Introducing the Dyson omni-glide — a completely redesigned vacuum in a “broomstick” style, that’s slimmer, lighter and made especially for our hard floors

Dyson has done it again with another vacuum cleaner that’s built for our Singapore households that are relatively small, and have hard floors — and this one is markedly different from previous vacuums from the brand. It’s called the Dyson omni-glide, and its name gives an indication of how it feels to use this machine.

Above: the dyson omni-glide box

Above: inside the box

The Dyson omni-glide took a year and a half to develop, and was completely redesigned from the ground up. The most notable difference from other Dyson vacuums is that it’s small — slimmer, much lighter (it weighs 1.9kg with battery), and it has a “broomstick” handle.

Above: what the dyson omni-glide looks like fitted with the long attachment

Above: The “broomstick” handle for the omni-glide

The trigger button is gone on this version and it instead operates with a single power button that turns the machine on and off, and another button that activates maximum suction power.

Above: the power and “max” buttons

The stick broom design was inspired by an original sketch from James Dyson, and the balance of the entire machine — to achieve the slim layout and have a balanced lightweight machine — was very important in the design stage.

While the entire silhouette is slim, they’ve kept a decent bin capacity of 0.2L, and once again (like past Dyson models), it has an emptying mechanism that is easy to use and hygienic.

Above: the emptying mechanism on the omni-glide

The fluffy head is brand new for Dyson as well, and will not scratch the flooring at all. In fact, even on the sides of the head, there are velvet and rubber strips that are really soft on hard floors. And this machine was designed for hard floors, which are predominant in Singapore. The 360-degrees rotating castors skate on the floor. It feels like it’s floating and is effortless to use (my five-year-old loves it!). But this doesn’t affect the efficiently and function of it. It works well and picks up dirt and crumbs extremely fast. I love that it can rotate in any direction, and this is extremely useful for small spaces and corners.

Above: the fluffy head that glides and “skates” across the floor

The battery pack has been re-engineered to be inside the handle. The cyclones have also been reduced in size; while the five-stage filtration system is still in place.

Above: the filter

The battery lasts 20 minutes and takes 3 1/2 hours to charge. This may sound like a long time to charge the unit, but the small and light charging attachment makes it really easy to place the machine back into its charger after use. In fact, I’ve never charged my Dyson vacuum as much as I’ve charged this one; there’s always power in the machine and when I’m done, I just pop it back into the holder and it continues charging. You can also purchase separate batteries (they come with their own chargers) if you want to extend its run time.

Above: the battery unit resides in the handle and can be easily popped out

Above: mounting the charger on the wall has never been easier. This one is small and light.

Above: the box contains a pencil to make wall markings where you should mount the charger, and two sticky strips to mount it to the wall.

I’ve tried many Dyson vacuums over the years and I can confidently say that the omni-glide is my favourite. It is super easy to use, and it is very effective in vacuuming up whatever I need sucked up. It comes with sufficient attachment heads that I’ll actually use in my apartment — no more, no less.

Above: All the parts inside the box

Above: my favourite attachment — the crevice tool and brush head

With previous Dyson vacuums, I found myself not using most of the attachment heads that came in the box, and I never ended up mounting the charging port on the wall because it was heavy and required me to drill into the wall to secure it. With this much lighter version, I can even use blutack to stick the plastic mount on the wall, and place my vacuum securely in it to charge whenever I’m done using it. And to me, this small but significant improvement makes all the difference to my user experience; I end up using the vacuum a lot more, and my floors and corners are more dust-free than ever.