There comes a time in everyone's life when you wake up and feel an overwhelming urge to organise your entire existence.
It hits you seemingly overnight. One minute you're 21 with the world at your fingertips and the brazen ability to tromp up Queen St in ridiculously small dresses during the heart of winter. The next minute you're 24, falling asleep at 9pm and getting overly excited about vacuum cleaners.
As a person who finds a colour-coded wardrobe and draw dividers almost disturbingly satisfying, there's little I enjoy more than taking a day to reset and revamp my surroundings. From fresh sheets to tidy draws to a spotless floor, having a clean and orderly space is important for my well-being and ability to function day-to-day. As a highly strung and detail-oriented Virgo, the aesthetic of my interior is also very important to me; if it doesn't work with my colour scheme, I don't want it.
With that being said, when I was loaned Samsung's Bespoke Jet Elite Extra Handstick Vacuum Cleaner to review, I was instantly enthralled by its sleek, seamless design and ergonomic ease-of-use. For someone as preoccupied with a clean and curated space as I am, its modern and stylish simplicity - yes, we are talking about a vacuum - was very pleasing to my eyes. Plus, it promised to leave the place spick-and-span, and make keeping a tidy home child's play. I was intrigued.
However, this aesthetically pleasing appliance comes with an almighty price tag. So is it worth the investment?
I used the Samsung Bespoke Jet Elite Vacuum for a month and here are my thoughts.
The good
My past memories of vacuuming are far from pleasant; it was a whole ordeal.
I would retrieve the large, roaring machine from the under-stairs cupboard and struggle to navigate from space to space, burdened by the cumbersome body and useless cord that made it impossible to get from one side of the room to the other without having to change sockets.
Alternatively, cordless vacuums are quickly making those bulky, obnoxious, plug-in hoovers of yesteryear obsolete. Gone are the days of lugging your vacuum from room to room, bashing the walls with the unwieldy hose, being deafened by the roar and tripping over the cord.
While I am hardly a hoover connoisseur, the Samsung Bespoke Jet Elite exceeded my expectations when it came to user experience. Light, ergonomic, portable and incredibly easy, it made vacuuming up clumps of hair and the occasional broken nail from my bedroom carpet a breeze, and with a noise level as low as 86 dBA, my slight sensitivity to certain noises wasn't triggered.
In fact, the Samsung Bespoke Vacuum is so versatile and effortless to use, I'd never vacuumed more in my life than during that month. When a chore becomes so quick and painless to complete, it makes it, dare I say it... somewhat bearable? With the press of a button, you can have spick-and-span floors in literally a minute - there's basically no excuse not to.
For example, after an evening of my haphazard - and biohazardous - cooking, it was all too easy to quickly banish the crumbs and chunks of unidentified substances from the floor to the vacuum's belly. After an afternoon of unboxing packages, it was super simple to suck up any pesky styrofoam, leaving the living room spotless.
With its myriad of useful attachments, the Samsung Bespoke Jet Elite also eliminates the need for endless appliances. The vacuum comes with a selection of brushes and tools to cater to most cleaning needs. The Jet Dual Brush, Slim Action Brush and Spray Spinning Sweeper allow you to efficiently tackle and wipe most floor types, while the sweeper also features a built-in 150ml water tank and reusable, antibacterial microfibre pads - and disposable pads for added convenience - to make mopping easy peasy, lemon squeezy.
Its attachments include a pet tool, crevice tool, combination tool and a flex tool.While I didn't experiment too much with the different attachments, it's handy knowing you have the tools on-hand should you need them. While my flat is pet-free, I imagine the pet tool would be a useful addition for families with furry friends, while the crevice tool makes navigating those hard-to-reach nooks and crannies far easier - and less of a game of Twister.
Additionally, the vacuum also comes with a handy cradle - which doubles as a battery-charging station - where you can neatly store the accessories and brushes when not in use.
Speaking of the battery, the vacuum cleaner uses two powerful 25.2V lithium-ion batteries that offer up to 120 minutes of run time. It takes up to 3.5 hours to fully charge, which doesn't sound long in the scheme of things, but is worth considering if friends or family have a habit of arriving unannounced and the living room resembles something out of Hoarders.
Even for me, someone without much common sense or patience, this appliance was quick and painless to set up and figure out how to use (technologically, I mean - I know how to vacuum, people). The vacuum features an intuitive interface and user-friendly LED display where you can easily check the status of your vacuum's available runtime, error alerts and charging status. With the press of a button, you can select the intensity of its suction with zero faff. Some vacuums offer an array of settings which essentially do the same thing. If there's less for my brain to compute, I'm happy.
I know I've already touched on the aesthetic, but to reiterate, it really is as stylish as a vacuum can get. This is a major pro for the fussy and house-proud who enjoy a muted, modern and uncluttered feel to their home. The vacuum can remain out in the living space and on display without looking like an eyesore, which truly is an accomplishment for something that sucks the dirt off your floor.
