The new Dyson Micro is the cordless vac for how we live now 😎

Another day, another Dyson cordless vacuum cleaner. It seems like only a few days ago I was hailing the Roborock H7 as a potential Dyson killer. That was because it was taking over the mantle of championing compact, lightweight cordless vacs, of the type which Dyson has largely stopped making in recent years. Clearly Lord Sir Dyson's ears must have burning because merely 2 days later, the British brand has dropped… yes, you guessed it, an extremely lightweight and compact vac. Called, just to make it clear how compact it is, Dyson Micro.

With this vacuum cleaner, Dyson is cleverly targeting two markets at once. One is old, rich folks. They want a second Dyson to clear up spills, while keeping their Dyson V15 Detect at hand for doing the floors, and scaring the grandchildren with its filth-revealing laser and piezo sensors. The other potential customer is someone who lives as many of us do today, in a small apartment with hard floors. This type of punter has no need of a V15 or even a Dyson Omni-Glide, because their floor space is so limited, even a vacuum called a 'Micro' is sufficient to maintain it. 

With no prospect of buying a home, many of these potential Micro munchers often accumulate large amounts of stuff with their disposable income. This then needs dusting – and the compact and lightweight (just 1.5kg!) Micro is probably great at doing that too.

With its small size and range of handy heads, the Dyson Micro is the successor to the elderly V8 Absolute. I described this as 'the ultimate cordless vacuum cleaner' when it came out in 2016 which seems pretty hilarious now, but was accurate at the time. However unlike the V8, which was designed for your parents and so came with a bristly, motorised brush for doing carpets, the Micro comes with a spongey cleaning head that's specifically for hard floors. That's because modern rental flats are usually bereft of carpetage, while millennials habitually just say no to rugs. 

So in a sense, the Dyson Micro is a stark symbol of the generational and wealth divides that  we see in the world today. But in another sense, it's probably a very competent cordless vacuum cleaner.

• These, however, are the best cordless vacuum cleaners

Dyson Micro: price, availability and key spec

Dyson Micro is on sale NOW in the UK for £299, which is about as cheap as Dysons have ever got. It's worth checking our Dyson discount codes to see if you can bag an even better price. In the USA, everything is bigger and hence they have no need for the Dyson Micro. Australia is even more spacious, so you can't get it there either.

• Shop the Dyson Micro at Dyson UK

Dyson Micro: battery life, power and other key spec

Battery life: 20 minutes. There are two power settings, and if you use the Max setting instead of the standard one you'll probably get more like 5-10 minutes. Dyson describes Max as being for 'spot cleaning'.

Charging time: 3.5 hours. This seems like rather a long time to wait before you can have another 20-minute cleaning stint.

Suction power: 50AW. This is not amazing but it is probably adequate for a lot of tasks. For comparison, the V15 Detect tops out at a whopping 240AW and even the lightweight Roborock H7 claims to manage 160AW. 

Weight: 1.5kg. That's light! Dysons are always extremely well balanced and I have no doubt this will be a delight to waft about, like the lady in the picture above.

Bin size: 0.2 litres. That is tiny, but then if you can only do a maximum of 20 minutes at a time of not-very-powerful vacuuming, it's probably sufficient.

Dyson Micro: wait, is that spec as bad as it looks?

50 'Air Watts' of suction and a a bin that only holds 0.2 litres of garbage might sound a bit feeble… and that's because it is. The Roborock H7 I was telling you all about the other day is about the same weight as the Dyson Micro, yet it has a 0.5 litre bin and claims 160 Air Watts. However, Dyson's secret weapon is its advanced and very well designed cleaning heads, so I very much doubt that the H7 actually cleans 3x as well as the Dyson Micro. It's also noticeably more compact, although I wouldn't say the H7 was exactly huge.

I think the comparatively lacklustre battery life, bin size and theoretical suction power do underline that this is primarily a vacuum cleaner for spills, car interiors and quick tidy-up jobs. However, there are plenty of people in the UK whose living space can be entirely cleaned in 20 minutes, so I expect Dyson will 'Hoover' up – ho ho – customers from this more aspirant demographic as well.

It might also be a hit with lazy people like me, who just cannot be arsed to clean up for more than 20 minutes at a stretch.