The Shark Powerdetect Speed delivers superb cleaning in short bursts, and with a mess-reducing auto-empty dock, it's superb value | Tech Radar

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The Shark Powerdetect Speed delivers superb cleaning in short bursts, and with a mess-reducing auto-empty dock, it's superb value

The only thing the Shark Power Detect Speed gets through faster than dirt is its battery

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As a convenient cleaner for short cleans the Shark Power Detect Speed is as good as they come, especially at this price. Handling hair, fine dust and larger debris was easy and the auto empty dock works well reducing mess. Battery life is disappointing though and limits its practicality, especially with such a long charge time.

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The Shark Power Detect Speed is a very capable cordless stick vacuum with a great auto empty base, but like other high-powered cordless vacuums a lack of battery life means it can’t replace a main vacuum.

It did a great job picking up fine dust and larger debris in our tests on carpet and hard floors, has good edge cleaning, and can easily be moved around the house making it an ideal occasional cleaner.

Shark Power Detect Speed Clean and Empty at Amazon for $499.99

It's a premium product from an established vacuum brand, but when compared with Dyson it's significantly more affordable, making it a good choice if you want top, reliable performance without the high price.

Battery life is a major concern though, as it didn’t last 11 minutes on the highest power setting and took over five hours to recharge the battery, limiting its practicality.

Shark Power Detect Speed: price and availability

The Power Detect Speed launched in the US and UK in April 2026 costing US$499.99 and £499.99 for the Clean & Empty version that comes with an auto empty charging dock (although it is worth noting the US version comes with an extra Pet Multi tool that the UK version doesn’t). At the time of writing, it's not available in Australia.

This places at the premium end of the scale for vacuums, although it is significantly cheaper than the Dyson Gen 5 Detect models it is competing with making it feel very good value for money when comparing spec with spec.

The build quality is good, it feels capable of handling the rough and tumble of everyday cleaning and it has a good set of features you would expect of a top of the line vacuum including floor and dirt detection. The addition of a dock that empties and charges the vacuum is a godsend and real standout at this price point.

The Power Detect Speed is also available without the auto empty dock for $429.99 or £429.99, which come with an extra upholstery tool in the US or pet tool in the UK.

While a vacuum cleaner is very much a practical product rather than a statement piece it is nice for it to look at least smart in a subtle way if you do have to have it visible and Shark has done a decent job with the Power Detect Speed. The grey and blue metallic finish feels mostly focused on blending into the background and any out-there accents have thankfully been limited to the orange roller in the floorhead.

The auto empty dock is also unfussy but does include one of my favorite features of this entire product in the shape of two small notches at the back of the dock for storing the included accessories. This is such a small thing, but after years of trying to find where in the house the kids have hidden the crevice tool this time, it is hugely appreciated.

The body of the vacuum is similar to the older Power Detect model but it is slightly smaller, lighter and they have swapped the trigger button for a second button on the back of body. This is a definite improvement as it was easy to accidentally change modes with the trigger button, especially if vacuuming at different heights such as cleaning the stairs.

The Power Detect Speed does lose 0.5kg on the previous version and comes in under Dyson’s Gen 5 Detect by around 300g, but that said, this is still a bit of a chunky vacuum cleaner and may feel like a bit of a workout to push around for some, Rivals like the Dreame R20 weigh in almost a whole kilo lighter so if lightweight is top of your priority list it may be worth looking elsewhere.

It's controlled using two buttons on the back of the body, which also has a screen to show you what mode you are in, how much battery you have left and whether the vacuum is currently detecting dirt where you are cleaning. This is done through a color coded arc around the top of the screen with a dark purple color indicating it is picking up a lot of dirt which then progressively goes paler until it goes white indicating the floor is now clean.

I will go into more detail about the Power Detect feature later but I do have a gripe about how this is presented. In the previous Power Detect model this color-coding was also shown in lights at the back of the floorhead so you could see cleaning performance as you cleaned without taking your eyes off where you were moving the floorhead. With it only on the back of the body of the vacuum you now have to keep moving your eyes from one to the other which is definitely a step backwards.

The floorhead uses one roller with anti-wrap elements and a light that switches from regular white light on carpet to a blue UV light on hard floors for highlighting dirt. This works well although I’m not sure the UV light really provides a significant improvement over a regular light.

Depending where you are you will get different accessories with US customers getting a crevice tool and pet multi tool and those in the UK only getting a crevice tool, but the slightly better version that includes a sliding duster to it. The pet multi tool did OK at picking up cat hair, although no better than the regular floorhead and generally just caught them in the bristles rather than picking them up directly. Where it was most useful was as a wider cleaning path than the crevice tool when vacuuming a car.

It is straightforward to use with only the two buttons for one and off or to change mode — which unless you are trying to maximize battery runtime, you shouldn’t need. The attachments are easy to snap into place or detach using the large buttons and the whole vacuum can fold in half for storage away from the charging dock.

It maneuvers well and while it might not be quite as smooth as the Dyson equivalent or as light as some other rivals it is easy to steer around furniture. It also is able to bend the wand so you can run the cleaner under low furniture reaching hard to clean spots. This is a nice bonus and may be ideal for some homes but I personally didn’t find myself using it day to day.

