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’s also our top recommendation for people with allergies or asthma.

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

Samsung’s new flagship cordless vacuum is named for its AI features. It has a sensor-based system that adjusts the vacuum’s suction power and roller speed to handle the surface and dust level it detects. Use it in the AI mode and you won’t need to adjust any settings while you clean. It makes vacuuming simpler but it’s only one of the many excellent features the Bespoke Jet AI offers to simplify and streamline its use.

Its best feature, without a doubt, is the slim, elegantly designed Clean Station, into which you dock the vacuum. It’ll empty and charge it, so that every time you pick it up, the Jet AI is ready to go.

Still, its running time is as good as anything on the market at over 100 minutes (on its lowest setting, without a motorised tool) but in day-to-day use, you’ll get over 40 minutes before it needs to charge. And, as it comes with a second battery and separate charger, you can double that running time for marathon cleaning sessions.

It’s powerful, lighter than the Gen5detect (although I found it slightly heavy to use overhead, in handheld mode) and comes with all the cleaning tools and attachments you could want. Altogether, this is the ultimate luxury vacuum and if price is no object, we can’t see how anyone would be disappointed with it.

If the price is prohibitive, have a look at the Samsung Bespoke Jet. It doesn’t have the AI tech of the newer model, or a few of its upgrades, but it’s much more reasonably priced and has most of the same features, including the auto-empty Clean Station.

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.

What we love about the Shark Detect Pro is that it’s so easy to use. If you hate vacuuming, this is definitely one to consider. Stick it in auto mode and all you need to do is steer it around the house. When it spots more dust or needs to vacuum along a wall, it’ll increase suction; when it hits carpet, it’ll automatically increase the roller speed; and when it encounters a dimmer spot, it’ll switch on its headlights. It’s lightweight as well, and the bin is very easy to empty.

However, you won’t get anywhere near 60 minutes of running time if you use it in auto mode and the one additional cleaning attachment that comes with it is pretty feeble. The bin is small as well, but you can buy spare batteries and an auto-empty station, which will obviate these shortcomings – although it will cost you more. Speaking of price, its UK sale price is £279. Buy it for this amount and you’ll get a very good deal.

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, and there’s no brush bar for deep cleaning. 

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.

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. We’d recommend this model as the best for tough to remove pet hair.

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.

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.

This vacuum can be used with cleaning fluid as well as water, for tough stains and messes. As it has a dirty water tank, it’ll suck up and store the wastewater produced during cleaning.

It has two cleaning modes: Eco and Turbo. We found that the Eco mode was sufficient for day-to-day cleaning, but you’ll need to switch to Turbo for serious stains. This does limit the running time to 20 minutes, after which you’ll need to let it charge for 4 hours.

We especially liked its HydroRinse tool, which allows you to flush out the vacuum’s interior, for easy maintenance.

There are plenty of budget-friendly cordless vacuums around, and we reckon this model from Ultenic is one of the best. For its price point, it’s good value and its spare batteries are much more affordable that those from the likes of Dyson and Shark, making buying a second one a good option.

It’s an effective cleaner, although we think it would struggle with ingrained dirt in deep pile carpets. It has good features as well, including a pretty effective tangle-free brush bar, headlights and a crevice tool light. It has an excellent (although weirdly car dashboard themed) display that shows the battery life left in minutes too.

Altogether, it’s a good all-rounder and we were impressed.

Buying a product for long-term use is the most economical thing you can do. But when money is tight, it’s not always possible to invest hundreds in a new vacuum. If you need a quick solution that doesn’t cost the earth, we’d recommend the VacTidy V8 Pro. It won’t last you forever but it will give your home a really good clean.

Of course, given its price point, there are compromises to be made. As we’ve suggested, the build is not as robust as pricier models, and it’s a no-frills cleaner as well. Still, it does have LED headlights to illuminate darker corners.

Plus, there’s a small annoyance in the form of the vacuum cleaner head, which can get stuck up at an angle from the floor, meaning you’ll need to press it back down with your foot as you go.

Altogether though, it has plenty of suction for its price point, HEPA filtration, a fairly generous 35-minute running time as well as a short, 2.5-hour charging time.