A good vacuum is essential in any home and a handheld cordless has to be up there with the best when it comes to getting into nooks and crannies for a quick tidy up.
I've always stuck to the bigger branded names when it comes to purchasing a vacuum cleaner and I have to say I love my Dyson v7 Absolute. It has a powerful motor, it's lightweight and the reach under tool is a gamer changer in my house, especially because I have a miniature Dachshund who likes to leave unfinished treats and dirt underneath my sofas.
READ MORE: I tried the 'Million Dollar Facial' beauty lovers are raving about
I've heard about a new vacuum on the block though, which is being hailed as better than the Dyson by some shoppers. It's also £100 cheaper than my current Dyson model so I thought, why not try it out to see if I've made an expensive mistake! So, meet the Proscenic P11 cordless vacuum cleaner.
The cordless cleaner is currently £199 on Amazon, instead of £299 when compared with the Dyson I have, so that's a plus straight away, but does it work the same, and does it in fact perform better than the Dyson? I tested the two together to find out once and for all.
The Proscenic P11
Firstly let's look at some of the specifications the Proscenic has. The Proscenic P11 vacuum cleaner is equipped with a 450W motor and can provide up to 25kpa suction to get rid of dirt, dust, crumbs and pet hairs. It can be easily converted for different uses too, as it comes with an anti-hair-wrap roller brush (suitable for hard floor and carpet), a round brush, a long crevice nozzle, and a mini motorized tool, and a mop head.
It also only weighs 1.8kg, something I definitely noticed when carting it around my front room and up the stairs. I found I could easily lift it with one hand, good for when you've forgotten to move something off the floor mid-hoover. You can also read the battery level directly on the LED touch screen and select the suction level via here too, pressing once for the lowest suction level and two more times for the highest.
The touch-screen can be a bit glitchy though as it is quite sensitive so even when you lean on it by accident it can select the higher suction level and you don't want that when hoovering past something delicate on the floor. However, if this accident were to happen then the power lever, located just underneath the handle and behind the motor, can also change the suction level too.
Using it with the Dyson
The first thing I noticed was that you don't need to hold the power lever in when vacuuming, this is a big bonus because with the Dyson I do have to keep my finger on the power lever at all times and it can get a bit tiring after a few minutes. Especially if you're tasked with cleaning up a lot of pet hair, or in my case, my own hair off a thick carpet or rug.
Another plus I noticed about the Proscenic was how quickly it picked up dirt and hidden crumbs on my black rug I have located in the living room. We often have to vacuum this every day as Evie, my miniature Dachshund, likes to use this rug as her treat-eating and play area, no matter how many times I try to move her off it. It picked up crumbs with ease though and glided softly over it, I do wonder if this is because the roller is brand new and hasn't had time to clog up with hair. We regular clean our Dyson barrels when this happens.
The LED light at the front of the electric broom head is also a nice touch and allows you to see clearly into the nooks and crannies. The biggest perk though has got to be the fact that the Proscenic can also convert into a mop, so essentially you're getting two bits of cleaning kit for the price of one.
This leads me onto the cons of this model. The instruction manual doesn't mention anything about the mop section so you have to sort of guess which bit of the mop component goes where. I later discovered the sticker on the back of the mop head which details the steps of what to do.
It was more of a chore though finding out how to clip the mop head onto the actual vacuum itself. It is really simple once you know, but some explaining would have been nice in the manual, essentially the wheels of the vacuum go into the space on the mop head, so the mop head appears at the back of the vacuum head and the vacuum head is at the front, so you could in fact vacuum and mop at the same time.
If you're buying this vacuum with the perk of just the mop alone I would say this component is a massive let down. It doesn't glide on the floor as nicely as a normal mop should, and the vacuum just gets in the way.
Another confusing thing I encountered was the charging point for the vacuum cleaner. It took an incredibly long time to access the charging point and the instructions weren't proving helpful. It turned out that the charging point was located on the battery itself which needed to be detached from the main machine and charged separately, something I've never had to do before when charging an electrical appliance. If you opt-for using the wall mounted charger, which comes with the cleaner, then you won't encounter this problem as it charges straight from that switch on the wall once installed.
After using the vacuum for a few days around the house I did start to miss my Dyson. I began to notice bits of crumbs that weren't being picked up, mainly due to the fact that the Dyson has a suction power of 100AW in max mode, a two tier radical cyclone technology too, which just feels generally more powerful to use. Also I also missed the reach under tool and had to move bits of furnishings more when using the Proscenic.
Final verdict
The Proscenic P11 is a decent cleaner for those who can't afford a bigger brand name. It's also incredibly lightweight to makes it easy to take it around the house. To give you a comparison, my Dyson weighs 2.32kg well all the components are attached, the Proscenic weighs just 1.8kg. The LED light and the touch-screen makes it quirky, and something that stands out from the rest, as well as the detachable mop, once you know how to use it.
For long-term use I found the motor an the suction didn't live up to the Dyson standard in my home. I would buy the product for a first-time vacuum cleaner but would quickly want to upgrade to something else. You can get the Proscenic from Amazon here. If you're after a Dyson then this cordless model is currently £249 on Currys.
Rating - 3/5 - good on price, light-weight and picks dust up easily at first. Set up is not as simple.
