Dyson Gen5detect vs Samsung Bespoke Jet AI: Which to buy?

If you’re after a top-of-the-line cordless vacuum with all the latest tech, a few brands stand out. Most notable among them are Dyson and Samsung.

Contents

Weight Battery life Suction Display and detection Cleaning attachments Best features Design Price Verdict

In the last 13 months, both brands have released a new flagship cordless vacuum: the Dyson Gen5detect and the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI.

Both have a similar price point and both come with a host of features and attachments. But if you’re contemplating one, which luxury vacuum should you buy?

We’ll break it down for you, by specs and features.

Weight

Whether or not a vacuum is a pain in the arm will make a big difference to how much you like or loathe cleaning.

Bespoke Jet AI: 2.98kg/6.7lbs

Gen5detect: 3.5kg/7.7lbs

The Bespoke Jet AI is comfortably the winner here although both vacuums are comfortable to use on hard flooring. The Gen5detect is arguably a little less manoeuvrable, especially on carpet. Still, when using either vacuum in handheld mode for overhead cleaning, I found both fairly heavy after a period of use.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Battery life

Gen5detect: At a full charge, the model we tested displayed a battery life of 76 minutes in Eco mode, 39 in Medium/Auto and 7 minutes in Boost mode (which you’ll only ever need for quick blasts of a few seconds).

Bespoke Jet AI: At full charge, the test model showed an hour of runtime – but that’s only with a non-motorised tool on the lowest setting. With the carpet cleaning head, from a full battery, we got around 42 minutes in Min, 36 in AI, 24 in Mid, 14 minutes in Max and 10 in Jet. The hard floor head showed similar cleaning times.

Both of these vacuum cleaners have an excellent running time – and realistically, much longer than you’ll need.

However, the Bespoke Jet AI comes with a second battery and separate charger, so you can always have a replacement ready to go. The Gen5detect does feature a swappable battery – but it only comes with one. If you want a second, it’ll cost £129/$129.99.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Suction

Gen5detect: the Gen5detect has 262AW (air watts) of suction, versus the V15 Detect’s 230AW. It’s noticeably more powerful than earlier models. It makes vacuuming fast and easy as you don’t have to saw back and forth to get everything.

Bespoke Jet AI: Samsung says that the Bespoke Jet AI has 280AW suction, which – on paper, at least – makes it more powerful than the Gen5detect.

They are both among the most powerful cordless vacuums you can buy, but having tested them, we’d say that the Gen5detect has the edge when it comes to pick-up. This may be to do with a superior floor head design.

Display and detection

This is where both vacuums offer something very different from competitors.

The Gen5detect has a colour LCD screen that displays the vacuuming mode you’re in, the number of minutes of vacuuming time left in that mode and – very unusually – the number and size of the dust and dirt particles you’re vacuuming up.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

The screen works in conjunction with an acoustic sensor which detects and measures the particles. Dyson has partly included this feature to show you just how effective the vacuum is. But it also has a practical function.

Put the Gen5detect in Auto mode and the suction will automatically adapt to the conditions around it. In short, when it encounters more dust, it’ll increase the power, without you having to fiddle with settings.

The Bespoke Jet AI has a simpler, easy-to-read, single-colour display that shows you the vacuuming mode and time left in minutes.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

It doesn’t give you any on-screen indication of how hard the vacuum is working, but it does have similar sensor technology.

Choose the AI mode and the vacuum will ramp up the suction and roller speed when it crosses from hard flooring to a rug, or when it encounters more mess to pick up. Again, this means you won’t need to adjust the settings yourself to deal with a spill or a dusty corner.

Cleaning attachments

Both vacuum cleaners come with a similarly generous number of high-quality cleaning accessories.

Gen5detect:

Vacuum body, with a 0.77L bin
Wand with in-line crevice tool
Fluffy optic cleaning head for hard floors (with green laser)
Main digital motorbar cleaning head
Hair screw tool (for cleaning upholstery and stairs. As the name suggests, it’s ideal for removing hair from surfaces)
Nozzle and brush combination tool
Jointed low-reach adaptor

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Samsung Bespoke Jet AI:

Vacuum body, with a 0.5L bin
Telescoping wand that you can adjust to your height while vacuuming
Slim LED brush+, with headlights
Active Dual head, with headlights and a soft roller for hard flooring and a nylon bristle bar for carpet
Motorised pet tool with rubber fins for removing hair from sofas and upholstery
Crevice tool
Brush tool
Flex tool (a joint to create an angle between the cleaning tool and vacuum body)

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Best features

Gen5detect

The Gen5detect has two outstanding features. The first is its green laser, which serves the same purpose LED headlights on an ordinary vacuum but is far more effective: dust and hair glow in a way that makes them unmissable.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Its second is an in-line crevice tool. If you’re vacuuming and need to clean a hard-to-reach spot, simply remove the wand and the crevice tool is already in place, allowing you to zap dust away instantly.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Samsung Bespoke Jet AI

The Bespoke Jet AI’s outstanding feature is the Clean Station. It’s a charging stand that automatically and very efficiently empties the vacuum cleaner’s bin using strong suction when you dock it. Inside the dock is a vacuum cleaner bag, which you’ll need to change every 1-2 months. It effectively transforms the Bespoke Jet AI from a bagless to a bagged system, which is a huge plus for people with allergies or asthma.

Emma Rowley / Foundry

Design

While both cleaners have a typical stick vacuum shape, they look very different thanks to their colour schemes. The Gen5detect is bold and multi-coloured, while the Bespoke Jet AI has a minimalist palette of black with silver accents.

There’s no winner here, just preference.

Price

Gen5detect: In the UK, this vacuum had a launch price of £849.99, but you can now buy it for less. At the time of writing, it’s £749 from Very, £749.99 from Currys and £769.99 direct from Dyson.

Bespoke Jet AI: This has also come down from its UK launch price of over £1,000. You can now buy it from Samsung for £799, while Argos is selling it for £899.

At this stage, the Gen5detect is the better-priced option, but there’s only £50 between the two closest offers at the moment, and the Gen5detect has been available for longer. We’d expect to see prices for both vacuums shift depending on sales periods and deals from individual retailers, so it’s worth checking around before you buy.

In the US, the Gen5detect has held steady at its launch price of $949.99. You can buy it from Best Buy, Target or direct from Dyson. The Bespoke Jet AI is not yet available in the US.

Verdict

Hopefully, the detailed comparisons above will help you to choose the better model for you. Both vacuum cleaners are excellent and the key point of difference between them is probably auto-empty Clean Station, which streamlines vacuuming even more. But you’ll be paying a little more for that feature and you’ll need to find the space to stand it.

For more detailed accounts of what each vacuum cleaner is like to use, have a look at our reviews of the Dyson Gen5detect and the Samsung Bespoke Jet AI. Or for more vacuum cleaner recommendations at all price points, see our round-up of the best vacuums we’ve tested