Handheld vacuum cleaners are known for convenience, not power. They’re good to have for small spills and to clean up corners and under furniture, but if you want to really clean your floors, an upright is probably a better choice. Dyson has built a handheld vacuum cleaner that can work just as well as an upright. The Dyson DC59 Animal is battery-powered, portable, and has plenty of accessories for cleaning tough-to-reach spots (including an attachment for getting animal hair off of upholstery, hence the name), but its main draw is its strong suction, long wand attachment, and wide floor-cleaning head that can tackle carpets and hard flooring. At $499.95 (direct) it’s not cheap, like most Dyson vacuums, but it performs remarkably well for its size and flexibility. And you can’t deny the fact that this is probably the coolest-looking vacuum in existence. For a similarly cordless but much less sleek and functional alternative, the Gtech AirRAM is a conventional upright that lets you vacuum cordlessly, and can even keep track of how many calories you burn while doing it.

Design
The DC59($539.00 at Amazon)(Opens in a new window) looks a lot like a laser gun. It’s angular, with a grey plastic pistol grip below the motor and above the battery. The DC59 works with a pull of the pistol grip trigger, and you can boost the suction power by pressing the MAX button on the butt of the vacuum (though battery life will take a hit). Dyson’s two-tiered, 15-chamber radial cyclone system and the clear cylindrical dust compartment sit in front of the grip. The cyclone system is a chromed, reflective plastic that’s contoured around each chamber, with a removable, washable filter directly in the middle. The dust compartment holds a large purple chamber inside it, to direct the dust from the cyclone system.

Emptying the dust chamber is as easy as pulling the red catch opposite the trigger. This flips the bottom of the cylinder open, letting the dust fall into a trash receptacle. Be careful when doing this, though; if you don’t hold the vacuum very close to the trash can (ideally with the chamber tilted into it), stray dust will float everywhere. Not all dust will drop out, and if you collect particularly large dust bunnies they might build up in the canister, forcing you to manually remove them. You’ll be emptying the canister a lot; it’s very small, holding only 0.12 gallons. If it gets really gunked up, you can even remove it completely from the vacuum and wash it separately.

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Attachments
A handheld vacuum is only as functional as its attachments, and Dyson includes plenty. The main draw of the DC59 is the long wand and wide floor-cleaning head. They effectively turn the DC59 into an upright vacuum cleaner, letting you clean your carpets and hard floors in addition to cracks and crevices. The floor-cleaning head has a version of Dyson’s ball design as a pivot, letting you turn sharply and follow corners much more easily than with conventional upright vacuum cleaners. The floor-cleaning head holds a spinning brush cylinder that can be removed to clear jams and tangles.

The wand can attach to any accessory in addition to the floor-cleaning head. Besides the floor-cleaning head, the DC59 includes conventional thin nozzle and brush nozzle attachments, along with a spinning brush head for removing pet hair. Any of these can be used with or without the wand, so you can have as much reach as you require.

The vacuum can charge directly from a wall outlet with the power adapter, but it also includes a handy cradle you can thread the power plug through to make it easier to use. The cradle can hold multiple attachments and mounts on a wall so the vacuum is always available. It swings up to release the DC59 from its dock, but otherwise stays securely in place even when on the wall.

Performance
Dyson claims the DC59 is as powerful and can collect as much dust as a corded upright vacuum, and after testing it in my apartment I’m prepared to believe it. The long wand and wide head made short work of dust bunnies under my bed, couch, and entertainment center, and picked up all of the corner dust in my hallway with aplomb. It even managed to dig at some of the unsightly ground-in dust and gunk on my kitchen floor. It lived up to its Animal name by tackling my editor’s ground-in pug hair and removing it thoroughly from furniture, carpet, and wood floors with both the floor cleaning and pet hair upholstery heads.

It doesn’t have the power or attachments to scrub grimy linoleum and Dyson doesn’t claim it can, but it scraped up a respectable amount for a vacuum, when my own corded wand couldn’t make a dent in it. This doesn’t mean you should rely on the DC59 as a gunk-vacuum, though; the moister gunk it picked up from my kitchen floor got caught in a small trough on the floor cleaner head, and didn’t get into the canister. I had to use a tool to scrape the gunk off and into the trash. The scraping was relatively painless, though, and the floor cleaner head opens up and releases the brush cylinder when you need to clean it or remove tangles.

For dry dirt and dust, the DC59 picked up nearly every speck I could find on my floors and deposited it in the canister in front of the handle. When I emptied the canister into my trash, I released a gestalt dust bunny that could have stuffed a small throw pillow. You might want to hold a plastic bag around the canister to avoid a nasty cloud of the dirt you vacuumed. At the very least, make sure the vacuum is flush against the trash can and tilted slightly forward to minimize dry splash.

Dyson claims a battery life of 26 minutes, which drops to just six minutes if you use the Boost mode. The Boost mode more than triples the suction power from 28 airwatts to 100 airwatts according to Dyson, so it can be useful for getting really stubborn dirt off in sports. The battery life isn’t much either way, especially compared with the Gtech AirRAM’s hour-long run time in Eco mode and 40 minute run time in High-Power mode. If you have a large house and want the DC59 as your main vacuum, be prepared to clean in floors or zones, with 3.5 hours of charging time between them.

If you want an incredibly versatile, portable vacuum cleaner and can afford the Dyson premium, the DC59 Animal is for you. It switches between handheld and upright in a snap, picks up loads of dust, and has plenty of accessories and configurations for dealing with pet hair, crumbs, and, well, pretty much anything else under your couch cushions. Its battery doesn’t last long enough to be the main vacuum for a large house, but if you have an apartment or need a general utility vacuum for the car and individual rooms and jobs, the DC59 is ideal. If you don’t need the handheld functionality and want a lower price and longer vacuum time, the AirRAM offers cordless convenience for less.