Dyson has a slew of new cordless vacuums up its sleeve for 2026. Most of them are apparently being saved for the second half of the year, but one unique little machine was squeaked out in February. Whatever comes to mind when you picture a traditional Dyson stick vacuum, I promise the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones isn't that.

Prior to the PencilVac's launch, Dyson hadn't released a new cordless vacuum since 2023, and even those weren't overly groundbreaking. (We've seen what happens when a once-prestige brand gives up on innovating, à la The Fall of the House of iRobot.) I've had the PencilVac at home for nearly four months now, and the delightful experience further validates my stance that Dyson is such a pro cordless vacuum company that there's no reason to keep forcing the Dyson robot vacuum thing.

Considering that the PencilVac is somewhat a successor to my absolute favorite cordless vacuum of the past three years, I jumped at the opportunity to test them against each other in my apartment. Since 2022, I've been recommending the Dyson V12 Detect Slim nonstop for two main reasons: It's incredibly lightweight, and the dust-illuminating laser completely changed the way I clean. The Dyson PencilVac weighs even less and has two lasers instead of one. Is unseating the GOAT really that simple?

Setting up the vacuum itself is incredibly easy because the PencilVac design is the definition of minimal. The box is compact and flat, and since it only comes with one attachment, you don't have to dig around through a ton of packaging. Just click the motor, wand, and cleaning head together and find a spot near an outlet for the charging stand. I'm not a huge fan of being forced to use an app with an appliance just for the sake of using an app. But since the PencilVac's screen is so tiny, I'm sure the app will come in handy for notifications about clogged airways or filter replacement.

What's special about the Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones?

The Dyson PencilVac is a stick vacuum in the most literal sense of the term. It's legitimately shaped like a pencil and measures less than 1.5 inches around. The battery, motor, dustbin, buttons, and screen are built into the wand, lying completely flush. That means that the wand can reach much further into tight spaces without being hindered by a big cylindrical dustbin or heavy battery pack.

The Fluffycones cleaning head can swivel 360 degrees around, so it can spin to clean in awkward spots that would typically require you to move furniture or be at a really specific angle. (There's also a cheaper version of the PencilVac with a "Micro Fluffy" cleaner head, which has a singular roller like the V12 Detect Slim's.)

The Dyson PencilVac Fluffycones weighs in at less than four pounds with the main Fluffycones cleaning head attached and less than three pounds with the precision wand attachment. That's more than a pound lighter than the V12 Detect Slim (that I already find incredibly ergonomic), and less than half of the weight of the heaviest Dyson stick vacuum.

One of my first orders of business with the PencilVac was to vacuum the ceiling corners and any cobwebs that I'd previously been pretending weren't there. Without the top-heaviness from a clunky dustbin, the PencilVac was comfortable to hold above my head with one hand. (I certainly can't say the same for the 8.6-pound Dyson Gen5outsize that my mom has.)

The wand doesn't bend, so you'll have to be awkwardly far away from certain nooks and crannies while you're detailing them. But the long wand also makes it easy to keep up with dusty baseboards without kneeling down, and that's huge news for my allergies and my back.

I'm definitely being normal about the double laser situation

The PencilVac also has two of my favorite Dyson feature ever, the dust-illuminating laser: One that lights the cleaning path ahead and one that lights the trail directly behind the cleaning head.

I've been religiously laser vacuuming since I got my V12 Detect Slim in 2023, so the concept of dual lasers is monumental to someone who can barely remember life B.L. (Before Laser). You truly have no concept of how much dust, dander, and hair accumulate on your floors within the span of a day. Barring any egregiously huge obvious crumbs, hardwood and tile always look pretty spotless to the naked eye... until the laser enlightens you. You can never go back after that.

I love that the double-headed laser provides a 360-degree view of the floor before and after you sweep it. After making a pass with my V12 Detect Slim, I'd often turn around to shine the laser where I just cleaned to make sure no minuscule stragglers would get stuck to my bare feet later. The double-headed laser shows you where the dirty spots are, then provides real-time proof of its debris pickup in the path behind it.

With this flexibility and precision, the PencilVac quickly became a core piece of my cleaning routine. A routine that actually takes longer now, but only because the PencilVac unlocked easy access to spots that were a pain to clean before: the tight space between furniture or the washing machine and the wall, beside and behind the toilet, and small slivers of open floor under crap in various closets.

Conveniently, I got the PencilVac around the same time that I started spiraling over the fact that microplastics live in dust. I'm not sure that I would have been able to sleep without an easy way to keep up with the dust that builds up behind the dresser and TV in my bedroom.

Considerations: The dustbin, carpet use, and one other annoying thing

To empty, you still point the dustbin over the trash and click a button to release debris. But any veteran stick vacuum user knows that a piece of the dust bunny will inevitably need to be pulled out by hand. Since it's so damn thin, the PencilVac dustbin and suction airway are a little harder to keep clear. I realized that a water bottle sponge (one we will NOT be using to wash dishes) fits well enough to wipe out any fine hairs or dust stuck to the sides, but I'm not sure what to do when a wad of hair gets wrapped around up there.

If the 0.02-gallon dustbin sounds tiny, that's because it is. I'm always shocked by the chunk of brown and gray fluff that compiles on the first cleaning session after I've emptied it. I swear it's nearly half full after vacuuming the kitchen, bathroom with a litter box, and living room once — and that's without even attempting the living room rug, because the PencilVac's suction and fluffy fibers just aren't built for digging into carpet.

The PencilVac is also one of the only Dyson stick vacuums in recent memory that doesn't come with a mini motorized pet hair tool. I'm just picturing the PencilVac as the sole vacuum in my friend's and her golden retriever's apartment and can't help but laugh. Since I'm constantly testing robot vacuums at home, my Dyson PencilVac's dustbin probably doesn't fill up as fast as it would without all of the automated help with shedding from two cats. Shoppers centering their vacuum purchase around serious pet hair pickup should definitely keep looking for something stronger with automatic emptying.

Lastly, the Dyson PencilVac's battery life isn't great. You're lucky if you get 30 minutes out of the lowest cleaning mode, and maybe 10 minutes out of the strongest. With that in mind, the charging stand situation is also worth complaining about. It'd be a lot more convenient to have the PencilVac charging all the time if it could charge lying down under a couch or something — aren't we trying to sell the small space fantasy here? Instead, it has to charge between magnetic prongs on the stand, which doesn't feel super stable in a high-traffic area.

So while I would call it the best cordless vacuum for small spaces and hardwood, it'd be an equally bad choice for homes larger than 1,000 or 1,500 square feet or homes with multiple pets.