Dyson V12 vs V15 cordless vacuums: what’s the difference?

Tech innovator Dyson releases a new cordless vacuum model every so often. The latest is the Dyson V15, the successor to the popular Dyson V12. Earlier we already listed the differences between the Dyson V8, V10 and V12. You can read that article here. Now we’ve tested and summed up the key features and differences between the Dyson V12 and the new Dyson V15 in this review.

Dyson V15 Detect Complete

One of these vacuums is the latest flagship model from Dyson, the V15 Detect Complete, which sells for €649,99 at Dyson.nl. Besides the machine’s unsurpassed cleaning power, its stand‑out feature is the impressive high‑tech new Laser Slim head.

Fluffy cleaner head for hard floors

The glowing green laser illuminates your floors to highlight every speck of dust or dirt you might otherwise miss. It’s angled in such a way that you don’t have to constantly move the vacuum back and forth to see these particles. This makes cleaning both easy and precise. The digital display gives a graphical overview of everything the vacuum picks up. This is thanks to a piezo sensor; more on that below.

Cleaning power

The suction power from the 14 cyclones is excellent, delivering up to 230AW of power. V15 Detect comes with the beastly High Torque cleaner head for everything except hard floors. In Auto mode, suction power is automatically increased based on how much dirt is detected by the piezo sensor mentioned above.

Accessories included with the Dyson V15 Detect Complete

You get an anti‑tangle Hair Screw Tool that sucks up pet and human hair without it getting wrapped around the brush, a standard crevice tool, a crevice tool with LED lights, a combination tool for dusting and surface cleaning, and a stubborn dirt brush with stiff bristles. There’s also a docking station and a storage clip so you can neatly store the vacuum and a couple of your most‑used tools.

Filters

Filtration is one of the company’s specialties, and here it’s been improved so that 99.9 percent of particles are removed and captured by a washable HEPA filter.

Dyson V15 battery life

How long can you vacuum on a fully charged Dyson V15 battery? The battery lasts up to 60 minutes in Eco mode; this will be less if you switch to Boost mode or use one of the motorised heads.
It takes about 4.5 hours to charge the battery from empty to full.
The battery is removable, so you can buy an extra power pack from Dyson and keep it fully charged, ready to swap in when needed. But with a single charge you can easily clean an average three‑bedroom home from top to bottom.

  
Summary

The innovative Dyson V15 Detect Complete is the most complete and powerful cordless stick vacuum you can buy.

Dyson V12 Detect Slim Absolute

In a nutshell

This slim and lightweight model with laser illumination is like a cross between last year’s powerful V11 Absolute and the laser‑guided flagship, the V15 Detect. It has a smaller dust bin and a less powerful motor than the V15, but it’s easier to manoeuvre and still retains many of the other high‑tech features. And it’s more affordable – €100 less than the V15 Detect Absolute at €549,99 from Dyson.

Top technology

The V12 Detect Slim Absolute has both the digital display and the Laser Slim Fluffy head for hard floors that you also get on the V15 flagship.

Cleaning features

A great feature of the V12 is that it uses an on/off button instead of the trigger commonly found on Dyson stick vacuums. Suction power is excellent – like a souped‑up V11 – and it’s reactive, automatically ramping up when the piezo sensor encounters areas with more dirt.

Accessories

The V12 also includes the High Torque cleaner head for all‑round cleaning and the new anti‑tangle Hair Screw Tool, which picks up pet and human hair without it getting tangled.

Dyson V12 battery life

How long can you vacuum on a fully charged Dyson V12 battery? The battery lasts up to 60 minutes in Eco mode; this will be less if you switch to Medium or Turbo mode. It takes about 4.5 hours to charge the removable battery from empty to full.

Summary

If you want the best of the V15 but in a slimmer design, the V12 Slim Detect is a capable stick vacuum that does everything you ask of it.

Dyson Omni-glide

The Omni-glide is the most compact and lightweight Dyson vacuum we’ve ever tested. It’s also one of the most affordable at €399,99. There are no lasers or digital displays here, but it’s the perfect cordless handheld for anyone living in an apartment or in a home that’s mostly hard floors. 

The Omni-glide isn’t suitable for a fully carpeted home, but it can remove some dust and dirt from carpet if you have a mess that needs a quick clean‑up.

Lightweight and portable

It’s hard not to love the Omni-glide’s small and compact frame. This is made possible by a new design that places the motor, handle and wand in a more linear layout. This design makes it very easy to clean higher areas as well as lay it flat on the floor so you can push it under furniture without having to move anything.

Cleaning power

The best new feature is the omnidirectional Fluffy head, specially developed for hard floors. It’s designed so that the head can quickly move exactly where you want it, perfect for tight spaces, sideways cleaning and manoeuvring around furniture. The twin brush bars are driven by a motor with a dual epicyclic gearbox. This makes the brush bars spin at the same speed so you can clean effectively in both directions.

And the suction power is excellent, just as you’d expect from any Dyson vacuum.
There’s a simple on/off button instead of the trigger used on some other models. A second button boosts the power from Eco to Max mode.

Accessories

In the box, Dyson includes a combination tool with crevice nozzle, a worktop tool for cleaning surfaces and a motorised mini tool that’s ideal for stairs and sofas. The unit comes with a wall dock for charging, which you can either screw into the wall or attach with adhesive pads – I chose the latter because it was so quick and easy.

Filters

As with all Dyson machines, the filtration technology is excellent. Omni-glide captures 99.99% of particles as small as 0.3 microns for cleaner air.

Dyson Omni-glide battery life

The battery lasts around 20 minutes in Eco mode. The machine uses replaceable batteries, so you can buy a second one to keep on hand.

Other features

Emptying the 0.3‑litre dust bin is simple. Aim the vacuum into the bin and slide the ejector handle forwards. It throws everything into the trash without creating a big dust cloud.

Summary

If, like me, you have a mix of carpet and hard floors, the Omni-glide is best as a second machine that you can grab quickly and put away just as fast for small spills.
But if you live in an apartment or house with mostly hard floors – whether that’s wood, vinyl or tiles – this is a super‑efficient Dyson at a great price.