Verdict

The Samsung Powerstick Jet is a super-powerful cordless vacuum cleaner, and it's the degree of flexibility on offer that really makes it stand out from the competition. With a decent range of attachments and dual batteries, this is a single cleaner that can tackle practically any job in your home. A great return to form.

Pros

• Flexible cleaning
• Powerful suction
• Great mopping ability
• Replaceable battery

Cons

• Small bin
• No on-body storage

It’s been some time since we’ve seen a Samsung vacuum cleaner, with the company all but disappearing from UK shelves. With the Samsung Powerstick Jet, the company is back in force, with a powerful and flexible cordless vacuum cleaner that can also double up as a powered mop for cleaning hard floors if you buy the more expensive ‘With Spinning Sweeper’ model.

With replaceable batteries and a host of useful accessories, the Samsung Powerstick Jet is the most versatile stick cleaner  I’ve reviewed. A few minor niggles aside, this is the ultimate all-rounder.

Samsung Powerstick Jet – What you need to know

• General vacuuming – Excellent pick-up and the adjustable shaft length make this an easy vacuum to use
• Carpet test – Sucked up dust on a single pass easily
• Hard floor test: Drew in bigger bits of debris without spilling it everywhere and did a great job mopping
• Pet hair pick-up – Powerful enough to get trod-in pet hair out of the carpet.

Related: Best cordless vacuum cleaner

Samsung Powerstick Jet design – A smart vacuum cleaner with a big stand and dual battery option

On the face of it, the Samsung Powerstick Jet looks very much like any other cordless stick vacuum cleaner. There’s the main motor and bin at the back, and you attach the accessories or extension pole to the front, clipping them securely in place.

On closer examination, you’ll discover a few features that make the Powerstick Jet a little different from most of the competition. First, the bin can be fully removed, and the central filter pulled out. That makes for easy emptying and means that dust doesn’t become trapped inside. Even better, the entire unit can be washed and cleaned, keeping your sparkly new vacuum cleaner looking, well, sparkly. There’s a secondary filter, too, which can be washed under the tap and left to dry.

At 0.5l, the bin is a touch on the small side, though.

The bin is super-easy to empty and keep clean

A trigger, such as those by Dyson cordless cleaners, gives power when you need it – but can require some effort. If your hands aren’t so mobile, then you’ll be pleased to see that the Powerstick Jet has a simple on/off switch, with controls to opt for one of the three power modes (Min, Mid and Max); the vacuum defaults to the Mid power mode.

Three power modes and no trigger help you avoid hand-strain

The panel that displays the mode also has a filter warning light that tells you when the cleaner is having trouble sucking. This either means there’s a blockage, or that the filters need to be cleaned.

At the rear of the cleaner is a removable battery. Samsung provides a single battery in the box, and you can buy additional batteries with the charging stand providing a charging slot for the spare battery, as well as charging the cell inserted into the cleaner.

You can have two batteries charging at the same time

It’s quite a monster of a stand, with Samsung opting for a floor-standing model. However, there’s a hook that you can screw into the wall to keep the stand secure. There’s a bit of assembly to get the stand in place, with a screw going through the main pole and the slot for the vacuum clipping into place on top.

There’s then an accessory clip, which holds the upholstery brush, extendable crevice tool and, with the more expensive model, the mop pads. You can mount the vacuum with the provided motorised turbo action brush. That’s helpful, but you still need to find space to fit the mini motorised tool and the flexible tool. Overall, it’s a shame there’s no on-body storage for tools: a simple clip that fits onto the pole would have been welcome.

The stand has plenty of storage, but some on-body storage would be nice

Samsung Powerstick Jet VS9000 features – Flexible and powerful cleaning for all floors and surfaces

Given the accessories provided in the box, the Powerstick Jet is a flexible cleaner. For day-to-day use, the turbo action brush is your tool of choice. It works well on hard floors, but is designed to agitate dirt in carpet, too. Unlike the similar tool on the Dyson V11 Absolute, Samsung can’t adjust power automatically for the floor surface, so you’ll need to choose the right power mode to start. The brush slides out of the side for easy cleaning – it’s the easiest-to-remove brush I’ve seen.

The brush is simple to remove and clean

The extension pole ranges can be adjusted between 930mm and 1140mm, so you can position the pole to a height that suits you – no more stooping or having to use the vacuum at a strange angle.

An extendable pole lets you adjust the vacuum to your height

The mini motorised tool has a rubber brush inside, so it can cope with a variety of surfaces. It’s ideal for cleaning stairs, but works well for vacuuming a sofa, too. The crevice tool proves itself super-useful, with an extendable nozzle that enables you to reach under furniture and get into small spaces. The upholstery tool’s soft brush can slide back to leave a harder edge, and rounds off the package neatly.

