Dyson has embraced Artificial Intelligence in its latest vacuum cleaner, using complex algorithms to determine when you need more suction power as you clean your house.
The new cordless vacuum cleaner follows on from the cordless model, the Dyson V10 Absolute, it lauched in 2018, but sees a number of design tweaks and performance changes.
The new Dyson V11, as it will be known, will sport a similar form factor, but is fitted with a new more powerful, but importantly, quieter v11 motor.
Other changes to the design include an improved filter that promises to be easier to clean, and a digital display on the back of the device to inform you how much battery life you have left and what cleaning mode is selected.
But perhaps the biggest change is Dyson’s move to embrace sensors on a new brush bar that will relay back to the main unit what surface you are cleaning. Taking that information the vacuum cleaner will then change the power usage accordingly.
It’s this approach, via a new "auto" mode that, says Dyson, has allowed it to now promise a 60 minute continuous clean time, a considerably boost over the previous V10 model.
Previously, on the Dyson V10 model, users where expected to manually opt between three settings, and whilst that is still possible with the new V11 model, the vacuum cleaner now promises to do that for you.
Meanwhile if you do opt to go for the Boost (previously Max) setting you’ll get a much longer, 12 minutes on a single charge compared to a previous 8 minutes.
The screen is also used to alert you when the airway is blocked, and gives basic instructions on how to change things like the filter – although as we found in our quick demo, it’s incredibly easy.
Not content with updating the main cleaning unit, Dyson has also gone back to the drawing board with the cleaning head. Available in the all singing all dancing V11 Absolute offering, the unit has an improved brush bar, with a wider array of bristles and a power slider bar to let you clean things like rugs without ripping them up off the floor.
Realising that people lift the cleaner as they pull back, which in turn reduces suction, there is now a much bigger seal on the back of the head to improve suction.
In a quick play the new V11 model certainly feels better than the V10 I’ve been using to clean my kitchen over the last 12 months, although it does also feel a little heavier.
The addition of the screen works in a number of ways, partly to let you quickly see what mode you are in, although it’s fairly easy to tell that based on the power of the suck and the noise the machine makes, but also how much time you’ve got left in the battery to complete your clean.
Testing the “auto” mode at the launch of the V11, it cleaned a mixture of substances from rice to salt, switching between carpet and lino, detecting what was happening and changing suction power accordingly. It looks like it works, but with a quick tap you can override the auto mode if you’re not happy with the results.
The new Dyson V11 Absolute costs £599 in the UK. Those looking for the V11 Animal, which is the same as the Absolute but without the new high torque brush bar that has the surface detecting sensors in it, will cost £449.
