Review: Dyson DC35 Digital Slim

For a company that manufactures such boring and pedestrian objects as vacuum cleaners, fans and hand dryers, Dyson sure deserves points for concentrating so heavily on style.

It's not that it takes an army of brilliant engineers to design a device that pushes air in one direction or another. A well-designed vacuum cleaner needs to be lightweight, display good ergonomics and be easy to control, and still, you know... suck.

All of this designy goodness drives the price up, and Dyson products command a premium. But whether paying that premium make sense this time, for what is essentially an optional cleaning device even for the small apartment dweller, isn't as clear cut.

The DC35 Digital Slim is Dyson's high-end entry in the decidedly downscale vacuum stick category, where you can get something that works for less than ten percent of what this model will cost you. Having said that, it's a faithfully scaled-down version of the bagless design found in their full-sized uprights. There's the familiar tornado-like chamber, snap off modular parts and all-around attention to detail.

It does what it's suppose to do at least as well as any other stick I've used, and in my household we've been through a few in that Quixotic search for the elusive perfect pick. Dyson boasts that the DC35 is the most powerful cordless on the market, and in some random dust busting it performed admirably. This is not a powerhouse machine, of course, but the point of a stick is that it's easy to grab and, especially for a cordless, always at the ready for jobs that are just too small or inaccessible for an upright or a canister.

In addition to power, it's the little things that matter in this hard-to-differentiate sector. Like the very Dyson trap door which, when you're emptying the bin, doesn't create a new mess from the old one you've just cleaned up.

Same goes for how you turn it on. At first I didn't care for the dead mans' switch. But after a while I decided that the trade off of having to apply pressure to a trigger was better than having to throw a switch twice.

Also impressively anti-intuitive was the decision to put the weight at the handle, rather than in the mid-section, which is typical on other devices. The center of gravity is such that the wand feels much easier to wield in any position, and possible to deploy where even other cordless sticks are not – outstreched, and even above your head. Weight is weight, however, and some users may find wielding this for very long is a little hard on the wrist, even when only vacuuming the floor.

I didn't bother to check battery life: You aren't likely to use this for any length of time between the automatic charges from its wall-mounted holder. For the same reason, don't bother to ask yourself if you should use the "Max" setting all the time. I'll repeat the advice given to me by the guy who sold me my first turbocharged car: you always want that on.

So, yes, it's an awesome vacuum cleaner. The trouble with Dyson's stuff is that it always comes down to the value proposition. At $300, the Digital Slim is up against a slew of competitors who charge a fraction of that price for vacuums which, when push comes to shove, will do just fine for most people. Sure, at the full-sized vacuum end of the spectrum you will still pay more for a Dyson, but the price disparity isn't nearly as shocking when alternatives are clustered in the double digits and you are charging hundreds or dollars.

When I reviewed the Dyson Pedestal "air multiplier" fan, I noted its hefty $450 price could be worth it to an owner who might leverage it as an object d'art in an eclectically-decorated modern living room. It's hard to imagine the DC35 making many public appearances. Is spending $300 for something – instead of maybe $60 – that worth it? I guess if you have to ask...

WIRED By far the coolest way to vanquish dust bunnies. Works on multiple floor surfaces – wood, tile, carpet. Short configuration for close-up jobs. Tell your kid the long wand attachment is a light saber and he'll keep his room clean.

TIRED The "wow" factor versus cost us wearing thin. Seriously: This couldn't be priced at less than a 32GB iPhone?

Photos courtesy of Dyson

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