GoKawiilThe best cordless vacuum I've ever used is on sale for less than $200 during Amazon's Big Spring Sale. The Eureka ReactiSense 440 is CNET's best overall cordless vacuum -- technically tied with the Shark Stratos, which is also on sale. The Eureka is a particularly unique vacuum because it costs just a fraction of the price of most of the top models we recommend from brands such as Dyson and Shark.
The ReactiSense 440 is normally $180 at full price, but you can buy it for just $153 on Amazon. While not the historical low of $140, it's pretty close and still puts the ReactiSense 440 at well under $200. It's basically half as much as the Stratos' Amazon sale price.
The Eureka ReactiSense 440 particularly impressed me during our testing at CNET's Louisville lab, blowing more expensive competitors out of the water. It scored a remarkable 97.53% of sand pickup on hardwood floors. It did even better on carpet pickup, which is usually a challenge for most cordless models, scoring 98.53% on low-pile carpet and 92.16% on midpile carpet.
It also doesn't compromise on features, including a smart sensor that automatically adjusts suction strength to account for dirt and debris.
"The Eureka was amazing across all testing," Schylar Breitenstein, CNET's associate lab engineer, told me. "I just wish the runtime was a little longer but the pickup was even better than the Shark Stratos, surprisingly."
The ReactiSense 440 earned CNET's Editors' Choice for its mix of strong performance and price. What's also impressive to me, as someone who's used it for several months at home, is how well it tackles pet hair. Like the Shark Stratos, it has an anti-tangle brush roll, and I never had an issue with the vacuum clogging or tangling, despite my three cats putting it to the test.
The battery life is 48.6 minutes, but I found it more than sufficient to clean my three-bed, 1,300-square-foot apartment without running out of charge.
If you're on a tight budget but still want a cheap cordless vacuum that doesn't have any major compromises, you won't do better than the ReactiSense 440.