Gone are the days where we need a bulky vacuum to clean our homes, and if you've ever struggled to lug a heavy vacuum around the house, a lightweight cordless Dyson is your answer for easier cleaning.
The Dyson V12 Detect Slim, now discounted to its lowest price all year, is the ideal lightweight vacuum, especially during the holidays where all the hosting and cooking results in never-ending mess. Having a slim vacuum that you can grab with one hand means you can clean messes as they arise, to keep the house spotless with minimal effort.
The Lightweight Dyson V12 Detect Slim Makes Cleaning Easier and Faster
The things we love most about Christmas – having family and friends over, cooking feasts, long walks in crisp winter air, and sparkling decor – are also what cause more mess than usual.
But the holidays are a busy time, and instead of spending these precious moments dragging a heavy vacuum cleaner around, a lightweight cordless stick is the effortless solution to have a consistently clean home with minimal effort and time.
The Dyson V12 Detect Slim, one of our all-time best cordless vacuums on test, weighs just 5.22lbs. Even for a cordless stick, that's light (they tend to weigh around 7-8lbs).
But while there are plenty of lightweight vacuums out there that you can grab at a moment's notice, very few clean as effectively as the V12 Detect Slim. It features some of Dyson's most advanced tech, and after using it as the main vacuum in my own home for almost a year, I can confirm that it picks up pretty much every mess in one or two passes.
Its cleaning performance is vastly improved by the Dyson Fluffy Optic floorhead, with its unique green laser that illuminates dust particles that you can't normally see with your own eyes. This may sound like a gimmick, but it's honestly alarming how much dust it reveals on your floors without you realizing (see the above video for proof).
What's more, as you can see in the picture below, the vacuum's cleaning power couldn't be more apparent. I've used this Dyson laser when testing Dyson alternatives and pet hair vacuums so that I know how much has been left behind, and it's rare for other cordless vacuums to clear the dust and hair as quickly as the V12 Detect Slim.
This is what makes it such a timely investment. Not only is it $30 cheaper than it was during Black Friday, which at the time was its lowest price all year. But while we're busy and enjoying precious family time over Christmas, having a powerful, lightweight vacuum means you can clean as a mess appears, rather than dedicating time to intensive deep house cleans.
Even on carpet, the V12 Detect Slim has no issues vacuuming messes of all kinds.
Food crumbs, wrapping paper, flour, pet kibble, and all the other messes the family manages to create can be vacuumed up in seconds with the V12 Detect Slim. It also speeds up the post-Christmas clean-up.
It's easy to maneuver and can get into tight spaces, and I often used it to quickly vacuum spilled crumbs in the moment, to keep the space nice while I'm spending time with my friends and family.
And if you're used to your vacuum cleaner being so loud that you'd never use it when guests are over, the V12 Detect Slim reaches around 71 decibels, meaning it won't drown out conversations if there are others in the room.
It also has the full suite of attachments – including a motorized hair tool for vacuuming pet hair, and a combination tool for dusting and upholstery – that will transform how easy it is to do even the hardest cleaning tasks.
The Dyson V12 Detect Slim is discounted to $379.99, its lowest price all year.
More to Shop
Looking for more quick, easy, and lightweight cleaners to keep your home spotless for Christmas and beyond? Here are a few more winners from our tests.
All prices were correct at the time of publication.
I only stopped using the Dyson V12 Detect Slim as my home's main vacuum once I got my hands on the V15 Detect. It has the same dust-revealing tech, but stronger suction and a larger dustbin, while still being a lightweight vacuum that's only 1.6lbs heavier than the V12. Read more in my five-star Dyson V15 Detect review.
Both are excellent cleaners, but for $30 less than the Dyson V12 Detect Slim deal, you can grab the Dyson V11, another stand-out vacuum from our tests. The difference between them? The V11 has higher suction (and therefore a better cleaning performance), but it's 1lb heavier and doesn't have the floor sensors or dust-revealing laser that can make cleaning easier. Read more in my full Dyson V11 review.
Instead of the Dyson vacuums' two floorheads, this Shark uses one floorhead that passes between carpets and hard floors without needing to swap anything out. It's almost $100 cheaper than the Dyson, and comes with a dock that charges, empties, and cleans the vacuum after uses. Read more in our full Shark PowerDetect Cordless review.
Taking pages from Dyson's book, the Dreame R20 also has a laser that reveals dust, adaptive suction, and dedicated floorheads for each floor type. It's one of the best Dyson alternatives, but its cleaning performance isn't as good as the Dysons. Read more in my full Dreame R20 review.
Like the Dreame, the Levoit LVAC-300 offers similar features to the Dysons and Sharks we love, just not to the same effect. That's why it costs $100s less. Read more in my full Levoit LVAC-300 review.
The Ultenic U16 Flex is the most affordable vacuum I'll recommend – but only if you have hard floors. It doesn't do the best job on carpet, but is powerful enough to handle dust, debris, and hair from smooth floors such as hardwood and vinyl. Plus, it has a green laser similar to the Dysons that will make cleaning more satisfying over the holidays. Read more in my full Ultenic U16 Flex review.
For more tested floorcare picks, see our guides of the best Miele vacuums and the best robot vacuums.