The flexible tool extends the vacuum’s usefulness further. This attachment lets you change the angle of other connected attachments, so you can clean the top of cupboards or wardrobes, for example, without having to haul yourself up on a chair or step ladder.

Cleaning the top of cupboards is simple with the flexible tool

At 2.8kg, the Powerstick Jet is quite light, and easy to push around without strain. It’s also light enough to clean up high – although, as with all vacuum cleaners of this type, the weight all sits around your wrist, so prolonged use may require two hands. There’s also a soft action brush that’s designed specifically for hard floors.

It’s the mopping attachment that makes the Powerstick Jet stand out from rivals, however. It features two spinning discs, to which you attach the provided microfibre cloths (you need to soak them in water first), or disposable wipes that are available through Samsung.

The mop attachment turns the vacuum into a floor cleaner

Related: Best carpet cleaner

Samsung Powerstick Jet battery fife and sound – Long-lasting cleaning thanks to the dual batteries

Dual batteries mean more cleaning power. With the vacuum cleaner in Mid mode, each battery should last for 30 minutes; you can get up to 60 minutes if you run the cleaner in the Min mode. That’s up to two hours of cleaning, if you buy the extra battery, with the batteries taking 3hrs 30mins to charge back up.

Be wary of Max mode, which drops run-time to just six minutes per battery – it really is a mode for picking up very stubborn dust. In general, the vacuum is best put to work using a combination of Min and Med modes, which should give around 45 minutes per battery. Using both batteries, all but the largest of homes could be cleaned.

That’s quite competitive. However, slightly larger batteries would be nice as an option, with the understanding that they’d add some weight to the cleaner.

Batteries feature charge LED indicators, with three lights that extinguish as you use power; the final light blinks when it’s time to recharge. This provides a rough indicator of the battery life remaining – but it isn’t quite as neat as the countdown timer on the Dyson V11 Absolute.

The battery indicator provides an estimate of the charge remaining

The Powerstick Jet is relatively quiet. On the Min setting, I measured a maximum sound of 74.7dB; Med produced a maximum of 78.4dB. That’s loud enough to notice, but you can still generally hear what’s going around you. Max mode shoots up to a quite-loud 84.3dB.

Samsung PowerStick Jet cleaning – Excellent pick-up and surprisingly good floor cleaning

The main thing you want from any vacuum cleaner is the ability to pick up dirt, and the Powerstick Jet doesn’t let the side down. Typically, Min power is enough for weekly household dirt, but switch up to Med or Max modes if you’ll be tackling stubborn dirt.

Running through our tests (see more on page two of this article), the Powerstick Jet made short work of our carpet, hard floor and pet hair tests, picking up practically everything.

The vacuum makes short work of dust on carpet or hard floors

Impressively, in mopping mode the vacuum did a great job. It cleaned most of the dirt from the floor, although some tougher dirt required a little more effort. In this mode, there’s no suction power, so surface dirt is thrown around. Make sure you vacuum carefully before you mop.

Able to mop, this vacuum can clean as well as pick up dirt

The Karcher FC 5 hard floor cleaner has some vacuum power for picking up light dirt, more powerful motorised brushes, and its water tank uses cleaning fluid to leave a cleaner floor. That’s a dedicated hard floor cleaning product, however. For basic use for less dirty floors, the Powerstick Jet is surprisingly versatile.

Should I buy the Samsung Powerstick Jet?

I’ve not seen a cordless vacuum cleaner quite as versatile as the Powerstick Jet With Spinning Sweeper. Combining excellent vacuuming performance and quality mopping, there isn’t really a product like it for all-round cleaning, particularly for hard floors. If you’ve mostly got carpet, then the standard Powerstick Jet is £50 cheaper and doesn’t have the spinning mop head.

The Dyson V11 Absolute comes with a smart display on which you can view a countdown timer for battery life, and that also shows you how to maintain the vacuum in the event of an error. The V11 can adjust power automatically when using its motorised brush, optimising battery life and cleaning power, which also makes it the easier cleaner to use. If you simply want a cordless vacuum cleaner, the V11 is a great buy – and you could pair it with a Karcher FC 5 for hard floor care.

Yet, what the V11 has in cleaning power and smarts, it loses in flexibility; plus it doesn’t have swappable batteries.

If you need one product for multiple jobs, the Samsung Powerstick Jet VS9000 is the cordless vacuum cleaner you should buy. It will save you space over buying multiple tools, while providing the cleaning power you need for multiple surfaces.