Dyson's smallest vacuum ever is also their most powerful - it will change the way you clean

As you can imagine, in my job, I see a lot of vacuums. I hear about a lot of vacuums, and I do a lot of vacuuming. On my days off, I try not to think about cyclones, brush bars, and suction metrics. And yet, months after seeing the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones in action, I still find myself thinking about it.

It won’t surprise you that Dyson, makers of some of the best vacuums on the market, have produced something genuinely disruptive here. The PencilVac is a design that you'll almost need to see, and push around yourself, to fully appreciate. Its form factor is radically slim: the handle diameter is closer to a hair styling tool than a vacuum (it genuinely uses the proportions of the Airwrap), and that ergonomic tube houses a compact but high-speed digital motor engineered for quick, responsive cleans.

What sets it apart in practice is the manoeuvrability. With near 360-degree articulation at the floorhead and an exceptionally low profile, it glides across hard floors with almost frictionless ease. The dual Fluffycones rollers are counter-rotating and designed to maintain continuous contact with the floor, which creates a smooth, self-propelling sensation. It feels less like pushing a vacuum and more like guiding it. Slim, svelte, and technically very clever, it’s hard not to be impressed. I'm calling it, this is one of the best Dyson vacuums of all time.

Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum review

Who would the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum suit?

I won’t pretend this will replace your main vacuum, because it won’t. The bin capacity is deliberately small, and the runtime is optimised for short bursts rather than marathon cleans, but that’s not the point.

What the PencilVac offers is a distilled version of the Dyson experience: laser illumination to reveal fine dust on hard floors, responsive controls, and Dyson's fastest vacuum motor (it spins at up to 140,000rpm), all housed in a featherweight body. Crucially, it does this at a more accessible price point than many of Dyson’s flagship cordless models, making it feel like an attainable luxury.

It’s worth emphasising just how light and intuitive it feels in use. The comparison to a mop is apt: the handle is slim, the weight is evenly distributed, and the floorhead seems to float across the surface. That combination of flexible joint, dual soft rollers, and low overall mass makes it exceptionally convenient for quick, targeted cleaning sessions.

You'll see in our tests that the Dyson PencilVac really shifted the way that we cleaned. The light body, impressive power, reasonable run time, and simple magnetic stand made it easy to reach for when it came to quick, daily cleans. It's one of the lowest-maintenance, but best performing small vacuums you can buy.

Unboxing the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum

Dyson is typically meticulous about packaging, and the PencilVac is no exception. The outer box is compact, clearly labelled, and intuitively packed so that you can lift each component out without wrestling with cardboard. Most of the internal packaging is recyclable, although I did note a small amount of soft plastic wrapping around some components, less ideal from a sustainability standpoint than Dyson’s usual all-card approach.

Out of the box, the PencilVac looks pristine and almost architectural. In addition to the main wand and the Fluffycones floorhead, you get the battery, charger, magnetic stand, and a crevice tool. The stand is particularly well considered: it’s slim, unobtrusive, and magnetically cradles the vacuum so it charges while stored. It's a great break from the wall docks that aren't as friendly for renters or people who are precious about their walls .

Assembly is minimal too. The wand clicks securely into the main body with Dyson’s familiar positive-lock mechanism, and the floorhead attaches with a reassuring snap.

What is the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum like to use?

In my own tall, narrow home, the Dyson PencilVac FluffyCones Vacuum quickly became the vacuum we reached for most. At just a few kilograms, it’s effortless to carry between floors. The balance point sits comfortably in the hand, so your wrist doesn’t feel strained, even during extended use. And because it’s so easy to grab from the stand, we naturally shifted to a “little and often” cleaning rhythm: tackling crumbs after dinner, hallway grit as it appears, and the inevitable scatter of debris by the back door.

My review sample arrived with a decent amount of charge, so I could start testing almost immediately. If yours doesn’t, the magnetic stand plugs into the mains and charges the battery while the vacuum is docked. A full charge takes a relatively short period (maximum 3.5 hours), and the LED indicator on the battery clearly communicates charging progress, which I always appreciate when assessing usability.

As part of my standardised testing process, I put every vacuum through the same series of trials. On hard flooring, I scatter a measured quantity of flour (to simulate fine dust), oats (for larger debris), and crushed cereal (to test bulk pickup).

Across the tests, I noted that the head design is particularly well suited to hard flooring. The flexible neck allows it to pivot around chair legs and table bases without that awkward lift-and-twist motion you often get with bulkier stick vacuums. The ultra-low profile means it slides under sofas and radiators with minimal clearance. Moreover, during testing, I was especially impressed by how effectively it pulled fine dust from the edges of skirting boards, an area many lightweight models struggle with due to limited edge suction.

