Dyson
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What decides the choice
The specification that decides whether a vacuum gets used is not suction. It is weight, and specifically weight held at arm’s length, because that is what you are doing when you reach a ceiling corner or the top of a stair. Anything over three kilograms in a cordless stick becomes a two-handed job above shoulder height.
Runtime figures need reading carefully. Manufacturers quote the eco or low-power mode, which is honest but is not the mode most people use on carpet. A quoted sixty minutes typically means fifteen to twenty on the highest setting, and the drop is steeper on machines with a smaller battery. If a maker publishes runtime per mode, that is a good sign about the rest of their documentation.
Bin size sounds trivial and is not. A 0.5 litre bin on a machine with a forty-minute runtime means you will empty it before the battery goes flat, every time. The ratio between the two is more informative than either number alone.
Filtration is where the cheap end genuinely does not compete. Whole-machine HEPA means the air leaving the vacuum is filtered, not just the air passing the bin — for a household with allergies that is the specification that matters most, and it is worth checking whether it is the machine or only the filter cartridge that carries the rating.
Finally, parts. A cordless vacuum dies when its battery does, unless the maker sells replacements. Some list spares for seven years, others stop at four, and almost nobody advertises this. It is the single largest factor in what a vacuum actually costs to own, and it is published — you just have to go looking.