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- Powerful
- Easy to operate
- Light and compact
- Small bin
- Doesn’t do carpets
- Relatively short battery life
Dyson is so pleased with the weight of the Dyson Micro 1.5kg that it’s included it in the name. There’s no trickery here, it really does weigh 1.5kg: that’s 930g for the main unit and the rest made up from the extension tube and motorised cleaner head. On my kitchen scales, it totals 1.496kg.
With a number of other innovations, some of which we see carried across from Dyson’s Omni-glide, the Micro 1.5kg is ideal for light work as a handheld vacuum cleaner and hard floor cleaner.
Dyson Micro 1.5kg review: What you need to know
As you might expect from a 1.5kg cordless vacuum cleaner, the Dyson Micro device is relatively compact. With the extension pole and Micro Fluffy head attached, it measures a mere 207 x 220 x 1,200mm (WDH). It’s about the same length as the latest top-of-the-range Dyson V15 Detect but with considerably less bulk overall. This also means it occupies less space when mounted in the supplied wall dock.
In the box, you get the main vacuum unit, an extension wand and Dyson’s new Micro Fluffy hard floor cleaner head. The latter measures 207mm across compared with the 249mm of most other V-series vacuums. It’s effectively the same design, just shrunk down.
There’s also a handful of accessories in the box, including a mini motorised tool (the standard model, not the newer hair screw tool that comes with the V15), a combi crevice and dust brush tool, and a worktop tool – a sort of angled funnel for clearing significant spills while using the Micro 1.5kg as a handheld.
This provides an idea of Dyson’s intentions for the Micro 1.5kg model. It’s a compact, lightweight vacuum that can double-up as a handheld. It’s ideal for small flats with mostly hard floors, but isn’t suited to predominantly carpeted households.
Dyson Micro 1.5kg review: Price and competition
The Dyson Micro 1.5kg launches at £300, which is at the bottom end of what you pay for a Dyson these days and, at this price, you’re usually getting an older model.
The Dyson V8 Animal, for instance, costs £300 and comes with a multipurpose head that’s suitable for use on both carpet and hard floors. The V7 Animal is cheaper at £250 and comes with even more accessories. Both offer similar levels of suction and battery life to the Micro 1.5kg but they’re heavier, with the V7 weighing 2.32kg and the V8 weighing 2.56kg.
Heading in the opposite direction price-wise, you can get a Dyson Cyclone V10 for £350, while the Dyson Omni-glide is a more competent hard floor vacuum cleaner with a different, wand-like grip for £399.
Moving outside Dyson’s ranges, the Eufy HomeVac S11 Infinity is one of the lightest vacuum cleaners we’ve reviewed of late, although it still weighs 2.5kg.
Dyson Micro 1.5kg: Design and key features
The Micro 1.5kg takes its look and styling directly from Dyson’s V-series vacuums. It has the same gun-like grip, which is comfortable to use both in upright mode and as a handheld. The handle is a few millimetres shorter than the larger models, though, which felt a touch cramped to me – and my hands aren’t exactly large.
While most cordless Dysons have a trigger that needs to be held down to keep the vacuum running, the Micro 1.5kg employs a simple on/off button. This is located on the top of the main vacuum unit, next to a second button that’s used to engage Max mode.
It’s slightly awkward because you need two hands to operate the vacuum, but the benefit is that, once it’s running, there’s no need to hold your finger on a trigger as you need to do with nearly every other Dyson vacuum in the range.
Like most other Dysons (recent models excepted), there’s no way to quickly detach the battery from the handle for charging, although you can unscrew and remove it should it need to be replaced. More frustratingly, the Micro 1.5kg also lacks the screen on the back of the filter or, indeed, any kind of battery capacity indication, other than a blue light that flashes when it’s getting low and needs recharging.
The one area where the Micro really lives up to its name is the bin capacity, which is only 200ml. That’s the same size as the Dyson Omni-glide but significantly smaller than average when it comes to cordless stick vacuums. It means you’re likely to need to empty it often.
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Dyson Micro 1.5kg: Cleaning performance
As you’d expect from a Dyson, the cleaning power of the Micro 1.5kg is exceptional, despite its diminutive size. We recorded suction peaking at 9kPa in standard mode and 17.5kPa on its Max setting, which is almost identical to the Dyson Omni-glide and not far off what we see from most cordless vacuum cleaners. It can’t hold a candle to the more powerful V-series machines, though. The Dyson V15 Detect can reach 31kPa on its Max setting.
I started my cleaning tests with a 26g spillage of Cheerios on a hard floor. The Micro Fluffy roller rejected about four Cheerios and sent them scuttling across the floor but still collected 25g of the 26g in a single pass. Collecting the stray particles brought the full 26g into the collection bin.
Although the Micro 1.5kg doesn’t have a standard carpet attachment, I used its handheld tools to attempt to clear some Cheerios from short-pile carpet, as if I was cleaning a spot spillage.
The mini motorised tool doesn’t have the clearance to allow Cheerios under its front edge, pushing them about instead of rolling over and sucking them up. However, the funnel-shaped worktop tool made short work of the spillage.
On a hard floor, the Micro Fluffy head collected all 50g of the flour spillage in a single pass, which is exceptional. I repeated this on carpet using the motorised head and, this time, it collected 46g on a single pass, rising to 49g once I’d gone over the area a few times.
On hard floor, these results are as good as you’d expect from a recent Dyson; they compare well with the Omni-glide and even the top-of-the-range V15. It’s better at collecting larger particles than rival brands at this price, too, and the powerful suction helps it work hard on dustier messes. However, while it proved sufficient at spot-cleaning a carpet, it doesn’t have the decent-sized motorised floor head you’d need for cleaning whole rooms with fitted carpet.
In use on hard floors, the Micro is as light and manoeuvrable as you’d expect. It doesn’t have the floating-on-air feel of the Dyson Omni-glide, despite being lighter, but compared with lugging one of the V-series around, it feels beautifully agile.
Dyson Micro 1.5kg: Battery life, emptying and filters
With the Micro Fluffy head attached, the battery lasted 27mins 7secs in our tests, which is middle of the road for a cordless vacuum. That isn’t as long as Dyson’s larger models but is better than the Omni-glide. With the vacuum’s Max power setting engaged that falls to 9mins 46 secs, which doesn’t sound like much, but it’s plenty long enough for most spot-cleaning jobs that require the extra boost.
The bin is emptied by removing any attachments, holding the device nose down over a bin and pulling down the lever on the underside – it’s exactly the same movement that’s been used across all Dyson’s cordless sticks since the V10, and it works brilliantly. The lever pops open a door at the bottom and moves the collection bin down, ejecting most dust and dirt in one swift motion.
Finally, cleaning is straightforward. The filter, the bin and all the attachments can be removed from the main unit and cleaned under running water.
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Dyson Micro 1.5kg review: Verdict
The Dyson Micro 1.5kg is smaller, cheaper and easier to handle than most of the currently available Dyson models, but that doesn’t mean it’s an automatic recommendation for anyone looking for a lightweight vacuum. Yes, it’s good on hard floors and it makes an excellent handheld. However, without a carpet-friendly floor head, its appeal is limited.
As it stands, if you want a carpet-capable Dyson, you have to edge back to the heavier V7 or V8 models, or move up to the slightly more expensive and much heavier Cyclone V10, while for hard floors we prefer the flexibility and the dual roller of the Dyson Omni-glide.
Otherwise, it might be best to look elsewhere. The Eufy HomeVac S11 Infinity is around 1kg heavier than the Micro 1.5kg but it’s cheaper and still much lighter and more manoeuvrable than most other cordless sticks we’ve tested.
