My less than one-year-old Hitachi cheapo vaccum cleaner died last week. I was sourcing around for a replacement. Was torn between spending more to get a good unit since I would be the one doing vaccuming lately vs another cheapo set. At the end of the day, from a originally intention of paying S$100-$200 vaccum cleaner, I settled for a S$599 Dyson City DC26! Sharing my buying considerations here as I get lots of informative reviews from internet and friends. Hope it helps others as well. My buying decision swayed a lot and I meant A LOT. Well you can tell from the price range ;-p I actually started off by thinking of getting a mutli-purpose "super" mop. Then I threw out the idea 'cos I need to vaccum the sofa and carpet and perhaps the air purifier and air con ducts. Then I look at the past models I had, including Philips, Rowenta (S$200 range) prior to Hitachi and was not impressed by any of them. Then I started to look at Electrolux Silencer series (particularly the ultrasilencer model which has very good reviews). But I hesitated 'cos though I was impressed by its quietness I read about being silent means better insulation which means poorer heat dissipation (and possibly affect motor lifespan) which explains why I read about some consumers complaining about feeling the heat gush. The decision between handheld vs canister was the easiest part 'cos I do not like the idea of charging for so long just to be able to use 20-30 mins which are meant more for area/spot cleaning. I was more torn between bag vs bagless. My previous vaccums were all with bags and I guessed it's true that it's easier and less messy to dispose. Though still have my reservations 'cos some model's bags may be out of production - well if your vaccum cleaner (vc) outlive the bags ! I was zooming into bagged vcs till I read about Dyson aka claims of will not loose suction with bagless "cyclone" technology. All the goo goo gaa reviews were all so tempting ! & since I was looking at the Dyson series, I might as well (so convenient right? ;-p) look at the Karcher's. Love Karcher's yellow, had their steamer before and it works great but was put off by their rounded fat and heavy canister. Decided not to take the wet-and-dry vcs range 'cos I am pretty firm about wanting something light and mobile. I was looking at Courts Dyson DC29 when I came across Harvey Norman's Dyson City DC26! For the same price, DC26 is approx 2-3 kgs lesser than DC29, comes with a free parquet brush (while stock last) and Dyson offers a 5 years free on-site parts and labour warranty. I am most impressed with its dainty and well-thought out design but most important of all, the confidence in offering 5 years warranty. On-site warranty some more, love it! Else, I was actually swayed by the sales guy at Harvey Norman and ended up paying $449 for a Bosch Home Professional Free'e BSGL5PROGB model. By the way, during this period there is Philips/Rowenta promo and almost every Courts/Gain City/Harvey salesmen will sell me Philips. I guessed I was attracted to the Made in Germany vs Dyson Made in Malaysia and 'cos he was confidently telling me that the Bosch suction is much better than Dyson and all I am paying is only Dyson's brand name. So believe it or not, I actually paid and bring back the Bosch vc. I really have a very favourable view of German made products. Else, when I tried it the first thing I reached home, I had problem power up the Bosch Home Professional Free'e BSGL5PROGB unit (ya, I was swearing). I had to press a few times and somehow by luck, it did work. The vaccuming part was a piece of cake with its light weight and was easy to maneuver with the 360 deg hose rotation and best of all, the cord was so long that I do not need to switch power plug in every room! However the next morning, I still did not feel good about the power control. I plugged it in to try again and it started to work by itself and I couldn't swicth it off! I thought it was a defective unit and was exasperated that I had spent $449 for a unit and still need to go back to the store (well even my less than $100 Hitachi did not give me such problem). At the store again, I was told that this was the intended design! It was meant for people to use your legs to step hard on the vc (instead of press by hand) so you need to press hard and hold longer on the power control button! Gosh, what a dumb design I thought and I certainly did not want to spend so much to figure out how to work around a vc! I gave up and top up $150 more for the Dyson DS26 that I had originally been eye-ing at. I have to give credits to the sales guy or Harvey for allowing me to switch model (though only to a higher end model). I brought the Dyson DC26 unit and immediately open it up once back home. The packaging was solidly wrapped (so I can be sure it's a brand new not demo unit) and I love the dummy-free design. Well, for one, I hear clicks when I am done with the fixing (in split seconds) but for the Bosch, I have to re-check if it was fitted properly. I tried it immediately on my carpet. Though I had vaccumed with the Bosch yesterday, I wasn't expecting much dirt to be picked up but interestingly I still managed to pick up some dirt - so yes, I was impressed. Psychologically you feel good cos you see dust trapped in the transparent container! The dust removal can also be done with 1 button release with the one hand, no mess! The roller is supposed to be multi-purpose ie hardfloor, carpet etc. Yet to try on the floor - will do so weekend and if got time, will give further reviews. The downside so far is its noise. Louder than Bosch for sure. There's only 1 mode so you cant choose a low mode to have lesser noise. But noise level no louder than my cheapo Hitachi model. But if you are particular about noise, Dyson will be out for you. Happy vc shopping!