Dreame V20 Pro vacuum cleaner review: Forget Dyson, this little-known alternative brand has finally made the worst household chore bearable - and it's almost always on sale

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For years, vacuuming the home has been the worst kind of chore for me.

Doing laundry? No problem. The washing up? Can be okay, I guess. Taking out the bins? It's a chance to get out the house. 

But yanking the vacuum out of a cluttered cupboard, emptying the weird cylinder filled with dust and hair and cleaning the floor one dust particle at a time - that's a special kind of back-breaking torture.

Until now. Because, yes, it turns out the noisiest of household tasks does not have to be a complete misery - just get a proper cordless vacuum - and the Dreame V20 Pro Cordless Stick delivers.

We've reviewed dozens of vacuums, including the popular Shark Stratos, Shark PowerPro, Gtech AirRam 2 and pricey Dyson V16 Piston. But in a world where everyone has unrealistic ambitions of owning a Dyson, this model should be your attainable alternative. 

At £349 - and often reduced in the sales - the Dreame V20 Pro is a price rung below the big boys of the vacuum world but still feels top quality. 

Easy to steer, complete with a range of exciting add-ons, and boasting GapFree technology that takes the stress out of cleaning around those pesky edges, this product is a serious addition to your household armoury. 

Dreame V20 Pro vacuum cleaner 

For years, vacuuming the home has been the worst kind of chore. Until the Dreame V20 came along

Dreame V20 Pro

★★★★★

Product Specs

• Capacity0.5L
• Number of attachments4
• Vacuum typeCordless
• Weight1.58 kg

What we love

• DesignThe V20 is cordless and has a slick black finish. Its charging hub allows it to stand freely.
• PowerThe suction on this thing is excellent, reaching 210AW in Turbo mode and offering an intelligent Auto mode.
• GapFree technologyDreamt up by the brand's tech whizzes, this feature sees a small barrier help to suck up particles which linger on the edges of rooms.
• Different floorheadsThe V20 boasts floorheads which specialise in carpet and hard floor cleaning, and even an add-on for car upholstery.

What could be better

• Dust cylinderFrequent trip to the bin are required while using the V20, with its dust cylinder slightly on the small side.

Review

The V20 Pro is completely cordless and has a lightweight stick design, perfect for those who don't want to be bending down for minutes on end while cleaning the house.

A good-looking vacuum, it has a sleek design and fun display colours to signify how much dirt is on the floor (from green/clean to red/disgustingly filthy via an amber).

It features a forward-bending wand, which allows you to clean under furniture and round corners without having to move a muscle.

And it is incredibly powerful. The full-power mode is exciting and creates an unstoppable tornado of dust collecting, complete with a supercar-style roar.

But the other settings are more practical. Auto mode has enough suction to pick up most dirt and adjusts its speed when it detects particles of different sizes.

The eco setting, meanwhile, is handy for saving battery during long vacuum jobs.

One of the main draws of the V20 Pro is its much-vaunted GapFree cleaning feature.

A small barrier drops whenever the vacuum approaches the edge of a room which helps suck up pesky particles which linger on the margins. It's a game changer.

The tangle-free technology is also highly welcome, preventing nasty build up of hair.

The different floorheads all offer marginal gains in each department, but you can really get away with just using the hard floor and the carpet fittings alternately - such is their quality.

The only slight annoyance is the dust collection cylinder is a tad too small, meaning that if your house is absolutely filthy you will be making regular trips to the bin.

Battery life is slightly short for my money - around half an hour on regular carpet in Auto mode and just five or six minutes in the aggressively powerful Turbo mode. But this is better than many of its competitors, and you can eke out around 80 minutes in Eco mode without trudging back to the charging dock.

At £349 on Amazon - and often less - the V20 is a mid-range vacuum, but it behaves like a top-of-the-line product.

How we test 

Vacuum cleaners can be an expensive bit of kit so it's vital to review them properly.

When testing vacuums we try them across multiple real-world settings, including the office and our homes.

We evaluate technology across a range of measures, including design, performance, price and special features.

Each device goes through several days of hands-on testing, allowing us to provide an in-depth review to help consumers make informed decisions.

I tested this vacuum in my home - using it to pick up hair, dust, and larger debris like pieces of food.

It was put through its paces on a range of surfaces, including thick and thin carpet, rugs, hard wood, corners and crevices.

Dreame V20 Pro Cordless Stick Review 

Easy to steer, complete with a range of exciting add-ons, and boasting GapFree technology which takes the stress out of cleaning around those pesky edges, this product is a serious addition to your household armoury

Size

The product is 117.2cm high, 25.6m deep and 25.4mm wide, making it a slim, sleek vacuum which uses space efficiently.

It is certainly well designed with a stylish black finish and a transparent dust cylinder, while also incorporating a bendable tube to greatly increase the number of places it can reach.

