Dyson
Dyson V8 Absolute: The V8 Absolute is one of the more affordable Dyson vacuums you can buy. Normally $519.99 at full price, it's currently on sale for $349.99. While the price isn't bad, the performance doesn't live up to expectations. While it did great on hardwood, removing nearly 98% of sand, it didn't do as well on carpet. The Absolute was able to remove 68.3% of sand from low-pile and 52% from mid-pile carpets, falling short of many competitors, including the Levoit LVAC-200 and Shark Stratos.
Dyson V11 Torque Drive: With a motor that automatically adapts to the type of floor it's cleaning and a fancy LCD screen, the Dyson V11 Torque Drive might feel like an upgrade. It typically retails for about $600 but you can often find it on sale closer to $475. While the Dyson V11 lived up to the hype with highly consistent cleaning power across all of CNET Lab testing, it was, however, outperformed by newer models like the Dyson V15 Detect and other competitors on our best list.
Dyson Gen5 Detect: The Gen5 Detect is one of Dyson's latest and greatest cordless vacuums. It's also one of the most expensive at $949.99, although you can currently get it on sale for $749.99. The performance you get is fairly good, with 95.4% of sand removal from hardwood, 65.3% from low-pile carpet and 66.7% from mid-pile carpet. Unfortunately, this performance falls short of our current best overall, the Shark Stratos, which offers even better scores for less than half the price. If you like the dust detection feature, we're also partial to the Dyson V15 Detect, which offers stronger performance on carpet and hardwood, and the Dyson Detect Submarine V15S, which has all-in-one capabilities, including mopping.
Samsung
Samsung Jet 75: Nearly identical to the Jet 90, the Samsung Jet 75 offers comparable cleaning power, a similarly attractive build, the same 60-minute battery life, the same HEPA filtration and the same 200 air watts of suction. The main difference is that the docking station needs to be drilled into the wall while the Jet 90 uses a freestanding dock. The Jet 75 didn't perform as strongly as the Jet 90 in the CNET Testing Labs mid-pile sand test but because it's at a lower price point, that might be worth the deal for some consumers.
Samsung Jet 90 (Update: Out of Stock): Our former best cordless vacuum for carpets, the Samsung Jet 90 is no longer in stock. One of the toughest cordless vacuum cleaning challenge is the mid-pile sand test, where we see how much sand each vacuum can suck out of the thick, plushy carpet. Only three of the 15 cordless vacuums we've tested in recent years have been able to average pickup percentages better than 80% in that test: the Dyson V15 Detect, the Tineco Pure One S15 Pet and the Samsung Jet 90, which led the way overall with an outstanding mid-pile sand pickup percentage of 98%. The Samsung Jet 90 is one of the lighter models we tested and sports a sleek, futuristic look. It's a splurge at a retail price of about $600 but it's the best HEPA cordless vacuum option if you have a lot of thick carpets in your home.
Shark
Shark Rocket Pet Pro: Typically retailing for less than $350, the Shark Rocket Pet Pro remains a solid budget option provided you can find it in stock. It offers excellent cleaning performance with crumbs and other small bits of debris on hardwood floors and satisfactory pickup power on carpets and with dust. It features HEPA filtration and a self-cleaning, anti-tangle brush head (helpful for preventing pet hair clogs) and converts to a convenient handheld cleaner when needed.
Tineco
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