The first test that I put the PencilVac through was on picking up 100g of flour and sugar from a range of floor types: hardwood, stone, carpets, linoleum, and slate. The Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones performed particularly well with fine debris, keeping close contact with the floor. As I rolled it over the patch of flour and sugar, I could see crisp, clean lines where this picked up every last grain (I weighed it at the end).

I was equally impressed on my cereal test, which is designed to emulate larger pieces of debris. I expected the smaller vacuum to struggle when it came to large oats and raisins, but I could see the fragments being whipped up from the floor and into the vacuum, without any scattering or ploughing. Granted, I did need to slow down on some occasions and run a few passes, but this was still one of the best performances that I've had from a vacuum.

I particularly loved (and want to admire) the laser illumination, which highlighted residual particles in real time. Across all the floor types and around the kitchen island and under sofas, this did a brilliant job of helping me to find large and small vacuuming tasks. It made me feel like I was getting a deeper, more thorough clean.

I also tested edge performance by running the head parallel to skirting boards and into tight corners. Thanks to the slim casing and close-set rollers, pickup along edges was strong, with minimal scatter. Noise levels were moderate: a high-pitched motor hum at around 65 dB, typical of Dyson’s digital motors, but not intrusive for short bursts of use.

I also like to see how vacuums tackle hair. It often gets tangled in rollers, creating a second cleaning task when you have to cut the tangled hair and remove the brush bar from your vacuum: not here.

The Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones has borrowed on the latest innovation (shown off last year by the Dyson Animal V16) which has conical brushes. This means the hair never wraps around the brushes, instead, it gets balled up and vacuumed into the bin. I was almost mesmerised when watching the Dyson do this to the hair extensions that I scattered around my home. I could see these balls of hair collecting in the dust bin. It was incredible.

In total, all the hair extensions that I scattered over the different floors were picked up, as were the strands left behind by our large family dog and the long-haired ladies that live in my family home too.

Cleaning the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum

I love how low-maintenance the Dyson Pencilvac Fulffycones Vacuum is. With the impressive cones, I didn't need to engage in any hair detangling, so it was really a matter of cleaning the bin.

Emptying the bin is straightforward: the point-and-shoot mechanism ejects debris directly into the bin without needing to touch the dust. They've also integrated their newer compression feature in the bin, which means you can pack dust into a dense cylinder, fitting more in, without that fluffy, cotton wool texture that makes up room and makes a mess.

Although the smaller capacity means you’ll be emptying it more frequently during larger cleans, for quick daily maintenance, it feels perfectly proportioned.

How does the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum compare?

When it comes to slim, but powerful vacuums, there is nothing like the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum. That's why I've been so impressed with it, because the PencilVac has innovated itself away from all the competition, which leads you into the question, what are the alternatives?

If you want to compare the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum to other models, the closest two models are the Dyson Animal V16, which has all the lasers and the conical floorheads. Naturally, this is much bigger and heavier, so you get more runtime and bin capacity, but that makes for a different kind of cleaning experience. I reach for the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum almost without thinking, whereas the V16 is much more like your classic vacuum.

If you like the idea of a simple, stick vacuum that's in the style of Dyson, the V8 Cyclone is also worth considering. This is one of Dyson's most affordable designs, it just has the one floorhead, and is a spared-back stick vacuum at its very best. Of course, it is also a little bigger and heavier than the PencilVac and the silhouette is different, but the performance is nonetheless impressive,

Should you buy the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum?

Whilst the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones Vacuum isn’t designed to be your heavy-duty, deep-clean corded workhorse, it's a cordless vacuum that can rival some of the best models on the market. The suction power for such a slim vacuum is almost unbelievable, as is the feather-light feel and the way that it glides across floor types. Where the Dyson PencilVac really excels as a precision tool for fast, frequent cleaning on hard floors: that's where it secured its spot in my home.

How we test vacuums

At woman&home we have a series of standardised tests that we put every vacuum through. This spans your finer particles, such as dust and flour, through to larger pieces of cereal and tricky strands of hair. The aim of these tests is to see how powerful a vacuum is, as well as how versatile it can be across a whole host of different floor types (hard wood, stone, linoleum, carpets). We'll also look at value for money, how the vacuum compares to others, and what it's like to clean. That way, you can feel like you've shopped around and done a deep dive on all of the details of your vacuum without having to click off the page. If, at the end of one of our reviews, you still have questions, don't hesitate to email me, or you can look at our dedicated page on how we test vacuums if you need more details.