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

Tineco A11 Hero (Update: Out of stock): The Tineco A11 Hero is no longer available but it was a solid and reasonably affordable cordless vacuum when we tested it. It scores 98.5% removing sand from hardwood, 82.5% from low-pile and 72.5% from mid-pile carpets. It’s traded spots with the Tineco Pure One S11 and S15 Pet in terms of performance and value.

Tineco Pure One S11: The Tineco Pure One S11 is a high-performing cordless vacuum with impressive suction power on hard floors and carpets. Versatile attachments, HEPA filtration and a dirt-detection feature add to its value. The design is basic and battery life is moderate and its excellent cleaning performance makes it a great choice.

Tineco Pure One S15 Pet (Update: Currently unavailable): This is our former pick for the best cordless vacuum for pet hair. Tineco does great work with cordless vacs and the Pure One S15 Pet is fantastic. A 500-watt motor and cyclonic dust collection system creates 120AW of suction power. This adds up to a solid cleaning experience. When cleaning up the smaller sand particles, the vac did a wonderful job of getting them all off the hardwood. As expected, pulling the sand from carpets was tougher. The Pure One S15 Pet still got more than 88% from low-pile carpets and more than 81% from mid-pile carpets. Tineco’s specially designed brush did a good job of removing hair from the brush as it cleaned, resulting in nearly zero tangles. You’ll also find LEDs on the front of the brush head to help see what you’re cleaning up and an iLoop Smart Sensor built in. This sensor helps the vacuum to automatically ramp up its suction power when it detects more debris on the floor. You can see its progress on the LED display on top of the handle.

Other cordless vacuums

Miele Triflex HX2: Priced at about $1,100, we had high hopes for the Miele Triflex HX2. The three-in-one stick vac performed poorly in the sand test with low- and mid-pile carpets bringing down its overall performance score.

Greenworks 24V Cordless Vacuum: This vacuum is a true contender, able to match the performance of some $500 or more hand-held stick vacuums while coming in around $320. In addition to all the tools it includes, it touts a fast 30-minute recharge time and a solid 45-minute runtime.

Moosoo XL-618: It wasn’t a strong performer in our toughest tests, but the Mooso XL-618 proved perfectly capable of basic cleaning, particularly with crumbs and on hardwood floors. It also converts to a handheld vacuum that you can use to clean your car or furniture. Frequently on sale for less than $80, the XL-618 is about as inexpensive as cordless vacuums get. If you’re willing to sacrifice some cleaning power to save some cash, it’s worth a look.

Black & Decker PowerSeries Extreme Max: The Black & Decker PowerSeries Extreme Max is a budget-friendly cordless vacuum that offers strong cleaning performance and a long runtime. Its ability to convert into a handheld vacuum adds to its versatility, making it a standout option for its price.

Lubluelu 23Kpa cordless KB-H009 (Update: Out of stock): It was mouthful, but the Lubluelu KB-H009 was a solid, if unexceptional, cordless vacuum. Priced about $400, it did great in our testing on hardwood, scoring nearly 98% sand removal. It did decently on low-pile carpet, removing 68.3% of sand, but had middling performance on mid-pile at 52%.

Bissell IconPet Turbo: Designed for tackling pet hair, the Bissel IconPet Turbo offers solid overall performance for a reasonable $199. It did reasonably well in testing, scoring 89.7% in sand removal from hardwoood, 66% from low-pile and 54% from mid-pile carpets. However, despite the reasonable price and decent performance, it was outperformed by our value picks, the Levoit LVAC-200 and Dirt Devil BD5700V.

Eureka RapidClean Pro: The RapidClean Pro from Eureka is another affordable cordless stick vacuum that you can get for less than $200. It offers generally solid performance, removing 94% sand from hardwood, 64.8% from low-pile and 60% from mid-pile carpets. However, like many vacuums in this price range, it’s edged out in performance by other picks that earn a spot on our best list.