Dyson Gen5detect Absolute - Dyson Keeps Dysoning

If I've said it once I've said it a thousand times; nobody does design like Dyson does.

Boasting perhaps the most innovative and imaginative team of engineers of any company in the world, year after year Dyson seems to be able to reinvent itself and its products; the way they look, the way they perform and essentially, what they do.

Over the years we've seen Dyson revolutionise domestic heating, cooling and air purifying with a combination of crazy ideas like bladeless fans and unheard-of advances in filtration.

Somehow Dyson has also become the go-to brand in hair-care appliances - even professional hairdressers often choose Dyson for its superior durability and performance.

But let's be real here; it all starts and ends with the vacuum cleaners. Sir James Dyson wouldn't be where he is today if he hadn't decided to build a better vacuum all those years ago and the main reason Dyson has kept its position at the top of the vacuum pile ever since is its unwavering commitment to reinventing itself.

This year's stick vacuum is the ultimate result.

The Dyson Gen5detect Absolute is much more than the next evolutionary step in the Dyson range. Due to patents expiring on the previous Hyperdymium motor technology, competing brands were able to start copying what Dyson had spent decades developing; an incredibly powerful and reliable motor in the tiniest of form factors.

So the Dyson engineers literally went back to the drawing board and came up with an even tinier motor, that's even more powerful and even more power-efficient.

By stripping everything back to its smallest component pieces, these geniuses realised by doing things like wrapping the copper coil that makes the motor spin in a different shape, they could extract more speed than ever - the next-gen Hyperdymium motor spins at up to 135,000rpm. (Apparently, that's about nine times faster than a Formula One engine)

But the 2022 upgrades don't stop there. As I've mentioned already, Dyson is pretty renowned for its air filtration tech and while other manufacturers claim to be using HEPA filters, apparently they only really work properly if the machine is completely sealed, which the Gen5detect is.

To prove it, there's a piezo sensor built into the device to count and size particles at the rate of 15,000 times a second. The results are then displayed on the redesigned colour LCD screen - once the number of particles (of all sizes) drops to zero, you know your floor is clean and you can move on.

That display also keeps track of battery levels and here, once again, Dyson has raised the bar, with up to 70 minutes of non-stop suction. If you can't vacuum your whole house in that time, you must be living in a hotel. If so, you can always buy a spare battery; it clips in for easy replacement.

Last year, Dyson introduced a new innovation to help with your clean; a laser mounted on the "fluffy" hard floor cleaning head. On the Gen5detect this Fluffy Optic cleaner head now produces twice the brightness, so you'll see every speck of that disgusting dust, pet hair and other detritus in all lighting conditions - not just in the dim corners.

But for me, the two biggest innovations are the power button and the hidden surprise.

The power button was a surprise in itself because there's never been one before. Dyson stick vacuums have always been operated with a power-tool-like trigger mechanism. This was to preserve as much battery as possible - so you were only using it when you were using it, if you get what I mean. Now the battery life has been extended so much, they've decided we don't have to wear out our trigger fingers anymore and we're allowed an always-on switch. This is fantastic news although, in a rare misstep, the Dyson designers have put it in the wrong place. The on/off button is on the back, above the LCD display. I can't reach it with my thumb while holding the device and have to use my other hand instead. They could have easily located it next to the power mode button, which you can operate with one hand. Weird. Perhaps they were trying to avoid the risk of button confusion?

As for the "hidden surprise?" This is a real crowd-pleaser; the combined dusting and crevice tool is now cunningly concealed inside the main wand. This is classic Dyson design brilliance; taking the concept of onboard tools a step further, having them even more conveniently located inside the vacuum itself. It's a slightly tricky concept to describe but hopefully, you'll appreciate just how game-changing it is when you watch my demonstration video below.

We saw the tangle-free cleverness of the Digital Motorbar head and the Hair Screw tool last year, so I won't dwell on them too much, only to re-emphasise how totally effective they are. Be it pet or human hair, it all just disappears into the Gen5detect without trace - and although all the Dyson heads are easily dismantled for cleaning maintenance, I rarely have to because virtually nothing gets caught or clogged.

In essence, with the Gen5detect we have an elegant combination of recent innovations with some out-of-the-box new tricks and a totally redesigned, more-powerful-than-ever motor. At NZ$1599.00 you're certainly paying a premium but this is undoubtedly the premier vacuum available right now.

I wouldn't usually suggest any household appliance as a Christmas gift but this one is probably a pretty safe exception.

    

Click here for more information and pricing on the Dyson Gen5detect Absolute.