

In the US, the model available also has a motorised pet tool that bumps up the price a bit – but it does solve the Airgility Max’s one big problem, which is the lack of a quality upholstery tool. In the UK, this model is called the Airgility Pet Max, and you can buy it for a little more than the model we tested, from Beldray.

This flagship cordless Shark vacuum is filled with great features but signIficantly undercuts its rival Dyson on price. It comes complete with LED headlights to help you to spot dust and hair you’d otherwise miss, plus its ‘Clean Sense IQ’ tech will ramp up the power when it finds more dirt to tackle. It also comes complete with anti-odour cartridges to combat the musty smell you may associate with vacuuming.

Plus, it has some of Shark’s best-ever features, such as the jointed wand that will let you vacuum under your bed or sofa without stooping and its anti-hair wrap technology.

We only had a couple of complaints: it’s a fairly heavy vacuum and the battery life didn’t last as long as it should. Still, it does have a swappable battery, so if you don’t mind buying a second one, you’ll be able to get around this problem.

The FS1 has some excellent features but the key one must be its auto-empty stand. When you dock the vacuum to charge, you can press a button on the vacuum’s handle and the onboard bin will be emptied via suction. This – combined with the HEPA filter – makes it a good option for hay fever sufferers looking to avoid contact with dust and pollen. And the navy build with orange accents makes it smart and discreet enough to stand in a corner of a room.

It also has some other great design features, like the telescoping wand that allows you to choose a comfortable length and the headlights that light up fluff and hair.

It’s a powerful vacuum with good pickup of both dust and larger debris and it’s manoeuvrable in use. Still, it’s fairly heavy at 6.8lbs/ 3.1kg and it feels more so, exacerbated by the uncomfortable grip.

Corded vacuum cleaners are making it back into this round-up as brands are releasing more innovative designs. That’s certainly the case with Miele’s Boost CX1, a corded vacuum cleaner with many of the design features of a cordless, including a bagless system, adjustable wand length and 360° manoeuvrability. 

It’s a very compact canister vacuum (its body can sit within the footprint of an open magazine) with impressive suction and an automatically retracting cord. 

It telescoping wand means you’ll be able to remove cobwebs from your ceilings with the vacuum on the floor. However, even though it has a useful carry handle on top, it’ll still feel heavy if your stairs aren’t deep enough to stand it on while you vacuum. And, although it has the power to clean carpets, it’s not as easy to use as it is on hard flooring. 

Still, if you have a smaller place and are looking for a compact alternative to a corded vacuum, with better cleaning power, this well-made, well-priced appliance should be a contender. Don’t buy it if you have acres of carpet though.

This is a brilliantly designed vacuum cleaner for hard floors. Its manoeuvrability takes a lot of the labour out of vacuuming.

But it is specialist vacuum cleaner. It won’t be ideal if you have (for example) a large, fluffy dog as pet fur is likely to clog up the tiny bin and get tangled in the casters that give the Omni-glide its impressive moves.

Still, if you have a city pad, or if you’re looking for a second vacuum cleaner as a kitchen runaround, we’d recommend it. 

If you have a lot of hard flooring – whether its floorboards, laminate, tile or vinyl – it’s well worth considering buying the Ultenic AC1. It’s not for carpet but it will replace your usual vacuum on hard surfaces, as well as mopping the floor at the same time. We were impressed by how easy it is to use and how effective it is.

It also has some fantastic tech features: an LCD display, app compatibility and a voice assistant. Even better, when you dock it to charge, it’ll automatically clean and dry its roller brush.

It has a swappable battery and buying a second one costs much less than one for a regular vacuum. It’s around $59.99/£39.99 (Ultenic in the US; Amazon UK).

It’s not perfect, however. Even though its self-drive feature gives it a forward propulsion that makes cleaning easier in one direction, you’ll have to work harder to drag it back, so it’s not suitable for someone elderly or infirm. And its poorly translated user manual means that a couple of its features are mysterious, even after use.

This high-quality cleaner would be an excellent option for people with larger homes who are looking to replace their upright with something cordless. However, we’d recommend investing in a second battery, or buying the Pro model, which comes with one.

The TriFlex is a solidly built appliance that we would expect to last for a very long time. As a trade-off, it’s heavier than the Dyson V11 and the Samsung Jet 90. This isn’t an issue in Comfort mode, which is where the TriFlex really comes into its own and beats the competition hands-down (and, in fact, hands-off). It bears its own weight and will stand up by itself, unlike most other stick cleaners, so it has all of the advantages of an upright cleaner, without the cord.

However, in its Range and Compact modes, it’s a little heavier than competing stick/handheld cleaners. But if you want a replacement for an upright, with the versatility you need to clean upholstery, blinds and curtains, the TriFlex is our recommended option.