I used coffee grounds to test the vacuum's edge cleaning on carpet(Image credit: Future)

After one pass on low power mode, only a little remained(Image credit: Future)

A second pass on high power removed the remainder(Image credit: Future)

Emptying the vacuum is one area where it really stands out, you simply pop it back on top of the charging dock when you are done — or more likely when it has run out of battery but more on that later — and the base sucks all the dust out into its own larger two-liter bin. This obviously will need emptying itself, but the shape (and the fact you will have to do it less often) makes it much easier to do this without making a mess.

The detect part of Power Detect comes from the four ways it adjusts suction power to optimize cleaning by detecting the floor type, amount of dirt being sucked up, whether it is close to the edge of a room and what direction it is traveling. This means all you need to do is move the vacuum around and it will change its cleaning modes, with the dirt detection also letting you know whether certain sections are worth some more attention through the color coding display on the handle.

Rice and coffee grounds are two of our usual picks for testing vacuums on carpet(Image credit: Future)

One pass on low power removed all the rice and most of the coffee, though some debris was left(Image credit: Future)

A second pass on high power, and everything was gone(Image credit: Future)

When I first used this dirt detection I was a bit skeptical that it was still picking up debris where it claimed it was but the dust bin would time and again prove me wrong. At first this felt like an amazing feature, but later when combined with the battery life, having to go back and forth over the same bits of floor made me start to wonder if ignorance was bliss.

In the cleaning tests the Speed struggled a bit in low suction mode with one pass leaving quite a bit of fine dust and larger debris on both carpet and hard floors. Moving it up to full suction did much better with it picking up almost all the fine dust on the hard floor and, aside from some scattering of the rice, most of the debris on the next pass.

I also tested the vacuum with rice and coffee on a hard floor(Image credit: Future)

The vacuum struggled somewhat on low power(Image credit: Future)

High power was much more effective, with only a few stray coffee grounds left(Image credit: Future)

Edge cleaning was a similar story at both low and high power, with it doing very well on high for hard floors. It still needed the crevice tool to get the finest material but it did as well as I have seen from a stick vacuum.

Hair pickup was also excellent handling long and pet hair well without any sign of tangling on the floorhead brush.

It’s not quiet but at around 70-75 dbs (somewhere between traffic and a busy restaurant) on maximum power it's not the loudest either. The auto empty base creates a similar level of noise as it flushes the dust from the cleaner, but this is a pretty quick process.

My sticking point with the Power Detect Speed is the battery life as, when testing on full power, it only managed a paltry 10 minutes and 38 seconds. While the variable speed in dirt detect mode will allow you to get a bit more cleaning out of a charge, I often found it would last less than half an hour. Couple this with a recharge time of 5 hours and 19 minutes and it severely limits its practicality as a main vacuum for anything but a small apartment.

This is a common problem for high powered stick vacuums as they try to keep the weight of the batteries down, but it is one of the shortest run times and longest charge times I have tested making it a bit of a challenge even thoroughly vacuuming the car on a single charge.

While you can switch out the battery, I wasn’t able to find a way of buying a spare battery online with the cordless vacuum battery available through Shark’s website only compatible with older models. If one is made available expect this to come with a hefty price tag, the older model batteries cost an additional $87.99.

The answer is going to depend heavily on the size of your home and how you plan to use the cleaner. If this is going to be your only vacuum it’s barely going to get through a studio apartment before it needs a recharge. If you are looking for a convenient cleaner for spot cleaning it is superb both in terms of performance and ease of emptying, all while being a step cheaper than the Dyson equivalent.

It’s not cheap but feature for feature it stacks up against some of the most expensive available and delivers top performance.

It’s not cheap but feature for feature it stacks up against some of the most expensive available and delivers top performance.

Well built and unfussy, it definitely leans more towards substance than style but that’s exactly what I look for in a vacuum.

Well built and unfussy, it definitely leans more towards substance than style but that’s exactly what I look for in a vacuum.

Tackling fine dust and large debris equally well on hard floors and carpet, plus pretty good edge cleaning make it a top performer.

Tackling fine dust and large debris equally well on hard floors and carpet, plus pretty good edge cleaning make it a top performer.

Only tasting 10 and a half minutes on the highest setting and a long charge time hold it back from being a practical main vacuum.

Only tasting 10 and a half minutes on the highest setting and a long charge time hold it back from being a practical main vacuum.

You want a portable vacuum for quick cleans when you don’t want to get out a big wired cleaner

You want a Dyson but can’t bring yourself to pay those prices.

You hate the mess of emptying cordless vacuum cleaners, but love their light weight and convenience.

You need a main vacuum cleaner that can power through big cleans and tackle multiple rooms in a single session.

I tested the Power Detect Speed for over a week in day-to-day use as well as specific tests picking up fine dust (tea) and larger debris (rice) on hard floors, carpet and around room edges. Battery life was tested on the highest power setting and lowest, as well as checking the time it took to fully charge from empty.

I tested the Speed in different cleaning scenarios including vacuuming stairs, a car and a variety of floor types.

Tim Gee has been professionally reviewing consumer products since 2008 and has tested a wide variety of devices including robot vacuums, robot pool cleaners and (sadly non-robotic) running shoes. He has also written reviews for titles including the Daily Mail, Which? and Expert Reviews.

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Key Takeaways

• News, deals, reviews, guides and more on the newest computing gadgets

• Start exploring exclusive deals, expert advice and more

• Unlock and manage exclusive Techradar member rewards

• The Shark Powerdetect Speed delivers superb cleaning in short bursts, and with a mess-reducing auto-empty dock, it's superb value

• The only thing the Shark Power Detect Speed gets through faster than dirt is its battery