Dyson’s V11 Torque Drive is 20 percent more powerful than Cyclone V10

The future of vacuuming is cordless.

A year after halting all new designs of its wired stand-up vacuums, Dyson has made good on its promise to only introduce new cordless dirt busters. 

Succeeding the Cyclone V10 is the new V11 Torque Drive handheld vacuum. As its name implies, the V11’s suction is powerful — delivering 20 percent more suction than the V10, according to Dyson. 

But even more useful is the teeny bit of intelligence Dyson’s sprinkled onto the V11, which allows the vac to automatically adjust the amount of suction needed based on the floor type. The V11 also has a nifty display that tells you how much estimated battery life is remaining as the suction power changes between flooring.

I’ve never been one to ever voluntarily vacuum anything, but after sucking up cereal and dirt off carpet and hardwood in a mock living room during a press briefing, I hate the chore just a little bit less now.

First thing’s first: The V11 Torque Drive is pricey at $699. There’s also a second version called the V11 Animal, which is $599, but it doesn’t come with the screen, which I feel is a worthwhile new feature.

Yes, the V11 is expensive, but all Dyson products are. Dyson engineers I spoke to during my briefing didn’t even try to dodge this fact. 

The best way to come to terms with the cost is to remember that you’re not paying merely for a pretty-looking vacuum, but the engineering inside. Perhaps Dyson products are “over-engineered” as some people like to say, but it’s no simple feat to condense jet engine technology into a consumer product.

If you look beyond the price, which I think is actually quite fair for the technology inside — show me another cordless vacuum that spins at up 120,000 rpm and doesn’t blow your eardrums off doing so — you’ll find a mighty impressive cordless vac.

Dyson’s product managers and engineers waxed poetic about the V11’s redesigned impeller, the cylindrical component of the motor that pushes airflow, and other crucial bits like the 880 layers of laminated steel used to spin the motor, and a redesigned diffuser for dampening noise.

That’s all great for geeks interested in how the V11 works. But is the V11 really a big leap forward? I can’t attest to whether the new vac really is 20 percent faster, but I can say it works really well mainly because of the smart suction-switching between floor materials and the the LCD screen. It’s also really nice Dyson made the dust bin 40 percent bigger to hold more.

Using a microprocessor inside of the cleaning head, the V11 can detect the amount of resistance applied to the brush bar. This data is then relayed to the motor to tell it how much suction to use. For example, if you’re vacuuming over carpet, the brush bar will sense more resistance and tell the motor to spin faster to increase suction power. However, the second you switch from carpet to a floor material with less resistance, such as hardwood, the cleaning head sensor will tell the motor to throttle down.

This adaptive suction power directly impacts the battery life, which also contains a microprocessor. With both the cleaning head and motor information, the battery’s microprocessor can then send data to the LCD screen to provide a real-time estimate for remaining battery life.

I saw firsthand via the LCD screen a battery length  estimate as I transitioned the V11 from carpet to hardwood and vice versa. The digits dropped from about 47 minutes for carpet to 26 minutes for hardwood.

This intelligent suction-management is the Auto mode. But you can set the V11 to deliver “up to 60 minutes of fade-free cleaning” on “Eco” mode. There’s also a “Boost” mode, which cranks the suction to its most powerful setting, but it comes at the expense of battery.

The display also doubles as a trouble-shooter of sorts and displays short and simple videos on what might be wrong with the vacuum. For instance, if an airway is blocked, the screen will show a video recommending you check for jammed particles. These little video tutorials are designed to help save V11 customers from having to send their product in for servicing because oftentimes a problem is as simple as a jam Dyson engineers told me.

Vacuuming sucks. Like really friggin’ sucks. But if I have to spend time doing it, I’d prefer a cord-free experience that offers powerful suction.

Dyson’s V10 already delivered on this experience a year ago. The V11 cranks things up a notch. Being able to monitor the battery life in real-time as I vacuumed over different floor types made vacuuming strangely therapeutic. Rather than stress over how much time I would have before having to pop it back on the charger, the V11 just told me straight up the remaining battery life.

Lightcycle lamp and Pure Cool Me personal air purifier

In addition to the V11 Torque Drive, Dyson’s also announcing the Lightcycle and Pure Cool Me.

The Lightcycle isn’t a bike from Tron. It’s a task light, which starts at $599 for the desk model and balloons up to $899 for the floor version, and syncs with the sun using a built-in GPS. As the day goes on the Lightcycle’s color temperature and brightness changes based on the local daylight.

Similar to features like Night Shift on iPhones, which help reduce eyestrain by stripping out the amount of blue light blasted into your retinas, the Lightcycle’s adaptive color temperature and brightness is supposed to help balance your body’s energy with light that mimics the subtle changes of natural lighting from the sun.

A smartphone app also lets you create custom light settings, which can be activated at a certain time of day, or triggered to assist with falling asleep or waking up.

The Pure Cool Me is a personal air purifier that looks like a distant cousin to the ill-fated Jibo (RIP). Unlike Dyson’s other air purifiers that use its proprietary Air Multiplier technology to cleanse an entire room, the Pure Cool Me is meant to be placed on a desk or table to provide personal air purification. Wanna purify the chemicals released after applying hairspray? The Pure Cool Me is the little guy for the job.

However, like all of Dyson’s products, it’s somewhat over-engineered. Dyson engineers explained to me how the Pure Cool Me uses a “Core Flow” technology inspired by the aerodynamics of a Harrier Jump Jet to shoot two streams of air directly at each other, which is then aimed in a direction (one of three) to purify the air.

Much of this was lost on me and the handful of journalists attending the briefing. I’m sure the technology is sound, but I question whether the Pure Cool Me is worth $349. There are plenty of personal air purifiers that, although don’t make use of jet fighter-like tech, cost way less, and perhaps filter up to 99.97 percent of particles in the air just as well.