While vacuuming on a thick surface and turning a corner, the V20 can feel a tad unwieldy and find itself stuck, but this is only a minor gripe. 

The stand takes up a tiny bit too much space but the fact it can hold all of the various floorheads is a clever and much appreciated touch.

Suction

Dreame might be the name, but suction is very much the game. Over the course of weeks of cleaning, there were few pieces of debris that proved a match for this powerful vacuum.

Once you've had the chance to make the most of the three modes, you will never be able to do without. The Eco, Auto and Turbo settings all offer something different and intelligent power adjustment ramps up the suction just when you need it most.

Its maximum suction quantity comes in at 210AW which is a bit less than the 240AW offered by the Dyson V15 (£549.99) and a good deal less than the Gen5detect's 280AW - but it is more than enough.

As many vacuums do these days, the V20 Pro comes packed with a range of different floorheads each specialising in a different type of surface

Charging capacity

The smallest of notches against the V20. It's a soul-destroying process to watch the battery percentage on the very top trickle down from 100 to 0, but as long as you don't get too addicted to the Turbo mode, this thing should have the legs to clean your entire home in one go.

You get around half an hour on regular carpet in Auto mode and just five or six minutes in Turbo. But this is better than many of its competitors and you can eke out around 80 minutes in Eco mode without trudging back to the charging dock.

It takes four hours to charge fully which is fairly standard.

Ease of use

The V20 is for the most part light and flexible, which when combined with its impressive suction makes it joyfully easy to use.

Its forward-bending wand allows you to get to all the pesky places which are normally out of reach, while the GapFree feature sees a small barrier drop whenever it approaches the edge of a room, helping it to suck up particles which linger on the margins.

There are a couple of minor issues, however. The dust collection cylinder is a tad too small, which can make cleaning your vacuum more of a chore. If your house collects a lot of dust and dirt, you will be making regular trips to the bin. It's also a bit of a deal-breaker if you have a pet, with mounds of hair quickly filling the cylinder.

Speaking of the cylinder, it's tricky to open after first use. The catch is tiny and seemingly deliberately well hidden and I had to consult the user manual to find it.

The two buttons are also a bit too similar and right next to each other, meaning it is very easy to accidentally switch the V20 off when you just want to change modes. 

As with the cylinder catch, this seems to be a design decision to add to the sleekness of the product but can cause problems.

Extras

The V20 comes equipped with plenty of fun - and useful - added extras, the most ingenuous of which is the GapFree feature, discussed above.

Add that to the four different floorheads - the Auto-Cut GapFree soft rotating brush, the multi-surface brush, the soft dusting brush and the combination tool - and the forward-bending wand, and there are very fewer areas this device can't clean.

Value for money 

At £349 on Amazon - and often less - the V20 is a mid-range vacuum, but it behaves like a top-of-the-line product.

Sure, this is a big commitment when you can pick up a budget vacuum for £100, however, it is completely worth it, turning a previously arduous task into a whole lot of fun and competing with the likes of Shark and Dyson.

How does it compare to similar products?

My previous vacuum was a Greennote cordless which, while charming in many ways (light, less than £100, and with a name that sounds like a failed hedge fund), actually made cleaning the house a bit of a pain.

The V20 is simply a different beast to my previous Greennote vacuum, pictured right, almost incomparable 

While its ever-increasing whirring sound proved it was trying its best, it would often just store mounds of dust in its floorhead as you vacuumed, before depositing them on the other side of the house without warning.

The Dreame V20 is simply a different beast, almost incomparable to a model around the £50 to £200 range.

Its suction power is first rate, it has a variety of useful special features and its GapFree technology means no particle is left behind.

We recently reviewed the Shark PowerPro, a vacuum which sits on a similar end of the price scale - if not slightly cheaper than the V20. Our writer was impressed by its 'floor detect' technology which adjusts the suction power accordingly whether you're on carpet or a harder surface. 

At £299 - and often less - our reviewer found it definitely worth investing a little bit more if you’ve been looking at cheaper options, awarding it a five out of five.

For just a little bit more, however, the V20 offers even better suction and revolutionary GapFree technology. 

Dreame V20 Pro

Why trust us 

Sam Lawley is a news reporter for the Daily Mail and has been at the newspaper for two-and-a-half years.

He completed a Master's degree in Newspaper Journalism at City, University of London in 2023 and enjoyed a stint at the Irish Daily Mail before heading to the London newsroom.

FAQs 

Is Dreame as good as Dyson?

While Dyson is still at the cutting edge of the vacuum market, Dreame offers some exceptional alternatives often at a better price.

The V20's GapFree technology and range of intelligent modes put it slightly ahead of the direct Dyson equivalent (the V11 Advanced). 

What attachments does the Dreame V20 have? 

As many vacuums do these days, the V20 Pro comes packed with a range of different floorheads each specialising in a different type of surface.

One for hard floors, another for carpets, another for car upholstery, and a special 'combination tool' for corners and gaps.