Now, let's talk about the integrated Clean Station. Gone are the days of manually emptying the vacuum's bin or reusable bag, shaking out the dust, dirt, hairballs and bug skeletons into the garbage before rinsing out its inners in preparation for a fresh load of filth. In stark contrast, the Clean Station is efficient, hygienic and honestly, pretty damn cool.
In a nutshell, the Clean Station uses 'Air Pulse' technology to help trap dust inside without spreading it back into the air. It also traps "99.999 percent" of fine dust and allergens, while an anti-bacterial dust bag inhibits 99.9 percent of bacterial growth - making it a good bet for those with dust allergies.
For added convenience, the station also provides the perfect storage for the stick vacuum; simply slot it in, press a button, empty the dustbin and leave it in the stand until next time. The 0.5l dustbin can also be detached from the hand-held body, meaning you can quickly rinse it under the sink after each use. Easy, breezy, beautiful!
The bad
Look, nothing's perfect. Despite the many pros, there are also a few cons.
As we just discussed the Clean Station, let's start there. The most obvious downside to the Clean Station is that in order to empty the contents of the vacuum's dustbin, the bottom of the detachable drum pops open - and you have to remember to close it back up before its next use. For the absent-minded among us, it's all too easy to grab the vacuum from the Clean Station and start hoovering - before realising all the crap is leaving a trail of destruction behind you because you forgot to close the bloody bin.
Storytime: when I experienced this exact conundrum, it took me about five minutes to figure out why the crumbs had simply been transported to a different part of the kitchen. After triple-checking the brush to make sure nothing had become lodged in the bristles, I realised, alas, I am an idiot who overlooked the fact that the lid of the bin had been hanging wide open the entire time.
Another con is that while the lightweight, portable and handheld nature of the vacuum is great for most of us, it's not suitable for everyone. While it may seem a nice idea to buy nan a cordless, handstick vacuum to make her life that little bit easier, if she suffers from joint pain or arthritis in her hands, it won't be such a helpful gift.
This was experienced first-hand when I brought the vacuum over to my parents' house. My dad was adorably excited about this great leap in technology and hoovered to his heart's content. My mother, however, was less enthused; after years as a massage therapist, she experiences pain in her thumbs and found the vacuum difficult to manoeuvre due to the discomfort in her dominant hand. People who suffer from arthritic fingers, impaired joints or an injury may find the vacuum harder to use as the handle requires a certain grip that could aggravate existing conditions.
Another issue I noticed was that after several vacuums of my bedroom - a place where the carpet is extra cushiony due to an almost constant layer of hair - the Jet Dual Brush I had been predominantly using seemed to falter in its strength of suction. Yes, this is an almost universal issue when it comes to vacuums - if there are whole heads of hair stuck in the bristles, it's probably not going to offer optimum performance.
However, as I hadn't used the vacuum too frequently at that point, I was a little surprised to notice that clumps of fluff and other debris were already taking a few tries to disappear. Perhaps my strands were impeding the suction, but I found myself running the head back and forth over the carpet before the vacuum fully picked up the crap, which was somewhat noteworthy given how great it is otherwise - and how expensive it is.
Ah, the price. Perhaps the biggest con. This is one expensive vacuum, which makes it much less accessible and throws out a significant chunk of the market.
Yes, it comes with the Clean Station, the batteries, the tools, the cradle, the brushes and all the bells and whistles, but it's $1600. Yup - $1599 for a vacuum. Those bulky, unwieldy ones we rubbished earlier? About $130 on sale.
No doubt the biggest competitor for Samsung's vacuum venture is Dyson, a brand that offers cordless, handstick options at a variety of price points; for example, the Dyson V8 Origin can be picked up for $600.
The verdict
The Samsung Bespoke Jet Elite Extra Handstick Vacuum Cleaner is a work of art when it comes to the world of household appliances. It's slim, sleek and yes, quite sexy - for a vacuum. But, if there's one thing many of us will know, high quality usually means a high price.
Let's be honest: there are other cordless options out there that, despite being more basic and perhaps not as aesthetically pleasing, will still get the job done for a fraction of the price.
If you're a germaphobe, you'll love the extra-sanitary Clean Station and its hands-free removal of dirt and dust, and if you're a little bit lazy, you'll love the ease-of-use and efficiency that dramatically cuts down on cleaning time.
However, the cost can't be overlooked. Samsung does offer cheaper alternatives - think the Jet 60 Fit Cordless Stick Vacuum - but if you're wanting a hoover that does what it says on the tin, there are a number of other efficient, ergonomic and more affordable options out there to consider.
Newshub was supplied with a Samsung Bespoke Jet Elite Extra Handstick Vacuum Cleaner for this review.
