We may earn commission from links on this page.
If you buy high-end vacuum cleaners these days, you’ll notice that everyone is obsessed with micro dust: finding it, illuminating it, measuring it, and sucking it up with increasingly absurd force. So I have to ask the question, who will speak on behalf of “macro dust”? If you have a pet or a child, you know exactly what I mean. As we move more and more towards stick vacuum cleaners with diminutive storage containers and move away from corded devices, who, please, is going to suck all the damn Cheerios and stuffed toys off the floor?
For now, the answer is Samsung Jet wise artificial intelligence (currently $999.99). Judging by the numbers on the display while vacuuming, it does a decent job at things that require a magnifying glass, but I was more impressed by its ability to handle things the size of a dust bunny just fine. Earlier this year, I stated that Dyson’s Detective Gen5 was best stick vacuum I tried, so I wondered what else the vacuum could do to impress me. It turns out that Jet has several advantages, but above all, vacuum cleaners differ in their approach to cleaning. These are two spectacular suction devices.
Samsung Jet AI wants to be treated like a piece of furniture
One of the easiest ways to choose between Dyson and Jet is whether you want to place your vacuum cleaner in your living room like a piece of art, or do you want to place it somewhere away from company? Although most sticks are, well, blocked (to the wall) Jet Dock is a free-standing contemporary sculpture in black and metal. It’s not just about the look: the docking station is also self-emptying, so every time the vacuum cleaner is returned, it empties into the bag located in the docking station. I didn’t like the idea of having just a vacuum cleaner over there, another thing taking up space in my living room, but since you’ll be returning it to the dock to empty it every few minutes, it’s quite convenient. The more he turned, the more it seemed like he belonged. After a month of solid macro vacuuming, the bag is not yet full. I was really impressed with the operate of the self-emptying docking station – one of the things I hate about handheld vacuum cleaners are their diminutive containers and how awkward they are to empty. At first glance, the size of the Jet container was diminutive, especially compared to Dyson models. In practice, it still holds less than the Dyson, but with its self-draining base, the Jet completely eliminates the problem. During a month of intensive vacuuming, I didn’t have to replace the bag once, and it didn’t get clogged either.
Easier vacuuming
Your home has a variety of surfaces: tile, carpet, hardwood, and/or rugs. While time-honored vacuum cleaners could handle everything with the same suction and rollers, high-end handheld vacuum cleaners have a range of settings. With Jet, artificial intelligence detects the type of surface and adapts automatically. The Dyson, which does a spectacular job of finding crumbs, has a button you turn on the handle to switch between suction levels, and I imagine most people, like me, just turn it to “max” and leave it there , until you hit the carpet (the Dyson is so powerful that you can’t push it across the carpet at full speed). I definitely preferred using the Jet’s hands-free settings, but the Jet didn’t feel as powerful as the Dyson – until I manually went into the Jet and set it to “max” instead of “AI.” The advantage of this is that it’s even more arduous to switch than the Dyson, so you’ll generally want to leave it in AI mode. What seemed to matter was the dirt, the dirt from carpets and rugs that the Dyson was able to remove. The Jet does a good job of removing dirt at surface level, but it doesn’t seem to “dig in” in the same way.
Like other stick vacuums, the Jet has a nice swivel head and a range of attachments, which we’ll talk about in a moment. I liked that although the head was larger than Dyson’s default head, it was still compact enough to fit in tight spaces around furniture legs. Overall, the Jet was slightly easier to maneuver because it was lighter than the Dyson. It may not seem like a leap, but it turns out that the pound really matters here.
Fewer clogs are a huge benefit for users
Another common complaint about handheld vacuum cleaners is how often they clog: if I have to keep taking the stick apart and trying to find the clog, it takes all the fun out of cleaning. While I really like the Dyson Gen5, I experienced significantly fewer clogs with the Jet. It actually only got clogged once a month while vacuuming dirt from an overturned flowerpot, and it was uncomplicated to spotless. With the arrival of a modern Doberman, my house is usually littered with mud, litter, the white floor of dog toys and the occasional abandoned food. This is the type of debris that tends to ruin any vacuum, corded or not, and is a real challenge for most vacuum cleaners. Jet handled it all. Even when the stick became clogged with soil, it only affected the stick and not the self-draining base, which easily cleared the stick without clogging. In the month that I had both vacuums, I did some drywall work and the drywall dust immediately clogged the Dyson in such a way that it took a few tries to remove it, but the Jet had no problems sucking up the fine dust and NA transfer.
The sticks are still missing accessories
The sticks still have one major problem: lack of accessories. Most corded vacuum cleaners come with a vast number of booms and extensions and fancy arms designed to reach the space. The Jet comes with a standard head, a hair removal tip, a crevice tip, and a multi-tool – one of my favorite tools for its ability to suck dust from keyboards, book covers, and oddly shaped objects. The Jet doesn’t come with a pliant hose to get into tight spaces and you can’t buy one, so the point goes to Dyson, which has any attachment you can imagine. Although I haven’t tested it, you can get it for $150 mop head for Jet. The docking station does not provide a place to store these accessories (Dyson does). The Dyson’s head has a unique corkscrew shape that makes it very arduous to kill the rollers with hair, yarn, or anything else that could get wrapped around them. This was a feature I missed on Jet as I had to free my head once or twice and had a very unfortunate YRI (yarn related incident).
Excellent battery life, but no truly sharp features
Samsung claims the Jet’s battery lasts 100 minutes, which would exhaust my enthusiasm for cleaning before the battery dies. So on a random Tuesday I left the vacuum on to turn it on and after 72 boisterous minutes it finally took a nap. Still, it outlasted the Gen5’s “70-minute” Dyson battery by 20 minutes.
Samsung has a well-established ecosystem and sharp home hub called Clever Things, so I was hoping the app would provide additional functionality (which is optional and not necessary to operate the vacuum cleaner). While you can add the vacuum and change a few settings, it doesn’t provide much more functionality than the Dyson app that adds to the vacuum. It’s a shame, because at least a monthly report on how much dirt was sucked up would have been a nice detail. Both Dyson and Samsung read this data on the handle’s display while vacuuming, but I doubt anyone pays attention to it.
Reusable filters mean lower maintenance costs
Jet has two different filters and both are washable and reusable, so they should last quite a long time. However, you will eventually replace them and I discovered their quite affordable, about $20 each (a pack of five costs $39.99). While I haven’t had to do this yet, Samsung says the trash bags in the base should be replaced every month or so. Granted, my house is smaller, but I’ve been testing the stick for a month, so the fact that it’s still not full says a lot.
Overall, an impressive addition to the high-end stick vacuum market
At these prices, you’re comparing some elite devices and if you spend $1,000 you should get an exceptionally well-performing vacuum. For everyday operate, the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI is a fantastic machine that I enjoy using, as does the Dyson Gen5 Detect. Each of them has several features that make it more or less attractive, depending on your lifestyle. If you want to install a vacuum cleaner, choose Dyson. If the self-draining feature is appealing (and it should be), Samsung is your best bet. If you or your pet have long hair, the Dyson corkscrew can be a real benefit, but if your hair tends to be more substantial, the Jet has the edge.
